Full Throttle

Things on the Milwaukee mile this weekend were for the most part normal. But there were couple strange incidents that made me wonder if a few ethereal visitors from the S.S. City of Milwaukee were hovering around the historic speedway.

Saturday Carl Edwards put on a display of what a Le Mans type start to qualifying would look like as he sprinted to make it on time after a flight from Sonoma:

“There’s no way to look cool and run your (tail) off,” Edwards said. “It about kills me. I can go run, like, three or four miles on a regular day, but for some reason, that 200-yard sprint is enough to about kill you.”

“Tell Carl I’ve got a new job for him - he can be a sausage racer,” quipped Wisconsin native Scott Wimmer, referring to the famed sixth-inning mascot races held at the major league baseball stadium nearby, Miller Park.

Funny stuff, but it raises a larger question, why? Why the cross-country trek for a driver that has such a large lead in the point standings? He could turn the car over to a younger driver for three races and still be leading the points.

A reverse situation occurred in the JGR pits. Aric Almirola qual’d on the pole, led 40 some laps of the first 59 then was pulled in favor of Denny Hamlin who was delayed arriving from Sonoma.

Almirola seemed to be pissed as he stomped thru the garage area and at the time the team refused to comment on the situation.

As Hamlin did the victory burn-out his crew chief claimed it was a “group decision” to pull Aric, somehow I doubt if he was part of that group. In fact I’m sure of it which is too bad.

I can sympathize with the decision made, but don’t really buy the “it’s the sponsor’s home track” excuse. Employee’s of the company came to see their car win not who drove it to that win. At the time of the switch it was just as likely Almirola would win as Hamlin.

In the end Rockwell Automation got what they wanted but it has to be a hollow victory for Almirola.

Now watch NASCAR add insult to injury by touting the win as a “first for the Diversity Program.”

Here are a few things that have crossed the desk, modem and RSS reader of the Half-Vast Staff

Well now, isn’t that an interesting development.

The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon flunked inspection Friday morning at Infineon Raceway, prior to the start of practice for Sunday

After Dale Jr’s move to Hendrick Motorsports the speculation over who, or what would be his sponsor has produced no shortage of opinions.

Jerry came down on the side of Monster Energy drink then added the U.S. Navy, NesQuik, Folgers and Pepsi.

Bob and Dave Moody have also jumped on the Pepsi bandwagon and there are a few more, including my Adidas trial balloon, that I’m too lazy to track down at the moment.

But Junior may be throwing all of us unpaid pundits a curve ball.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has signed an endorsement deal with Sony Electronics, but he still isn’t saying what role longtime sponsor Budweiser will have with him when he joins Hendrick Motorsports next season.

“I’m a big electronics fan. I’m a big computer guy. It’s products I can dig,” Earnhardt told reporters Thursday at a winery in the heart of California’s Napa Valley.

(NOTE: Jerry, he’s in your neck-of-the-woods where is your exclusive on this revolting development?)

That may just mean a Dale Jr. signature PS3 racing game will be hitting the shelves, or it could mean a whole lot more, like a 10-20 million dollar deal to “wrap” the #5/#8 in Sony logos.

In that case it would also mean all us pundits need to be fitted with red noses and search EBay for a cheap Clown Car for our commute to Dante’s seventh level of Pundits Hell.

BTW, that’s me in the orange pants. Now excuse me I’ve got an appointment with Weary Willy’s ghost to refill my flower squirt gun at the local Clown College. It takes an expert to work on such precision equipment and I’ve only reached the apprentice level of clown-dom.

UPDATE: Well that settles it then, maybe. According to this headline (Junior will sport Sony logo) and this one (Earnhardt Jr. signs with Sony for Hendrick ride) it’s a done deal.

The cost of the apparent deal to Sony? Earnhardt said he got a new digital camera out of the deal.

And a whole wad of cash but they don’t say how much.

I’m off to EBay. Sure hate to trade my Pajero for a Clown Car but it looks like my options are limited by circumstances. Unless I can pull off getting the Jokers Clown Car I’ll just have to settle for looking foolish.

Like that’s anything new right?

As for the rest of you “Clowns,” misery loves company, lets see how many we can pack into this baby.

Standby for the relatively small but vocal “NASCAR is discarding its roots” crowd to come out swinging as Speedway Motorsports Inc. announced plans to auction North Carolina Motor Speedway to the highest bidder.

Rockingham “The Little Speedway That Could,”… but finally couldn’t after decades of operation. Saddled with an inability to upgrade the facilities, a location in the middle of nowhere and virtually no infrastructure in the surrounding area to support “The Big League” the track was doomed for the dustbin of history.

North Carolina Motor Speedway was built in 1965 as a flat oval. The track was rebuilt in 1969 into the current banked oval. In 1997, NCMS merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Penske subsequently sold his speedway operations to International Speedway Corporation.

Speedway Motorsports bought the track from ISC in 2004 then moved the Nextel Cup race to Texas Motor Speedway as a result of a lawsuit by owners of TMS involving NASCAR, ISC, and shareholders in Speedway Motorsports.

Rick Sago, director of Richmond County Development, is optimistic that racing can continue at the track in some form, but he said that depends on who buys it.

Keep dreamin’ Sago, my bet is the property will be sold to a large agricultural or home furnishing outfit and eventually used as a warehouse and transshipment point for the related industry in the area.

The most interesting thing to me will be the final selling price. Potential suiters for both The Rock and North Wilkesboro have claimed asking prices have been too high and have prevented those wishing to resurrect them to their former glory.

We’ll see what the actual value is now with an auction scheduled.

ESPN is reporting next years premier series will go by the new name, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. If the report is true it will be the third time in four six (corrected by TMC’s comment) seasons that NASCAR’s Cup Series changed names.

Not a good thing, in terms of marketing identity is everything. Everyone knows who the Michelin Man and the Keebler Elves are. Will the casual fan be confused by the constant name changes to stock car top series?

It won’t bother long-time fans but for those just entering NASCAR Nation it may prove frustrating. If they take enough of an interest to search it’s history and find so many different references it might. Will a casual/new fan make the connection between a “Grand National” champ and a Sprint Cup champ?

Added to that would be any confusion that may arise by seeing Grand National applied to the Busch/Wal-Mart/Samsung/Dunkin-Donuts/whatevertohellitsgonnabe Cup.

NASCAR needs to make a sea-change. Once the NEXTEL/Sprint contract is up the award/series should be named the Bill France Cup and to hell with the corporate sponsorship identity for the series and the trophy.

If a magic wand were waved now and all NEXTEL/Sprint logos and promotions remained with the exception of the series name and champ’s trophy I doubt seriously if the companies revenue would be seriously hurt.

Make the change NASCAR!

UPDATE: Bill Center, one of the most respected motorsports writers on the Left Coast, brings up an interesting angle to NASCAR’s switch to the Sprint Cup.

It’s a “what if” scenario: “Not to mention about what the World of Outlaws and USAC open-wheel Sprint Car series might have to say about