Juan Pablo Montoya came into the Texas Motor Speedway media center dressed in a uniform that said:
DREAM IN COLOR
This is how naive I am. I took the message literally. I’ve always heard that the majority of people dream in black and white. So, in a feeble attempt at humor (I called it “frivolous” when I asked the question), I asked Montoya what he was going to do for people who dream in black and white.
Of course, he didn’t realize what I was talking about, and I didn’t realize what the message on his uniform meant.
“Dream in color” refers to “people of color.” Here’s what Montoya said:
“I think it’s a great campaign because it reflects, and it shows people it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you do. I know its Hispanic Heritage Month and everything, but it really shows people that you can achieve anything. I’ve done it, and I know a lot of people that have been in the program. If you want something and work hard enough for it, you can do it. It doesn’t matter where you are from or how you got there. It’s a really cool thing Target is doing.”
Duh.
From the NASCAR Pits
Silly me
November 6th, 2009, 3:47 pm by mduttonPersonal pros and cons on Talladega race morning
November 1st, 2009, 10:02 am by mduttonThe Talladega area was obscured in some major-league fog this morning. The backroads drive from Anniston to the track was difficult. Now, though, nature has cut all of us in the press box (it’s hard enough to see anything from here already) a break. After arriving very early in the morning, there’s a sun field that cooks the lower rows of the press box until the sun rises above the window. This morning the fog didn’t boil off until the sun was almost high enough for it not to matter. The work environment, at this moment, is thus quite pleasant.
On the down side, I’ve got crutches tucked away in the back of the press box. On the plus side, I’ve got Lyle Lovett’s new CD playing through head phones, and Natural Forces includes a song, “Sun & Moon & Stars,” that was written by my Pawlessfest chum Vince Bell. I know Vince and wife Sarah, I’ve read his book and basically profited from the fact that we have a common friend, guitar maker Vince Pawless. Vince (Bell, that is) is more a friend of a friend than an actual friend, but I think a lot of him and find his story, not to mention his songs, inspirational.
Now that the fog has lifted, it’s a glorious, cloudless day. I got a text message this morning from some hometown friends — I joined them at Darlington earlier this year, guitar in hand — who are camped out somewhere in these vast, sprawling grounds. Thanks to the now-improving-but-still-worrisome left foot, I’m not up to that this time. Lack of mobility plagues me, but probably no more than my own stubbornness over the past few weeks. I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. The only blame for this mess is mine.
I look forward to today’s race. I’m glad not to have my foot elevated, heel on a wet-hot towel, though it probably needs to be there. I’ll get back to rehab tonight.
For now, though, my recovery is fueled by high hopes for something to write about, and in that category, Talladega seldom fails.
Something will change
October 29th, 2009, 5:40 pm by mduttonNASCAR officials, not particularly fond of the prospect of another soaring, flipping car at the finish line at Talladega, have changed the restrictor plates for this fourth and final restrictor-plate race of the season. They have also raised the height of the catch fences … for obvious reasons.
The racing will change. It always does. No one knows how it will change, but the driver who figures out how it’s changed might be the guy who wins the Amp Energy 500.
This is subtle. You’ll have to watch closely. With a little less power, drafting help may be more important. Since the generic cars came into use, it’s been easier for drivers to “go it alone.” The last two races here have seen one car (or two working together) seemingly faster than a group of them in the final lap at this most frightening of NASCAR venues. A year ago, Regan Smith swooped into the lead at the end (though NASCAR didn’t allow it to stand) and, in the spring, “the swoop” came from winner Brad Keselowski and ill-fated Carl Edwards.
The aerodynamic sands are always shifting here. Every time cars change, whether by seemingly minor changes in horsepower or changes in car configuration, the racing changes, too.
No one’s likely to know how it changes until the actual laps wind down and drivers start trying desperately to find an edge.
Someone will probably find it. It may play back into the hands of a driver — say, Dale Earnhardt Jr. — who has lost what once was an edge at Talladega. There may be a “Eureka moment” for someone who hasn’t excelled at Talladega in the past.
What went up … came down
October 27th, 2009, 1:15 pm by mduttonOf Steve Addington, this can be said.
When Kyle Busch moved to Joe Gibbs Racing from Hendrick Motorsports, his career took off while working with Addington. The combination may not have been Johnson-Knaus, but it was better than Kyle Busch’s previous combination(s).
Years before I got to do this full-time, I got to know Addington when he worked with Jason Keller, and this was pre-Busch Series. Keller was a star in the All Pro Series, and Addington was his right-hand man. He was crew chief and a lot more.
At the top, it’s been a roller coaster. He went from relative obscurity to big name while paired with rising-star Busch, and then things went downhill (let’s not forget, by the way, that Busch has won four times this year and just because he’s out of the Chase, it doesn’t mean he’s out of mind).
