PLINKING and POP SHOTS

Here are a few little tidbits that have been floating around lately in NASCAR and Sadlerville. Nothing really mind-boggling but sometimes you just have to take a step back and ask ‘what is the deal here’?


The ‘tongue and cheek’ picture above is one that is linked from this blog by other sites more than any other picture for reasons that I have no idea. Literally, this blog receives over a 100 hit a day from this, but really that’s not important. We all have heard the engagement news and fall out by some from it, but I have to wonder something. According to Sadler, his future wife has in three weeks, already made all the wedding arrangements for a January wedding. Three weeks? I’m thinking that the Sadler PR Machine should employ Amanda to plan and get the details for the next ‘bigger than ever’ Sadler Barn Party. That way Sadler fans would not have to wait and wait and wait for the ‘more info coming soon’ excuses in order to make travel plans.


Speaking of the Sadler PR Machine, they have been working overtime the past few weeks and there are all kinds of ‘feel good’ fluff stories being written. Even going so far as Brett Griffin making a few token appearances on the Sadler Fan Club Message Board. While his presence is always welcome and insightful, this time Griffin dropped the ball on a few pending and direct questions. Griffin conveniently ignored questions concerning the demise of VLP. Frankly, the fans just want to know what happened, after all it was Brett and Elliott that less than a year ago, spoke of ‘how great and fun this is going to be’. But like most Sadler PR nightmares, just don’t speak of it and it will eventually go away.


Seems I am not the only one who is critical of the Sadler PR Machine and just how behind the times they seem to be. NASCAR INSIDERS recently blogged about the 'BEST and WORST' NASCAR driver websites and guess who was 'number two' on the worst list? Yep, it seems that they have also seen through the facade of ElliottSadler.com and the presentation there. Quoting the blogger:
"If I was a race fan searching out my favorite driver’s website, I’d want a slick place where I could hang out, get news, see some photos, or maybe catch a podcast or a blog. These five just don’t deliver........In today’s corporate NASCAR, I feel like it reflects badly on drivers who have a crappy website. I’m sure their sponsors are less then thrilled also. More and more, the first place most of us go for information is the internet."
Remember all the promises of 'exclusive' content and that Sadler himself would be 'stopping by for frequent updates'? These guys would like to have seen those claims actually become reality aswell.

Remember a few weeks ago the comments made by Elliott Sadler and his opinion concerning the Roush/Yates alliance and that Roush ‘never helped Yates and still doesn't’? I made it clear that he was simply doing the ‘Sadler Speak’ routine and made a small mention wondering how Robbie Gordon feels about his alliance with GEM. If you were listening to HotPass from the Watkins Glen race during the red flag you would have heard Robbie expressing his discontent to Larry McReynolds that ‘he wasn’t getting the same engines as the other GEM cars’. I received the normal hate emails not liking my comment to Sadler about ‘glass houses’, but it seems that it is justified in this case at least Robbie thinks so.


On to Michigan, and a pretty unusual promotion for the 19 team. It seems that Stanley Tools and Ace Hardware have pledged a million dollar donation on one condition. That the 19 goes to victory lane on Sunday. So Sadler jumps on the bandwagon and once again requests his fans to donate money by stopping by an Ace Hardware store and purchase a "Racing for a Miracle" icon. Again we see the ever growing trend of a multi millionaire holding his hand out to the masses whom many are living pay check to pay check. (more on this in a future blog) To his credit, Sadler did spend a couple of hours Thursday at Sparrow Hospital, the Children's Miracle Network area hospital in Lansing, Michigan and that was a good thing. But the premise of having a third party to donate a substantial amount of money to a charity for a win does lend to the ‘tin foil hat’ theories if they came to fruition. Chances are Lloyds of London has already ‘done the math’ and realized that the odds are pretty good to risk a million dollar payout on a driver who has one top 5 in 19 attempts and an average finish of 23rd.


