Golfing at EMS

Mulligan:
Owner Ray Evernham did some personnel shuffling last week by placing Eric Warren ‘on leave’. Warren was responsible for the aerodynamic simulations for EMS’
Engineering Department. Competition director Sammy Johns, will take over Warren’s responsibilities in the interim.

So Ray publicly wants to use a ‘mulligan’ for the poor performance of his three teams, and there are good reasons for this. EMS still has not finalized its partnership with Montreal Canadians owner George Gillett. Compounding this problem, is the yet to be determined full sponsorship for the 9 and 19 teams next season. While ‘Jayski rumors’ of Budweiser and even M&Ms moving over, one has to wonder if those established companies would justify the risk/reward going to a team in such disarray.

There are a couple of problems that would need to be addressed before such a move as well. I am not sure Bud would go to any team unless they were sponsoring the ‘flagship’ car. Kahne could be a natural fit for this, but the problem may lay with M&Ms and the parent company Mars. With they way Sadler bailed out of a contract last season, no matter how ‘graceful’ he did it (as he claims), there simply has to be some ruffled feathers in the Mars hierarchy.

BTW, Josh Browne should also get a mulligan if the whole team gets one. If he was the ‘right person’ for the CC job last fall and the beginning of this season, he should get another shot soon.

Greens in regulation:
Once again, ‘spotterman’ Brett Griffin delivers on race day. Indy has to be on of the most difficult tracks to spot and while he couldn’t keep the 19 car out of every jam, there were some great spotter to driver communication.

Out of Bounds
The newest, latest great website the ‘Southern Gentleman’ and his posse are touting is the ‘MVP Club’ (http://www.vlpclub.net/). While it is a bit different from the other ‘social website’ mistakes such as MySpace or InfieldParking, it is another example of not thinking about how websites such as this can expose that very personal life many are trying to protect. Look for the latest ‘Southern Gentleman’ update on FaceBook or some other site in the near future. Of course it is 'cool' this month, but most likely will be replaced in the coming months.

Where is the Cart Girl?
So Evernham has finally admitted what most of us all knew a year ago that it is probably a mistake to be ‘dating’ one of your drivers. Not only for the obvious reasons, but it can lead to dissension with other team members and also hurt that driver’s career in the long run. I guess Ray really does want all the ’06 cars back from the ARCA team!

Winter rules:
So with the recent revelations that Evernham has admitted, one has to see the rest of the season as a wash, a learning experience. But the problem with that is next year it may very well be ‘back to the drawing board’ with the C.O.T. used 100%. So hopefully the 9, 10 and 19 teams can improve their lie as much as possible between now and speed weeks next February.