A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Who really knows what’s in here. It’s the Morning Musings In The Midday Maybe.
— We get that there’s a pageantry that goes along with the Indianapolis 500 and with that comes levels of pomp and emotion that might not exist in the same fashion in other grand sporting events, but could ABC/ESPN please focus on racing while the race is going on?
Run through all the other special stuff before and after the race.
Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 proved by a nail-biter of a finish with eventual winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves battling wheel to wheel over the closing laps, and right to the checkered.
So explain this. Why, when I’m watching the kind of racing that makes people want to watch more racing, is my screen of vision of that action suddenly dwarfed during a heated battle on track so I can see a stationary shot of a driver’s significant other watching a TV screen?
Oh, they’re excited and nervous and worried and look great on camera? Well great, but aren’t we covering a sporting event?
Think about it this way, imagine you’re watching the Super Bowl, we’ll say it’s between the Buffalo Bill and the Dallas Cowboys, to ensure you know it’s an imaginary scenario. There’s a minute left in the game, the Cowboys are trailing by a touchdown and they’re on the Bills’ 20-yard line on second down. Imagine if at the moment Tony Romo takes the snap, the network broadcasting the game goes to a split screen, devoting half of the view to stationary shot of Romo’s wife watching the game.
It would never happen. We’re not saying that in other sports there aren’t random shots of family members by broadcasting networks, but typically not during the most heated of action during the contest going on. Sadly, though, it’s become par for the course at the Indy 500.
And don’t even get us started on the interview of the significant other seconds after the checkered flag drops.
— Polar Green Apple seltzer.
Get it, love it. Simple as that.
— So we kind of see both sides of the coin on this whole mess that is the disposing of the SK Light Modified division at Thompson
We totally understand the opinion of management that it wasn’t helping the track overall or their shows to have seven car features for the division. There’s nothing wrong with that opinion at all. When you’re a track looking to raise car counts and there are virtually no indicators it will happen, sometimes you just gotta cut your losses.
That said, the timing of the decision is simply baffling. The SK Light Modifieds were scheduled to run four times this year at Thompson. They ran at the Icebreaker with seven cars and at the May 15 show with seven cars.
Last Tuesday track management announced they were cancelling the final two events of the season, which had been scheduled to run on the July 31 card and as part of the track’s World Series Weekend on Oct 18 or Oct. 19.
The news of the cancelling of the events sent some more than faint ripples through the local racing scene, with some very harsh opinions arising over the decision to leave the division behind.
Again, we understand the track’s decision, but the timing just stunk. What did the track get out of cancelling the event besides the headache that is bad PR? Really.
Yes, the division was going to run on July 31 probably with another short field, but in all likelihood, the World Series event would have most likely attracted 20 or more cars.
It just seems odd to pull the plug when the did and create a lot of hard feelings instead of just waiting until the season was over and probably make for far less ill will.
— A tip of the hat to the boys at the Waterford Speedbowl based Overdrive Radio show, which broadcasts weekly on Saturday afternoons on 94.9 FM.
Overdrive Radio celebrated its 100th show last Saturday. Who knew. Host Matt Buckler and producers Mark Caise and Brian Darling do first class job putting together the show each week that has developed into must-hear radio.
And for the record, Waterford Speedbowl SK Modified driver Diego Monahan is pure radio gold. ‘Nuff said.
— We’ve long been of the opinion that Kurt Busch is one of the top-three most naturally talented pure drivers in NASCAR over the last decade.
Obviously Busch’s off-track issues have been well documented over the past few years, but anybody that thinks the guy isn’t one of the best wheelmen in the Sprint Cup Series just isn’t paying enough attention.
And Busch’s sixth place finish in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, just goes to show how that natural ability carries over.
Remember, the three guys before who did the Indy 500-Coca Cola 600 double weekend – John Andretti, Robby Gordon and Tony Stewart – all started their careers in IndyCar and moved to NASCAR. Busch went to Indianapolis this year with almost zero experience behind the wheel of an IndyCar.
What he pulled off on Sunday was truly an amazing feat.
That said, the fact that he didn’t have a trademark Kurt Busch radio meltdown in Indianapolis was slightly disappointing. Let’s be honest, it was kind of like going to an Andrew Dice Clay show and not hearing a few nursery rhymes. Hickory, dickery, dock …. .
— We wish every racer could have the exuberance and personality of Waterford Speedbowl driver Vin Esposito.
— Not to dive into it too much, but it’s stunningly amazing that Keith Rocco is 19 victories from becoming the all-time winningest driver in the history of the Waterford Speedbowl.
And we’ll just throw this out there, for those that like to throw out the argument that during Rocco’s relative short time competing at the Speedbowl he’s faced little competition.
Fifty-seven of Rocco’s 88 career wins at the Speedbowl have come in the SK Modified division, where he is second all-time in wins to Dennis Gada who has 62 victories.
During Rocco’s time in the division he’s competed regularly at points against in the division against not only Gada but also Jeff Pearl, Ted Christopher, Ron Yuhas Jr., Todd Ceravolo, Rob Janovic Jr. and Tyler Chadwick. That means of the nine guys he shares the top-10 all-time wins in the division list with, he’s raced at points against seven of them.
So explain again how that old argument that’s he’s never really raced against anybody there hold up?
— Someday Mother Nature will again spare Stafford Motor Speedway and allow a Friday evening to unfold dry. Hopefully it happens before August.
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