Rapid Reaction Watkins Glen

Rapid Reaction to the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen from Watkins Glen

A very special Rapid Reaction for you all I’m going to jump into the memory lane machine and relive the races I’ve been to. Congratulations to Juan Pablo Montoya on the win, had the best car, and needed this win.

1992 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Kyle Petty

Very first race and got to sit on the front stretch across from the pits, which was notable because my driver Davey Allison had broken his wrist (and other things) two weeks before and had a driver change we got to see. Also met Ernie Irvan, who spent more time trying to get out of giving us his autograph than actually signing stuff. To an eight year old kid he might as well have kicked my dog being my second favorite driver, thanks Ernie, you prick. Only 51 of 90 laps run due to rain. Check out Kyle's flowing locks from back in the day.

1993 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Mark Martin
We moved our seats to the inner loop, it was alright there. Slight upgrade from the front stretch, but not the best still. Mark’s first of three wins in a row. Nothing really of note here other than this was the race Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt crashed in the esses, which we heard about as my Mom made us leave early. Thanks Mom!

1995 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Mark Martin
Missed 1994 due to a cross country trip, my Dad didn’t think we’d be back in time. Of course we were, but oh well. Moved our seats to the Red/White/Blue section in the esses. Of course no dramatic finish like in 1993 to witness.

1996 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Geoffrey Bodine

Same seats as in 1995, my driver of the time Ken Schrader ran upfront all day, then dropped back near the end opening up the win for Bodine, his last in his career. At the time I thought that was the worst race ever because of him winning, now looking back that wasn’t and historically it was good to see a Bodine win at the Glen.

1997 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Jeff Gordon
Gordon starts his strangle hold on the race, nothing much of note here.

1998 Bud At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Jeff Gordon
Ditto.

1999 Kmart 400 – Michigan: Winner Dale Jarrett
First time out to Michigan for a race and it was a snoozer. No cautions, Jarrett leads 150 of 200 laps, race over in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Welcome to Michigan.

1999 Frontier @ The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Jeff Gordon
New name for the event and Gordon dominated, led 55 of 90 laps. Nothing really jumps out in the memory bank about this one.

2000 Kmart 400 – Michigan: Winner: Tony Stewart
Rain shorted race saw 194 of 200 laps completed. Most vivid memory was seeing the guy in front of me with a brand new red hat that once it rained, began running red ink onto his white shirt. No wonder we pay those Chinese kids 5 cents an hour, look at the quality they’re putting out!

2000 Global Crossings @ The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Steve Park

Local boy Steve Park (East Northport, NY) gets his first win at his “home” track. Very good to see, also led 53 of 90 laps enroute.

2000 UAW-GM Quality 500 – Charlotte: Winner Bobby Labonte
Dale Jarrett got his by crashing on lap 158, make me watch the most boring race ever last year at Michigan you prick! Coolest part about this was stopping at all the race shops on the way down in the Mooresville area. Also scored Harry Gant’s autograph that weekend, that was cool.

2001 Kmart 400 – Michigan: Winner Jeff Gordon
Last trip to Michigan saw Gordon lead 143 of 200 laps beating my driver Ricky Rudd.

2001 Pennsylvania 500 – Pocono: Winner Bobby Labonte
Of course Rudd won the first Pocono race and not the one I go to. At least I got his autograph that weekend. Labonte came out of nowhere to beat Earnhardt, Jr. for the win. Race wasn’t that bad in person, but I’ve said it, this race on TV is too long and too boring!

2001 Global Crossings @ The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Jeff Gordon
Why doesn’t he just win every race I go to! I got Kevin Lepage’s autograph that day, not too broken up that I can’t find it anymore. This was annoying because that day I was pulling for Robby Gordon, and what have I said? This guy if he didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck. The box that houses the information sent to the TV broadcast (i.e. speed, braking, etc) blows up in his car. Only reason this was cool, since I was using a scanner I knew before anyone else what happened, given away with my very loud expletive I let out.

2002 Daytona 500 – Daytona: Winner Ward Burton

Thanks to Jeff Gordon running into Kevin Harvick to trigger a crash to eliminate most of the field, Ward Burton won this race. This, my friends, was the single worst race ever. I finally go to Daytona, and Ward Burton wins!? Being there for a week and a half was cool, just mad expensive for all the races. Nearly $200 for one ticket for the 500! Again, Ward Burton? And to think I was complaining about Jeff Gordon winning all the time.

2002 Sirius Satellite Radio At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Tony Stewart
Tony picks up the win over my new (and current favorite) Ryan Newman.

2003 Pontiac Excitement 400 – Richmond: Winner Joe Nemechek
Just below Ward Burton on the “if I could pick anyone to NOT win today’s race” list Front Row Joe would be up there. Another rain shortened race, 393 of 400 laps completed. Also notable for Jerry Nadeau getting messed up in a practice crash just before we got to the track.

2003 Sirius Satellite Radio At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Robby Gordon
Robby picked up the win after leading 30 of the 90 laps. I was happy, splitting my time cheering for him and Newman at this point. Notable as Johnny Miller’s second career start…don’t know who he is? Look it up.