And lastly, I have been cautiously optimistic about the way the 19 has been running over the past couple of months, and taking aside the ‘bad luck’ excuse weeks is the 19 really becoming a contender or an apparition? I have voiced displeasure in the past concerning how the 19 seems to be more concerned with ‘track position and two tire stops’ more than ‘fixing the car’ and making it better for the final 1/3 of races and I still think that displeasure is justified. Looking at the NASCAR scoring loop data, the numbers still tell a story that the 19 does significantly more ‘passing’ in the pits than on the track. The final results over the past few months also show the risk verses reward with relying too much on such a strategy. Is the 19 better than they were this time last year? Of course it is and things will only get better I think. But playing the strategy game week after week and rolling the dice is not the best way to prepare a race team to be a contender next season.



Time to reload the plinker!

DID I HEAR THIS CORRECTLY?

I must admit that I didn’t and don’t watch ‘this week in NASCAR’ regularly, but I did catch some innerweb rantings concerning Michael Waltrip’s comments about the ‘big one’ at Watkins glen last week. So thru the greatness of Tivo, I was able to catch the show late Monday night.

In a nutshell, Waltrip accused the driver of the 38 car, David Gilliland of purposely causing this wreck. Now this is eerily similar to the claims Elliott Sadler made when he was knocked out of the All-star race. (Funny how thier careers mirror each other as well) We have all seen the replays and one just has to wonder what Waltrip is smoking!

Now I am not going to lay blame on either driver as both contributed in their own ways. Gilliland ‘maybe’ could have given a bit more room once the 00 stuck a nose under the left rear quarter panel, and McDowell ‘maybe’ could have showed a bit more patience and not tried to complete the pass in a single turn. (The 00 would have been in a good passing position on the next right hand turn number 1 if needed)

We all saw the result of ‘hard driving’ by BOTH drivers, but that is a product of the late stages of a road course race. I have seen some calling McDowell’s move a ‘rookie’ mistake, but I have seen worse road course Bonzai moves by such ‘ringers’ like Ricky Rudd or even Robbie Gordon. But Waltrip’s accusations are simply over the top, and his justifications are even more humorous. To say that Gilliland is ‘fighting to keep his job’ or ‘just trying to stay in the top 35’ is priceless, and the look of disbelief on co-panelist’s face, Greg Biffle was something out of a Saturday Night Live skit.

While host Steve Byrnes did question Watrip’s reasoning somewhat, like most hosts, he treated his weekly guest with ‘softball’ questions and skirted the real issue. This again was much how Dave Moody lobbed softballs at guest Elliott Sadler when Sadler was ranting about being wrecked at the All-star on Moody's Sirius radio show. My question to these hosts; Are you that afraid to ask the really hard-core questions for fear of losing a guest (or even your show). Maybe you guys should take a page from Tim Russert. He would not waffle simply to keep a guest, but would ask FAIR but hard questions of his guests, and expected at the very least reasonable answers. If he didn’t get that, he would call out his guest, and that’s what gave him much credibility.

Lastly, there is a right way and a wrong way to publicly voice your opinion about matters like these. One only has to look at David Gilliland’s post race comments and all his comments since, to see the ‘right way’. And this is coming from a driver with less than 3 seasons in CUP; maybe some of the ‘veterans’ should take note.

DID I HEAR THIS CORRECTLY part two:

Thru the greatness of the innerweb, many NASCAR fans aid their race day TeVee coverage by joining chat room and exchanging information such as scanner chat and ‘race view’ coverage. Frankly, it has enhanced that TeVee race day experience for many. However, some last Sunday seemed to fall victim to one of the oldest tricks in the innerweb books. That would be the ‘driveby’ post by some anonymous or unknown chat room member who claimed that MRN reported there were ‘team orders’ for the 00 car to wreck the 38. The 'claim' was that these team orders originated from the driver of the 55 (Michael Watrip) scanner chat. This ‘claim’ spread like wildfire in a handful of driver chat rooms, but little if any verification could be found. If one takes a peek at some of the driver’s message board they can see the fallout of this driveby even two days later.

