Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Merry Christmas David Ragan

I've got a feeling that David Ragan won't have the USA Today's Seth Livingstone on his Christmas list this year.  Livingstone cited Ragan as the driver with the most wrecks in NASCAR for the 2008 season.  Now that's an award that I had not seen during the last few weeks of award show orgies.

Congratulations David!  You have also been the victim of one of the stupidest bits of NASCAR related blather I've seen this year - and I've read, and probably written, some pretty dumb stuff.  Then again after reading the mostly ignorant comments generated by the piece, maybe Livingstone was just writing for his audience.

There may not be anything less relevant than racing crashes looked at out of context.  All Ragan did was replace the legend, Mark Martin, in the legendary #6 and finish an enviable 23rd in series points.  Singling him out as the most wrecked and spun driver in Nextel Cup is ridiculous.  Who wrecked whom?  What caused the spins?

Some writers need an off season.

Picture credit: AP Photo/Wade Payne

The Outlaw Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne is going down.  Well, probably not, but having fun with those who have screwed up is good tonic for me - having made more than a life's fair share of boners myself.

A friend of mine spent the best part of last weekend in jail.  Nobody got hurt and the fact that it happened was not a big shock to anyone with knowledge of the parties involved.

I found a listing for a movie that was showing on local cable Saturday night.   I took the listing to the copier and enlarged it, made a note, and pinned it to my buddy's office wall.  The note read:  " The John Doe(real name withheld because even I have a heart) Story.  The movie was "Holiday in Handcuffs".  No really it was.

Kahne has been charged with battery for his altercation with a security guard at Homestead in November.  Answer this has more to say about the whole deal. 

I don't know what happened down there.  But if I worked with that security guard,  his having been knocked on his ass by Kasey Kahne might not be the most humiliating thing to come out of this thing.

The votes are in--OPeRs have been awarded

ON PIT ROW's OPeR awards were held on Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

Some surprise winners received their first OPeR while others, including SPEED-TV, continued on a win streak.  Jeff Gordon was shut out of an OPeR for the first time in memory. Here are the results as voted on by the ON PIT ROW staff:

Best and worst driver:

Best driver award goes to Jimmy Johnson for his late season drive to the championship.
Worst driver award goes to the transport driver that got caught trying to sneak his girlfriend into the race track and being snagged by NASCAR and his bride.

Best and worst crew chief:

Best crew chief is awarded to Chad Knaus for making all the right decisions when it counted most.
Worst crew chief is David Hyder for his ill fated attempt to add rocket power to the Michael Waltrip stable.

Best and worst owner:

Best owner OPeR goes to Rick Hendrick for not only providing the best equipment to the best teams but also bringing in the biggest name in the sport for 2008.
Worst owner goes to, hands down, Bobby Ginn for promises not kept and his ability to "big time" a major sport.

Best and worst team:

Best team is a given.  I said the #24 and #48 garage as a combo.  Charlie lobbied for just the #48 team for obvious reasons. I finally succumbed.
Worst team was the #10 team with Scott Riggs at the helm most of the year.  This was a team with high hopes on a team that was on a roll in 2006.  Expectations were not met.

Best and worst post race interview:

Best interview goes to Matt Kenseth as he was able to talk to reporters while teammate Carl Edwards was trying to clean his clock.
Worst post race interview was actually no interview at all.  Kyle Busch wins for his "walk away" as Junior was getting into Kyle's wrecked car.   Foreshadowing at its finest.

Worst attempt at "adjusting the the rules":

NASCAR's insistence on not doing anything about the ridiculous Top 35 rule gets the OPeR for sheer stupidity.

Best Jr. High School-like Drama:

The entire Dale Earnhardt Jr. saga played out like the best he said-she said drama of all time.  The parties that be, played the public for all they were worth with the multiple press conferences and the never ending speculation in regards to numbers and sponsors.  The whole thing played out like an episode of Hanna Montana.

Best and worst Radio/TV personality:

The best TV personality for 2007 was the newcomer--Kyle Petty.  Kyle was glib, refreshing and willing to give true insight into what drivers are thinking.  We can't wait to hear more from Kyle in 2008.
Bill Weber wins the worst Media Personality award for his lack of personality.