2004 Sirius At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Tony Stewart

This Stewart guy is going to keep winning here, so we should all accept it. No qualifying this year, but this track is notorious for rain outs for qualifying. 2000, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008 all rained out. Plus there was a few times we had to leave (to get home at a good time) before it could start because of rain.

2005 Sirius Satellite Radio At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Tony Stewart
Apparently “Satellite Radio” is cool again to put on the name. Oh yeah, Stewart led 83 of 90 laps, wish I had brought a pillow.

2006 AMD At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Kevin Harvick
I almost forgot this one, my Dad was excited as a Kevin Harvick fan. Random title sponsor, AMD as in the chip maker. Not those chips, chips like Intel, nice of me to mention a competitor that’s much better known to describe what they do.

2007 Centurion Boats At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Tony Stewart
Stewart kept it to 20 laps led this time around. Curious name again, because when I think boats, I think NASCAR.

2008 Centurion Boats At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Kyle Busch

Busch is a turd, but had the best car that day, led 52 of 90 laps. Got to see Marcos Ambrose run up front and that was fun. Side note, anyone from Australia/New Zealand, I can’t ever imagine them being angry. The accent makes them sound so happy all the time. Let's not forget when Harvick and Montoya tried to talk out problems on the track...with their fists!

2009 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Tony Stewart
This one doesn’t really count. I had a ticket, was there Sunday, but rain (again with the rain!) forced it to Monday. I kept track of it work, big crash with Sam Hornish, Jr. and Jeff Gordon and that Ambrose character finished second.

2010 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips At The Glen – Watkins Glen: Winner Juan Pablo Montoya
Montoya had the dominate car, leading 74 of 90 laps. Our section cheered for Ambrose, but unless he crashed Montoya, he wasn’t going to win.

To conclude, I’ve been to a few races (25) to be exact. So if you ever go “what makes you think you’re an expert?” that is what makes me an expert on the fan experience. It was always nice to go see another track, but my heart is always with my home track of Watkins Glen.

Watkins Glen - Saturday

5:30 am - That's right, we're doing this thing early! Gotta get to Watkins Glen and beat all the traffic, that and I was too lazy to run errands last night after work. We're looking at leaving by 6:30 to be down at the Glen by 8:30 am.

8:45 pm- Arrived at the track.

9:00 am - First beers!

9:41 am- Walked into the track the blow cash, check out the chicks, and get free samples!

10:41 am - Blew through a ton of cash on 1/64th scale cars to pad my collection. Scored myself a Justin Allugair Verizon hat. Suck it Matt Bush! AT&T my ass. 10:51 am - Back to the car to drop off my loot and eat some subs. Cup qualifying going on. Montoya, R. Gordon, J. Gordon, and Menard last I saw.

1:25 pm - Back to the track, qualifying over Edwards, McMurray (? What did I miss?), Montoya, and Allmendinger top 5.

1:50 pm - Driver introductions. Drivers I'm cheering: Justin Allgair, Jacques Villenuve, Kevin Harvick, and Marcos Ambrose.

2:01 pm - National anthem time.

2:09 pm - Engines on! Kyle Busch looking for win 10 on the year, hopefully it doesn't happen.

2:28 pm - Brendan Gaughan looped it in one, Ambrose still leads.

2:45 pm - Pit stops started about lap 10, going for the work backwards strategy. Added bonus didn't realize my boy Newman was in this race. Ambrose in lap 17, let's see if streching it will hurt him.

2:50 pm - Caution out lots of action. 05 blew a left front, Menard. Booted Raines, and Harvick too fast on pit road. Logano was leading Ambrose, shows the difference in pitting early to late.

8:36 pm - So we kind of cut off here, well what ended up happening is when I was filming a restart there was about a 15 car pile up right in front of us! My youtube video. It was awesome I had the phone camera going, but with that in mind it killed the battery. So I had to decided between more pictures (maybe video) instead of continuing the blog and maybe missing some things. It was a fun, annoying haha, process of trying to keep you all informed. Unfortunitly I would need a lap top to make it easier to update and keep focus on what is going on. With that, there will be no Sunday blogging from the track. What you will see is that on my way back, battery power provided, I will try to post my reaction to the event. And if you thought I was kidding about blowing through money, 11 1/64th scale cars later...Until tomorrow, thanks for stopping by!

Rapid Reaction to the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 from Pocono Raceway

- Can I first say I still don’t like Pocono. Its’ too long of a race, and just plain boring.
At the track, I went in 2000, it wasn't so bad. I was totally ok missing parts of the race for a family function. On that note, I do like that with my Droid X I could keep track of things so I’d seem sort of intelligent today.

- Another quick house keeping item, I want to expand on something I touched on earlier this week. With Bobby Labonte, I got off topic, and I hope at some point he realizes he has the ability to be the first, maybe only, person to win the championship in all three top series. He got the two hardest out of the way, cap your career right with a Truck championship. Only Greg Biffle is poised to complete it, but he has to get a Cup title and I don’t see that happening.

