Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel To Change NASCAR Colors From Red & White to Yellow & Black-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 03:01:27 -0400

Nextel To Change NASCAR Colors From Red & White to Yellow & Black-

Rumour Mill:

<SNIP>

When Nextel hops on board next year as the primo sponsor, it looks like they're
going to change the sport's colors from red and white to yellow and black.
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Safety matters
NASCAR should take a second look at traveling teams
Posted: Monday August 11, 2003 2:00 PM

Ryan Newman, God bless him, has spent a lot
of time this year upside down, hurtling through
the air and/or on fire. So if anyone can speak
intelligently about NASCAR's safety
procedures, it's him.

Newman flipped his car rather innocently enough Saturday. "The crash itself was
very, very minor," he said. But if you're in a car that's on its roof, no matter
how minor the incident that put you there, you're probably going to be a little
edgy. Newman was, and the response of the safety crew did little to assuage that
edginess. It took more than a minute for them to show up, which had the normally
reserved Newman popping off to the media. "The response time is something that
needed to be fixed, and I'll be vocal about it because it's my butt that's sitting
in that race car," he said. "I have a reason to."

NASCAR was quick to defend its procedures -- and they actually make a pretty good
point about not dispatching crews while cars are on the track. But this is as good
a time as any to get into an issue that comes up at least once a summer: having a
dedicated, traveling medical and safety crew. Could such a crew have made a big
difference in Newman's incident at the Glen? Who knows? But would they have made
things worse? No way. "Once the team got there, they didn't have a clue what to
do. I'm laying in the car, not knowing if fuel is spilling out of it," Newman
said. "They asked me if the power was off.  I'm trying to tell them they need to
hold the car so I can get out.  Communication was not there, and it needs to be
there. I'm not trying to shoot down the safety crew. I just want it to be so we
can communicate better and they can understand what they're doing. If there's not
going to be a team that travels with NASCAR, then there needs to be better
communication with the teams that are at the specific racetracks. That's all I'm
saying."

If you ask any driver with open-wheel experience, they'll race about the CART and
IRL medical and safety crews. The arguments are oft repeated and seem to make
sense. They'd be specifically trained for dealing with car wrecks. They'd know the
drivers. They'd be able to better track long-term problems, like concussions.
(Junior's concussion claims last summer brought the issue out into the open last
year.)

NASCAR clearly likes things the way they are, which a debatable position. To me,
though, the more significant issue is why the drivers' wishes seem to be ignored.
In any other sport, if there was a serious incident and the athlete involved had a
complaint about how it was handled, heads would roll. Why?  Because players in
virtually every other sport are unionized, and while the words "players' union"
make just about every person who hears them blanch, the players themselves love
them. And who can blame them? Thanks to players unions, salaries have gone through
the roof, retirement benefits are in place (for guys making astronomical money to
begin with) and you can choke your coach without losing your job. NASCAR drivers
should take a look around and realize that a lot of voices saying the same thing
in unison are more often heard and heeded than a few scattershot voices popping
off now and again. If they want a dedicated safety team, they should demand it.

Richard Childress Racing . Few operations were in worse shape than RCR last year.
The drivers didn't get along and there was plenty of infighting, the kinds of
things that are written off as being "colorful" on successful teams. But the RCR
guys were painfully slow (Jeff Green was actually the top RCR driver in the
standings), which just made things worse.  Somehow in all this disarray Childress
got the team pointed in the right direction. Harvick is the championship contender
we all thought he'd be last year, and Robby Gordon has become a solid all-around
racer who is a threat to win any time right hand turns are involved. (True, the
third car is a bit of a problem.) Check out how they've run in the last seven
races: Harvick's average finish is 7.0, and Gordon's is 11.0. If you throw out his
40th place finish in Daytona, it's 6.2.

Bobby Labonte . Remember when he had that midsummer stretch where he finished
second three times and third twice and I was pondering betting everything I owned
(and several things I didn't own) on him? Well, his momentum is officially gone.
He's gone five races without a top ten and has slid back to seventh.

