Full Throttle

It’s been my contention that the recent events in New Hampshire have been a God-send to the suit wearing, brogan shod denizens that reside in Daytona Beach Florida. NASCAR couldn’t have had a better opening event in the Chase for the [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/cup.jpg]NEXTEL Cup[/avatar]. All the major newspapers are playing up the on track incidents and diligently followed up with the penalty phase. The news wires have been jam packed on the subject and the blogs and forums have been En el fuego.

Along those lines I thought I’d post a few of the comments made by those most involved, the drivers and crew chiefs.

Greg Biffle:

“In order to get it to stop, what they have to do is they have to say, ‘If you retaliate on purpose, and we can tell that it was done blatantly to somebody, or spin somebody out on purpose, you will sit out the next week,’ ” Biffle said. “Then you have to answer to your car owner, you have to answer to the sponsor, you have to answer to all these folks why you’re not racing.”

Hey Biffle has been reading my mind, I said the same thing while walking through The Infield.

Chad Knaus:

“What makes you think it’s going to stop, why would it stop,” said Chad Knaus, crew chief for title contender Jimmie Johnson. “It’s been like this forever. Do you guys not remember the [1979] Daytona 500? Bobby Allison and Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough [and their post-race fight]? Remember that? This has always been here. It will not go away. It will not stop.”

Hard to argue with Chad but it can be made damn expensive by sitting an offender down for a week.

Here is the most telling quote of them all. It also goes a ways to confirming my TV ratings bonanza theory.

Mark Martin:

“I don’t like it, but to be honest with you, I watched the news when I got home to see what everybody said and to see what everybody did,” he said. “My wife is a great indicator, she’s not the biggest fan in the world, but she said that was the greatest race she’d seen all year because of all that stuff.”

Ah Huh!

Here’s a piece of advice, if you go anywhere near the “TV ratings bank” expect a long line filled with NASCAR suits. They will all be getting an advances on their royalty checks coming due after the Chase.

Can you spell BIG BUCKS? Yea, I thought you could!

As an aside, this is the best related headline on the subject: “No clam chowder, just crabs in New England,” courtesy of Kevin Carver writing for Stockcar Review. It’s a classic headline, I’m jealous!

UPDATE:Speaking of big bucks. Check the Nielson ratings for the TNT coverage of Loudon. The Nextel Post Race Show on TNT gained 600,000 more viewers than the race broadcast. Gee, I wonder why that is?

UPDATE II: One thing his been rattling around my brain in the last few days that may effect NASCAR’s TV ratings. With the arrival and destruction of Katrina the price of gas [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/wtfgas.jpg]reached this level[/avatar] and resulted in a slight drop in discretionary travel as reported by the AAA.

As hurricane Rita approaches the Texas coastline and a large percentage of the U.S. refining capacity gas may hit [avatar:http://cranialcavity.net/files/born.jpg]this level[/avatar]. If so, the number of butts in NEXTEL Cup seats may take a hit in the next few weeks. Keep a eye on the stands… I will be.

NASCAR, Chase, Auto Racing, Sports