- Elliott Sadler: I’m not suggesting there was a connection between posting that picture of him out clubbing’ and nearly dying in today’s race….but it makes you think.
Enter me trying to find a picture of Jimmie Johnson clubbing. But on a serious note, it is great to see drivers get out of cars after wrecks like that with nothing more than the wind knocked out of them. We’ve come a long way in nine years since Dale Earnhardt, which is light years from Neil Bonnett and J.D. McDuffie back in the 1990s.

- I hate to admit it, but good to see Ford in victory lane for the first time this year. Not sure why they fell so far off, but if they just want this one we can have Chevys, er, Chevrolet win on out. This is why in the end Jimmie Johnson winning isn’t as bad as it could be.

- Like the call by Sam Hornish, Jr’s team to try and steal one. Why not? What else do they got going on over there? Almost scored him a second place finish had his tires held up.

- The announcers got it right, Jeff Gordon has to be so sick of having the car to beat and not having the wins to show for it. I keep joking with Greg that he’s washed up, but that cat is scoring top 5’s and top 10’s left and right. Annoying part is I bet he gets a win, but cheaply, i.e. rain or fuel mileage versus dominating.

- Speaking of the announcers, check out Bump Draft and you’ll notice a great post by someone named “Michael.” I know what you’re thinking, and yes, that’s me, I get around. But more so, some great points from other fans that under score what I usually complain about. Are these guys terrible? No, not yet, we’re not talking TNT levels here, but they’re not, well, good. Room for improvement, and if ESPN needs my resume I’ll be more than happy to fax one over.

- Back to winner Biffle, he’s compiled a pretty good career while very silently doing that,
minus when Kevin Harvick almost beat him up. That was his 15th Cup win, has 20 Nationwide and Truck wins, plus a championship in each of those divisions.

- Another good run for Harvick, soon to be Budweiser spokesman. I think that’s a heck of a better fit that Kasey Kahne for them. Harvick looks like a beer drinker, Kahne I assume drinks mojitos when’s he prowling the town with Elliott Sadler.

- With this weekend in the books, I’m excited for Watkins Glen and to do some real time blogging. If you haven’t heard, I’ll be posting updates all day from the track. It’ll be like I’m a real NASCAR reporter or something, so keep checking it all day Saturday and Sunday.

The whos and the whats.....

Some recent musings about the goings-on in NASCAR:



- Why is Carl Edwards not suspended? The man almost kills a driver not once, but twice in the course of a season, and makes no bones about the fact that it was 100% intentional, yet all he gets docked is a few points in a series he’s not even running full time, and a few thousand bucks? Are you kidding me NASCAR? Where is the line? Does someone have to die in order for someone to be properly disciplined? Ok, don’t get me wrong. I love bumpin’ and rubbin’ as much as any guy. I grew up watching NASCAR in the 80s and 90s, I saw Dale Earnhardt at his best. Richmond in the 80s against Waltrip, Bristol in the 90s against Terry Labonte, I’ve seen him work. Those two examples are what I call rubbin’ and racin’. Neither driver was put in any true danger, and the result was nothing more than a few bruised egos and some harsh words. Flash forward to 2010, and you see Edwards taking out Keselowski at Atlanta, causing him to flip on his roof and land dangerously against the wall. Then flash forward to Gateway in the Nationwide Series, and here comes Edwards putting Keselowski in another precarious position, putting him perpendicular to the field (at speed no less), getting him broadsided by drivers who had no place else to go. That’s not rubbin’. That’s not racin’. That’s borderline attempted manslaughter, as Ryan Newman so eloquently put it. It’s one thing to bump a guy up a lane, or yes even spin him out harmlessly, in order to take the checkers. But to put a guy inches from death for no other reason than he rubbed you the wrong way the lap before, or in a race prior, that deserves a week or two off, and some stiff monetary penalties from NASCAR. Way to drop the ball again, France family.


- What ever happened to Bobby Labonte? I remember the late 90s when I was truly starting to get heavy into NASCAR after being a casual fan for the first part of my life, and the races always seemed to come down to Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and Bobby Labonte. Those four drivers always seemed to be right there at the end, no matter the circumstances. It even culminated in a title for Big Bobby in 2000. But since then? Sure, Jeff Burton had a down period as well, where he went from constant title contender to also-ran. But the last couple years he’s picked things up back to where he’s a constant race contender. Mark Martin is the ageless wonder who just won’t go away no matter what. Jeff Gordon, well, he’s just Jeff Gordon, maybe not getting the W’s but he’s not having any shortage of top5s and 10s. But Bobby Labonte went from a top dawg, top driver in NASCAR to driving the #71 TaxSlayer.com Chevy part time, and just announced he’ll be taking over the #47 Toyota for JTG/Daugherty Racing from Marcos Ambrose. So what happened? I find it hard to believe he just suddenly lost his talent, or his drive to win. I always like to think once a driver loses one or both of those, he should just walk away (see: Kyle Petty 1995 and on….). I’m curious to see how he will do in the #47 as that has been proven by Ambrose on many occasion to be a decent, solid to 20 ride. Will Bobby show some promise and maybe get one last trip to victory lane, or will he fade into the sunlight as just another also-ran? I guess it’s just a wait and see.


