So, here it is race weekend, and I should be excited about race number two for this week, but I'm not.  I know its not the winter blahs, because I don't feel this way about everything.  I know its not because of any physical ailment or flu bug that's going around, because, physically, I feel fine.  No aches, pains, fever, or anything of the sort.  I just can't seem to find the word to describe how one feels when they really don't care about the subject anymore or the outcome, nor do I feel any kind of emotion or feeling about said same.  Oh, wait!  I remember the word now!  It's "apathy".

After responding to HoosierRacer1313's query as to "What's Wrong With NASCAR?", I got to thinking to myself, what's different this year than last?  Last year, I got fed up with NASCAR after Las Vegas and sat out the whole season, pretty much.  Oh, I'd glance at the standings now and again, but by and large, it was the same old thing, week in and week out.  I corresponded with a few of my Fox Family Friends and resolved to try and put a smile on and go out there again this year and give it another go.

So, I busied myself with a new series chronicling the evolution of the stock car and stock car racing.  The Daytona 500 came and went and you know what?  It's still the same old song and dance.  Penalties where there shouldn't be any.  No penalties for similar infractions.  The stupid "Lucky Dawg" rule is still in effect.  Drivers who get down a number of laps work on their cars and then contend for the win because of the damned "Lucky Dawg" instead of earning it the hard way, like they used to.  Drivers get squirrely too soon and take out a quarter of the field.  NASCAR is still throwing "competition cautions" so Goodyear doesn't get spanked in the press for their shitty tires.  And, the NASCAR gods called the race too soon, after concocting an idiotic start time to begin with.


So, nothing's changed.  Still the same old idiots running the train (sorry Hoosier), the same incredulous rule changes, the same antics by NASCAR officials, the same problems with the tires, the same problems with the COT, the same problems with NASCAR not wanting to work with the teams and drivers; basically, the same old inconsistent bullshit race, after race, after race.

So, I am doing myself a favor to save my sanity.  I have resolved that the sport I once loved is no longer that same species that it once was.  Darwin was right, and natural selection rules the day.  That being the case, I must adapt to the new environment, as well.  So, I have decided to take my happy ass on down the road and do a little fishing for the rest of the NASCAR season.  And, if you faithful fans are truly faithful, then God bless ya!  But, if you're a purist who feels as I do, then do yourselves a favor and follow my lead.  Maybe, if enough of us take a year or two off, NASCAR might get the hint and either 1) get rid of Brian France (highly unlikely), or 2) start enfranchisement. 

Either way, I think that's what will have to happen to get me to come back.  As I said last year about this time, have a nice Summer everyone!  Oh, and by the way, don't bother watching this race to see if Dale Jr. gets dinged or not.  NASCAR officials will be watching that situation like a hawk.  Payback for Junior won't happen until later in the year, after NASCAR has let their guard down a bit.  It's probably happen either at a short track, or at a track like Pocono, where there's not a lot of room to pass.

- RR

Well, now it seems as though Mike Helton has taken up dabbling in the weather sciences and predicting the weather.  FOX reported that he came over and told the FOX sports folks that it was scheduled to rain for an hour and a half and with the humidity, they wouldn't get the race in until about 11 PM.

Hmmmm!  Hasn't seemed to stop them in the past.  They still have lights around the track.  They drivers were still raring to go.  Ah, wait!  Has Jack Roush ever won the Daytona 500?   Hey, lets bring politics into this and throw jack a bone for the rest of the season.

This was ridiculous!  The Great American Race!  The biggest event in NASCAR all year!  It's like calling the Super Bowl at the end of the 3rd quarter.  NASCAR really screwed it up this year.  Just when I'm willing to give them another shot.  Just when I'm ready to allow for some positive thoughts.  Just when I'm ready to live and let live, NASCAR shows why they continue to alienate fans everywhere.  Why they couldn't sell out the Daytona 500 until just this morning.  Why they stay consistently inconsistent.

I reported on this just after the Bud Shootout, when Ryan Pemberton, crew chief of the #83 Toyota, had mentioned that there was a problem with tires only lasting for about 8 or 9 laps before giving up, especially the right rears.  So, here we are on Saturday morning, and despite Goodyear coming out with a press release overdramatizing how they "found" a discrepancy with some of the tires on some of the cars and "recalled just those affected tires", Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart are just logging some laps during practice and BOOM!  Newman's right rear tire shreds, blows out and he takes out his car owner.