I had MRN playing during the race, in addition to Elliott Sadler’s scanner along with the Official’s channel. I did not recall hearing anything about it, so I took the report with huge grains of salt. This week, I visited over 20 message boards, and there was absolutely no mention of the supposed MRN report. Frankly, it would be impossible for such a statement to be made, and not have it hit ANY of the other boards, including the NASCAR.com chat room.

Another blogger buddy, stayed up quite late Sunday night to listen to the MRN replay on Sirius. Even after the wreck there was no mention backing said driveby. To be clear, there was NO mention of ANY inter-radio communication between Waltrip and McDowell from any of the broadcasters on MRN. NONE!

I’ll file this one under another driveby that claimed a few victims, but those victims have fallen for stuff like this before, so I cannot say I am surprised.

I LOVES ME SOME DOCUMENTARIES

I love documentaries. And since this weekend's race is a road course and something that rarely peaks my undivided interest, this weekend maybe a good opportunity to rework my all time favorite documentary list.


Now from this list, I do eliminate all Ken Burns-type, historical, and educational documentaries. I love those as well, but those would automatically be rated higher than the silly, left of center types. This list is compiled entirely of the absurd, the odd, the weird, the uncomfortable, and the off-the-beaten path films. The documentaries that likely would never make the PBS cut, but surely are worth your time, and will have you talking about them with your buddies for years to come.

See here is the 'top seven' (so far)

#1
American Movie – 1999

The lives of Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank will amuse you as Mark has a quest to make a movie. Mike has a quest to tell stories of his unfortunate drug experiences and has awesome guitar skills. I really love it. Although the idea that they are two burnouts from Wisconsin no doubt affects my judgement.


#2
Grizzly Man – 2005

Without question, one of my absolute favorites. The Werner Herzog look at the incredibly odd Timothy Treadwell and his relationship with the Grizzly Bears in Alaska. They loved him, he loved them, they ate him. So crazy, that most think this is not a real documentary. But alas, it is. Note to self, never allow yourself to become a part of the food chain.


#3
King of Kong – A Fistful of Quarters – 2007

I wasn’t sure about this one, but when I gave it a chance it absolutely got a great review from me. Love Steve Wiebe, hate Billy Mitchell, love everything about Steve and Billy’s quest to out Donkey Kong each other. The amazing real people who surround the governing bodies of video game record keeping is too great to believe. A very solid film.


#4
Super Size Me – 2004

Morgan Spurlock’s amazing look at why America is fat..and getting fatter. His experiment of eating nothing but McDonald’s for 30 straight days may in fact shorten his life, but it was very entertaining. A very good job of experiments inside documentaries that proved solid.


#5
Okie Noodling

There is something just wrong with sticking your hands in underwater holes and trying to pull a fish out that would not fit as a carry on piece of luggage at the airport. This compeling documentary has you asking yourself over and over, 'why do they do it?' But like a train wreck, you keep watching wondering what will come out of the next hole.


#6
Trekkies – 1997

A good documentary to me is one that focuses on a corner of civilization that you would not otherwise see, and then just let the cameras tell the story. This film is about those who are obsessed with Star Trek and all things that go with it. I especially enjoyed the lady who wore her Star Trek uniform to her jury service for the Whitewater Trial. So many documentaries have basically used this as a template for their film, and it works quite well.

#7
Confessions of a Super Hero – 2007

This is a great look at the life of those who stand on Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood dressed as various comic book superheroes and the lives that go with them. Many are there because they are on the road to stardom (they hope) and it is the more realistic outcome of the “Hollywood dream”. It’s fascinating and wonderful all at the same time.

So if you get bored with the NASCAR right turn show, go ahead and give a couple of these a look see. Which leads to the next question. Surely someone has captured the oddities and amusement from the perspective of the RV race fan during a Dega week and weekend, or have they? It might make for a interesting time waster. Someone call Micheal Moore!

Sarbanes-Oxley

Its the dog days of Summer, and time for another SOX audit. Thank you, Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems, WorldCom and a few others.

Lots going on in NASCAR and Sadler, but it will have to wait till next week. And don't forget, the SOONERS started fall drills this week! BOOMER!