- Kevin Conway is in line to win the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year. Kevin. Conway. Just let that one settle in for a minute.


- Does anyone else find it hard to believe that a Ford has yet to reach victory lane this year? With a super-team like Roush out on the prowl, I find it hard to believe it myself. Chevy will always be top dawg in NASCAR for the fact that it always seems to be the most well represented manufacturer, regularly recording superior driver counts in the top 3 NASCAR series, therefore more wins and titles. However, up until the last decade, Ford has always been able to put out an equal product on the track, frequently winning just as many races as Chevy. In fact, through the history of NASCAR, Chevy only beats Ford in number of wins by just a shade under 70 (As of this writing, 661 for Chevy, 595 for Ford). This is a mere drop in the bucket in the history of racing. So whats the deal? Is it the new FR9 engine they debuted last month? I doubt that, as no wins have been lost because the new engine blew, and no one has complained about lack of horsepower to my knowledge. It shouldn’t be the car, since at this point we are racing Spec cars anyway with negligible differences. Hopefully soon I can examine this a little more in depth and see if I can figure it out, because I’m totally stumped.


- Kevin. Conway. Just saying.


- I read recently that Richard Petty may be losing his presence in the garage in 2011, with sponsorship hard to come by. Losing Kasey Kahne to Hendrick is a mighty blow. That’s a guy I’d love to build a team around. But when you surround him with the likes of “Dinger” and Elliott Sadler, it’s hard not to blame him for walking. But next year, Dinger isn’t signed. Sadler expressed a desire to not have to sue his owner in order to get a ride, so he’s out. The only driver that’s rumored to be coming to the crew is Marcos Ambrose, who is a decent #2 but no way would I ever market him as my top driver. My priority if I was Petty would be to sign Dinger ASAP, as my #2 driver, because he’s shown a ton of promise this year and a few times has been right there at the end. He could get a W this year, and in my eyes he will next year. Ambrose I would bring on as my #2a-#3 guy, because he’s got some good experience and can pull a good run out of his rear every now and again. But, who is out there to be the #1? Mark Martin is too old and still technically under contract with Hendrick, so don’t bother. Paul Menard is nothing more than sponsorship fluff since he’s just terrible. The only one that’s worth the while as a #1 would be Jamie McMurray. But with Jamie, DEI would be plain old stupid to let him go. Maybe someone will fall into their laps, but if a few deals don’t come to fruition, it is entirely possible that Richard Petty may not be in the garage area next season. And to that, I weap. The King is to NASCAR like John Madden is to the NFL. He’s almost as big a name as the sport itself, and to move on without him just doesn’t seem right. Good luck, Richard, I sure hope it all works out in the end and you have your team on the track next year!


- Ok. Seriously. Kevin Fucking Conway is the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. How is anyone OK with this?????






Until next time……

Where’s Start ‘N’ Park?

Many of you have been wondering if we at Start ‘N’ Park made like our name, came out strong, then mailed it in for the check. True we’ve been a little quiet, but we’re cooking up some good items for you. But don’t be sad, I’ll touch on a few topics here now.

I can honestly say I did not get to watch most of the last race, so I couldn’t do any sort of recap that did it justice. I will say great run by Jamie McMurray and crew, and way to prove that Daytona 500 win wasn’t a fluke. It also reaffirmed that there is no real “Earnhardt” at Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. Heck, I saw more of Felix Sabates that ghost owner Teresa Earnhardt. I don’t even associate that with being any remains of Dale Earnhardt Inc, and that’s sad because Dale Earnhardt built that into an empire just to have it crumble after he died. My proposal is that they just get rid of the “Earnhardt” in the name, Chip and Felix should just give Teresa a big check (like she needs another) and send her on her merry way.

Official, Bobby Labonte will drive the #47 Toyota next year for JTG Daugherty Racing next year. I like the move, the team has shown the ability to run up front. I believe I’m in the minority of people who thinks, if given a good car, Bobby Labonte can still race. Will he win? No, but I’m thinking he’ll collect a good number of top 10s next year. Well, he certainly can’t do any worse than this year. This all came to light because Marcos Ambrose. He took them as far as he could take them, and if the rumors are true, him heading to Richard Petty Motorsports, he’ll become the alpha dog. The best thing for RPM is to scale down to a two car team, maybe three if Paul Menard and his dad’s deep pockets want to stay. What’s the old motto? Less is more, and in racing that is the case. I think this team has stretched itself too thin the last few years just trying to keep four entries out there. Bring back AJ Allmendinger, maybe Menard and I stress maybe, and this could be a sleeper team out there.

With that in mind, unlike ESPN’s Marty Smith, I don’t believe Elliott Sadler has anything left in the tank. Not at the Cup level anyways. Here’s where I wish drivers who are almost too old would move down series, preferred the Camping World Truck Series. Best case is the dominate and win races, might not be paying the same as Cup, but at this point it shouldn’t be about the money. Remember when Mark Martin said he’d stop running Cup for the Trucks (ah, NASCAR's Brett Favre), then dominated the year before? That sort of thing. At what point is running at the back any fun? Bobby Hamilton showed that before he died, run the truck series and have fun. While re-reading this I realized I had gotten away from my original point of doing some Elliott Sadler bashing. Well, since pictures are worth a thousand words, here's a good one. And I thought he just looked goofy racing, I stand corrected.