After my article on the situation "Tired of Talking About Tires", there was hardly any mention of it on any news forum at all.  But, now that Goodyear has tried to save face and subsequently had their asses handed to them after this morning's fiasco, lets talk about how "out of touch"  Goodyear still is:

I reported last weekend that:

"At the rate of tire wear described by Pemberton, race teams will need to have 25 sets of tires for the Daytona 500, alone.  At $2500/ set, that means that teams will spend about $62,500 just in tires alone next Sunday.  These figures do not include the sets that will be needed for the Twin 125's and any extra laps run between next Thursday and Sunday's race.  Apparently, nobody has told Goodyear officials that the country is in a depression, and that future layoffs and race team closures could result if there isn't tighter control on expenditures.  Goodyear seems to see no reason why race teams shouldn't be able to shell out $62,500/ race.  Of course, $62,500 x 36 races x 42 race teams comes out to $94,500,000, which might be one reason Goodyear seems to be monetarily tone deaf."

Tony Stewart had this to say in Jorge Mondaca's article:

"Same stuff that we always talk about every year is the failures that Goodyear has," Stewart said. "I think that's part of their marketing campaign. The more we talk about it, the more press they get.

"I think they forget that it's supposed to be in a good way, not a bad way."

And, this was Goodyear's response:

Stu Grant, Goodyear's General Manager of Worldwide Racing, expressed an appreciation for Stewart's heightened level of frustration.

"Tony is a passionate race driver and he is extremely frustrated right now with the condition of the race car right now and the unfortunate circumstances," said Grant. "Certainly he is frustrated and that's what you hear in his comments."

Duh !!!!!!!!!!  Ya think?!!!

Grant also had this to say about Newman's tire problem:

Grant said Goodyear's inspection of Newman's tire indicated it was punctured when he ran over something.

"The tire shows no evidence of high wear, it shows no evidence of any kind of blistering, shows no evidence of any kind of abuse. The other thing we always check on is fender rub-through. We do see some of those at high-speed racetracks.

"There isn't enough of the upper sidewall to be able to tell if there was any kind of fender rub-through, but what we did see was a clear hole through the tread and both belts in the piece we got off the No. 39 car. At this point in time, the evidence indicates that it is a classic case of a clear punctured right rear."

But, Stewart and Newman disagreed.  On Friday, crew chief Tony Gibson said that even before the crash, Newman had "felt a vibration" just six laps into the race.

"The tire started shaking and it chunked a blister off about that big," Gibson said, indicating a foot-long segment. "The rest of the tire looked perfect, but it pitched off a big chunk of it six laps into the run. Either he ran over something or it has to be a de-lam (de-lamination)."

It is interesting to note that the very same problem occurred on Newman's No. 39, Mark Martin's No. 5 and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 during the Gatorade Duel qualifying races.  Foot long chunks of missing tire were also shown on national television during the Budweiser Shootout, yet Goodyear maintains that Thursday's and Saturday's issues are not related.

Goodyear official, Stu Grant, also speculated that several crew chiefs had purportedly not gone with Goodyear's recommended tire setup, which could be part of the reason for the catastrophic failures.

My question?  Since when did Goodyear start dictating races and race setups?  Aren't crew chiefs supposed to try everything possible to set the car up for maximum speed and handling?  Shouldn't the tire manfacturer make a racing tire that allows for changeable setups in a racing situation?  Why can't NASCAR come out with one specification for all tracks and races and allow any tire company that meets the specs to supply tires for whatever team they wish?

Oh, that's right...that would make too much sense.

                  
NASCAR as a sport was experiencing a burst of growth in 1995, both at its corporate headquarters and because of a successful new race -- the Brickyard 400 held for the first time in 1994 in Indianapolis. Both Forbes and Sports Illustrated magazines featured cover stories about NASCAR in 1995, and the sport launched its website this year as well.
      
This excitement also spilled onto the track as driver Jeff Gordon began giving dominant champion Dale Earnhardt a run for his money. NASCAR also launched the Craftsman Truck Series with an 80-lap race at Phoenix International Speedway. Mike Skinner became the series' first winner after qualifying 16th.
      

