Ricky Craven Rebuts a Canadian Scribe

5th May 2008

Ricky Craven Rebuts a Canadian Scribe

posted in Commentary, NASCAR |

I hope Ricky Craven doesn’t mind me taking the liberty of using his words as rebuttal to Norris McDonald.

McDonald is the motorsports reporter for the Toronto Star although his columns are syndicated and widely disseminated to various papers in the Great White North.

McDonald asks, “Will Kyle Busch be punished for driving Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the wall?”

He cites NASCAR parking of Michael Waltrip for aggressive driving at Richmond as precedent Saturday night and claims; “The replays clearly show that the Busch-Earnhardt collision near the end of the Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry (who?) 400 Sprint Cup race was no fender-rubbin’ incident.”

“They went into the third turn side-by-side and Busch just turned right (which is a bit of a trick, considering this was on an oval speedway and you have to turn left all the time just to stay on the track).”

Let it be said I’ve seen the same charge Busch deliberately wrecked Earnhardt Jr levied at various places around the ’sphere in the last couple days, but McDonald’s is the first MSM reporter I’ve seen toss it against the wall looking to make it stick.

Rather than rebutting his nonsense, me being several thousand miles and years away in experience level, I’ll turn to NASCAR veteran driver Ricky Craven whose weekly Waving the Checkers column deals with this issue specifically:

The contact and spin between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. happened at the most challenging area of the Richmond track.

Entering Turn 3 is more difficult and less forgiving than Turn 1 because it’s a tighter turn. Because of the long-sweeping front stretch of the D-shaped track, Turn 1 allows drivers a more gradual entry, which makes side-by-side racing into the turn relatively easy.

But Turn 3 requires drivers to turn the wheel more aggressively, which is more challenging, especially when racing side-by-side, because the inside car has to drag the brake pedal longer to maintain the bottom of the track.

Where the real trouble begins is when the inside car looses rear grip, typically a result of braking and turning left at the same time. The inside driver, in this case Kyle Busch, instinctively turns right, a move that often has dire results just as it did Saturday night.

(emphasis mine) Mr. McDonald? any rebuttal from you?

Mr. McDonald, anything. Nothing…. crickets?

Sorry Mr. McDonald, “instinctively” doesn’t equate to deliberate. To quote Doc Hudson: I’ll put it simple: if you’re going hard enough left, you’ll find yourself turning right.”

A couple points.

One, I always find it highly suspect of anyone who takes it upon him or herself to insert themselves into the electrical path between a drivers brain and the end result of that thought process as it manifests itself in the drivers right foot and their hands on the steering wheel.

They’ve taken on an impossible task of reading someone’s mind (sorry, charlatan Kreskin aside, it can’t be done) and in nearly all cases it leads me to believe something else is at work. Whether it’s a bias against the driver or thoughts related to NASCAR’s consistent inconsistency in applying various rules in the end it’s never a pretty outcome.

Secondly, anyone coming to the same conclusion as McDonald has completely ignored the comments by the drivers involved in the incident. Both Junior and Kyle Busch have said it was “just racing” and have moved on to concentrating on this weeks event at Darlington.

Why would anyone ignore those words? See point one.

And finally, what would a Canadian writers column be without a whine-fest on how the American broadcast bobbleheads pronounce French-Canadian names?

“Car-pon-chay to us Canadians, Car-pon-tee-eh to Darrell Waltrip.”

Whatever McDonald , spare us the French-Canadian interpretations will ya?

But you can send more Canadian Bacon south.

Technorati Tags: Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, Michael Waltrip, Ricky Craven, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, Richmond International Raceway

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1 On May 5th, 2008, Tim Zaegel said:#

I don’t think Ricky Craven minds anything that gets his name in the news these days.

Just sayin’ …

posted on May 5th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

2 On May 5th, 2008, Marc said:#

You can say whatever you want, but he, just like you and me is in the “news” as much or more than we are with our respective blogs.

Regardless what he did say comes from experience neither of us or some far away scribe in Canada has.

posted on May 5th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

3 On May 5th, 2008, Meeshbeer said:#

LOL… Damn those French Canadians! Stone them all!