You want to fix the Nationwide Series? Well, make it what it originally was, it’s own series! More stand alone races will discourage drivers from running both series. Any track that can’t get a Cup race should get the Nationwide and they should use that to reach all sorts of tracks, you know, like how it used to be?

I can understand if you just got stuck at the Sadler picture and can't stop laughing, but remember, you can always go back.

That sets me up for my last rant; Brian France wants to tinker with the Chase for the Cup again. During his reign he has done everything to appease casual fans and sponsors/people with money. All you have to do is go back to your core product to make ratings better, have people come out, and just produce something worth giving a crap about. I like NASCAR because it’s NOT football, baseball, hockey, or basketball. Stop trying to make it that way with this stupid playoff system. Ask the drivers what they like, everyone but Jimmie Johnson would say one point systems all year long. But alas, Brian France would rather line his already deep pockets but selling out the fans that made this sport what it is. Apparently he went through the same schooling as Teresa Earnhardt. Any irony in that he looks like a funeral director?

One last point, pending Verizon Wireless screwing up my order, I should have my brand new Droid X in the next few days. How does that benefit you? Well, there will be more posts and blogs because of it! Exciting, I know, and it will specifically be around Watkins Glen. Since I am going to the Saturday and Sunday festivities I plan on posting as much as I can to keep you all informed to what you’re missing. Joining me on the trip will be good friend Matt Bush (Jimmie Johnson fan), my father Kevin (Kevin Harvick fan), and an unnamed fourth person. So keep your eyes peeled for that in a few weeks, August 7th and 8th.

The GOAT Debate

Back in 2008 I was inspired to do the impossible. I set out to answer the unanswerable question, who is the greatest NASCAR driver of all time. At the time I was inspired by ESPN’s countdown of the “Greatest Driver In Motorsports,” and now some two years later I am re-inspired to have a go at it after thumbing through Terry Blount’s book The Blount Report: NASCAR’s most overrated and underrated. With that said, I was behind the eight ball to begin because of the fundamental flaw associated with a GOAT (greatest of all time) debate. There are many reasons why comparing different drivers, in this case, or other sports athletes is flawed and here’s a list of reasons in no particular order; schedule length, technology/money, and personal views.

Taking schedule length, for the Cup series before 1972 they ran as many as 62 races, which is about the equivalent of running one and three quarters seasons now a days. In other leagues, usually it has been an expanded schedule which causes problems, such as baseball’s home run record (performance enhancers aside), and more recently in football with undefeated seasons. Should one era of participants be penalized because of things out of their control? No, they shouldn’t, but records should then be taken with a grain of salt when analyzing them. Spoiler alert, my end all theory of picking the GOAT was drawn off of statistical analysis, which sounds more sophisticated than it was, but we’ll get into that soon enough.

Technology, well still talking general sports, training has gotten better, equipment used has gotten better and lighter, just think what Ty Cobb could do with the bats of today, or Pete Rose with the internet for all his gambling needs. In NASCAR the same is true, but the aspect I’m going to hit on is technology being more wide spread than in the early days. If you went to a race in the late 1960s and 1970s, odds were good that the winner’s name would end with Petty, Pearson, Allison, Yarborough, Baker, or Parsons. Arguments could be made for a few others, but that was it. Now, in 2010 the winner could be named Stewart, Gordon, Johnson, Hamlin, Busch, Edwards, Harvick, Burton, Bowyer, Kahne, Martin, and I could go on. Now there are teams that are dead even versus back then being across the board. With that, my third point, money is brought in because there is more money going around. Petty and Pearson dominated because they had sponsorships behind them, whereas the rest of the field had some here and there. Now, you just can’t compete without sponsorship (hint, hint, Robby Gordon). With more money influx, comes more technology, and thus closing the gap. The money/technology argument summarized is back then five or six drivers had to beat basically themselves where as now twenty or so drivers can win any race at any time.

Personal views is where most GOAT arguments lose steam, because you might just not want to debate with something that is set in their views. My first example of this is myself, who do I think is the greatest driver? Davey Allison, is he? No way, but why would I answer like that? Simple, growing up he was my favorite driver, I remember him dominating all the time, and winning. Obviously I’m not going to remember the crashes, the mid pack finishes, and all that. This was an extreme example, but I think we had a lot of that in 2001 after Dale Earnhardt died, that he was elevated to greatest driver because of the shock of what we lost. He’s up there, greatest? Well, not in my book and maybe not in my system, you’ll have to read on for that. Taking that outside the NASCAR bubble, this debate over the GOAT of other sports has this hurdle too. No Bulls fan will tell you Michael Jordan wasn’t the greatest, no Lakers fan will say that about Magic Johnson. Are they being objective? Maybe, they could probably rattle off some compelling stats, but there will always be that little bit that just pushes it up for you.

