The 2024 running motorsports thread

I'm stunned Orange Show still has weekly racing. Dad took us there for the first time around 1966 and I remember thinking how old it looked then (a converted football stadium from just after World War II, I believe). I'm certain everything gets renovated over time, but racetracks rarely make enough money to do much more than repairs and resurfacing.

While Indianapolis, Daytona and Watkins Glen/Riverside were the pinnacles of the sport, everybody started somewhere like Orange Show, Ascot Park or Irwindale. And the road courses, oval tracks and drag strips of Southern California were as fertile a ground as any for hundreds of drivers, mechanics and engineers.

 

Still good for festivals and falling in love, according to Lizzy McAlpine. (My daughter and most of her friends love Lizzy.)

 

That's a killer song, literally the last verse. Last time I was at the Orange Show Speedway, I think I was 9. At the time, I had a crush on a girl named Pami Szymanski but we moved away before fifth grade. The last time I was in Redlands, I went to the city library and asked to see the high school yearbook just to see what she looked like at 18. As pretty as I remembered. Hope she has had a wonderful life and didn't end up with her heart broken at the Orange Show Speedway.

I will check out more Lizzy.

 

Why does NASCAR end their season in Phoenix (cap. 42k) when Vegas (cap. 80k) seems much more logical and a more fitting ending destination?

 

And then they could hold the stupid banquet the night after the finale. But then again, NASCAR can't even organize a one-car parade, let alone solve the mysteries of scheduling. I hated it worse when it was in Homestead (not at all close to Miami or Coral Gables, where the media hotel was) and then you had to fly home Thanksgiving week and back out to Vegas the next weekend. Or the Waldorf=Astoria (NASCAR made us use an equal sign rather than the dash because "that's how it's shown in their logo! So you need to make it look the same!").

God, I may never get over my hatred for all things NASCAR corporate. I'll be lying in the hospice bed and my last words will be "Brian France, go --- yourself!"

 

NASCAR owns Phoenix vs Smith's owning Vegas. Part of a funding deal to remodel Phoenix came with the handshake for Championship weekend hosting. And now with F1 in November there it would really be a 'so what" part of Vegas in November.

 

Take the Martinsville race. Fun race until NASCAR had to solve the blatant "teammates trying to influence the outcome of the championship" last lap. Easy solution? Either dump your stupid Chase or make your playoffs a standalone separate event. The Jaguars aren't on the field during the Super Bowl. Why the hell should the other 30 cars have the ability to screw up the "don't call it a playoff?"

There's a reason why NASCAR is about as useless as tits on a bull. And why viewers and ticketholders are disappearing faster than MAGA at a Trump rally.

 

I remember them always wanting us to full "presented by" sponsor song and dance. "Uhhhh, no. It's the Sponsor 500, and that's it."

 

Man, I almost got fired at NASCAR.com for that crap. Darlington's PR folks kept e-mailing us with different names for their cheap-ass Busch Series spring race one year, on the Thursday and Friday before the weekend. After about the eighth change in a 36-hour span -- which was not my primary responsibility, mind you -- I e-mailed back and said, "Whatever is up there is going to stay up there. I have more important things to do."

Apparently they whined to NASCAR corporate VP of media, who called my boss at Turner and demanded I be fired. Having no clue what shitstorm he just walked into, I showed him the entire e-mail chain. He called back to Daytona and told them Darlington could shove their $5,000 race sponsorship name issue up their ass, and if they needed clarification on how to f--- off, they could call him directly.

I'm certain if you called any track and offered $2,500 for naming rights, you could get the "Happy Anniversary, Uncle Tom and Aunt Betty 200" in a heartbeat.

(At the Durham Herald-Sun, we would take out the sponsor completely, so the lede would read "the 500-mile NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway." As the sports editor said, until Winston pays us for using their name, it's not going in the paper. Same with Valvoline, STP, Goodwrench, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge.)

 

At NASCAR.com, you were sort of over a barrel with that stuff, I supposed, but for them to try force random newspapers to do it was a hard no. My general rule of thumb was Sponsor 500 on first reference because it was the name of the race; after that it was just track name, and sorry, Humpy, Lowe's Motor Speedway was always Charlotte.

I honestly don't remember either way, but I suspect I threw in plenty of Food City 500s because they were a local advertiser.