So now Dave Rogers gets his Sprint Cup shot, and all signs are that he’ll be a fine crew chief here just like in Nationwide. Addington gets reassigned and will probably end up being less appreciated than he ought to be for what he did with Busch.
Steve’s among the last people that will bother. He’s a good guy who does his best and doesn’t allow himself to be haunted by “might have beens.” There aren’t many drivers out there who wouldn’t be lucky to have him.
All in all, it doesn’t get much better
October 25th, 2009, 10:22 am by mduttonIt’s race morning at Martinsville, which is a righteous thing.
It’s been a while since I’ve covered a race in which the odds seemed so strong of one particular driver winning. Jimmie Johnson has won five of the past six races at Martinsville, which is NASCAR’s smallest (.526 mi.) track and among its more unique.
Wonder what the posted odds are in Vegas (yes, I realize that, if so inclined, I could probably figure out a way to look this up)? Based on the prevailing view on site, it’s almost as if there could be only two betting choices, Johnson and the field.
Many fans insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Johnson is “nothing special” as a driver. They think it’s “all car.” In fact, some of them are demanding that Rick Hendrick make Chad Knaus the crew chief of, guess who, Dale Earnhardt Jr. If he did that, and if Earnhardt won the championship next year, I bet almost no one would say it was “all car.”
The bad news is that Johnson gets little credit for his great works and deeds. The good news is that he is one of few people on earth who isn’t particularly bothered by that. I don’t think he much cares whether he gets enough credit or not. He probably enjoys not having the hassle of mobs following him everywhere. Think about Earnhardt Jr., who has the mobs but not the success. Sure, Junior loves his fans, but they do get in the way of living a somewhat normal life.
I think it would be cool today if someone other than Johnson wins, but that’s not because I dislike Johnson. It’s because writing the same thing over and over gets old.
As for the original notion — the last time I covered a race where one driver seemed such an overwhelming favorite — it was, ironically, probably Earnhardt Jr. (not to mention his father before him) at Talladega in the early years of this decade.
As if I haven’t already written this enough over the years, I love this track, this area, these fans and this race. Sitting here in this press box — the Dick Thompson Press Box, named for one of my favorite people in NASCAR — I can see fans arrayed in their campers and tents on the rolling pasture behind the back straight. I can see the changing colors of autumn and the hubbub of activity in the infield.
To my way of looking at it, this is NASCAR’s most charming venue. It may be its only charming venue. Most race tracks are like football stadiums. They’re imposing, not charming. Baseball parks are often charming.
Martinsville is charming.
Indigestion’s perfect storm
October 23rd, 2009, 1:50 pm by mduttonSunday’s race here is known as the Tums Fast Relief 500, and since NASCAR fans are famous for indigestion, they’re all going to be grand marshals.
Presumably, they will all belch as one: Gentlemen, start your engines.
Tums partnerships bring certain perks. In the Martinsville Speedway media center, coinciding with the world-famous Serving of the Hot Dogs, a barrel of Tums was nearby, sort of like an emergency medical crew. Imagine how this bold new policy can reinvigorate our national health-care debate.
Truly the Martinsville hot dogs made this deal possible. Even Darren Singer, the vice president of marketing, spoke briefly about how perfect a market this is for indigestion relief. Every track has gut-wrenching activities – superhuman consumption of beer, barbecue and miscellaneous other substances, long hours, little sleep, loud noise – taking place for days. According to a state trooper, fans have been lined up for more than a week in anticipation of getting heartburn (and good camping sites) here.
But at the midst of what makes Martinsville indigestion’s perfect storm are those hot dogs, beloved for their rosy and otherworldly pink hue (which, quite unintentionally, raises breast-cancer awareness), their chopped onions and slaw, their mustard and sodium.
Frankly, not any antacid can neutralize Martinsville hot dogs.
The plan is for 65,000 surly indigestion sufferers to regain their health by power-chomping Tums just in time to wave the 65,000 little green flags distributed to them along with discount coupons diabolically attached to the poles.
Poor devils. After two days of nonstop hot dogs, they’ll be addicted to Tums like bees to honey. As Merle Travis once wrote about coal mining, “Like a fiend with his dope, a drunkard his wine, a man will find lust for the lure of the mine.”
A force of NASCAR (and nature)
October 19th, 2009, 9:40 am by mduttonI have often decried overreaction in my colleagues. I have extolled patience as an under-used virtue.
Yet I am presently in danger of succumbing to the temptation. A lot of what I’ve recently written has been dedicated to the budding runaway of Jimmie Johnson in his relentless quest for a fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship.
Yet the Chase is only halfway over. Johnson’s edge, 90 points, is considerable, but not impossible to surmount.
When I get to Martinsville, I’m going to watch one driver after another stroll into the infield media center to say “it’s not over,” and that refrain will take many forms. But the main reason most of them are going to be saying is that they’re worried, too. Eleven other Chase teams have that sinking feeling, whether they’re inclined to admit it or not. Being in denial is better than giving up.
