Monthly Archives: May 2010
NASCAR Hall Of Fame: We’ve been needing it
I watched the entire 5 hour coverage of the Hall Of Fame today, and I was impressed with the inductees of the first class. While we were missing three of them from passing on, I can tell you that as a fan I have been wanting NASCAR to have this beautiful place to honor our greatest drivers, owners, commentators, crew chiefs and crew members.
There was no doubt in my mind that we’ve been needing this place to complete the sports history. Every single sport had a Hall of Fame that paid respects to its greatest athletes. Today we added Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr, France Jr., Junior Johnson and the King Richard Petty as its first class of inductees to the Hall of Fame. I had discussions with several of my friends, one of which I think of as a historian because she can remember things about our past heroes of the sport and we both agreed that leaving out the Silver Fox David Pearson was wrong, but just having the Hall added was a major accomplishment.
You have to be grateful for what these 5 people did for our sport. From Bill France Sr., founding our sport and creating the most dynamic racing facility ever in Daytona, his son Bill France Jr., building the sport into a world renowned grounds for fans, drivers, and crews, then Richard Petty who many consider to be the driver that made this into a fans sport by signing those first few autographs at his earlier stage of the career that is considered to be the most successful ever. Junior Johnson did it all, from winning races as a driver, to a car owner, and as a jack man for his team. He was considered the Last American Hero. Then Dale Earnhardt, who helped push this sport into the 90s and the new millenium by showing people that the men behind the wheel could be just regular everyday Americans.
There is a story behind every man that was inducted today. In the light of it all, we have a place now to shrine of its greatest people. NASCAR has definetly needed a Hall of Fame, Baseball has Cooperstown, NY. The NFL has Canton, Ohio and the NHL has Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Now NASCAR has Charlotte, North Carolina. That place that houses most of the teams, and now houses its Hall of Fame. And now each year we’ll be able to see 5 new inductees added to the HoF.
Things are not always better
The debate seems to go on and on, no matter what. I have debated this topic with numerous fans that think that Carl Edwards should be looking for a new ride when his contract expires after 2011.
Here is where I totally disagree. I think that there is a huge fall out when you look at the top-notch rides in NASCAR between Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing coming up. One reason is, Hendrick has loaded their guns with drivers like Johnson and Gordon, they have Mark Martin for one more year and then Kahne arrives to the 5 car in 2012. Then there is Mr. Popularity, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who no matter what, he is going to have a ride because he brings in the money.
Gibbs has three young drivers that have not even hit 30-years old yet. Denny Hamlin is the veteran, at 29 years old, Kyle Busch is 25 years old, and then there is Joey Logano who is still a youthful youngster at 19. Neither one of these drivers are looking to go anywhere else and adding another driver would really mean way too roosters in the hen house for Gibbs.
Then there is Richard Childress. Same goes for RCR when it comes to having a full-slate of drivers with Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick. These guys are successful where they are at and it doesn’t appear that they will go anywhere, at one point many expected Harvick to go somewhere but after winning Talladega a couple weeks ago it doesn’t seem so.
So now we look at Roush. Look at it in this way, Edwards is going to be Roush’s primary driver no matter how you want to look at it. He brings in more cash flow to the organization that any driver and his fan base is growing. And even though, there are some fans that don’t see it; there have been some big improvements over this last year. Last weekend’s race at Richmond was a sign of that when he rallied late in the event to finish in the top-5. He has been 44 races without a win in the winter of 2008, when he scored the Ford 400 victory at Homestead. However, there are some drivers that have waited a lot longer than he has.
Clint Bowyer has gone 72 races, Earnhardt has been 67, Biffle 54 and Burton 51. Jeff Gordon has gone 39 races without winning a race, so there are some of the best drivers in the sport sitting on the same boat that Edwards is on. So I have to say that if you complain that there are struggles, yes it is your right, but there are drivers in worse shape than Edwards. I know a friend that is married to someone on the 99 crew, and the work that has been going on is unbelievable. We just have to be patient and let the little kinks work out.
The fact is, there just isn’t any place that Edwards could go in the near future that would provide Edwards with equipment that could be better than what he gets right now. Edwards is the face of Roush Fenway Racing no matter who wants to debate it. And people forget about the season that Edwards had during the 2006 season when there were two crew chief changes made during the season with Bob Osborne and Wally Brown. This season is no where near filled with the struggles that Edwards had during that year. Cars that would start out terrible and never come close to getting better with a crew chief that didn’t know how to fix a problem.
The issues are being worked on, but remember we are just spectators, we don’t make decisions on a day to day basis and those that want Osborne out as crew chief are not going to get it. Because here is something you have to look at, I listened to Earnhardt Jr., blame his crew chief Lance McGrew for everything that happened last weekend in Richmond and McGrew shot back in an interview saying he was the driver and didn’t know what the problems were.
That is one issue you don’t hear out of Edwards and Osborne. The chemistry is balanced there and it will be what makes the team get better. So those that want changes, you can want but it doesn’t mean it will happen.
