Full Throttle

Race drivers love to complain, and that’s especially true when things aren’t going their way or their ream isn’t living up to expectations.

It’s been that way since Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1895 and I see no chance it will abate in the near future.

It was only natural when seeing the latest Jeff Gordon quotes I filed them away along with a century of history preceding them.

But then I read them again: ” … NASCAR knows it’s happening,” Gordon said on Friday at Darlington Raceway. “They are the ones that see the cars come through inspection. They see it. When cars can’t even get on the scales because they’re running sideways, it’s something they need to address.”

Gordon’s referring to the cars doing the “crab-walk” down the straightaway. After a second reading the light bulb of cognition flicked on in my skull. “Yeah that’s it, that’s what I saw during Friday nights NNS event.”

At the time I thought nothing of it. After all the Cup series has just cast aside a car that can be best described as a Twisted Sister as compared to their street models. Prior to the CoT coming into being the old “template cars” were so bent out of shape they resembled something made during an Old-Fashioned Taffy Pull Party.

But there they were, the new car’s right rear hiked up like an incontinent dog in a fire hydrant factory.

I only wish I had a tape on the NNS event to go back and review it, because despite Gordon’s contention, more “legs were hiked” than just the pack of Roush-Fenway mongrels cars.

I seem to remember a much larger litter and NASCAR Series director John Darby not only admits to the phenomena but insists Hendrick Motorsports was the first to experiment with the new car as a twisted Sister and that Edwards’ #99 team was one of the last.

That leads me to believe I was correct in not calling out Jeffy as a whiner, but feel fully justified in saying he and any other members of Hendrick Motorsports thanking or speaking the same are Pots calling the Kettle black.

None of which bothers me in the slightest. If Roush, or any other team, finds a way to make the car work and NASCAR gives it a pass, more power to them both.

One thing I will do is pay closer attention to which teams are doing the crab walk down the Lady in Black’s straights this evening.

Technorati Tags: Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, Auto Racing, Sprint Cup Series, Roush Fenway Racing, Full Throttle, F1 Rage!, Carl Edwards

Well the expected happened, at least expected from this corner of the blogoracingsphere, Carl Edwards has signed what he calls a multi-year contact with Roush-Fenway Racing.

Jack in the Hat’s other unsigned driver Greg Biffle says he’s happy, wants to win and what the hell there’s no greener grass to be found and expects to resign with Jack.

That has been expected also, when you’re already driving for one of the top teams in the sport, a team that’s so closely aligned with Ford’s engineering and financial support that’s it’s rumored Jack has a Blue Oval for a bed headboard, why move?

If Biffle wants “greener” he’ll get it right where he’s at, a larger pile of green cash.

Now, please take a minute and enter Full Throttle’s Wayback Machine. It won’t hurt, much… I promise.

Not too far in the distant past the following words were uttered by various NASCAR Suits on the subject of the sanctioning bodies drug policy.

“Sometimes people have told us, ‘I don’t mind being tested. I’ll comply with your policy, but just the idea if you said you tested me this weekend it might imply there was some problem with me and I don’t have a problem. Happy to do it, happy to test, but we all know guilt by association.’ - Brian France.

“NASCAR’s policy is also supported by the various policies that the teams have in place that are required under the driver/owner agreements. No system is flawless, but we believe our zero tolerant policy that is in place has served the sport well.” - Kerry Tharp, NASCAR’s director of communication.

And on and on it went argumentum ad infinitum until every known Suit had his/her words quoted in suppport of the current policy.

The only missing personality was Big Bill France himself but only because they were too damn cheap to pay a psychic medium to contact him.

That was then. (The Wayback Machine didn’t hurt a bit did it? Never mind the buzzing in your ears - ed)

This in now, now it’s, “Can We all Just Fagetaboutit!”

“There is a small group looking at this issue [drug policy]. We need to enhance what we have,” said NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter.

“We don’t think there is any drug policy in sports today that is any stronger than ours. (ahem, BS - ed) “There is a sensitivity with us that when you test and you tell people you are testing, it gives people the perception that there’s a problem that may not be there. We don’t like that.”

“We’ve got to put away any doubt that there is anyone participating who is using a banned substance,” Hunter said.

“When our drivers say, ‘I’ve never been tested,’ that leaves drivers with a perception of a problem and leaves us with a perception of a problem.”

Do ya mean these three, three of your biggest stars that jerked all of ya by the short hairs and changed what NASCAR believed to be a perception of a problem into a full blown “not going away” REAL problem?

I getcha now, all it takes is the not so dull roar of the top stars of the sport and a much larger roar heard from members of NASCAR Nation to get your butts off the sedentary and at least look at the problem.

Well, at least it’s a start, it will be interesting to see where The Suits go with it.

Technorati Tags: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing, NASCAR, Brian France, Jack Roush, Full Throttle

NASCAR racing’s “Silver Fox” hasn’t lost his touch at Darlington Raceway.

David Pearson, the superspeedway’s all-time leader with 10 victories, turned several laps on Darlington’s newly paved surface Wednesday alongside NASCAR star Carl Edwards.

Pearson led the way after the green flag was dropped, after several laps, the checkered flag came out with the 73-year-old Pearson edging out Edwards.

“It was great to get back out on the track at Darlington Raceway and get my 11th win here,” Pearson said, joking. “I have been looking forward to this day for a long time.”

Pearson finished his Hall-of-Fame career with 105 NASCAR victories, second all-time behind Richard Petty.

Edwards will return here next month for the Dodge Challenger 500 as he attempts to get his first Darlington victory.

“This is a driver’s race track,” Edwards said. “You have to be on top of your game to run well here, not to mention win.”

Also on-hand for the event was legendary car owner Leonard Wood.

Wood was responsible for all of the restoration work that was done to get the legendary 1971 Wood Brothers’ #21 Purolator Mercury ready to turn laps at Darlington Raceway.

Technorati Tags: Carl Edwards, Sprint Cup, Darlington Raceway, David Pearson

There was no denying it, Carl Edwards was the best on a sunny Sunday in Texas.

His dominating performance (psst, he has a secret - ed) was his series leading third win of the year and vaulted his Roush-Fenway Ford four spots to tenth in the standings.

At the other end of the finishing order was Jeff Gordon. His efforts on the day can be best described as going from the sublime, starting the day 12th in points, to the ridiculous. The #24 started as a piece of junk from the green flag, backpedaled from 18th to 34th and finally doing a spin-a-rama on lap 109 creating the second caution of the day.

It led Gordon to remark to crew chief Steve Letarte, “We need to change everything and turn this into a test session.” Gordon has a long history of getting Texas snake-bit, Sunday was no different.

The two big movers of the day went in opposite directions, Mark Martin gained 6 spots with an eighth place finish and Greg Biffle lost six spots although he remains within the top twelve in the nine hole.

Others of note, both Yates Racing machines had good days. David Gilliland finished 15th and Travis Kvapil just behind in 18th. Both performances might help the team’s ad campaign in search of sponsorship.

IN LATE NEWS, the #12 Dodge of Ryan Newman, who finished fourth, failed postrace inspection because the right rear was too high. NASCAR officials said any penalties would be forthcoming this week.

Have a Happy Fine Tuesday™ Ryan!

P.S. “Shut up and Drive! Yes, that means you Baby Busch and J.J.