Tony Stewart rips NASCAR

Solid post.

 

In my whine? Because that is how to some 20 comes across.

(RIP Don Ho.)

 

It's telling that in talking to my race fan father this morning (he's got tickets to the Indy 500, Brickyard and U.S. Grand Prix, as well as the NASCAR home package where you get individual channels devoted to a driver's car and telemetry), he ripped off about five or six questionable finishes that usually don't make the list for most questionable finishes in NASCAR history (Richard Petty's 200th win, Jeff Gordon's inaugural Brickyard win, Dale Sr. winning Daytona, Dale Jr. winning the Pepsi 400 in 2001, etc.). He brought up stuff like Kurt Busch, in the Sharpie car, winning the Sharpie 500 two years ago. What are the odds? He talked about races where one car magically moves from a lap down into the top five in about 10 laps. Tony Stewart is only saying what many have been thinking (or saying to reporters on condition of anonymity) for years.

 

The Lowe's-sponsored Jimmie Johnson has won a few races over the years at Lowe's Motor Speedway, hasn't he?

 

But you don't think a team that's capable of winning - say Hendrick or Roush - damn sure better have its shit together if they're running a race that is sponsored by one of its primaries?

I like a good conspiracy theory as the next person, but I'd also like to think Knaus and his bunch put a little more into winning in Charlotte. It's hard to imagine the Lowe's folks being happy with a car that competes week in and week out but runs 29th at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

 

The number of suspiciously perfect storyline finishes in NASCAR do push the limits of believability: the only spanish-speaking Latin American driver wins his first race in the NASCAR race held in Mexico City; the Indiana native winning the first NASCAR race held in Indiana; Earnhardt Jr. winning the 1st Race after his dad's death on the same track where he was killed; and a few other eyebrow raisers over the years. You see this enough and you can't help but wonder if there's some shady manipulation going on. But Stewart's the only guy with balls enough to say it.

 

I don't watch NASCAR enough to know if this is true, but those who do have told me that there is indeed a noticeable pattern where whenever the cars get too spread out without much close racing, or when the "wrong" guy takes a big lead, that's when you can expect to see these suspicious caution flags, bringing the cars back together in a pack, allegedly for some mystery "debris" on the track that no cameras can find. Yet, those cautions never seem to come out when the good-storyline guy takes the lead or when there's good racing at the front.

 

And yet, his saying it will change nothing. -- because Nascar fans will keep coming...

 

Something tells me that the No. 20 car will have a tougher time getting through inspection this weekend.

 

Unfortunately, Slappy, you're right. But does that mean he should follow rank-and-file and stay under the mushroom like many of the others are doing on the circuit?

 

He sounds like a baby, even though he does have a point, IMO.