David Poole - Hilariously Correct!

David Poole is a genius! He really likes to tell things like they are and is usually correct when he says the things that he says!

Am I not the only one who thinks that we need more like David Poole in the sport that are not afraid to offend or make up excuses for the mistakes of others? In a sport filled with DW and Rusty Wallace's explanations of why people are not wrong when they violate the rules, David Poole really shines when he speaks.

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McMurray to stay at Roush...well, maybe

From Yahoo Sports:

NDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Jamie McMurray said he isn’t going anywhere, no matter what team owner Jack Roush said, or didn’t say.

While running down Roush Fenway’s future plans Friday, the owner left McMurray off the list but made sure to mention fellow Roush drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan and Greg Biffle.

Though he called McMurray “important” to him, Roush expressed disappointment in McMurray’s performance this season. The 32-year-old is 22nd in the season points race and all but assured of missing the Chase for the championship for the third consecutive year.

Asked about it after qualifying eighth for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis, McMurray called Roush’s comments no big deal.

“I can’t control what Jack says and sometimes Jack will go off a little bit and it maybe gets out of control,” he said. “If you look at the results (we) haven’t been as good as the other four teams, so Jack is just kind of stating the obvious.”

McMurray has just three Top 10 finishes this season, hasn’t won in over a year and is below his four teammates in the season standings.

“I can give you a long list of things that if it would have been just a little different, we would have had some really good finishes,” McMurray said. “So I’m optimistic with all that, so we’ll just have to move on.”

Perhaps to another team. There has been speculation that McMurray, whose contract with Roush Fenway runs through 2009, could leave to join Richard Childress Racing, rumors that McMurray flatly denied.

“There’s no truth to that,” McMurray said. “Richard is looking for a driver and I’m somewhat flattered to have my name on a list that another owner would want you, but I will be in this car and not at Richard Childress Racing.”

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• Jamie, mcmurray, ROUSH, Staying

The Real Dilly - Nationwide Engines

With the announcement of NASCAR seizing the engines of ten Nationwide Series engines after the remarkable win by Kyle Busch in Chicagoland, it was inevitable that NACAR would make some kind of decision that addressed the concerns of drivers, team owners, car manufacturers, and fans regarding the allegations of of Toyota having a horsepower advantage significant enough to reduce competition on the track. Week after week, I was astonished at the 20 car at how many times it was put into victory lane regardless of its driver at that particular race. Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and even rookie Joey Logano made racing literally look like a cake walk as they clearly proved that their car was the car to beat week after week simply by its dominance of speed. While the drivers of the 20 car are each individually talented and will all most certainly have at least one Sprint Cup Championship by the end of their respected careers (Yes, Tony already has two), competitors and race fans alike vocally made it known that there must be more to the 20 cars than simply the talent of the drivers in it. *Cue Clint Bowyer’s overplayed Comment*

For two weeks, racers and race fans sat in anticipation with what the dynamometers would find with the data obtained from the ten engines that were taken and tested. July 23rd, 2008 was the big day! The following is the decision:



“Though results of recent dynamometer tests showed greater parity between the Nationwide Series engines of Toyota and those of other manufacturers, NASCAR issued a technical bulletin informing teams of a rule change that will reduce Toyota's horsepower.

‘At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing less than 4.470 inches must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.125-inch diameter holes. At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.100-inch diameter holes. Unless otherwise authorized, the carburetor restrictor will be issued by NASCAR.’
-- Amendment to Section 20A -- 5.10.4, Nationwide Series Rule Book

The effect of the change is to limit air flow to the engine, thereby reducing horsepower, by narrowing the diameters of holes in the tapered spacer NASCAR introduced into the series this year. Installed at the intake of an engine, the spacer functions as a restrictor plate. The smaller the holes in the spacer, the lower the horsepower.”

A decision was reached as Toyota and JGR fans whined while Chevrolet and Ford fans resorted to second grade antics by making the mature claim of “I TOLD YOU SO!!”

Obviously, I am new to NASCAR and I have a lot to learn about the greatest sport in the history of sports. I am young, naive, and a rookie that has simply watched and studied racing for less than half a year. I realize that my opinions are not solidly backed up by years of experience but hopefully I can pull an “Obama” and convince some of you that I do think deeply about what I say and what I think about what is going on at the sport at any given time. While still young, it has been implied by NASCAR and those who watch it that it is a sport unlike any other motorsport in the world. Unlike the Indy series in which equipment usage and money can literally buy a win, NASCAR has always had a reputation of allowing the skills of the drivers to win the races. While NASCAR relies more heavily on technology as the modern world progresses, it is still a sport in which each team and manufacture is given a narrow range of limits that allows for a fair “playing field” by giving everyone the same opportunity to win a race. While each team, car, and engine is not exactly replicated in a way in which each car has the exact same chance of winning, the ranges are narrow enough for a driver’s skills to outperform a car with a slight horsepower edge. This is the reason why Kyle Busch can win one week, Greg Biffle can win the next, Kurt Busch can win the third, Dale Jr. can win the fourth, and even Casey Mears can squeeze out a win if he puts forth the effort of trying. NASCAR in recent times has been all about the driver’s abilities in the car and his/her chemistry with the crew chief that places that driver in victory lane or in the wall in turn three.

