Welcome to the latest Happy Hour mailbag! You know how these work: you write us at nascarmail@yahoogroups.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee, we respond to your messages, everyone goes away with a smile on their face. Today, we're talking nicknames, Hate for the 48, conspiracies, and more. Away we go!
Would it be possible for a sports writer (or anyone in general) to punch the next FOX Sports announcer that refers to Johnson as "Five-Time"? This is even more annoying than the "Rowdy Busch" and Jeff "Big Daddy" Gordon garbage.
? Eric Tackett
Pikeville, Ky.
Yes, we're very much in agreement that the conventionally-accepted nicknames for our favorite drivers are beyond lame. That's why we've taken the liberty of creating our own:
? "Vader": Jimmie Johnson
? "Zoolander": Jamie McMurray
? "Flatline": Matt Kenseth
? "Rawhide": Clint Bowyer
? "Bull Juice": Brian Vickers
? "Jet Ski": Brad Keselowski
...and many more. And we're always taking nominations.
See here for the complete list, and be sure to check out what we call Kyle Busch. You won't forget it, that's for sure.
As for punching someone out? Now, let's not get rash. Besides, I'm not going after those FOX guys. They've got Digger guarding him, and let's just say that little gopher's a lot fiercer in combat than you'd think.
____________________
Hypothetical scenario for the new points system: coming down to the last race before the season, Clint Bowyer sits 10th in points with 3 wins (enough to get him into a wild-card spot) and Paul Menard is a mere 10 points behind in 11th but doesn't have any wins. Halfway through the race, Bowyer and Menard are both running mid-pack and someone else is completely dialed in, running away with the race. Chances of further bonus points are slim for Clint… Does he pull off the track with a mysterious vibration, finishing a dismal 40th and requiring Menard to only have to finish 29th to ensure both make the Chase?
? Todd
Austin, Texas
The math makes my head hurt, but I like the conspiratorial cut of your jib, sir. I also think that there will be enough "if-then" scenarios set up so that if something like that were to occur, the guy pulling off the track would have to demonstrate that his engine had melted into slag in order to avoid a penalty.
Still, throwing a race on team orders? What are we, F1?
____________________
Question for you. Why is it that everyone hates on Jimmie Johnson to the point of "NASCAR is not being biased towards him" when he is just plain better than most drivers out there and he happens to have a genius as a crew chief? Obviously I am a Jimmie Johnson fan, and despise Kyle Busch, however I do recognize Kyle Busch's talents, such as being amazingly better than every other driver in the world at restarts.
? Matt
Frederick, Md.
It's very simple: because if you're not a Jimmie Johnson fan, Jimmie Johnson is kicking your driver's spoiler. That's all there is to it, plain and simple jealousy. Dress it up however you like; it comes down to "the 48's winning more than my guy, I don't want to admit that my guy's a weaker driver, ergo the 48 must be cheating/getting the calls." That's pretty much verbatim what goes on in people's heads, except for the "ergo" part. That's reserved for us ex-English majors.
And you know what? I'm fine with that. Rivalry's the lifeblood of this sport. I do think it's ridiculous that some people continue to think NASCAR is cheating to help Johnson win given the fact that he's just not as popular as many other drivers. But fans of the 48 need to just deal with this; they're sitting on five Cups, they should be able to take a little grief.
____________________
I think that NASCAR needs to have every team with at least two drivers, and the second driver must drive at least 5 regular races and at least two of the Chase races. Then it would be a team sport.
Then you would not have drivers that were hurt the week before driving the car and have team points only. Yes, we all like our driver but it is a team, not just the driver.
? Ken Maynard
Well, I think the "team" aspect extends to the crew, not to a second driver, but this is an interesting idea. Sort of a perpetual 24 Hours of Daytona thing. Here you go, folks, a Happy Hour challenge: name your best two-man team, picking one driver from currently in the top 20 and one from outside that number. Make your case, and we'll run the best ones next week.
____________________
Do you think AJ Allmendinger got the short end of the stick at Martinsville? I found it ridiculous that when AJ was leading the race and the NASCAR poster boys (Johnson, Gordon, Kyle Busch, etc.) would have gone a lap down, the officials did not through a caution when a car was limping to get to pit road. Same scenario later in the race, but AJ was in the pits, and officials threw the yellow and he ended up a lap down. AJ had one of the best cars and ended up 15th in the race.
