Pepsi 400 by the Numbers
Going into last nights Pepsi 400 at Daytona the talk was all about the numbers.
With the race being held on the 7th day of the 7th month in the year 2007 a pile of cash was probably bet on the #07 of Clint Bowyer and the #7 of Robby Gordon.
If so the numerologists/NASCAR fans among us lost a bundle (unless some lucky soul bet on #07 finishing 7th) Bowyer finished 7th and Robby finished 15th.
They all missed it by 2 numbers. Jamie McMurray won for the first time in four years by a margin of 5 thousands of a second, second closest in NEXTEL Cup Series competition, over the #5 of “Breakfast With Busch” winner Kyle Busch.
Go figure!
After the win McMurray credited his Roush tremmate for the win: “He shoved me in and probably could have made it three wide but he pushed me to the win. So huge thanks to Carl Edwards.”
And Kyle “credited” his teammates for his second place after not getting the shown same courtesy by Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears: “I guess I’m on the outside looking in now,” Busch said. “I’m probably not going to be invited to the team meetings next week. I think bliss is over at Hendrick Motorsports for Kyle Busch. We’re getting ready for 2008.”
OTHER NUMBERS OF NOTE: 121, the amount of points gained by Jeff Gordon over second place Denny Hamlin. He now leads by 277 total in a championship that looks for all the world to be his. The only impediment to Jeffy’s fifth (there’s that number again) championship may be a bad roll of the dice during the Chase.
Speakin’ of rolling dice… and craping out. Joe Gibbs has dealt with warring teammates as an NFL coach and he now has to deal with a rift between teammates on his team after Tony Stewart verbally lashed teammate Denny Hamlin minutes after the two wrecked while leading.
Oh well, boys will be boys. Next week at Chicagoland Speedway all will be forgotten. Maybe!
Evernham Motorsports driver Elliott Sadler had some bad number mojo himself. No sooner than the green flag dropped he lost first and second gear out of his slushbox. He soldiered on to 33rd. To add to a forgettable Evernham year, on lap 4 Kasey Kahne crashed and pit repairs put him a lap down early although he finished a respectable 9th.
FILED UNDER, “be careful of what you wish for:” If there is one universal complaint about NASCAR it’s commercials aired during the broadcasts. To that end TNT featured its new Wide Open Coverage during the 400. I expressed some doubts on the promotion based on how much of the viewing screen would be dedicated to the ads. (for full disclosure, I didn’t get the service)
Based on this thread that asks fans thoughts on the promotion screen size was the least of most worries. But frankly I’m at a loss just what some of these people want. Heres one example of many expressing the same complaint:
“This is the most irritating thing I have seen in a long time. To have the sound blanked for an idiotic commercial while there is a problem on the track, Dale Jr.’s car, pissed me off. TNT is obviously not qualified to handle a sporting event. They are too concerned with their bottom line promotions. I will not watch another event while TNT carries it.”
He’s only one of many complaining they had no sound as the ads rolled thru. In fact they probably out number those in favor two to one.
Just what do these people want? They complain when on track events are lost during a “cut-away” commercial and they complain when they get total video coverage with a lost of sound!
I’d suggest they give up following NASCAR altogether. But it would take a little more than a modicum of common sense to heed the advice.
Oh well I’ve run out of numbers, at least for now. More later.
Jamie McMurray, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
The “Wide Open” coverage was decent, mostly because you could see the activity on the track during the ads, save for about 4 minutes each hour that they had to take for local cable operators.
The ads were in the bottom right quarter of the screen; only about half of the ad was covering the racing action, the other half was in the area at the bottom where they showed the running order, stats, etc. The only criticism that I have is that the ads were a bit on the long side, at almost 2 minutes apiece.
About there not being sound from the track during the ads - there isn’t any sound form the track on ESPN when they do the “side-by-side” coverage of IRL events. And there, you’ve got the ads in a big box on the right and the race in a postage stamp on the left.
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
The coverage was decent… if you have TNT. If you’re Canadian you’re stuck with TSN. So you still get the smaller viewing area and on top of that they jump cut to full-screen commercials whenever TNT airs their ads. Basically it was like any other NASCAR race except a ton more annoying.