In the same respect, the Nationwide Series is (or should be) the same as the Sprint Cup Series. These drivers, younger and more inexperienced drivers mixed in with some of the greatest drivers in the Sprint Cup Series, test their limits and try their best to put their car in victory lane as a result of their skills behind the wheel. Before Joey Logano stepped into a Nationwide Series car, I loved him. He is young, new to this level of the sport, and has a lot to prove with some of the best drivers out on the track. In some ways, I can relate to the kid. As I watched him race, I could and still can tell that he has a lot of talent that will make for some great racing in the upcoming years. However, with being in the JGR 20 car, I was left asking myself if he was so good because of his skills or was he good because he was placed in a car that had already won numerous times this season by a variety of other drivers? While I hate to be honest with myself, even if Logano is the next racing messiah, much of his success so far in the series cannot solely be explained by his talent.

While it has upset numerous users on Rowdy, I now have to concur with NASCAR’s decision to reduce the horse power of the Toyota engines if what they have released to the public is true. I do understand that drivers and car owners of those who have not been winning have vocally expressed their disgust with the 20 car and Joe Gibbs’ dominance over the rest of the field. Why should my driver/team be punished just because we have won so many races that others have stated we are “cheating”? This is a sticky issue, but one that can be addressed in a manner that differs from the extreme of simply saying “I told you so.” While I will continue to root for Logano in the Nationwide Series and whenever he enters the cup series, I do have to admit that it is pretty lopsided when one manufacturer is leaps and bounds above several other manufactures in the sport. The following is information released from NASCAR:

"Dyno tests after the June 21 race at The Milwaukee Mile revealed a significant horsepower advantage for Toyota over Ford and Chevrolet. Toyota's peak horsepower number was 632, compared with 611 for Ford, 612 for Chevrolet and 628 for Dodge.”

The data released by NASCAR confirms my suspicions regarding the advantage that the Toyota’s (most notably JGR) over the rest of the pack. While it is not unfair for the same driver to win each and every week due to his/her driving skills, something is clearly wrong when the Toyota’s have a twenty horse power advantage over two of the other manufactures of cars. While Kyle Busch is talented, it is hard to state that talent is the only reason that Kyle Busch in the 20 car can pass 10-15 cars in a single lap and then get so far ahead of second place that competition becomes nonexistent. If the Toyotas are honestly 15 to 20 horsepower faster than the majority of the other makes on the track, then every effort must be put into place to make sure that a fair race is conducted (Since this is NASCAR). With that said, I noticed that the Dodges are also pretty high with horsepower and I did not read anywhere of Nascar requiring them to reduce their horsepower. Even though they do not win as much as the other manufactures, the advantage is very significant compared to the Fords and Chevys as well as the reduced horse power Toyotas (10-13 difference?). Where do you draw the line, however? Simply when skill/ability can win a race rather than pure horsepower. Furthermore, I have no problem with one manufacturer having a “speed” (not horse power advantage) over another team due to the effort put in my engineers, crew chiefs, and team members that can create a bit of a speed edge while sticking to the rules of modifying the car of tomorrow. There should be no shame in one car being faster than another car since strategy can be as much of a reason for winning a race as driving ability; strategy also includes the work put in my the team and engineers. Again, I urge you to separate horse power advantage from speed advantage due to work and effort put in by the collective team.

Should all Toyota teams be punished even when it has been Joe Gibbs Racing that has dominated the #1 spot in the Nationwide Series? That I am not for certain for I do not know which engines were taken to be tested or which ones were left in the garage. All we as a NASCAR family know is that “Toyotas do have a horsepower advantage.” If that is the case, then NASCAR made the right decision to crank down the horse power of all Toyotas rather than Joe Gibbs Racing to make everything a little more even.

No two engines are the same and I am in no way suggesting the impossibility of having a standard engine for all cars that are identical in every piece and every bolt. There does exist differences between engines of the same make that can vary in horse power by several units. However, NASCAR must make sure that the playing field remains fair within a narrow range of limits that gives even the Kyle Pettys of the track a chance to win by either ability or strategy.

Before I go any further, I, as a Dale Junior fan, will admit that Kyle Busch has earned several of his wins this year in the Nationwide Series as a result of his driving style. I am in no way implying that all Toyota wins were horsepower based.

On the flip side, I would not argue against the fact that competition among teams to get the best equipment and best engines would not make for interesting racing seasons. Heck, the American economic system is based on capitalism so why cannot NASCAR be based on it too? Well, the answer to this is we already have racing leagues with this mentality. In my opinion, the best driver (along with the best team and engineers) should win - not the best equipment. While I enjoy my Indy races, let's keep NASCAR as NASCAR.

I would love to see nothing more than Logano dominate even after the changes to his car. Then I will buy the hype surrounding the kid because right now, I like the kid but I am not buying the hype since he has been in Joe Gibbs equipment for most of his life.

The Sequel: Will NASCAR do anything about the Toyota engines in the Cup Series? As of now, I doubt it since there does not seem to be as much of a gap between manufacturers in this series. While I could be wrong, we will never know until NASCAR pulls engines from those cars as well.

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• Toyota, Nationwide, engines, Dynamometer