A young Jeff Gordon took the points lead in the 16th race of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup season at Loudon, NH, in July and held off a gallant charge by Dale Earnhardt to win the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup championship. The 24-year-old Gordon became the second-youngest winner of NASCAR's crown.
  

With six races remaining, Gordon led Earnhardt by a hefty 309-point margin. With a strong late-season charge, The Intimidator sliced the deficit by large chunks each week. When the checkered flag fell on the season, Earnhardt was only 34 points behind.

In 1996, NASCAR became a big enough operation to command a New York City office, and Jeff Gordon had his best season ever on the tracks, winning 10 races. However, he was outmaneuvered for the Winston Cup, which went to fellow Chevrolet driver Terry Labonte instead 
   
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon battled for the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup championship, and Labonte parlayed consistency to win his second title.  Labonte took the lead in the standings with a third-place finish at Rockingham in late October. Top-five finishes in the final two events were enough to capture the title by 37 points over Gordon.
  

Interestingly enough, Gordon won 10 races, while Labonte won twice during the '96 season. Both Chevrolet drivers had 21 top-five finishes and 24 top-10 efforts. Gordon led 2,314 laps as Labonte led 973 laps. Gordon seemed to have a better year, but Labonte was able to come out on top of the points race thanks to fewer DNFs.


Driver Jeff Gordon began the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup season with a victory at the Daytona 500 and went on to 10 more victories and a Winston Cup championship. And his winning ways were just beginning -- Gordon had plenty left for the 1998 NASCAR season as well.
  

Starting the season off, Gordon drove past Bill Elliott with six laps remaining and led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Hendrick Motorsports team in the 39th running of the Daytona 500. Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Ricky Craven ganged up on Elliott in the stretch drive and took the top three spots in NASCAR's most celebrated event.  Later in '97, Gordon prevailed in a fender-rubbing final-lap skirmish with Jeff Burton to win Darlington's Mountain Dew Southern 500 and the Winston Million bonus. Gordon became the first driver to pocket the $1 million bonus since Bill Elliott won in the inaugural offering in 1985.
  

In his finest year to date, Jeff Gordon prevailed in a three-way showdown with Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin to win the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup championship.  Gordon took the points lead with a September victory in Darlington's Mountain Dew Southern 500 and maintained the narrow advantage over his rivals for the rest of the season. Gordon posted his second NASCAR Winston Cup championship by a close 14 points over runner-up Jarrett. Martin was only 29 points behind in the closest three-way title chase in NASCAR Winston Cup history.

          
The 1998 season marked NASCAR's 50th anniversary, and the 40th running of the Daytona 500. Adding another layer of significance to the occasion, popular NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt registered a dominating win -- after 20 attempts -- in this crown jewel race of the NASCAR Winston Cup season.  Jeff Gordon, however, would take the season's ultimate title for the second year in a row. Experience the excitement again with our 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup chronology, which features several pictures of 1998 racing events.
  
With the Thunderbird no longer available, Ford introduces the Taurus for competition in NASCAR's 50th Anniversary season. Dale Earnhardt ended two decades of frustration at the Daytona 500. Earnhardt, making his 20th start in NASCAR's annual "Super Bowl," leads the final 61 laps and edges Bobby Labonte at the finish. It is the 71st win of Earnhardt's career and it snaps a victory drought that dates back to 1996.
  

Jeff Gordon bagged his sixth victory in seven races and won another Winston No Bull 5, $1 million bonus with a win in the Pepsi Southern 500 at Darlington. Gordon also padded his lead in the NASCAR Winston Cup standings to 199 points over Mark Martin. Gordon motored to a 364-point win over Martin to capture his third championship during the NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration.  Gordon would ultimately win 13 races, tying a modern-era mark established by Richard Petty in 1975. Mark Martin marked his third runner-up finish for NASCAR's championship.

     

NASCAR prepared for the new millennium with a whole fleet of new young drivers, and Dale Jarrett won the Winston Cup championship in 1999 after a long points battle with Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin.  There were also more eyes on the NASCAR Winston Cup series racetracks than ever before as television ratings soared and extra seats were added in many locations to meet the demand for tickets. In 1999, only National Football League events ranked higher in popularity among Americans than NASCAR events.
   

