Did you hear the one about the pig, the radio show and Jeff Hammond?

Trying to schedule guest interviews for a live broadcast, mid-week NASCAR show is not easy.  Jeff Hammond of Fox Sports and the Speed channel is one of our favorites and joins us pretty regularly.

A couple months ago, Steve called Danny Shull, Jeff's personal manager, trying on rather short notice, to get Jeff for that day's show.

Danny is always accommodating.  This time he told Steve that, though he was sure that Jeff would be happy to do the show, he was kind of busy, that afternoon.  You see, Jeff and a neighbor were out back, somewhere, hunting a wild pig that had become a nuisance.  He was sure that Jeff would be happy to join us if they were able to dispatch the pig, in time.  Steve laughed and told Danny that he surely understood the situation and that he would call on a more convenient day. 

I got this news on the phone from Steve and my comment was something like, " Well that's at least the most creatively we've been blown off" or some such.  We both had a laugh and made other plans for the  show.

About an hour before show time, I got another call on my cell.  It was Steve.  "Danny called.  They got that pig.  Jeff'll be on at 6:30."  It still makes me laugh.

If you are not aware, Jeff Hammond has a book.  Doesn't everybody these days?  Jeff's book is called "Real Men Work in the Pits".  I read it, again, last night.  You really ought to get this book.  It's a crew chief's story and will give a feel for the reasons guys like Hammond and Larry McReynolds take the stands they do on the current rule controversies.  The book is also a history lesson in the early years of multi-car teams and some of the great rivalries in NASCAR history.  Read it.  Better yet, buy it, then read it.

Jeff was a guest on last night's ON PIT ROW and somehow, I didn't get this bit of very interesting stuff, found today in Jeff's column for Fox Sports.

"Pemberton and Nextel Cup director John Darby told me last weekend that a winning race car can go through post-race inspection at the track, but it can still be subject to penalties when it's taken back to NASCAR's research and development center. If they find something that they don't like about the car when they rescan it or feel like a team worked in an area that the templates missed during at-track inspection, that team can be charged points ... after the race. That's scary."

With all of the rules citing going on, I hadn't had a sniff of this.  The next twenty races could get real squirrelly.

Comments

[Clance' McClannahan]

Rules citing??
We shoot squirrel's out here in the West.

[Steve]

There is no one better at cutting through the crap than Jeff Hammond.

[Stephen Shores]

I've wanted to read that for a while. Can I have your copy? ;)

[Stephen Shores]

Or if you know Jeff's manager, could you maybe ask for a copy for me? Just wondering, it doesn't hurt to ask, I guess. I could review it for my blog...