Full Throttle

Many of us that are veterans of the U.S. Navy have “I Love Me Walls.”

Love Me Walls are places selected by a former, and on rare occasions current sailors, for the display of shadow boxes containing all the awards and commendations awarded by the Dept of the Navy and individual Commands during his/her service time.

In many cases they are on prominent display in a family room, over the fireplace mantle or in cases where the service member has gone on to another career, their office space.

Brian France’s (known here abouts as HWSBO) career path hasn’t included any time in the U.S. Navy but that hasn’t prevented him from pointing to his I Love Me Wall that displays his single most important, and self generated, award - Bringing Racing Into Prime Time.

I won’t argue with the premise behind his Newsweek article, the TV contracts of the last few years are far superior than those of ten years ago, I just have a single question, why?

Why did France write a 1 and 1/2 page article on this single issue and why did Newsweek waste the space on a self congratulatory tome by the CEO of NASCAR?

The only “news” it contains (and probably available elsewhere) is the financial breakdown of the TV contracts as it relates to who gets how much of the financial pie.

(NOTE: If you’re one of the “NASCAR is run by a bunch of money grubbers” types, don’t look for the sake of the children. They need you at home not laid out in an ICU somewhere - ed)

For those of you that might be aspiring journalists, and their demented step-children Bloggers, France’s article is what is known as a Fluff Piece,” and should be avoided at all costs.

AS A SIDENOTE, the article contains a poll in the sidebar asking, What’s your favorite televised sport?

At the time of writing (17:00 est, 5 pm for the non-military types) it had only 35 responses with the following results:

Major League Baseball 5.7%; NASCAR 63%; NBA Basketball 2.9%; NFL Football 29%.

Which proves couple of things, online polls mean about as much as the proverbial bear defecating in the woods.

Or HWSBO has gamed the poll.

Not to pile on HWSBO or anything, but I will anyway… despite France’s self congratulation over his TV contracts the fan base is anything but happy, in fact they’re on the verge of “civil unrest.”

The “evil masses” have been heard (read Roush among others) and NASCAR is in the process of a rethink about its restrictive NEXTEL Cup testing schedule:

“It appears that we’ve got teams that want to test more and teams that want to test less, and teams that test on tires that are not made by our tire supplier,” Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“Holy rules written on an Etch-a-Sketch Batman whatever makes NASCAR think that?”

“Well Robin, according to the Brainwave Bat-analyzer it’s a perfect storm that rides in on leased tires and a testing policy that SCREAMS ‘disregard me.’”

“So we’re going to start looking at a lot of different things, from eventually lifting the test ban completely, or get as restrictive as we cannot let teams test anywhere at any time, or land somewhere in between.”

Oh-oh!

That gives NASCAR a very wide margin of error - as if they need any margin at all - and could lead to what was stated 21 months ago or… testing being restricted to “Sony Playstation 3, Official Platform of NASCAR Test Teams.”

For the record, I side with Beth as she saw the handwriting on the pitwall all those many months ago.

Mike Ford, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, also goes on the record with an example of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

“They are forcing teams to spend money with other tire manufacturers instead of with Goodyear, the company NASCAR supports,” he said. “One way or the other, everybody is going to test.”

Apparently NASCAR’s library doesn’t contain that law book.

After last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix F1 supremo [lower cased with merit - ed] Bernie Ecclestone screamed for all to hear the powers that be (forgetting he is the power to be) should investigate McLaren for what he thought was manipulation of the race result via team “orders” given to McLaren’s 1-2 place finishers.

He went so far as to suggest the fine should rival Ferrari’s which was fined $1m for its blatant fixing of the result of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

The powers that be have investigated and issued their ruling: NOT guilty.

After close study of radio traffic between McLaren-Mercedes and its drivers, reading the FIA observer’s report along with data from the team, “it is clear that McLaren’s actions during the 2007 Grand Prix were entirely legitimate and no further action is necessary.”

Ahem… Bernie, how’s that self flagellation thing going?

Thursday’s Super DIRT NorthEast modified series race at Middletown’s Orange County Fair Speedway will have a distinct NASCAR feel.

Carl Edwards, currently the NASCAR Busch Grand National series point leader and Jack Roush, his team car owner, are scheduled to appear at the event with Edwards expected to drive a big-block modified in the scheduled Advance Auto Parts race.

Edwards and Roush will be in the area for this weekend’s NASCAR Nextel Cup event in Delaware, beginning with practice and qualifying on Friday.

Also planning to be in attendance Thursday at Orange County are Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year candidate and Busch Series driver, David Reutimann and his legendary racing father, Buzzie Reutimann.

The senior Reutimann, now 66, won Super DIRT Week’s first two Syracuse/Eckerd races in 1972 -73 (then the Schaefer 100), once dominated modified racing on Orange County’s “hard clay” half-mile flat oval.

In 1972, the Zephyrhills, Fla. Native, who spent summers in Middletown racing his No. “00″ Dover Brake modifieds, won the track’s Eastern States 200 fall modified classic and the 1974 points championship.

