Full Throttle

No… this isn’t about the break-up of a 4 year old race team “marriage” or the even that team’s owner who may yet find himself as the poster child and antonym of “wedded bliss” in the future.

The Hall family of Bradenton, Fla, waited five long years on the Bristol will call list for two yearly opportunities to attend Bristol Motor Speedway’s bath tub imitation of an emptying whirlpool. (clogged with 40 or so “bars of soap” and a few rubber duckies.)

Their joy was shorted lived as was their marriage. The tickets, along with the the house and personal belongings, were part of the divorce settlement a year after getting the tickets.

“We waited so long to get the tickets, and we only had them about a year before we got divorced,” she said. “We both decided there was no way we are getting rid of these tickets, so we just found a way to make it work. He was at the spring race, I got the night race, and it will be vice versa next year.”

Joint custody, just like a child, with alternating and evenly divided Bristol “holidays.”

Ain’t divorce grand?

Speaking of which, these aren’t tickets in the cheap seats with the rabble-rousers, bottle throwers and newly minted Dale Jr haters, oh no! These are choice seats up in the elite row of sky boxes at a yearly cost of 6 grand per.

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So it’s the morning before the evening’s NASCAR “spin dryer” session at Bristol and the day before the Grand Prix of Turkey in Istanbul. What’s goin’ on?

As the F1 Circus returns from its annual GriswaldsTour it finds itself near the Bosporus Strait. Ferrari has secured its fourth lock-out of the F1 front row. Felipe Massa busted his maiden and sits on the pole beating his teammate Schumie by nearly four tenths of a second.

Renault claimed the second row with Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella. Alonzo later claimed his R26 seemed to be down on power. Maybe it was a mistake not to change engines after the last event. It would be just what the doctor ordered for Schumie if the Blue & Yellow coughed and sputtered to the side of the tarmac. We’ll see.

Honda

First a couple quick notes on news that isn’t.

Pluto isn’t a planet. Who knew? Or cared?

And Jeremy Mayfield isn’t going quitely into the night. As everyone expected Bill Davis Racing signed Mayfield to a three year contract to drive the team’s #36 ride and sponsored by 360 OTC

Say what you will about SMI’s Bruton Smith, and there have been plenty of brickbats tossed his way, he knows racing NASCAR style and he knows who pays the bills.

So it isn’t surprising he has come out in favor of a reduction in ticket prices to NASCAR events (“We need to consider the fans. I’d like to see all the speedways cut the price on these tickets,”). His premise is based on having less cash via the new TV broadcasting partnerships next year.

The estimate is there will be $75-$100 million less than in 2006. 25% of that figure goes into the purse for each event with the possible expectation that tracks may seek to re-coup that loss in increased ticket prices.

Here is the most telling quote from the Scene Daily article, noting that one of the driver motorhomes is worth $1.6 million, “It doesn’t sound like we need any more in the purses.”

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Mark Martin loves the NCTS. For that reason his plans to run the series full time in 2007 are repeated often and well known to even the most casual fan.

Wednesday evening proved yet again why, it’s fun, more “old school,” no aero-push to contend with and it helps when you “bomb the field” by leading 164 laps of 200 and beat the best of the Japanese contenders. Behind Martin were 6 Toyotas in the top ten - four of those were in the top five - including second place finisher Todd Bodine.

With his win, Martin also broke a five race win streak in the state of Tennessee for Toyota. It’s also his fourth Truck win in eight starts and as the Diecast Dude points out it makes him the first driver to win a race in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions at the same track.

As an aside, Todd Bodine’s truck owners, Bob, Steve and Rick Germain, had a special guest on hand during the race. Famed guitarist Eric Clapton was their guest and experianced NASCAR for the first time.

Given Martin’s dominance I wonder if Clapton was humming a few bars of Forever Man? On the other hand it’s possible the Toyota Brigade may have been singing Got To Get Better In A Little While or the older drivers among them could recall the days of the Bluesbreakers and be singing It Ain’t Right.

But… maybe I’m just living in my past and assigning it to them.

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In NASCAR’s omnipotent drive for a presence in the market place one could safely argue the Winston brand name was the first to make a major impact on the sport. Originaly named NASCAR’s Grand National Division R.J. Reynolds Tobacco stepped forward and from 1972 through 2003 the Series and it’s Championship heralded the company’s premire brand of Winston cigarettes.

As NASCAR has turned the corner into the 21^st century - and Winston is gone due to legislation that sharply restricted avenues for tobacco advertising - there’s a new kid on the block. But like most new kids this one comes with a difference in attitude and look.

Red Bull is a sports marketing giant. They sponsor everything from Formula One teams, to the so called extreme sports like BASE jumping, BMX freestyle dirt and skateboard vert in addition to airplane races via the Red Bull Air Race World Series.

Red Bull, as most fans of the sport know, will be present in NASCAR starting with the 2007 season and that’s where the difference in attitude and look comes in. “They’re really, in their own way, turning the NASCAR model on its ear,” said Mike Bartelli, senior vice president for motorsports at Millsport. “It’s not just the fact that they’ll own the team as a sponsor, but their marketing approach is certainly going to be different.”

Unlike most companies that elect to sponsor a car, Red Bull has chosen to own its teams. Red Bull will have the 83 Car (there are 8.3 ounces in a can of Red Bull) driven by Brian Vickers, the second car’s driver, sponsor and number is still to be determined.

How will team ownership by the sponsor change the NASCAR model? For those concerned of late about NASCAR becoming too “politically correct” listen to the words of David Coultard who drives one of the two Red Bull owned F1 teams.

“When you’re driving for a team like Mercedes, you represent DaimlerCrysler; you represent Mobil, Siemens, Hugo Boss. You’ve got a range of companies,” said Formula One driver David Coulthard. “You then have to walk a much finer line of what is politically correct for each of these sponsors. When you have one owner and it’s a drink company, then it allows you to be, for better or worse, yourself.”

Brian Vickers elected to sign with Red Bull for similar reasons.

“Any business has its budget, but under a normal structure, an owner has a very strict budget from a sponsor and that’s it and they have to work under those restraints,” Vickers said. “But when the sponsor owns a team, that dynamic is a little bit different.”

I don’t see NASCAR allowing a Dale Jr. type after race interview punctuated with the “S” word, at least not without the monetary fine, but it would be refreshing to hear Vickers list a single sponsor vice a laundry list of them in victory Lane.

Other differences, or rather appearences, may also occur. Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz upon hiring David Coulthard told his new driver he “did not have to shave every day, didn