Rookie Tony Stewart led 333 of the 400 laps and dominated the Exide Batteries 400 at Richmond International Raceway. It was the first NASCAR Winston Cup win for the talented freshman driver. Bobby Labonte, Stewart's stablemate on the Joe Gibbs team, finished second.
  

Not to be outdone, Joe Nemechek pulled a shocking upset by winning the Dura Lube/Kmart 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. It was Nemechek's first career NASCAR Winston Cup win and the first victory for team owner Felix Sabates since 1995.

       
Later in 1999, Dale Earnhardt came from the 27th starting spot to win the Winston 500 at Talladega Super speed way in the final laps. Earnhardt squeezed past Dale Jarrett with four laps remaining and nabbed his 74th career NASCAR Winston Cup triumph.
  
Dale Jarrett moved into the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup points lead in May with a victory at Rich mond and never gave a backward glance as he stormed to his first championship. Jarrett won four races during the 34-race campaign and finished 201 points ahead of runner-up Bobby Labonte.  Jarrett became the second second-generation driver to reach the pinnacle of NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing. He and his father Ned joined Lee and Richard Petty as the only father-son combinations to wear the championship crown.
  
Labonte won five races en route to the runner-up spot in the champion ship chase. Two-time winner Mark Martin came in third. Jeff Gordon won the most races, with seven, but finished sixth in the final tally.

The 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup season arrived with NASCAR's wheels churning progressively forward. Several motivated, energetic, youthful drivers were pressing the seasoned veterans for membership in the elite status of NASCAR Winston Cup racing. A number of the old warriors were conceding to Father Time as they fell further and further behind the newcomers, and the heated race for the championship would be decided by only 26 points.
  
Dale Earnhardt cut a tire on the final lap, allowing for Derrike Cope to post his first NASCAR Winston Cup win in the Daytona 500. Cope edged Terry Labonte by two car lengths.  Derrike Cope proved his Daytona 500 victory was no fluke by steering the #10 Purolator Chevrolet to a convincing win in the June 3 Budweiser 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway. Cope ran down Rusty Wallace with 55 laps remaining and drove to his second career NASCAR Winston Cup win. Dale Earnhardt's engine blew just 23 laps into the race.
  
Morgan Shepherd won the season finale at Atlanta as Dale Earnhardt finished third and captured his fourth NASCAR Winston Cup title. Mike Ritch, a crewman for Bill Elliott's team, is fatally injured when he is hit on pit road. Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin battled down to the wire for the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup championship, and Earnhardt took his fourth title in the final two races of the season.  Martin led the standings from June through October, but Earnhardt rallied with a win at Phoenix and a third-place effort in the finale at Atlanta, and prevailed by 26 points over Martin.
 
Martin's loss was bitter for his Jack Roush team. Martin won at Richmond in February, but NASCAR officials discovered that his carburetor spacer was 1/2 inch too thick. The team was fined $40,000 and stripped of 46 points.  In October, Earnhardt left the pits at Charlotte with the left-side wheels unattached, and they flew off in the first turn. His pit crew ran out to the car and secured the tires in place, ignoring a NASCAR official's command to stay away from the car. Rules state that a pit crew can't work on a car when it is on the racing surface. Earnhardt rejoined the race without losing much time. NASCAR considered imposing a penalty, but none was given, and Earnhardt went on to win the title.
  
By the end of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup season, driver Dale Earnhardt was far enough ahead in the points race to capture the championship simply by starting his engine in Atlanta for the last race. But there was plenty of other action throughout the season to keep fans on the edges of their seats. Harry Gant, a 51-year-old driver, captured quite a lot of attention and more than a few headlines with his dramatic comebacks and wins, and NASCAR Winston Cup racing also attracted a new television venue in 1991 when The Nashville Network (TNN) scooped up five events, taking them away from ESPN.
  
Among the many exciting encounters in 1991, Harry Gant finished the Winston 500 at Talladega on fumes and coasted across the finish line 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Darrell Waltrip. Kyle Petty broke his leg in a crash on the backstretch, knocking him out of action for three months. 
  
