by On a day when the attention span is shorter than the line for seconds at the Head Cheese On A Stick wagon, let’s trot out a 3-dotter and rush back to the AC …
The Nielsen people weekly NASCAR report usually includes the top 10 TV markets for each race. The top 10 markets from last Sunday’s Atlanta race: 1. Greensboro, 2. Greenville, 3. Charlotte, 4. Knoxville, 6. Birmingham, 7. Dayton, 8. Indianapolis, 9. Norfolk, 10. Nashville. You might be a little surprised about Dayton, but Ohio has long provided viewers for auto racing. . .
What is that? Oh, you saw there was no number 5 on that list. are you sitting? Number 5: BUFFALO! How’s that for culture shock? …
… Turns out, upstate New York has been fairly steady in the top 10 NASCAR viewership rankings lately. Lancaster Speedway is located east of downtown Buffalo, just off I-90, next Precision scale and balanceand has a vibrant season of short track racing each year… NASCAR Hall of Famer too Jerry Cook comes from a northern suburb of Buffalo (Lockport)…
Can anyone else imagine another NASCAR street race, this one through Buffalo and into the shadows of Niagara falls? Speaking of backgrounds… Hell, assuming Kyle Bush were able to pass through customs without incident, they were able to make a few turns on the Canadian side and call it an international event…
CHICAGO WAS NOT NASCAR’S FIRST Chicago was NASCAR’s first street race? They forget something | HOW, WILLIE!
NASCAR QNA Everyone loved Atlanta; Chase Elliott falls; Shane van Gisbergen update
By the way, from now until the end of the year, Precision Scale is offering 35% off Sartorius Sartolab vacuum filtration units. The membrane, we are told, offers the highest flow rates and a large filtration area. Who could not use That? Not sure if it’s a bonus or not, but they say it’s hands free!
Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus: Another package deal
Speaking of NASCAR Hall of Fame, the new nominees for the 2024 class were released this past week, and there’s a clear opportunity for voters to do something really neat: anchor both Jimmy Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, in the same class. Both are in their first year of eligibility and are on the list of 10 “modern era” nominees, of which Jimmie is undoubtedly the only one…
… The other eight: Neil Bonnett (18 cup wins, best TV color commentator ever), Tim Brewer (two-time champion crew chief), Jeff Burton (21 cup wins and of course “the mayor”), “Cousin Carl” Edwards (28 cup wins, one Xfinity title), “Handsome Harry” Gant (18 cup wins, garage’s best carpenter), Harry Hyde (legendary and cantankerous crew chief), Larry Phillips (5 titles in NASCAR’s boondocks competitions)… The top two voters from this list of 10 will be in…
… There are also five on the “pioneer” ballot, one of which will be enshrined: Donnie Allison (10 Cup Wins, “Alabama Gangster”), Sam Ard (two-time Busch Series champion), A. J. Foyt (um… he’s AJ FOYT!), Banjo Matthews (legendary car builder for all, or almost all), Ralph Fashionable (of Holman-Moody fame and, ironically, always pleasant)…I think Banjo is long overdue…
The list where you would find both Jim Valvano and Richard Nixon
A TV above the taps showed the whole thing Jim Valvano speech from 1993 ESPY Awards. Given the circumstances, along with the wide range of emotions Jimmy V delivered, it has to be on everyone’s shortlist of best speeches ever. . . In sports, you should also consider from Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man” speech, Bobby Jones’ 1958 speech op St Andrewsand for my money, the gem 15 minutes from Peter Allis at his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012, especially the last few minutes. Look it up. Don’t mention it …
… In the non-sports world, and given the Shakespearean personal tragedy involved, try to find something better than from Richard Nixon goodbye White House staff in 1974 (“My mother was a saint…”)… Nixon was a huge baseball fan, and he would probably be surprised at how much more fun it was with time clocks this year. Perhaps there’s another example somewhere, but is there another world where such a total break from tradition (“bells in baseball?”) brought a game closer to how it was played many years ago? …
… MLBs enhanced TV numbers make you wonder if professional golf is even paying attention. It doesn’t seem possible to put a timer on every shot in a golf tournament given the number of golfers, the number of shots and all that acreage. And my personal tasteless advice, F. Lee Gerst, tells me collars are probably illegal. It should probably be done with strict rules for groups and, if necessary, individual players…
Come to think of it, such rules are on the books, but never enforced…
LIV GOLF DRAMA Brooks Koepka’s LIV Golf drama highlights
the game’s inner struggle | KEN WILLIS
Ken Schrader confirms and builds on a great NASCAR humiliation
Had a nice (as expected) phone call with former NASCAR racer this past week Kenny Schrader, especially about his participation in this summer’s six weeks SRX racing series on ESPN. “Before we hang up,” I said, “Please confirm or clarify something for me”…
Over the years, in the wake of driver-driver bickering on the track, when the in-car radio often blasts some verbal haystacks, it’s fun trotting the great line Schrader radioed to his crew during a test session in Daytona Years ago. He then drove through the front stretch Dirk Cope got in his way – at least according to Kenny – and caused a crash…
Kenny queued up his radio mic and told his crew, “Sorry guys, my mistake, I forgot he was an idiot”…True, it turns out, but Schrader filled in some other details…”I smoke by the trioval He comes out of the pits, right in front of me I had the choice I could be missed him, but I broke anyway. So I thought, I’ll take it with me”…
But he persists in thinking that he himself was partly guilty… “I remember Dick Trickles great all time quote about that. Dick said, ‘Listen, every wreck is half your fault, because you put on all that safety gear and went out. You should have known something would happen if you put on all that stuff.
Try to contradict that logic.
— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR at Niagara Falls? Jimmy V and Dick Nixon? And some Dick Trickle