Best and worst Nascar Network:

SPEED-TV wins again.  They consistently put on a great show.  Their pre and post race shows are the best.  Combine those shows with the qualifying and race coverage of the Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA and you have a winner.
ABC/ESPN was the big loser.  Again great expectations from fans and NASCAR were not met on any level.  They need to step up and get it done in 2008.

Best guest to appear ON PIT ROW:

This was the hardest award to give because of all the great people who have made ON PIT ROW so much fun to do.  Charlie took Lloyd Moore; the oldest living NASCAR and ARCA winner.  I took Jeff Hammond from the sheer number of times that Jeff made time for us.  Not only is he always entertaining, but there were several times that Jeff went above and beyond to get to a phone to be on the show.  Special honorable mentions go to Lee Spencer from Fox Sports and to David Poole from Sirius and the Charlotte Observer.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Fickies / Getty Images for NASCAR)

And the ugliest girlfriend in NASCAR award goes to...

This post is about courage. I wouldn't touch the answer to that headline with ..... I just wouldn't touch it.

Besides the fact that any choice of the answer to that question would likely make an orchid look plain, who would have the guts to put up a vote?  Nobody I know and, probably, nobody sober in a NASCAR garage.  Too scary.

Who is more fearless than the race car driver? 

I read a post this morning on Full Throttle.  There is a link, in the post to a video of the crash that killed Rafael Sperafico this past weekend.  I watched the video and it is chilling.

When you watch, you see a moment when a race car driver dies.  I have seen these things before.  There is little doubt of what is happening when you see them.  Is the ability to go out and do that job - drive a car at the limit -  after seeing something like that, courage or something else?

I can't relate, not really. But I don't drive a race car for a living. Maybe drivers just lack the imagination to put themselves in that video - that theory has been out there.  My Italian grandmother called drivers "stupid boys".  I have, for most of my life, thought them heroes.

There has been plenty written and said about NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow program.  NASCAR has emphasized the increase in the safety of the car, while pundits bitch about how it looks, or turns, or fails to turn.  Today, I am glad it's safer.

and the OPeR goes to... (our NASCAR awards)

Once again it's again time for ON PIT ROW's version of NASCAR'S awards--the OPeRs.

Each year Charlie and I give out our awards for the past NASCAR season.  Although there may be some rogue awards to series other than Cup; we tend to keep the OPeR prizes centered on the Cup Series. The categories that we will award our form of praise on; include such normal themes as:

Best and worst driver

Best and worst crew chief

Best and worst owner

Best and worst team

But we also add some categories that may be a bit different as well.  These will include;

Best and worst post race interview.

Worst attempt at "adjusting the the rules".

Best and worst Jr. High School-like Drama

Best and worst Radio/TV personality

Best and worst NASCAR network

Best guest to appear ON PIT ROW

Maybe we should add: most inappropriate image shot during a New York visit.

Give us your nominations for the above categories, or some other categories we may have missed, and we will give an opinion and present the official OPeR on the show this Tuesday, December 11, 2007.

If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

photo: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

NASCAR ought to take the award show on the road

Seven days later is not the title to a  NASCAR zombie movie.  It is more than enough time to get away from New York City though.  Last Friday NASCAR held it's latest version of the annual awards show at the Waldorf in The Big Apple.

I understand some of the reasons that NASCAR moved this thing to New York years ago.  The desire to have the end of the year celebration of the sport in the media and hype capital of the world foremost of all, I would think.

The France Family organization has been fantastically successful at the publicity game.  NASCAR is firmly entrenched in mainstream, American society now.  So much so that the head of the Family France, Sir Brian the Lesser, came out recently and committed the company to better serve the constituency that is responsible for NASCAR having anything to hype in the first place - stock car racing fans.

One of the changes that should be made is to move this awards deal somewhere else.  I suggest someplace where actual NASCAR fans could have some access to their heroes.

Las Vegas has been suggested and would be a fine location.  But why not move it around - choose a different city to host Champion's Week every year?  The National Football League does this with it's Super Bowl.  College basketball moves the Final Four each year as well, to the great benefit of the host communities.

