2008 NASCAR running thread

Hustle · May 21, 2008

Oh IJAG... this was buried on ESPNews last night, but Helio Castroneves is pondering a jump to NASCAR:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/motorracing/la-sp-motors21-2008may21,0,4945302.story

Is there any reason he'll be different than Franchitti/Hornish/Allmendinger? i.e., is there any reason he'll be anywhere near the level of JPM?

2muchcoffeeman · May 21, 2008

Hustle said:

Oh IJAG... this was buried on ESPNews last night, but Helio Castroneves is pondering a jump to NASCAR:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/motorracing/la-sp-motors21-2008may21,0,4945302.story

Is there any reason he'll be different than Franchitti/Hornish/Allmendinger? i.e., is there any reason he'll be anywhere near the level of JPM?
Click to expand...

Montoya wins on road courses, and not even every one of them.

Bubbs, you know what's affecting attendance? Five bucks for a burger, five bucks for a beer, four bucks for a hot dog or soda, three bucks for french fries. And you don't even want to think about what a pack of smokes costs at the ISC tracks.

expendable · May 22, 2008

2muchcoffeeman said:

Rough Mix said:

Any reason given in Jenna's story?
Click to expand...

He will turn 70 this year and has been at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 33 years. Dude's earned some downtime.
Click to expand...

More to this than meets the eye? Looks it.

http://www.thatsracin.com/topstories/story/14416.html

...When Wheeler was asked what role he might have going forward in consulting with the track, where he has worked for 33 years. Wheeler offered a terse, one word answer.

"None," he said.

Later. Wheeler said: "There are other factors involved here I'd rather not get into. But that's the way it is."

The friction apparently is not the first disharmony between the two men most closely associated with Lowe's Motor Speedway's growth since Smith in 1975 regained controlling interest of the track he helped build 15 years earlier.

Smith said Wheeler was not initially in favor of putting condominiums in the track's Turn 1 or building the Speedway Club restaurant. He also said Wheeler was against building the new zMAX Drag Strip @ Concord this is scheduled to host its first event in September.

Wheeler distanced himself from the controversy when Smith threatened to move the oval track to another location last year in a dispute with the city of Concord over the drag racing facility.

Smith said that over the years he learned to ignore Wheeler on such matters.

"I was the one taking the financial risks and I was the one always sticking my neck out," Smith said. "He wasn't and I wouldn't expect him to. He was an employee."

Meanwhile, Marcus Smith, Bruton Smith's son, emerged as an odds-on favorite to succeed Wheeler...
Click to expand...

da el g · May 22, 2008

Bruton Smith is a dickhead, always has been and always will be until he dies a miserable death, just saying

2muchcoffeeman · May 22, 2008

expendable said:

2muchcoffeeman said:

Rough Mix said:

Any reason given in Jenna's story?
Click to expand...

He will turn 70 this year and has been at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 33 years. Dude's earned some downtime.
Click to expand...

More to this than meets the eye? Looks it.

http://www.thatsracin.com/topstories/story/14416.html

...When Wheeler was asked what role he might have going forward in consulting with the track, where he has worked for 33 years. Wheeler offered a terse, one word answer.

"None," he said.

Later. Wheeler said: "There are other factors involved here I'd rather not get into. But that's the way it is."

The friction apparently is not the first disharmony between the two men most closely associated with Lowe's Motor Speedway's growth since Smith in 1975 regained controlling interest of the track he helped build 15 years earlier.

Smith said Wheeler was not initially in favor of putting condominiums in the track's Turn 1 or building the Speedway Club restaurant. He also said Wheeler was against building the new zMAX Drag Strip @ Concord this is scheduled to host its first event in September.

Wheeler distanced himself from the controversy when Smith threatened to move the oval track to another location last year in a dispute with the city of Concord over the drag racing facility.

Smith said that over the years he learned to ignore Wheeler on such matters.

"I was the one taking the financial risks and I was the one always sticking my neck out," Smith said. "He wasn't and I wouldn't expect him to. He was an employee."

Meanwhile, Marcus Smith, Bruton Smith's son, emerged as an odds-on favorite to succeed Wheeler...
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I've been meaning to post this but have been AFC all day.

Jenna, I know you lurk here (for those that didn't already know, she occasionally posts here as well) and I'd just like to say two words: Damn fine writing.

Speaking of Bruton, he's buying Kentucky Speedway. Presumably he will stick the word "Motor" in the middle of the name and start lobbying for a Cup race. This will be different from former owner Jerry Carroll in that the word "Motor" will be in the middle of the name.

Dunno if Jim Utter reads this board, but somebody should ask him to point out Forth Worth on a map.

imjustagirl · May 22, 2008

Yeah, damn those typos! :

Sam Mills 51 · May 22, 2008

da el g said:

Bruton Smith is a dickhead, always has been and always will be until he dies a miserable death, just saying
Click to expand...

I haven't heard much good about him. This story could have legs.

I've heard one negative story about Humpy that didn't help my view of him or NASCAR. But, in this case, Bruton appears to be the bully.

Stay Tuned, I guess ... :-\

playthrough · May 22, 2008

On the surface, Bruton is right. It is his neck on the line with financial stuff and acquisititions, etc. It's a real shame he didn't look at Wheeler as a confidante instead of an employee. But if he axed Wheeler, he axed Wheeler. The story only will have legs as far as Wheeler wants to talk about it. It's still Bruton's company. Outside this decision, it's pretty tough to argue with his body of work. (And if he gets a Cup race in Kentucky, he can run for governor.)

2muchcoffeeman · May 22, 2008

And Ramsey Poston reminds us all that NASCAR considers that area of the country saturated with Cup events and therefore, even though Bruton wants a race at Kentucky, he's not guaranteed one.

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-nascar-may-put-brakes-on-bruton/

Hell, that's impressive. Didn't even wait 24 hours to put that one into the launcher.

(There's a qualifier this time that wasn't present before: "unless SMI wants to move one of its other dates." Any chance Bruton might move one of Loudon's dates to Kentucky rather than Lost Wages? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.)

Moderator1 · May 22, 2008

If there's a better promoter out there than Humpy Wheeler, I'd like to meet him. He was doing his thing way back when NASCAR wasn't the "cool" deal it is now.

Those with long memories - how did the Tim Richmond/Wheeler spat over the pole winner's car turn out? Did they ever box? Pole winner got a car and it turned out to be some used dealer car, with an overflowing ashtray and other assorted messes. Richmond was not happy and he offered to kick Humpy's ass, not realizing Wheeler had a boxing background.
Someone please fix details I may have wrong or tell us what ended up happening.

Sam Mills 51 · May 22, 2008

I bet a person or three on this board can help you, Moddy. I want to read this one myself.

sgaleadfoot · May 23, 2008

My understanding from reading Poole's book on Richmond is that Tim was plenty mad at Humpy, but never actually boxed against him.

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2008 NASCAR running thread

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