Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Petty and Hammond Have COT Answers

It's good to be ON PIT ROW.

On the March 6, 2007 episode of our show, Steve, J.P. and I were fortunate to be joined by our friend and regular guest, Jeff Hammond, from Fox Sports and the Speed Channel.  Jeff always has great insight into whatever is happening in the NASCAR world. Whether he is answering another Daryl Waltrip question or clearing up a technical issue for us, his sincerity and his passion for the sport are always evident.

One of our Fast Lap segment questions was on how similar, sort of, the new Car of Tomorrow is, to the cars of the late seventies and early eighties.  We brought this up to Jeff, thinking he would laugh us off, and he actually thinks that there are many similarities and went on to list several.  He also told us that many of the teams, during testing, are finding that old notes on setups for the cars from  years past are proving to be valuable in setting up the COT.  The following is a bit of Jeff's blog on the subject.

At Daytona, Kyle Petty told me that the COT's handling characteristics were similar to cars that he's had experience with in the past. He's pulling out old notes to try to understand something that's totally new here. Petty may have the right approach, and having the history that they have in the sport could help him. more...

There has been too much grousing about this new car.  Just shut up and drive.

Picture credit Getty Images.

All Wallace all the time

I have a new hero.  I think his name is Warren Wallace. It could be Lauren Wallace.  Whatever his name, he is the greatest driver to ever sit behind a wheel. sic

I watched the whole Telcel 300 Busch Series ( NASCAR International Series brought to you by $30 million) race on Sunday.  Great race.  Very big production, as fitting the feature race of what we might call the Super Bowl of the Busch ( NASCAR International Series brought to you by $30 million) Series if that name hadn't already been taken by the Nextel Cup Series (not to mention the NFL).  Maybe we could call this race the World Cup Final of the ( NASCAR International Series brought to you by $30 million) Busch Series.  We'll see how the naming rights work out.

Back to my hero.  There is another Wallace boy on the media scene.  He is, if pedigree has play, probably on the racing horizon as well.  I watched many times during breaks in the race coverage,  the Geico Insurance commercial featuring young , and I apologize for not knowing, either Warren or Lauren Wallace along with his elders Rusty and Mike.  I love that commercial. I can't get enough of it.  It makes me smile.  The race was great,too.

ESPN--take a breath

Every time a new broadcast team is put together there will be some adjustment time as each member of the team learns how to interact with the others.  The race in Mexico City was my first real exposure to the ESPN team of broadcasters: Dr. Jerry Punch,  Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree.  Overall I give the trio a good solid grade of B.  My one fault with the trio, is a fault with many sports announcers, they don't know when to shut up!

Rusty Wallace had great insight as to what was happening during the race, but there were several times that he was hitting info overload.  Rusty--every once in a while just shut up and let the pictures do the talking.

I thought the pit reporting was solid, if not adventurous.  The look in Chip Ganassi's eyes after he talked to Brad Parrott gave the answer to Mike Masaro questions before he asked them.  But, to his credit he asked them anyway, then looked as if he wanted to duck in case Chip started swinging.

One other question concerning ESPN's coverage: why did ESPN2 have the english broadcast and the larger viewership of ESPN carried the simulcast from ESPN Deportes?  Just a question, not a political commentary.

Rusty--tone it down.  Dr. Jerry--good solid job.  Andy--fight for some air time dude.

Steve

Moldy Orca sucking kayak huggers

If you watch network news programming on TV at all, you had to see the feeding frenzy Thursday featuring interviews with those pillars of taste and arbiters of what is popular and acceptable, I mean of course the residents of the great Northwest territory, Stupidland.  Television coverage went out of it's way to show people who are probably Seattle Mariner fans or Portland Trailblazerites slamming  NASCAR fans as "redneck losers, drunks, trailer trash ... " you get it.  Some forgettable politician referred to The King, Richard frickin' Petty as that drunk guy who runs in to people! 

The King responded, if you missed it, by saying, in a very dignified way, "I don't drink. I'm not sayin' I never ran into anybody when I was sober, but I don't drink." Paraphrased.

I heard that Darrell Waltrip, upon learning that the legislatures of the bergs that NASCAR was negotiating with, were turning up their collective noses at the prospect of helping fund a 300 plus million dollar speedway development, said that he would fund the thing hissownself.

D W, those moldy, Orca sucking, stuck up kayak huggers don't deserve any further attention.  Greg Biffle must be a kidnapped orphan from Kansas.  Build the track in Mississippi.