Corporate insecurity would prevent NASCAR from having Nashville become the permanent host of the awards - they've spent too many years trying to shake the old "moonshiners" stereotype.  Going home to the south every couple years would be a reward for those fans that built the sport though and Nashville or New Orleans would be terrific locales for the banquet.

Detroit - The Motor City - has hosted a Super Bowl and has a Final Four coming up.  What would the Big Three automakers do to have their biggest racing investment visit the home town?

Moving the show would give fans of different regions at least the feeling of having an opportunity to be a part of the celebration.  Right now, the whole deal has that feel of "New York exclusivity" to it.

Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

Nextel Cup banquet has its moments

The much anticipated and usually panned Nextel Cup awards banquet didn't disappoint.

I was expecting quite a few lowlights from the banquet and was surprised at the quality of the show with one exception.  What in Gods name was David Spade doing anywhere near the Waldorf-Astoria?  He was absolutely atrocious.   His shtick was not in sync with the crowd and he had no business being there.  With the show ending at 11:45 eastern time, I had to wonder if Spade was scheduled for another attempt at humor and the powers that be said thanks but lets lower the pain threshold.

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

As was asked during the live blog at "Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie", during the banquet; who is the hottest arm candy?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1) Who should get the "Best performance at an awards banquet" prize?

2) Should the banquet be moved to another city?

3) What was the worst moment of the banquet?

4) Add a track--subtract a track?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened since last February in Daytona.  If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Live Blog - NASCAR Awards Show

Watching NASCAR's year end awards banquet and show from the Waldorf in New York City is, to me, a painful experience.  But doing what I do, I feel compelled to watch it. That's kind of funny actually because I don't always feel compelled to watch the races.  Anyway, since I have to do this, I was hoping that some of you would join me in my pain. 

Steve and our producer/photographer Beth Anne have promised - under threat of me making their email addresses public on MySpace - to show up at some point and I have dropped pleading hints around the NASCAR blogosphere as well. 

So with the help of this great Cover it Live software we'll try our best to resurrect Joel, Tom Servo, Betsy and Crow of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame and totally de-construct NASCAR's most ludicrous night.

Live Blog Friday Night at the Lamest Show on Earth

Join Steve, Beth Anne and me for our first foray into live blogging thanks to Cover It Live. Afterall, not everybody gets ESPN Classic and even if you do, getting through this whole show un-aided is not healthy.

Oh yeah, Jimmy, Jeffy, Junior and the rest of the NASCAR Circus will be there too.

Rusty visits "ON PIT ROW"

Rusty Wallace spent some time ON PIT ROW on Tuesday night.

Rusty talked about his ownership and design of Iowa Speedway and the new Riverside Motorsports Park to be located outside of Fresno California.  The 7/8ths mile oval will have a replica of the old Riverside road course inside the oval; much like Iowa Speedway has its 2.5 mile road course inside.

The ESPN/ABC broadcaster told of his relationship with his broadcast partners, Jerry Punch and Andy Petree and how they have progressed through the NASCAR season.  Rusty believes the team will be even stronger in 2008.  He said is now a broadcaster first and his many other responsibilities are able to be juggled around that.

Rusty Wallace Inc. Racing will be expanding to two teams to compete on the Nationwide Series in 2008 with David Stremme and 18 year old, Chase Austin sharing the new #64 Atreus Homes/Jimmy Johns Chevrolet.  Wallace's son, Steven, will continue as the full time driver of the #66 with similar sponsorship.  The move from Dodges in 2007 to Chevrolet in 2008 will mean Richard Childress Racing will supply engines for the team.

The CoT was on Rusty's mind as he agreed with Fox Sports and Speed's Larry McReynolds:

"The cure for the CoT is stickier tires.  That's all it will take.  Call them stickier or softer or whatever; when you have equal cars with  hard tires there is no chance for good racing.   Let the tires wear faster  like they do at  places like Darlington and  you'll get some great racing--in multiple grooves."

Rusty gave is views on The Chase and how it has affected Jeff Gordon and NASCAR.

To hear the entire interview with Rusty and the rest of ON PIT ROW; tune in to www.racetalkradio.com on Thursday night 11-29-2007 at 7pm ET.

photo: BethAnne Heisler/ ON PIT ROW-Bench Racing Productions, LLC