The event for Edwards will be his second in two years. He failed to qualify for the DIRT series race last year, said Joey Barbagallo Jr., who’s providing a modified for the former USAC Silver Crown championship car driver.

“Carl was really upset about not qualifying last year and said he’s even more excited to come back and make a better run,” Barbagallo said. “In his first time here he arrived late and only got a lap or two of practice. That kind of set him back for the night as its tough to get around Orange County even when you know the place. He was offered a promoter’s option to start the race but turned it down feeling he didn’t deserve it.”

Edwards also has raced former USAC Silver Crown cars in Premier Racing Association events and is expected to enter Oswego Speedway’s PRA event scheduled Aug. 10.

Dover Brake, long-time sponsor of Buzzie Reutimann’s modified cars, will have a new Bicknell-built car numbered “00″ with “Dover Brake” on its side for David Reutimann’s dirt-track racing experience.

An even stronger contingent of name NASCAR drivers also will be racing on the dirt, June 6 at Tony Stewart’s demanding high-banked half-mile Eldora Speedway in Western Ohio.

The old school dirt upon which many of today’s racing stars built their status will play host to Stewart’s third annual “Nextel Prelude to the Dream” late model race.

The list of drivers which Stewart has invited are interesting; some have Stewart’s background and others do not.

They are: Juan Pablo Montoya, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and more.

HBO Pay-Per-View will present the event live to the entire nation. Proceeds from the event will support the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Tony Stewart Foundation.

IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. can’t get enough racing these days.

Fresh off a fourth-place finish in last Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, the three-time IndyCar Series champion turned a few laps Tuesday in a stock car at Michigan International Speedway. Hornish was preparing for a possible run in the June 15 ARCA RE/MAX Series race at the track.

“I’d love to run the ARCA race in June,”Hornish said. “I think that getting here for this test is a fairly good indication that we will be able to run the ARCA RE/MAX Series race.”

The test with 14 other ARCA drivers marked a new experience for the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner. Though this was his first time in a stock car at MIS, Hornish has five IndyCar Series starts at the track.

Since it’s inception in 1952, ARCA has enjoyed a deep history with drivers from open wheel racing disciplines. In particular, several former Indianapolis 500 winners have made the switch to stock cars via ARCA. Among them, 2000 Indy 500 winner and former Formula One driver Montoya, as well as Johnnie Parsons, Sr., who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1950 and went on to win an ARCA RE/MAX Series race in 1957. 1952 Indianapolis 500 winner Troy Ruttman is a three-time ARCA RE/MAX Series winner, while 1958 Indy 500 winner Jimmy Bryan has one ARCA RE/MAX Series victory. Rodger Ward, who earned Indy 500 victories in 1959 and 1962, won a 150-mile ARCA race at the Milwaukee Mile on August 23, 1959.

Thor’s Hammer is a symbol of the struggle against chaos and evil. It’s the weapon used by Thor against giants, monsters, and other trollish folk who threaten the common good.

The common good in this case is outlined in NASCAR’s rulbook, Sections 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 12-4-E (failure to comply with the NASCAR Substance Abuse Policy).

Tyler Walker, a driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, has been whacked by NASCAR’s version of Thor’s Hammer by suspending Walker from competition indefinitely for violating the sanctioning body

Let me rephrase that, I don’t believe a word of it and am hauling up the BS Flag.

See if you don’t agree:

Las Vegas-based Fan1st.com, an online fan-driven racing community that gives fans the opportunity to sponsor and have their name on a Fan1st car racing in NASCAR’s Busch Series, today announced a new benefit that allows members to receive instant text messages from the drivers or crew — live from the racing action.

The text service began with Dave Blaney’s drive in Saturday’s Busch Series event. (Carquest Auto Parts 300)

Can you see the disbelief in my eyes?

Let me preface this by saying after living in what was once called the Text Message Capital of the World for 6 years (and may still be) I’m very aware the relationship between pounding those tiny cell keys and a person’s complete ignorance of anything (up to and including 100 mph runaway buses) outside of a one foot “SMS Buffer Zone” around an SMS aficionado.

After duly noting a “crew” member may in fact be part of this program I still call BS.

Sorry, I don’t buy for a hot second Dave Blaney or Jason Leffler, who’s also a “texter” in this program, have the time during a race to actually send text msgs to fans while driving at speeds from 60 mph under yellow or 180 mph under full song.

My detractors will yell, “but they talk to drivers on parade laps and under yellow and Boris Said did in car commentary during a road race last year.”

To which I say… “and so, what else ya got?”

Pushing a single button as you talk to Booth Bobble Heads is far different than exercising your thumb across cell phone or Crackberry keys the size of a single Jolly Green Giant sweet pea.

For the sake of the children that may be present I won’t comment on the fact “standard SMS text-message fees will apply” if you decide to sign-up for the opportunity to not receive an SMS from a driver.

I will comment on Las Vegas-based Fan1st.com who are initiating this program. According to their site they are the place for Fantasy Racing, Insider News, Fan forums and “Top Stories.”

Their current “top story” is Kevin Harvick Wins All-Star Race at Lowe