NASCAR defends its current policy on substance abuse saying that its broad nature gives it wide freedom to test whoever whenever it feels necessary.
The problem I have with that is that it also means it has the power NOT to test whoever whenever it wants to.
Kevin Harvick is right about how NASCAR should remove room for speculation by establishing a program in which all drivers in its national series are tested at least twice a season.
The thing NASCAR has going for it is that it doesn’t have any kind of player’s union that it has to deal with. It can, and usually does, do pretty much whatever it wants to do. That means NASCAR can have it both ways. It could set up a random program and still keep the “reasonable suspicion” that exists under the current policy.
The problem is that for the random part of any such program to truly have credibility, it needs to be administered by an independent agency outside of NASCAR’s control. And NASCAR is never going to give up that kind of control.
* * *
Tony Stewart said the smartest thing he’s said in a week Friday at Chicagoland Speedway.
After ripping Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after their crash at Daytona on Saturday, Stewart declined to comment in detail about the incident here.
“If I had just kept my mouth shut like I should have done I wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with it this week,” Stewart said.
Precisely.
Regardless of what he thought about what Hamlin did wrong in their incident at Daytona, Stewart shouldn’t have chewed his teammate out in a televised interview following it.
* * *
Friday’s developments with Budweiser and Dale Earnhardt Jr. leave things in an interesting position.
Let’s suppose for a minute that Dale Earnhardt Inc. keeps Budweiser. Does Budweiser have enough invested in the No. 8 to make it such that it wouldn’t want to let that go to another sponsor? Or do Bud and DEI understand that it would be hard for anybody to just step into a red No. 8 that isn’t named Dale Earnhardt Jr.
OK, so let’s say Budweiser goes to another team. Now Bud needs a new number and, if DEI wants to keep the 8, so would Earnhardt Jr. Could you imagine there being somebody in a No. 8 who’s not Dale Jr. and who’s also not driving for Budweiser?
Some fans don’t care, but this is important stuff to a lot of people.
Take the guy who called our Sirius Satellite NASCAR Radio show Friday and said that he was a Rusty Wallace fan for years and years, and then one day all of the T-shirts and hats he owned suddenly indicated allegiance to Kurt Busch. He’s not a Kurt Busch fan, so he’s got a lot of stuff he can’t wear any more.
* * *
While spending more than an hour on the phone trying to get credit for air miles I didn’t get for a flight last month, I came up with some more new marketing slogans for America’s airlines.
US Airways – We apologize.
Delta Airlines – We love to fly when circumstances are not beyond our control.
United Airlines – Please pardon the inconvenience.
American Airlines – Hey, at least you didn’t have to drive.
* * *
I’ve stumbled on a new name for this track. I am going to start calling it CVS.
I don’t know if everybody has CVS stores near their homes. We do in North Carolina. It’s a competitor to Walgreen’s (or Rite Aid or Duane Reade).
Anyway, this track is not in Chicago, at all. I don’t know what would constitute Chicago “land,” but I’ve decided it should be called Chicago Vicinity Speedway – CVS.
Friday, July 13, 2007
A little bit about a lot on qualifying day at Chicagoland:
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16 comments:
WGN-TV must not be in your cable or satellite providers line-up or you would know Joliet is in fact part of Chicagoland. Imagine a journalist doing research on a subject before making an ignorant comment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicagoland
Hey David it's OK. Unlike North Carolina, where a city stands on it's own name, Chicago is a bit different. Chicago has a very aggressive colonization plan, that extends from southeastern Wisconsin, through north-central Indiana. I'm not sure if they want to be the 51st state, or their own independant republic. I listen to Chicago news everyday and have found, that it appears there are only two 'cities' in the state of Illinois; Springfield and "Chicagoland." The rest of Illinois I'm not sure of. Maybe it's a big soybean field or a dairy farm......wait a minute, scratch the dairy farm, that would be Wisconsin. What the heck, if Tony can be Tony, I guess Chicago can be Chicago.
David Poole is a objective and seasoned race journalist that has a gained uncanny respect amongst NASCAR fans to due his insight and bold opinions over the years. It sounds like Chicagoland is kinda like going to CMS and being in the town of Concord, NC. I'm sure that is what David was implying in his comments. Besides,
WGN and the Chicago Cubs has been on my TV here in South Carolina for over 20 years now, and I would have no idea where the speedway is located, nor would really care. I betcha, DP has attended the Chicagoland speedway and so he speaks from his own personal experience. Forgetting this guys displeasure with DP,
watching Cubs games in the summer on WGN as a kid/adult is one of the great American pastimes. What a great city Chicago is for sports
Pull for Sir Todd to use his objective opinions in a more positive manner. Besides...If you looking for ignorant journalists not doing research, all you need to do is tune into MSNBC and their co spinning news pals. I can't imagine David Poole ever betraying the American Public like most of those side spinning journalists do on cable news...David Poole is old school and a cool dude...
