2009 NASCAR running thread

New slogan: "Red Bull - it gives you wings! But it won't convince you to put up with somebody's shit."

 

Buh-bye Bill Weber ...

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/07/01/tnt.weber/

Of all the PBP/lead announcers in anything ever, he might have projected the refracted glow of his ego and just plain unpleasantness, without deserving or having earned one bit of any of it, in TV history.

Those TNT NASCAR broadcasts were like watching someone self-loath themselves for four hours. Then there's Wally Dallenbach. How he's an expert on anything other than sucking ass is beyond me.

 

Great. Now we get two weeks of Ralphus.

 

I hope we get to find out what caused all this.

 

He's pretty good for a 12-year-old.

 

Injunction granted against NASCAR's suspension of Jeremy Mayfield, effective immediately. He can attempt to race at Daytona Beach if he can pull his team together in time to get to DIS at 8:30 a.m. when the garage opens or hop into the 64 seat (which I think comes out of the Mayfield shop).

Judge says the “likelihood of a false positive in this case is quite substantial.” Agreed with Mayfield's attorneys that if Mayfield used meth at the level shown by the test he'd be "a walking zombie or dead." Allows NASCAR to test Mayfield constantly, including hair samples¹.

Ramsey Poston says Mayfield will have to submit to a drug test if he wants to race this week. Mayfield agrees to that.

Director of the independent lab NASCAR hired still insists it was not a false positive. I'll just point out that Mayfield doesn't have meeth².

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-nascar-mayfieldsuspension&prov=ap&type=lgns

¹Drugs ingested show up in hair as it grows and allows experts to figure out when the drugs were ingested.
²Meth teeth.

 

You're not a zombie when you use meth. Sheesh. I think the judge has his drugs mixed up.

 

So ... different topic, separate post.

Mulhern is reporting that the future of NASCAR's Truck tour seems increasingly in doubt. Jim Hunter's not only not having any of it, he's shredding Mulhern in a Lee Spencer piece:<blockquote>However, despite reports from independent blogger Mike Mulhern, NASCAR Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter says emphatically that there is no validity to a story circulating that the series will shut down.

"There's no truth to it whatsoever," Hunter said. "It's total B.S. The demise of the truck series is the figment of one person's imagination. (Mulhern) has a history of fabricating false stories and this is another example of it.

"We're very aware that (the Camping World Truck Series) is affected the hardest during this economic recession. We're currently looking at options. We've never given up on a series and we're not going to start now."</blockquote>Never given up on a series ... except for the Southwest Tour (which soldiers on as an independently-run series), the All-Pro Series and the other two fiberglass-body late model series ... and the Dash Series (formerly the Baby Grand division), which soldiers on as an independently-run series) ...

 

Don't know about those two (personally, I think Danica's not coming to NASCAR in the first place) and I wasn't the one saying Mulhern was wrong. Jim Hunter is.

And Jim's forgotten a couple of things.

 

I have not love for NASCAR as an organization and don't give a shit one way or another about Mayfield, but I hope they screw him on every possible inspection and don't allow him to even attempt to qualify all because I hate it when the courts get involved in what amounts to a rules decision in sports.

You have no constitutional right to be allowed to race. They can simply say "we don't want you" and that's the end of it. It's their party. Sorry, but it's not an issue for a judge to decide. It's kinda like the woman a few years ago that tried to take it to court because she wasn't selected for the U.S. national team or Casey what's his name and his golf cart.

Mayfield needs to be glad NASCAR doesn't subscribe to WADA's bullshit or he wouldn't even have a chance to appeal realistically. Maybe Floyd Landis needs to get in front of this judge and get his Tour back!

 

Your criticism only stands if the positive test was the correct result. What if it really was wrong?