A 90-point edge kind of makes Johnson’s lead Talladega-proof, particularly if, as expected, he pads it at Martinsville, where he’s only won five of the past six races.
If Johnson has an off week, that’s not going to make the sport’s collective psyche stop sinking.
Here’s what can change the frame of mind: Beat Johnson. One on one. With a race on the line. Outrun him. Don’t just beat him on pit road. Whip him on the race track.
The last two races, Jeff Gordon, probably one of the 10 best drivers ever to strap himself into a stock car, has tried so hard to oust his teammate from victory lane.
Gordon’s too good to settle for moral victories. NASCAR awards no points for morality.
Pink gives me the blues
October 16th, 2009, 9:01 pm by mduttonI know this is politically incorrect. I know it won’t stand me in good stead at the Pearly Gates. Honest to gosh, I’m really happy that “awareness” of breast cancer is being “heightened.”
So forgive me, but I just can’t take all the pink.
With all due respect and reverence and sympathy to the victims of breast cancer and other forms of cancer, I’m just tired of football players wearing pink shoes and coaches wearing orange caps with hideous pink bills. Now NASCAR’s in the act, and there are just pink cars everywhere here at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. My awareness of breast cancer hasn’t been heightened by all this pink. What has been mainly heightened is my awareness of just how ugly the color pink is on race cars and football uniforms.
What is the charity value of painting (or wrapping, actually) a car pink for a race? Is one pink car worth a certain amount? Can the ugliness of pink be justified on the basis of dollars and cents? Or is this just some tumbling of politically correct dominoes in which everyone starts doing it because everyone else is doing it, and somewhere, in about two weeks, everybody remembers and says “why did we run that pink car again?”
I hope the color pink is worth millions and millions of dollars. I hope cancer is cured, thus meaning that my personal gnashing of teeth isn’t in vain.
With or without Danica, the world still turns
October 15th, 2009, 1:04 pm by mduttonI may be the only motorsports journalist in America who doesn’t care about Danica Patrick.
I don’t have anything against her. I’ve never spoken to her. If she wants to race stock cars, it’s cool. If she doesn’t, that’s cool, too.
It’s just that I’ve seen this movie so many times that I already know what happens.
If she runs some ARCA races next year, she may win. That’s because top-flight equipment makes a big difference in ARCA races at places like Michigan and Pocono. I’ve seen many newcomers dominate ARCA races, and when they got to the three major NASCAR series, it meant little.
People always think I’m prejudiced against drivers who didn’t grow up racing stock cars. I don’t think that’s true at all. I think I’m one of the few in my business who has some grasp of what this switch entails.
Danica Patrick will have as easy a time moving from the Indy Racing League to NASCAR as David Reutimann would have moving from NASCAR to the Indy Racing League. Reutimann would have a hell of a time pulling that off, and so will Patrick if and when she decides what she’s going to do and how much she will do it.
Can she pull it off? Maybe, but whether she never wins a race or wins a couple dozen, it will take a long time to make the transition.
How about Juan Montoya? No surprise there. It took him three years to become a contender. He won a race as a rookie on a road course. Everyone knew he could do that.
Most open-wheel drivers don’t have the patience to make it in NASCAR. They’re accustomed to being stars. They come to NASCAR and they’re not. It’s going to take a long time. Most don’t feel like they’ve got a long time to get the business done. So they leave.
Montoya deserves credit for understanding what he was up against and being steadfast. NASCAR tested his dedication and he aced the exam.
If Patrick comes to NASCAR, she’d better dedicate herself to it. If all she does is dabble, that’s all she will ever do.
It’s no big deal but …
October 10th, 2009, 8:49 am by mdutton… Sure they did.
The alleged “warning” issued Brad Keselowski at Kansas turned into an Internet mushroom cloud during the past week, so now, out in California, many NASCAR operatives have been scurrying around telling everyone that Chase position — Juan Montoya and Tony Stewart are in it; Keselowski isn’t — had nothing to do with the informal “warning” issued Keselowski during the Price Chopper 400.
According to reports from Kansas, a NASCAR official, in describing the incident at the time, said “we just wanted (Keselowski) to know who it was he was racing against,” which certainly seems to suggest that a certain pecking order was in place.
My guess is that was the company line at the time, but when a furor arose in its wake — how dare NASCAR treat Chase drivers differently than those who are outside it? — the company line changed.
That’s OK, by the way. Every sport is somewhat protective of its stars. Check out some of the personal fouls levied against NFL lineman who have dared touch Tom Brady lately.
But this feeding frenzy — the munching can be heard all the way to the East Coast — is as political as anything on Capitol Hill. I bet there were memos circulated and “talking points” concocted.
I hope NASCAR didn’t consult any pollsters. I pray it hasn’t gotten that far.
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