With that said, I’ll repose the question to myself. Who is the GOAT for NASCAR basing it on the statistics I know, the stories I’ve heard, and what my opinion is. No, not a shout out for Davey Allison here. My pick is David Pearson, and let me rattle off some numbers of my own such as 105 wins, 113 poles, 301 top 5s, 366 top 10s all in only 574 starts. What gets him over looked is that he only ran four full seasons. How many championships did he win during those four years? Three of them. With that track record I believe that had he raced full seasons for his entire career, he would be the “King of Stock Car Racing” or at least some sort of hierarchy of NASCAR. That didn’t happen, so we can only compare the statistics we do have which moves us into the calculation.

For the formula I am encompassing the three top NASCAR series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, and Craftsman Truck). This allows modern drivers to gain up to 50 races a year, like in the old days. The formula I have created is broken down this way: if the driver won a Sprint Cup Series championship, he got 50 points per championship, a win in the series it is worth 30 points, a pole is worth 15 points, a top 5 earns 10 points, top 10 earns 5 points, for every start they get 1 point, and then the drivers’ winning percentage was multiplied by 3. For the Nationwide Series, I propose the use of the same format, except the points are 30, 15, 10, 6, 3, 1, and 2, respectively. For Craftsman Truck Series the values lower to 20, 10, 5, 3, 1, 1, and 1. Drivers were selected (because I did not want to go through every driver who has ever raced) based on three criteria. The first, was a championship in any one of the three series’. Obviously, there can be fluke wins (see Jody Ridley, Lake Speed, Greg Sacks, PP, etc), but it would be very rare to see a fluke season (Kurt Busch haters sit down, he did deserve it). If you are good enough for an entire season, you will be considered. The second criteria, was that the driver could have accumulated roughly 500 starts for the three series. This brought us Ricky Rudd, Dave Marcis, and Mark Martin to name a few. The last criteria, stipulated that the driver had to have had 15 or more victories across each series. That allowed Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, and a few others to enter the debate.

Here’s the top 10:

1) Richard Petty – 18,489.51
2) David Pearson – 10,496.88
3) Mark Martin – 9,977.87
4) Bobby Allison – 9,977.44
5) Darrell Waltrip – 9,831.59
6) Dale Earnhardt – 9,722.65
7) Jeff Gordon – 9,360.55
8) Cale Yarborough – 8,380.44
9) Buck Baker – 7,111.22
10) Rusty Wallace – 6,877.23

So we see, I know nothing. King Richard got that name for a reason and the statistics back it up, despite what I try to do with them. Pearson being number two, can’t see anyone arguing that. Now, the dander will be raised with Mark Martin at number three. “How dare he make such a cruel formula! How does a driver with no championships get placed above those who have 1, 3, 4 and 7 titles!?” Simple, Mark has driven a lot of Cup races, Nationwide, and Truck races, oh and he’s won a good share of them. Greatest NASCAR driver, not just Cup is what I was going for, so by my parameters he’s up there. Allison and Waltrip fourth and fifth make sense, lots of starts, 84 wins a piece, and some championships. Earnhardt sixth was shocking to say the least, you’d think seven championships would have counted for something. But again, his Nationwide stats while good weren’t great, or I should say better than Martin’s. Gordon and Yarborough makes sense, each have similar number of titles and wins. Buck Baker in ninth, I guess he was better than I thought. And Rusty Wallace just squeaks in there.

When I updated this from 2008 some things came up that were interesting. Mark Martin went from 6th to 3rd now, five wins in 2009 didn’t hurt along with the extra starts. Jimmie Johnson was 33rd, adding two more titles and wins only jumped him to 21st. Twelve spots is good, but Kyle Busch went from 57th to 29th. Now could you say Johnson is better than Busch? Yeah, in cup he is, but Nationwide and Trucks, Kyle dominates. I might just do this again in a few years to see what else changes. Maybe we’ll get a new Greatest Driver? Probably not, the King has a hold on that he might never give up.

Running Diary - Sears Point 2010

Before Start ‘N’ Park became a reality, I sat down and did a running diary for the June 20, 2010 running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, CA. I was going to chuck it for being outdated, but then realized I can still post it.

2:51 pm – We’re here from the Rutgers Street headquarters where I’ll be joined by our special guest, my roommate Jeff for side commentary. According to the TV guide, coverage started at 2:00 pm. Note I waited 51 minutes before tuning in. It’s all the same stuff no matter the network, just a lot of blah blah blah. I long for the yester year coverage by ESPN where you heard from the pole winner, the championship leader, and one, maybe two, drivers. Now, like everything else, is a big production of nothing.

2:54 pm – I can’t wait to see what TNT shows are crammed down our throats throughout the coverage today.

2:54 pm – Jeff and I got something called a Garbage Plate earlier in the day. That’s a Styrofoam tray filled with a bottom layer of mac salad and French fries (home fries or baked beans also an option) then you put two cheeseburgers (or plain burger, hot dog, etc), cover in onions and meat sauce (or mustard), and apply Frank’s Red Hot liberally. Best thing ever created in Rochester, NY by far, well, other than me. I’m re-enjoying my plate as we speak. Pour Jeff housed his at the restaurant, sucker!