At Sears Point, Ricky Rudd finished first, but NASCAR disallowed his final lap and declared Davey Allison the winner in the controversial race. Rudd knocked Allison into a spin with just over a lap to go and sped to victory. Allison recovered and finished four seconds behind Rudd, but was elevated to first when NASCAR assessed Rudd a five-second penalty for rough driving.
  
Later in the year, Dale Jarrett prevailed in a photo finish over Davey Allison to win his first NASCAR Winston Cup event in the Champion Spark Plug 400. Jarrett edged Allison by 10 inches in the closest finish in Michigan International Speedway history.

1991 also had its share of tragedy, as veteran 52-year-old campaigner J.D. McDuffie died instantly when he slid off the track and hit a steel retaining barrier at Watkins Glen. Ernie Irvan led most of the way to win the 218.52-mile race.

Earnhardt may have had the championship in the bag, but the story of the year had to be ageless Harry Gant. Gant provided the most fireworks during the season, winning four races in a row during the month of September. The 51-year-old won five races for the year and had six more top-five finishes than Ricky Rudd, but he finished a distant fourth in the title race, more than 100 points behind runner-up Rudd.

The 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup season was touched by sadness, as 82-year-old NASCAR founder Bill France passed away in June, but this loss was counterbalanced by the excitement of one of the closest races for the Winston Cup in years. 1992 was also distinctive in that Dale Earnhardt was not a contender -- plagued with a car that couldn't quite keep up and just some plain bad luck.

Earnhardt still managed to win in 1992, avoiding the watchful eye of NASCAR officials as he exceeded the 55-mph speed limit down pit road for his final stop, then outran Ernie Irvan to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Earnhardt trailed by more than three seconds entering the pit stop, but returned to the track 1.27 seconds ahead of his closest rival. Other contenders howled in protest after the race.

In perhaps, an unfortunate foretelling of future events, Clifford Allison, younger brother of Davey, lost his life in a practice crash for the NASCAR Busch Series event three days before the race.  In a strange twist of fate, Davey would lose his own life just a year later at Talladega.

At the close of the 1992 season, Davey Allison snatched the lead in the NASCAR Winston Cup title chase with a win in the Pyroil 500 at Phoenix. Allison led Alan Kulwicki by 30 points and Elliott by 40 points heading into the finale at Atlanta.

Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki engaged in an epic struggle, with Elliott scoring a narrow victory in the season-ending Hooters 500 at Atlanta. Points leader Davey Allison was knocked out of the title hunt by an early crash with Ernie Irvan. Elliott won the race, but failed to pick up points on Kulwicki, who clung to a narrow 10-point margin in the final standings. It was the closest title race in NASCAR history. Jeff Gordon made his first NASCAR Winston Cup start as Richard Petty competed in his final event.

The 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup season offered its usual share of exciting races, but it was also touched with tragedy as two of NASCAR's up-and-coming stars -- 1992 champion Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison -- were both killed during the season. Although driver Rusty Wallace offered a late-season streak -- winning five of the last eight races -- he was no match for Dale Earnhardt, who won his 6th Winston Cup championship in 1993.

Reigning NASCAR Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki perished in a private plane crash en route to Bristol for the Food City 500. Rusty Wallace won the race three days later and honored Kulwicki with a ceremonial opposite-direction "Polish victory lap."

Three months later, Rusty Wallace chased down Davey Allison in the final laps to win the first NASCAR Winston Cup race staged at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The following day, Allison was gravely injured in a helicopter crash on the grounds of Talladega Superspeedway. Allison passed away the following morning.  

Tragedy followed the 1993 season right into Daytona in 1994, as veteran driver Neil Bonnett lost his life in a practice crash at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the upcoming Daytona 500. Bonnett's Chevrolet broke loose in the fourth turn and slapped the wall nearly head-on.


1994 was the young driver Jeff Gordon's first year on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. A youthful Jeff Gordon hustled past Ricky Rudd with nine laps to go and went on to win the Coca-Cola 600, the first career NASCAR Winston Cup win for the 22-year-old. Gordon went on later that year to lead the final five laps and hold off Brett Bodine to win the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More than 340,000 trackside spectators watched Gordon claim his second career victory.


Entering the Aug. 21, 1994, NASCAR race at Michigan, Ernie Irvan and Dale Earnhardt were locked in a tight battle for supremacy in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup championship standings. However, Irvan