Go DP Go!
WEC
chicagoland speedway is 50 miles from downtown chicago.
are the towns around chicago so bad that they can't call themselves by their actual names? they have to live up to a city that's not even theirs?
a proud bunch, those chicagolanders are.
because i bet the words joliet, naperville, and buffalo grove don't mean anything to anyone.
right.
Every time Nascar hits 'Chicagoland' which is really Joliet, I keep waiting for the Blue Brother to show up for the national Anthem. What could be better?
By the way, where exactly is Atlanta Motor Speedway ?
On Tony..duh no kidding
Nascar needs to get proactive on the drug screening..being a truck driver..(now retired) I had to do random drug tests done by an independant body..If I can do it there is no reason they couldn't...maybe instead of going by reasonable suspicion and using the random test procedure they could have prevented the Shane Hmiel and Tyler Walker incidents and nipped them in the bud and provided some help for theem before it got to that point...It took Shane's erratic behaviour on the track to catch Nascar's attention.. it shouldn't have to go that far...
Soon after Tyler Walker was suspended, it was common knowledge that Aaron Fike was doing drugs too. NASCAR chose to turn there head and ignore it. If you test the drivers, you need to test the executives too. That could be a problem for BF.
Rumor on the net has Chicagoland applying to be the 51st state!!!
I give fair credit to Miami-Homestead Speedway.
The track is located in Homestead, however Miami is closest major city you fly into if you plan to attend the race.
I have to say, being 50 miles away from Chicago, yet called Chicagoland seems a bit of a stretch for me. Why is it just not called "Illinois Land" or "Great Lakes Land", etc. Let's remember that "Michigan International Speedway" is called that vs Detriot Speedway because it is also 50 miles or greater from a major city.
David I agree that Nascar NEEDS to wrestle the 900lbs Gorilla in the room and be proactive and not reactive with their drug testing policy, Tony IS a fool, and like you I HATE the name "Chicagoland"...what next candyland?....Hmmmm I'm gonna start callin' the Hickory, Hickoryland...WOW that'll make it Hickoryland Motor Speedway thanks DP... #5
My comment is on your radio show. I enjoy it, most morning but have a suggestion and I can't be the only one bothered by this. David, when you are not speaking please back away from or turn off the microphone, mute your phone or whatever you need to do based on the equipment used. I can't stand listening to you breath while Marty or callers are talking. I can even tell when something the caller says annoys you (which seems easily done) because your breathing gets heavier, very annoying.
One other thing, as a reporter I'm sure you have a strong grasp of the English language, congratulations I'm sure your family is proud. As an adult if you constantly corrected me on my use of the language, it would just be a matter of time before I reached over and throttled you. Marty must be a patient man, don't know anyone else that could deal with it and somehow I don’t think the NACAR community is impressed.
I've made the drive from downtown Chicago to Joliet many times and didn't get out of the city once regardless of how many towns I went through. I would say that qualifies as Chicagoland. Or would you prefer they have put the track on the outskirts of downtown? At least we could have seen which was louder, the El or racing. Before you put stupid comments like that out there, be careful about the several million people you might be offending.
Whatever you call the track...it was ONCE AGAIN a boring race....followed by an off week.
ack.
Actually, we are pretty damn proud and I challenge you to find a prouder area than Chicago and the people who live in Chicagoland. We love our city and its suburbs and embrace it full-force. See, we have more than 5 suburbs and it's really difficult to list all of them so we try to make it simple for everyone else and refer to it as Chicagoland. If you live in Buffalo Grove or Schaumburg or Mundelein, you're from Chicago. Come visit sometime, you'll see what I'm talking about and we'd love to show you our Chicago hospitality. We're pretty proud of that too.
It's a term that's been used as long as I've been alive (quite a while) and it's funny someone played the pride card because when it was decided to name it Chicagoland Speedway instead of Joliet Speedway, pride in the area was one of the factors for that decision. David will spend more time there and maybe realize that Chicagoland is synonomous with Chicago Vicinity and is much easier on the tongue.
By the way, thanks for letting us enjoy the best sport in the land even if for just once a year. We're very grateful you've come to Chicagoland!
I read the engineering exercise piece, and David you missed the point. The Car of Tomorrow won't solve anything because it doesn't work; it cuts downforce and increases the aeropush. I read over and over how bad it is that raceteams have "twisted and warped" the bodies of the flush airdam cars and how this has hurt the racing - people forget that NASCAR cut the spoilers to less than five inches and went away from the 2001-2 tire compound that saw 26 winners among 14 teams. And if we're so concerned about aero, why not bolt that roof spoiler onto the cars and go back to the 7.5-inch rear spoiler with wicker? That's simpler than going to a ridiculous CoT bodystyle and it actually works.
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