2:55 pm – I immediately regret not watching from 2:00 pm on. They just showed Lindsay Czarniak and she is looking fantastic today. Joining her right now is Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds, and I’m sure they’re saying interesting things but I’m a bit distracted now…don’t show Larry! Go back to Lindsay!!!

2:56 pm – Is it me or does Phil Parsons sound like he was hit in the head or something?

2:56 pm – We get the picks of the race, Kyle says Jeff Gordon, Larry says Jeff Gordon, Lindsay says Marcos Ambrose, my pick is Tony Stewart (my dark horses being Ambrose, Robby Gordon, and Denny Hamlin), Jeff picks Carl Edwards.

2:57 pm – GEICO reminds us that Charlie Daniels is awesome.

2:58 pm – Looks like TNT is going all out with promos for Leverage and Memphis Beat. I want to not like Jason Lee because of this, but the man did do Mall Rats. (Final tally 6 commercials for Leverage and only 2 for Memphis Beat, this doesn’t count in race talking about them).

2:59 pm – Glad it only took TNT about ten years to figure out that AC/DC did a song called TNT that they can exploit in shameless self promotion.

3:00 pm – Finally the pre-race ceremonies start. Jeff comments on how all the drivers seem to have hot wives. I disagree, my favorite racing memories is seeing Jeremy “Say No To Drugs” Mayfield in victory lane at Pocono in 1998 for his first win. Maybe he can redeem himself and it was his sister, but that handsome women that kissed him after the race was pretty, yeah. Flash forward to 2000 and he wins twice, both times in victory circle a solid 8 looking chick.

3:02 pm – Robin Meade can’t sing, but Jeff and I approve, she is hot.

3:05 pm – Glad to see Mike O’Malley still getting work post GUTS and The Rick fame. If you don’t know what those two things are go onto youtube.com right now.

3:08 pm – Averages of the race I find to be a stupid statistic, you’re wasting your talents Larry!

3:13 pm – Calling the race is Adam Alexander, Wally Dallenbach, Jr., and Kyle Petty.

3:20 pm – When they show the pit reporters, Jeff asks “why do they have fire suits on?” Best I could come up with was to be cool like everyone else, you know, that and incase of fire.

3:21 pm – Jeff now complains about this broadcast being a real mast fest out there, I could not agree more.

3:22 pm – What is that thing? Oh it’s FINALLY the green flag!

3:24 pm – Jimmie Johnson leads the first lap as Denny Hamlin get knocked around like a pin ball out there.

3:30 pm – Ballsy move by Ambrose to overtake Kahne, he’s driving with purpose out there today.

3:35 pm – Johnson is up by four seconds, anyone else in the lead NASCAR would have been throwing debris cautions left and right to catch him up.

3:36 pm – Bowyer and McMurray get together, damage is on Kyle Busch, Sadler, and Allmendinger. Take that Kyle Busch!!! Adam Alexander keep shouting that it’s Harvick not Bowyer involved, the cars rears look similar, but that’s clearly Bowyer, shut up.

3:46 pm – McMurray’s day keeps getting better, spins out again.

3:47 pm – Jeff “ there’s your boy Newman” me “yeah, 9th place is good, but he’s not traditionally good at road course” Jeff “still plenty of time for him to f-ck up.” I hate that I agree with him.

3:48 pm – Newman passed by Montoya, and so it begins. The way they’re driving out there the winner might be the last car rolling.

3:52 pm – Johnson has a 2.8 second lead over Ambrose, he’s looking tough, almost robot like.

3:56 pm – TNT shows a replay of damage on Hamlin’s car, the footage quality is all grainy and just terrible. It was like watching the JFK assassination footage, did they run out of real cameras? What was that?

4:00 pm – Newman update, 13th place.

4:01 pm – Ambrose starts the green flag pit stops, I think it’s too early, should have gone to lap 30.

4:11 pm – Montoya just passed Jeff Gordon on pit road, I’m pretty sure he was speeding or Gordon should just retire now. Johnson’s crew gives him a 14.5 second pit stop. Remember in the early 90s when 17 seconds was amazing, and the average stop was 19-20 seconds? Ah, the good old days.

4:12 pm – Hamlin’s crew bangs on his damage, then for some reason the official pulls it back up. I find this humorous for some reason and that it might come back to get Hamlin.

4:14 pm – No penalty for Montoya, begin the texts to Greg that Gordon should retire.

4:15 pm – Ambrose is in front of Johnson, I guess the strategy worked…for now.

4:15 pm – The leader is Mattias Ekstrom, many are confused.

4:16 pm – The Last Airbender? Too easy, we’ll stay above the fart jokes on here.

4:18 pm – Johnson is all over Ambrose, those fresher ties are too much.

4:20 pm – Yep, Johnson takes the position but its not for the lead. Since some guy is in front, let’s go to commercial, the fans do care about not-Jimmie Johnsons up front, right?

