... watching the Busch race today at the Autodromo (what a great course) when a car spun off into the grass - the first incident of the day. And OUT CAME A FULL COURSE YELLOW ! ! ? ? At the time, Juan Pablo and Scotty P. were running away from the field.

Those of you familiar with road course racing must have been shocked to see a full yellow - at least I was. But then again, it IS NASCAR. Gotta bunch 'em up - racing fans are too dim-witted to appreciate that a great driver with a great car should benefit from the lead he's earned. I know of NO other form of road racing that throws a full-course yellow for a spin, particularly when the cars continue onwards within moments. Even sprint cars will keep running if it's obvious that the spinning car will gather it up and continue to race without threatening other cars.

So I switched to flipping between "Air Force One" on local channel 35 and the race (on like seven channels).

Now Juan Pablo has had a mechanical problem that forced him to pit, moving him to the back of the pack. Normally, in a road course race, that would doom him to a mid-pack finish at best. But due to subsequent full course yellows (multi-lap yellows, despite the fact that the track was CLEAR moments after each incident), Juan is back in the running with 18 laps to go - currently in 5th.

So it seems clear he'll challenge Scotty for a victory. But what a weird way to run a race.

NASCAR - an acquired taste for sure. Egalitarian racing. Nowhere else ...

"RACE IS OVER" UPDATE: Well, JP's a great talent, but his reputation as a rough driver is also well earned. A hollow victory, after punting his teammate aside with about a dozen or so laps to go (not sure when it was, I missed it - Harrison Ford was throwing Gary Oldham off of his plane at the time). Great come from behind race, only to ruin it with a mindless bit of aggressive driving. He almost certainly would have cleanly passed him if he was a little more patient, but that's not JP's style. Maybe he'll grow up. Or maybe he's just channeling Dale Earnhardt.

Sure, the guy in car #29 won the Daytona 500. It's a thirty-seven hour ordeal that no human can watch in it's entirety. The cars rumble around ad nauseum, bumpin' & grindin' & pittin' & spittin' while guys with southern accents comment on how this, that, and the other thing will better position so & so to win when the checker falls in about twelve more hours. There are some spins and such, and the occasional crowd shot of white people wearing black hats with the number three emblazoned on it. And the cars keep on drivin' round 'n round 'n round. And then it happens. A last lap is declared. And the drivers and their cars start bumpin' & grindin' & spittin' (no pittin') even harder and the car that's leadin' starts to get caught by a car that's trailin' and then all hell blows-up. A multi-car spinfest erupts. The car that's trailin' passes the car that was winnin' and everyone starts hollerin'. Some are hollerin' about a great come-from-behind win, 'n others are hollerin' about some cheatin' sumbitches not throwin' a caution flag before the trailin' car catches the leadin' car. But then amidst all the normal NASCAR hollerin' about who won 'n who got cheated, greatness happens ... One of the cars that commenced to spinnin' when the trailin' car was acatchin' the leadin' car flipped onto his hood. And he kept aspinnin' and aspinnin' on his hood while others kept spinnin' and just ol' racin' goin' past him. But he kept spinnin' on his hood down the track. Fire started comin' out his car, but he kept spinnin' on his hood down the track. And whattayou know? He crossed the finish line - while spinnin' and a flamin' all the while on his hood! I don't care who won. THAT guy had the honor of having the type of finish that those of us who channel surf (or PIP) until the last five laps will remember. It will keep us channel surfing (or PIPin') until the last five laps of the Daytone 500 for a couple more years, I suspect. Way to go spinnin' flamin' on the hood guy!

Clearly, last nights soccer match between Mexico and the U.S. (a "friendly" as they say ...) didn't draw much attention among anglo-type Americans. Just as clearly, it drew great attention among Mexican-Americans and plain old Mexican-in-America types, as around 90% of the fans in attendance (~59,000 of thte 64,000 attendees) in Phoenix were wearing green. As the camera panned the crowd, you'd see the occasional anglo-type wearing green, as well as the occasional hispanic-type wearing red, white, and blue - but they were the exception. That's all well and good. But the Mexican team is hilariously psyched by their inability to beat the U.S.. Having lost the last half-dozen to a dozen in a row (not sure how many, but a fairly large number) after dominating us for years, they completely cannot handle the "shame". This match was a friendly. At this time of a national teams formation, they are typically playing MANY potential newcomers in their international friendlies in order to see who fits within the team and who doesn't. The U.S Team was trying four such new players on their starting roster, and was giving another three non-starters an opportunity to start. The Mexicans brought and started their A-team, clearly wanting to get the monkey off their back (they even brought and played Cuauhtemoc Blanco). Despite very strong play from the Mexicans, they lost 2-0. They had more opportunities, controlled the ball a bit better than the U.S., and seemed FAR more fit (out ran their U.S counterparts for most of the game). However, the U.S. defense was strong - the midfield covered back well, and the U.S benefitted from a little luck in getting their goals - they weren't flukes, but took advantage of atypical Mexican lapses (an unmarked header into the upper-left corner on a corner-kick, and Donovan - god I can't stand that little shit - breaking nicely between three defenders at about 50 yards out and finishing with a beautiful smoke on the keeper). As has been the norm for the last several games, the Mexicans refused to shake hands after the match, or exchange jerseys - as is the tradition in international friendlies. Their comments to the media were equally sour and unsporting ("we dominated and were the superior team, but they won" and "I was not impressed by the U.S. Team, we are clearly the better team" and "the official took this game from us" types of things). The U.S. Team was gracious in victory (again, typical) and acknowledged that Mexico had played very well, that they were impressed with their fitness, and skill and that they considered themselves fortunate to walk away with a 2-0 victory. What a classless bunch of losers - and I mean "losers" in the grander sense. I know there are great talents and good sports on that team (well, Jared Borghetti ... that's about it).

Let's see. Sportswriters all over the world are decrying Zidane's disgraceful head butt. Blogs are clogged with discussions about competing claims from varied "professional lip readers" about what Materazzi actually said to him. And Sepp Blatter is hinting that Zidane may have his "golden ball" award stripped from him and that Materazzi could expect some severe penalty if it is found that he uttered something truly awfully insulting. And almost nothing is being said about the real disgrace in this game and so many other matches.

France's only goal came off of a dive.

"It's part of the game." "You see it in all sports." ... and so on. Rationalizations. France's ONLY goal came from a fake foul. Beyond that, how many of the games were marred by key players falling down at the slightest contact in an attempt to draw a foul? Nearly all of them. Don't get me started on the unbelievably unmanly displays of pain/agony. I don't care if your femur is sticking out of your leg, you won't see players in most other contact sports writhing about celebrating their discomfort/pain. Only in soccer. And it too often affects the game in a huge way, witness the French PK in the WC final.

This is NOT an anti-France, pro-Italy (god no) post. It's a statement of hope that the public will heap scorn and ridicule upon those who bring the game into such disrepute. New rules won't change things, only public disapproval will return the game to a place of honor. While deserving of serious penalty and condemnation, Zidane's action was less-far from manly behavior than the countless acts of wussiness displayed by so many otherwise top-flite players in so many WC matches. I truly love watching REAL players like Hargreaves, Zidane, Miguel, Robinho and the like play the game. I truly hate watching the amateurish theater displayed by the likes of Ronaldo, Figo, Henry, Donovan, etc. and hope that public disgrace and humiliation will find it's way to them. Only then will the world's game be returned to the status of a GREAT game.