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There is only ONE Oklahoma
SOONERS
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

COT TESTING QUESTIONS at ATL, & some other observations:

  • I believe this was a free and open test session. Why would a team owner not take every approved race team in his stable? I am referring to the RYR 88 car. It was clear during R&D and testing last year that RYR was late building cars in the first place and behind the curve. I don’t understand why this test would not be taken to its fullest advantage.
  • Evernham Motorsports brought two cars for the upstart 10 team, yet only brought one car each for the 9 and 19 teams. Once again, I am not sure why in a free test, one would not bring as many cars as possible. update: I just saw on the Tuesday afternoon speeds that the 19 did indeed bring a second car (although it appears that the 9 only tested one)
  • Just how many race teams does the Cat in the Hat have control over? I have lost count, and with this RYR/Roush alliance or whatever one wants to call it, that number could go over a half dozen. There is only one solution to this problem…..FRANCHISING!
  • In a genius move it looks as though the Penski may opted to move the #2 car owner points to Sam Hornish, thus giving Hornish a free pass into the first five races in ’08. Busch at worse would be able to use the most recent past champion provisional. While it might be more of a risk, I still believe the EMS will take a long look at moving the 19’s owner points to the 10 in ’08.
  • Those darn foreigners are trying to take over the sport. Just a few decades ago there were comments by many of the Nascar faithful, that the ‘Yankees’ were trying to take over the sport, and now with the influx of the foreign born open wheelers, the focus has been shifted to them. One common complaint is that these interlopers have not ‘paid their dues’ in the lesser series. That may or may not be the case, and only time will tell the validity of that claim. But one other sport I noticed also has an alarming number of Japanese players crossing the pond and jumping straight to the Major Leagues. BTW, baseball’s TeVee are on the upswing as well as revenue. Just sayin.
  • Did you see all those Nascar Fans dress up as empty seats last Sunday? I did, but I think there are a few more reasons than the simple ‘Nascar fans are tired of getting jerked around’ theory. You will also see (while not as many) open spaces on the front stretch at TMS this coming weekend as well. But for many, their reason for not attending races live may have more to do with the high cost of travel and lodging (no, not the ticket prices). The region of the race venue and the College Football schedule for that 300 mile radius may have more to do with it. For example, this weekend at TMS, it is the opening of deer season for starters, and more importantly OU/Texas A&M, Okie Lite/TEXAS, Texas Tech/Baylor and Kansas/Nebraska and South Carolina/Arkansas are all drawing from fans that if this race was not during College Football season, would be attending the Great American Speedway.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this past weekend was the Georgia/Florida game and, even though we live 40 minutes from AMS, most people we knew were traveling to Florida for the game. I was actually glad because we got to see a great weekend of racing and didn't have to be packed in like sardines. We are thinner than most, but when every seat is taken, the small in appetite lose their space to those larger than the allotted space. I think they should look at the size of NASCAR fans and adjust the size they allow accordingly or charge more if you take up more space than your actual seat. Or maybe it's just a Georgia problem...

Also, in response to the last blog about "mailing it in": In all fairness, Elliott blew 3 engines in the last 6 races of 2006 with EMS. Yeah, his finishing positions sucked, but grenading an engine in 50% of the races will hurt the average and you can't totally blame that on the driver, can you? With the poker and the hunting it seems that his head is not in the game, but hopefully his 2007's finishes will be better than last year's and he will actually get to finish the races.

Anonymous said...

Sadler fans come running in with the excuses! If only he had the engine grenade excuse in his chase year of 2004, which was a worse average finish like the blog stated.

That boy just doesn't have his mind on going fast and turning left when it come to chasing deer in the woods season.

Anonymous said...

The engine failures of 2006 were not an excuse, they were a fact. If Jr. blows an engine, Teresa is giving him crap but if Elliott blows engines it's because his head's not in the game? I never said anything about 2004; I agreed that he is not concentrating on racing when he's worried about putting up deer stands or playing poker. But if blog-boy (sorry, don't remember your name) is quoting stats about a specific year, he should bring all of the facts into the equation, not just the ones that prove the point he's trying to make. Being a bean counter, I'm sure he's used to analyzing data 3 ways from Sunday. An omission like that is a valid counter-point, not an excuse.

okla21fan said...

My name is Phil and honestly you should actually take a little time to read the blog in question.
http://onelugnutshort.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-almost-deer-hunting-season-and-we.html

and more specifically this quote:

"In eights seasons in Cup the 'countdown to deer season' (AKA the last five races of the season) is painfully obvious;

'99 20th Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s
'00 27th Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s
'01 27th Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s
'02 17th Average finish 2 top 10s 0 top 5s
'03 21st Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s
'04 33rd Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s (Chase year)
'05 16th Average finish 2 top 10s 0 top 5s
'06 28th Average finish 0 top 10s 0 top 5s (after 4 races)

The total average in 8 seasons of the last five races is 24th with only 4 top 10s in 39 attempts and zero top 5s."

Where is the omission 'go19and12'.


Really, you should sign up for a blogger account so your comments can be identified as your own. Just sayin.

TalkGeorge said...

We're all foreigners, ain't we? Ha!...love your new blog look. Vroom................

Anonymous said...

I won't be dressing up as an empty seat at TMS this weekend, but you I wll be there as the mysterious piece of debris on the track. I will be there, but it may be difficult to locate me. Happy Halloween!