? Scott
Chicago
I remember that; it was Brad Keselowski's malfunctioning car that didn't bring out the caution even though Jet Ski was running about a third of the speed of the field. One of our chat commenters came up with the line of the year, describing Kes as looking like "a dog lost on a freeway." And yeah, AJ did kind of get screwed by that lack-of-caution. Still, he's closer than ever to breaking through, and within a couple years he's going to be one of those front-runners everyone's griping about.
____________________
Can someone explain how a driver how comes in 2nd place gets paid less the a driver who comes in 18th? I see it all the time and I'm sure you've explained it before but I can't find the answer anywhere.
? Joe
Orlando, Fla.
The bonus structure is a system only slightly less arcane than the federal tax code. There are all sorts of sponsor/manufacturer/team incentives that drivers can participate in or sign up for, and it means that you get the bizarre situation of Regan Smith finishing 37th last week and making more money than Casey Mears, who finished 26th. As with so much else in NASCAR, it's kept close to the vest, and all we know is that neither you nor I will be getting a cut.
____________________
During one of the later cautions in the Texas race, I thought I saw a driver swing down to the apron and throw a green bottle out the window. Is this normal practice? What's your take on this since this could cause a debris caution down the road?
? Alane B (aka red_23)
Salt Lake City, Utah
That was none other than Vader himsef, Jimmie Johnson. It happens more often than you'd think; the last thing a driver needs during a race is a bottle rolling around while he's tooling at 200 mph. But most drivers do try to get rid of the garbage either during pit stops or in a location where it won't cause a caution. NASCAR doesn't look too kindly on drivers manipulating a race in this fashion; the most famous incident is probably Robby Gordon's padding-throwing incident in Atlanta in 2006. He was the first car a lap down, and the caution put him back on the lead lap. But NASCAR slapped him with financial and points penalties for altering the outcome of the race.
Bottom line, if a driver wants to bring out a caution debris caution, he should do it the old-fashioned way: get someone to throw hot dog wrappers from the stands.
____________________
Anyone else "surprised" to see PFM, JPM, DEJ, and all the guys over at RFR TCB'n like BTO this season?
? Darrell Watts
WTF?
(Yes, I understood what he was saying. But I couldn't pass up that joke.)
____________________
Am I the only person who thinks that with the old car, the races at Daytona and Talladega should have been started 3 wide like the Indy cars do at Indianapolis, since they always got three-wide on the first lap anyway?
? Marcus Shaddox
I would LOVE to see that. Of course, The Big One would start in Turn One of Lap One, but it'd winnow the field a lot faster, wouldn't it?
____________________
Did you notice in the video about Texas NASCAR fans how the man's 19-year-old daughter was drinking a Miller lite beer on camera? Can you say minor consumption and contributing to a minor! I guess it's all good at a NASCAR race.
? Dustin Helterbrand
Uh … maybe it's an empty beer bottle with apple juice in it.
And finally, this gem:
____________________
Here is the granddaddy of all sport conspiracies. NASCAR brass pays the NFL owners to lockout the players and ruin the 2010-11 season. It's the only way to increase viewers on Sundays during the fall.
? Jay
Long Island, N.Y.
Wow, that makes the Michael Jordan retirement conspiracy one look positively tame. I like it, except for one problem: it'd take the Gross National Product of Europe to make the NFL throw a season. If NASCAR had that kind of coin, it'd be paying people to come to races. (And yes, I know you were joking.)
It's going to be interesting, though, if this lockout goes through; everybody I talked to in Daytona said all the right things about not wanting to see a lockout, but they had that excited look in their eye...
And on that note, we're out. Thanks to all our writers this week. You want in? Fire up the computer and hit us with whatever's on your mind, NASCAR-wise, at nascarmail@yahoogroups.com, find us on Facebook right here, or hit us up on Twitter at @jaybusbee. Make sure to tell us where you're from. We'll make you famous!
Dita Von Teese Rachel Nichols Dido Joss Stone Majandra Delfino
No comments:
Post a Comment