My own French Canadian heritage and Torontonian bias aside, Norris McDonald is an incredibly knowledgeable motorsports writer, with great respect drivers and all forms of racing. I have many times disagreed with him in years gone by for his harsh criticism of Champ Car (this was before my own eyes were opened) but I am also very aware that he uses the very limited space he is given to report on motorsports, wisely. (you would be shocked by the shrinking coverage up here mandated by the bosses)

As for the name thing, well, ya, that is something we frenchies let get under our skin. What can I say.
If it’s any consolation it pisses me off to no end when ANYbodies name is bastardized to the point of being unrecognizable. (and as a Champ Car fan, I heard some pretty horrifying versions of our drivers names! Ironically the WORST offender was the Nascar track announcer in Vegas when we doubled-down in the desert with the Trucks)

posted on May 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm

4 On May 6th, 2008, Marc said:#

Meeshbeer, McDonald is far from being a “frencie” so that doesn’t hold any water with me.

Secondly, I’ve read his articles for a number of years and would agree he’s generally one of the better ones around.

But he jumped the shark on this one and true or not it would appear as if some bias slipped into his writing. In fact before I hit publish I checked back on his history.

Funny thing, I couldn’t find a word written when Dale Jr. dumped Busch last Oct that effectively eliminated him from the Chase.

posted on May 6th, 2008 at 3:35 am

5 On May 6th, 2008, okla21fan said:#

How soon the Junior Nations forgets the ‘Kansas incident’ from last year’s chase.

That was a much more blatant punt then we saw last Saturday night.

posted on May 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am

6 On May 6th, 2008, Marc said:#

Short and very convenient memories Okla.

posted on May 6th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

7 On May 6th, 2008, Tim Zaegel said:#

I actually like Craven and would love to see him back in the Cup … it was simply pointing out that he’s virtually disappeared.

posted on May 6th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

8 On May 8th, 2008, Joe said:#

Unfortunately Craven, like Steve Park, is considered damaged goods. I thought he’d have a chance to move up in the Roush camp, but it never materialized. It seemed to me as if he was nothing more than a stop gap to get Carl Edwards more seasoning. Too bad as he has had 2 of the more dramatic wins in NASCAR Winston Cup history, at Darlington and at Martinsville where he gamely fought off Dale Jarrett to win the clock. I have always been a big fan of his as he was one of the most approachable drivers back in the pre Fox days. He has very good insight on his Sirius show with John Kernan.

Marc, it’s the media’s job, Humpy Wheeler’s job, etc. to fan the flames and create controversy when there isn’t any. Remember DW and Tony Stewart’s “feud” a few years back? Bottom line, in NASCAR, the sponsors and the money rule so the days of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough or most recent Geoff Bodine and Dale Earnhardt are long gone. Sure there have been skirmishes like Rudd-Harvick, Kurt Busch- Jimmy Spencer, DJ-Jeff Gordon, but the stakes are way too high now for long term feuds.

posted on May 8th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

9 On May 8th, 2008, Marc said:#

“Marc, it’s the media’s job, Humpy Wheeler’s job, etc. to fan the flames and create controversy when there isn’t any.”

No, not even close. It’s Humpy’s job not the medias. The medias job is to report the news not make it or slant it in any way.

By writing, or allowing copy desk headline writers to use headlines such as “Busch is Public Enemy #1″ that’s exactly what they do, make news not report it.

Writing horseshit like that is exactly why the major newspapers in the country are all losing readership faster than Paris lost her virginity.

posted on May 8th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

10 On May 9th, 2008, Joe said:#

But Marc, you are right in theory. Unfortunately when it comes to news be it sports, politics, anything, it’s more about being the story than it is reporting the story. I mean DW is supposedly a “journalist” or commentator in effect. He cannot go 100 laps without it being about him. If the NASCAR media reports with no slant, the last person who did that was Chris Economaki.

posted on May 9th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

11 On May 10th, 2008, Marc said:#

No, DW isn’t, hasn’t ever been and wasn’t hired as a journalist.

He’s a booth-bobble head just as all the rest that reside in press boxes in every sport.

posted on May 10th, 2008 at 2:22 am

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