I've been outed

I was hoping my absence hadn't been noticed, but today Buck, Bass, and Cutler made mention of my recent sabbatical from Rowdy.com.

It's not that I've been away. I've kept up with the podcasts and visited the site as much as possible. In fact, the other day I was watching the most recent episode of Jeff Gordon Theater when my new boss walked up quickly behind me and saw the clearly-non-work-related video on my computer screen. Since then, I've been laying low.

Apologies.
--Sadie

• 13 Comments

Enough Whining Already!

It was Ryan Newman on today's podcast complaining about the West Coast travel that finally set me over the edge.

What will it take to quit these drivers whining? I'm sick of it.

Do they forget about the leagues of young up-and-comers who would give their right arms to take their place? Do they forget about the old-timers who had to do all this without window nets or HANs devices?

What do you guys think? Is it just me or do NASCAR drivers whine more than other athletes?

• 14 Comments

Sadie Motorsports 2008 Entry

As always, Rowdy broke the news story. Yes, SMS is working on an entry for 2008.

We're looking at a few different drivers. Unfortunately, the loss of Dale Jr. to Hendrick set us back a year. But we've been speaking with a number of drivers and we're very proud of our lineup. Kerry has already signed on to drive 10 Cup races and we're close to inking the deal with Ward Burton as well.

As for sponsorship, the Black Sheep Pub has agreed to provide free hamburgers and sodas to our crew. Other than that, I really can't divulge any more information at this time.

• 14 Comments
• Sadie Motorsports, Ward Burton, Kerry, Black Sheep

Strong Feelings about Erin Crocker

I'd like to clarify my "strong feelings" on Erin Crocker. As a NASCAR fan anxiously awaiting the next woman in NASCAR, I was looking for a woman to come up through the ranks without exploiting her sexuality to do so.

All Erin Crocker proved was that she could sleep her way into the sport.

But now, she has an opportunity for redemption. Since her relationship with Evernham went kaput, she's got nobody on her side.

If she's able to make it in the Truck Series and prove herself while keeping her pants on, then she'll earn my full support.

I so desperately want a woman to root for in NASCAR. Keep your knees together, Erin, and I'll cheer for you.

• 21 Comments
• Erin Crocker, Women Racers

Another Wacky NASCAR Dream

Happy day-before-Christmas. I'm stuck at work today so I figured I'd regale the Rowdy nation with my latest NASCAR dream.

I hope nobody here is a psychoanalyst, because I'd hate to think what this says about me.

Lauren had already won the “Biggest Dover Fan� contest and we all had VIP tickets to the Dover race. But then there was a follow up dance contest. Everyone had a driver to choreograph and the three of us had Kyle Busch. Kerry wrote the funniest routine ever. It was brilliant. When it came time to perform, Kerry’s choreography was clearly the best and, even though Kyle made tons of mistakes, they just made it funnier.

The whole performance ended with that move where Kyle raised his elbows to be parallel with his ears and let his arms and head go limp. We were dying laughing.

We totally won that competition too.

• 6 Comments

Junior Love in the Big City

Look what I saw on the Subway this morning. I didn't have the heart to wake the guy up and tell him that Junior doesn't drive the 8 car anymore.

The hat says "NASCAR Racing Champion Dale Earnhardt Junior"

Well, he's a champion in our hearts, anyway.

(P.S. you can tell the woman next to him is just THRILLED to have her photo taken)

• 5 Comments
• Dale Earnhardt Jr, Junior, NYC, 8

Thank you, Rowdy!

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest race fan in the world. Today is one of those days.

‘Cause he's Stolid to the Core like a State water heater.
He can push it to the floor, while he’s lapped by the leaders.
He’ll qualify on time,
Though he’s slightly past his prime.
His sponsors must know the score. ‘Cause he's Stolid to the Core.

*sniff sniff*

In all seriousness, there is really no feeling like holding this car in my hands and realizing that a few days ago, Ward took the time to sign this. Thank you so much, the whole team at Rowdy, for making this happen.

• 10 Comments

Congratulations to the Dover Winners!!!!

I won't ruin the surprise by revealing the names (on today's podcast), but congratulations to all the Dover winners.

I can't wait to meet you guys this June at Dover. It really is a great race and you guys are going to love it.

Also, we're happy to have more people help us hold up the sign

• 1 Comment

NASCAR Comes to NYC

I wrote this last year, but I don't think I ever posted it on Rowdy. And it's just as relevant today. Sorry, it's another long one.
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New York City is no stranger to strangers. On any given day, the streets of Times Square are paced by tourists with their noses pointed towards the sky, necks craning to gawk at the spectacle.

So that NASCAR chooses to host the Awards Banquet in midtown Manhattan every year is not a surprise in itself. Top officials see metropolitan markets like New York and Los Angeles as the next frontiers to conquer.
What is surprising is the city’s reaction to this week long celebration.

As a NASCAR fan living in NYC, I spend 51 weeks out of the year defending the sport against those who don’t understand it. I’ve suffered the indignity of watching races in sports bars where I’m lucky to get one television without sound. Bartenders move me from TV to TV as Yankees fans flood in and demand to see the ball game on yet another screen.