Jeff Gordon . Remember last year how Gordon sort of lingered around all summer
then put a streak together (culminating with a win in Darlington) that had
everyone convinced he was going to take over the points lead, then he blew an
engine next week and wrecked two weeks after that to completely scupper any chance
he had? (If you don't remember, just reread that sentence-it'll refresh your
memory.) Looks like the same thing is happening this year. He had four top fives
in six races to pull within 174 points of Matt Kenseth after Sonoma, and you could
just sense that if Kenseth's bubble ever burst Gordon would be there to pounce on
him. But in his last four races he's got a 24th, a 36th and a 33rd (the 33rd,
which came at Watkins Glen, was especially tough to swallow since he started on
the pole and got spun out on the first lap, then worked his way back to a
respectable position before running out of gas). All of a sudden he's 396 points
back.  Ooof.

Jeff Gordon vs. Greg Biffle. Here's what irks me about NASCAR feuds:

most of them die. Back in New Hampshire, Gordon welshed on a deal to let Biffle
back on the lead lap if he would let Gordon get a good jump on a restart. Biffle
blew a gasket. He bumped Gordon's car and called him every name in the book after
the race. So when these two qualified 1-2 for Watkins Glen, it looked like a
chance for some fireworks. But no. "We talked about it the following weekend, and
it's long gone," Gordon said. "Stuff like that happens sometimes, and in the heat
of the moment it gets the best of you. I respect Greg a lot." Great. Would it kill
him to have some bad blood? Then Biffle goes off and spins Gordon out on the first
turn of the race and we can't even get some smack talked. Weak.

"Wherever I went, he went, and I knew that he was going to try and block me, and I
couldn't lift too because the 29 was coming. I guess the 29 ran over him too. Not
very smart on his part. I would've just taken the spots I lost because I ran out
of gas. You're not going to block me all the way around the last two corners of
the racetrack. I don't care who you are, you don't need to block anybody the last
two laps. He ended up in the wall and lost a bunch of spots, so you tell me who
made the bad decision." -- Junior gives some unsolicited advice to Jeff Gordon,
who spent the better part of the afternoon getting run over.

Depending on whom you listen to, Tony Stewart either will or won't sign with Chip
Ganassi next year. Then there's the whole issue of whether or not Greg Zipadelli
goes with him, if he goes at all.

When Nextel hops on board next year as the primo sponsor, it looks like they're
going to change the sport's colors from red and white to yellow and black.

Terry Labonte, who looked like a prime candidate to win the "who's going to be the
next guy to retire" pool is coming back to Hendrick in 2004.

Ward Burton is all but officially out of the 22 car next year. He's under
contract, but he's got an out if he wants it. One name being bandied about to take
his place with Bill Davis is Dave Blaney, who drove for Davis from 1999 until
2001. And don't be shocked if Burton doesn't finish the season in the car.

Owen from the Big D has problems. "Unfortunately, we are seeing a lot of bad
racing this year. The only memorable finish I can think of, in the first 21 races,
is the Busch-Craven finish at Darlington.

The only time we are seeing any kind of racing for the lead is at the restrictor
plate tracks. What should have come down to a 10-lap sprint yesterday, on the last
restart, turned out to be a 10-lap snoozer, like numerous other races this year.
The racing we grew up with has long since gone the way of the dodo bird, or aero
push.

What, in the name of aero dynamics, is NASCAR looking at to put some real racing
back in NASCAR??"
Good question, Owen. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot NASCAR can do short of
making guys drive cars from 1986. The technology is getting more and more
progressive, and there's no way to make teams regress. Aero is a huge deal, and as
long as it is, passing is going to be hard and races are going to be dull.

The only factor NASCAR has a lot of control over is the venues it chooses for its
races. As you point out, the one memorable race was at Darlington, and as I've
carped about a million times, NASCAR needs more tracks like The Lady in Black and
Rockingham and Bristol and fewer Californias and Chicagolands.

Back to Michigan. Since no one was hurt, I can safely say that the fire in Kevin
Harvick's pit stall was eerily cool. I mention this here because the whole reason
the fuel went up is that his brakes were so hot. Now we go to a wide-open track
where drivers will hardly brake at all. A funny thing happened during the first
race at Michigan: six of the top seven finishers were in the top 8 in points,
meaning that good teams run well here and upstarts probably aren't going to finish
on the lead lap. Kurt Busch won it over Bobby Labonte, who I would pick were it
not for the entire section above devoted to how he's totally lost his momentum. So
I'll do the next best thing and pick his teammate, Tony Stewart.
Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com.
.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/mark_bechtel/news/2003/08/11/michigan/

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