4:24 pm – I don’t want to say I told you so, but I told you so. Come back from commercial and Hamlin’s hood is up on his windshield. I don’t know how he’s still driving, but remember? I said that official poking around would come back on him!

4:30 pm – Johnson leads by 2.3 seconds, surprised TNT can pull themselves away for a commercial. It’s only been about ten minutes.

4:36 pm – Second green flag stop for Ambrose, lap 53, I think this sets him up to be junk at the end of the race or close on fuel.

4:43 pm – Second caution, surprise! It’s PP’s number 66 crap car, yeah, PP’s crap car! Shocked he didn’t pull it in after the green flag, get his check, then hop a flight back to North Carolina.

4:47 pm – Adam Alexander is oddly excited to yell out that “Jimmie Johnson leads!” except on the TV they show Boris Said leading, could Adam have been mistake or secretly rooting for him? Jeff says “I think he’s got a hard on for Johnson.” That’s my roommate folks.

4:50 pm – Jeff “who the f-ck is David Ragan (running 5th at the time)?” Me “sucks” Jeff “will he mess up soon?” me “I’m shocked it hasn’t happened during this conversation.”

4:51 pm – Johnson starts 7th on the restart, let’s see how his car is in traffic. Said tries to take everyone out.

4:54 pm – Ragan gets spun by J. Gordon, I look like a genius. Now J. Gordon takes more of his anger out on Martin Truex, Jr. I like the strategy Gordon’s going for “if I can’t win, no one will win damn it!”

5:04 pm – After Keslowski loses it to bring out the caution, Ambrose leads them to green on lap 66…and everyone crashes! Best drivers in the world, ladies and gentlemen.

5:11 pm – After seeing the replay, Jeff does his best impression of Sam Hornish, Jr. on that, which was screaming “cannon ball!!!” and mashing the gas pedal.

5:14 pm – Leave it to PP to do an interview with the 25th place crew chief (Greg Biffle), really wanted to know what the 25th place guy had for strategy, found out they’re not going to pit and go to the end. Thanks for the insight, PP, you’re just the best!

5:16 pm – TNT is doing everything they can to jinx Johnson, I approve.

5:18 pm – Great interview with Martin Truex, Jr., some highlights “everyone’s an idiot” I nod in agreement. Upon being told that Gordon was sorry about slamming into him, Truex remarks “does it matter? We’re on the trailer and he’s going for the win, we’ll get him.” I like it! Someone get him a car now! I don’t want to lose the passion!

5:29 – Biffle pits! But PP I thought you just reported they’re going to the end? More top notch insight from PP! Maybe he can now report about how the car that’s leading has a better chance of winning than one that has retired from the race.
5:35 pm – Back to green finally, lap 70.

5:41 pm – I don’t like you Race Buddy, now leave me alone.

5:46 pm – I hate to say this but I like Johnson’s strategy, ride Ambrose’s tail until he messes up. Little intimidation factor and I think it’ll work on Ambrose.

5:48 pm – Johnson pits before Ambrose! This could be the race, I thought he was going to stay out? Shows why I’m watching from my apartment and not from a pit box.

5:49 pm – Ambrose pits, lap 80. Can he get out in front of Johnson will be the question; I think this will be the race too. Unless Gordon dumps some more people while trying to get to the front.

5:50 pm – He beat him! Ambrose got out in front of Johnson!

5:55 pm – Caution lap 85, Montoya turns Logano, I don’t like to see the caution but I do like seeing Logano spin. Will Joey’s dad go fight for his son’s honor against Montoya now?

6:02 pm – Six cars pit for tires, Johnson and Ambrose stay out. Call it now, there’s going to be another pile up upon going green again.

6:03 pm – And just like that Said over runs turn 1, comes back, three wide into the corner, Robby Gordon turns Keselowski, and Ambrose and Johnson get away.

6:10 pm – Not the pile up I predicted, but Ekstrom gets spun by Keselowski, then Edwards spins Gilliland.

6:15 pm – 16 laps to go, Ambrose leads still.

6:22 pm – Bowyer and Sadler spin, and Jeff Gordon adds another tally to cars spun.

6:26 pm – Caution, Keselowski and Yeley spin, 8 to go, Ambrose loses his 2 second lead.

6:28 pm – Robby Gordon is near the front, he needs a win, I bet he spins someone to try and get it.

6:29 pm – AMBROSE STOPS ON THE TRACK!!!! What is going on!?!?! NASCAR puts him back to 7th place, what an absolute brain fart! He was trying to save fuel when he didn’t need to! Johnson was just handed the race! This also moves up Robby Gordon to second place, please see last note.

6:35 pm – Johnson is cruising, Ambrose fighting his way back dumps Burton.

6:38 pm – Two laps to go, Johnson up by 2.4 seconds, Robby Gordon is doing a great job of holding up Harvick, flash backs to 2001 anyone?

6:40 pm – Johnson wins, followed by Robby Gordon, Harvick, Kahne, Jeff Gordon, and Ambrose.

I did say Johnson got a gift, but he did drive his tail off this race. Good interview with Ambrose, you really feel for the guy. He’ll bounce back and get one. Well this was fun time to take the remainder of my night and not think about work tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!