Despite NASCAR’s foray into every facet of advertising, related merchandising in the city is extremely rare. While you may find a box of Cheerios with Bobby Labonte’s picture on it, you’re not going to see the #20 on any signs at the Home Depot or Jeff Burton’s photo at the AT&T store.

Yet, every year, the Victory Lap in December gets more and more popular and I find myself elbowing my way through a crowd of fans in Jeff Gordon jackets. Where were these fans when I was begging the local bar to play the Charlotte race instead of college football? Are these tourists who plan their NYC trip to coincide with Champions week? Or is this just the one time of year when all of us closet NASCAR fans actually put on our merchandise and congregate?

It’s hard to pinpoint just how popular NASCAR is in New York City. Overall, the sport is largely ignored. Local newspapers are hard-pressed to print even a 2 sentence paragraph on Mondays about the weekend’s race and there isn’t even a PRN or MRN affiliate radio station in the city.

So do New Yorkers hate NASCAR?

Not quite. They are intrigued by the sport. During the endless hours I’ve spent in bars squinting at a small TV, I’ve engaged in more than one racing conversation with rowdy baseball fans waiting for their ballgame to come back from commercial.

And when 8 show cars were parked throughout the city last December, New Yorkers couldn’t walk by without stopping to stare. Men in business suits kicked the tires as they peppered the show car staff with questions about horsepower and wind tunnels.

These are people who walk by everything: building fires, raving lunatics, fighting cabbies; we don’t have time to stop. However, it seems no one could resist the chance to examine the dashboard of the #17 or look under the hood of the #9. That’s actually something new for once. A rare glimpse into another world that’s still foreign to New York City.

This cautious fascination is not unlike the tourist in Times Square, marveling at how the other half lives, but content to keep it that way. New Yorkers are intrigued by NASCAR and yet conflicted about what place the sport deserves in this metropolitan City of all Cities. Happy to entertain the victory celebration once a year, most New Yorkers are still wary about welcoming NASCAR as a permanent fixture.

So why isn’t New York’s apathy towards NASCAR reciprocated? As the sport continues to shed the core fans that made it popular in the first place, it pushes further into big city markets to recoup the loss. Foreign manufacturers, the Car of Tomorrow, the Young Gun youth movement: all of these recent changes have been implemented to make the sport more attractive to young urban professionals, the very market that sponsors salivate over. Yet these changes have alienated the fans who love the sport for its gritty history, not the new glossy makeover.

Ironically, if NASCAR had focused on staying true to convention, it would have retained much of the fan base which is now turning off the television. Instead, NASCAR wants to become the new football, a sport that appeals to all. But replacing hardcore fans with casual ones dilutes the sport. NASCAR is unique because of the intense dedication of its followers. You can’t replace that passion with bystanders just because they are in a better income bracket.

If it meant NASCAR the way it was, I’d be happy to maintain the status quo. I’d continue to fight for space at the bar if it meant true, undiluted racing. But that’s not a decision left up to the fans. The sport will continue to court major markets like New York City.

And for one week a year, the City will play along.

• 9 Comments
• Champions Week, New York City, NASCAR

Where There’s Smoke…

When Tony Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, opted against bringing in his damaged Home Depot Chevrolet to check the tire clearance, he gambled with much more than just his team’s fortunes. He threw the dice for every other car on the track.

For those too wrapped up in the Biffle fuel controversy to remember the story, Tony makes it around a late race crash with only minimal damage to the frontend. Under caution, his team tries to determine whether the tire will have enough clearance once the race gets going, or if it is going to rub. They are significantly aided in their decision making by the up-close television coverage during these caution laps. The cameras were zoomed-in enough to give the team, and those of us playing along at home, a pretty good idea of what Tony had going on under his hood.

I realize that it’s unfair to play crewchief from my living-room, which is why I usually keep my snarky second-guessing to myself. But when a team’s bull-headed decision puts other drivers at risk, I can’t be muzzled. So here is a geometry tip for Zippy. If there is an apple-sized dent on the hood of the car, then I can guarantee you that there is an apple-sized bulge on the other side of that hood. I’m not really sure how the wheel well of a racecar holds this much mystery for a team of this caliber, but clearly there was some element here that they could not account for. And so the 20 team decided to stay out on the track and “see what would happen.�

Brilliant.

However, I wouldn’t be writing this article if the stupidity ended here. Teams make this kind of mistake all the time. But when the field returned to green and the first trail of smoke appeared from under the hood, there was no excuse for not immediately bringing the car down pit road. There are small tire rubs and there are big tire rubs, and the cloud following Tony’s car around the corners was a pretty good indicator for this one.

Lap by lap, the puffs of smoke got smaller and smaller, leaving the television commentators to speculate that the tire had knocked the low-hanging bulge out of the way. I would have disagreed. It has been my experience that when rubber goes up against metal, metal wins. This is exactly what happened and Tony’s tire popped, causing a chain reaction that ended Carl Edwards’ day, and possibly, his Chase too.

Now it is not like Tony didn’t get the bad end of the stick, too. He ended up finishing 39th in a race that many fans (who had stopped watching and actually did something with their Sundays) assumed he had won hours before. But to keep that car in the race was akin to driving a time bomb. It was reckless and it was dangerous.

In the past, NASCAR has stepped forward when teams gamble with safety. How was this different?

• 8 Comments
• tony, stewart, Kansas, carl, Edwards, Tire, Greg, Zipadelli