2008 NASCAR running thread

certainly can't help the sport's 'drive for diversity' program.

 

there is not a doubt in my mind that every word of this is true.

From what I am hearing several other people are suing as well and this was the first lawsuit to drop. Several female PR people and employees have come forward and corroborated her story. Several sponsors are reevaluating their participation in the sport based on her allegations and the allegations of other females and blacks in the sport.

This IS NOT going to end well.

 

Forbes has come up with a list of the most valuable teams, most valuable cars and highest paid drivers.

Not surprisingly, the three most valuable cars in terms of monetary value are from the Hendrick shops: 24, 88, 48. Those three drivers are also rated as the highest-paid ($32M, $31M and $23M respectively), followed by Stewart ($19M) and Kasey Kahne ($14M).

Kahne is not the person I would have guessed at fifth on that list.

As for teams (all values in million$ of dollar$ ...)

Rank Nascar Team (Sprint Cup/Nationwide Series Race Cars) Value 1 Revenue 2 Operating Income 3
1 Hendrick Motorsports (4/2) $335 179 21.3
2 Roush Fenway Racing (5/4) 313 173 29.6
3 Joe Gibbs Racing (3/2) 184 116 11.7
4 Gillett Evernham Motorsports (3/1) 150 96 12.9
5 Richard Childress Racing (3/3) 130 107 20.9
6 Dale Earnhardt Inc. (4/0) 109 86 5.0
7 Penske Racing (3/1) 100 85 8.6
8 Chip Ganassi Racing (3/2) 94 78 5.5
9 Michael Waltrip Racing (3/1) 86 65 -4.3
10 Yates Racing (2/0) 74 54 4.6
11 Red Bull Racing Team (2/0) 54 41 -7.0
12 Petty Enterprises (2/0) 44 37 2.9
13 Haas Cnc Racing (2/0) 41 32 -3.1
14 Bill Davis Racing (1/0) 36 28 2.5
15 Robby Gordon Motorsports (1/0) 28 18 1.2

Interesting that MWR is running up losses and Petty Enterprises was not. Sorry I can't get the chart to line up properly.

 

Michael Waltrip's ego is on the payroll. That accounts for the loss.

 

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Every time NASCAR has bad PR, Dale Jr. wins.

It's like when Clinton would bomb an Iraqi "aspirin factory" every time a new development broke out in the Monica story .

Maybe we should have Tim Donaghy become a NASCAR official to tell us what's really going on there .

 

When Earnhardt was on fumes late in the race, I KNEW the yellow would come out for the smallest incident. Hornish's spin was pretty minor, I've seen races stay green in that situation before.

Having said that, I could live with the yellow there, but ...

When it became apparent that a green-and-white checkered finish might not even save Earnhardt, I KNEW, I JUST KNEW, someone not in the Chase would spin to put Earnhardt in Victory Lane.

I hope Patrick Carpentier gets something for his troubles. This sport is so fixed.

 

I caught the MRN broadcast yesterday and the post-race interview with Stewart was very brief.

This isn't an exact quote, but it's pretty close to what he actually said: What an awesome car today. I'm just happy to be here, at least that's what Helton told us. So I don't really have an opinion on anything.

After a second or two of awkward silence, the pit reporter threw to someone else.

 

Yeah, MRN had a pre-race report about the drivers-only meeting NASCAR had, telling the drivers they need to curtail the bitching about the car and be happy.