NASCAR Subculture- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As for Junior, (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) there have been hundreds, maybe thousands of articles and columns written to recount the tale of how Rick Hendrick took the bull by the horns and gave him a new crew chief. Or should we say a new crew of crew chiefs. All I can say is this...I listen to every race tuned in to Junior's radio on Trackpass. This is the first time in a long time that it seemed that both Junior and his crew chief actually cared. When Junior was working with his cousin Tony Eury Jr., neither one seemed to be listening to the other. Dale Jr. would start the race enthused, hopeful for a good run. The car would go south almost instantly, and the driver would ask for a suspension adjustment and get a tire pressure adjustment instead. The driver would ask for nothing to be done to the car, then come out of the pits and ask 'What did y'all do?' The response: 'Just a pound in the right rear.' After one or two pit stops, the driver stopped talking to the crew chief because it did no good. Spotter TJ Majors seemed to be the only one that was trying to keep things together by complimenting the driver on a particularly good move, or asking the important questions like 'do we have enough gas to get to the end?' and 'how many laps until we pit?', and keeping the team apprised of how many laps left in the race. I would occasionally switch to another driver, mainly Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson and hear the crew chief voluntarily giving the pertinent race info, and discussing changes with the drivers before they came to pit road so they all were on the same page. Such a contrast to the Earnhardt team. I'm not saying it was 100% Dale Jr.'s fault or 100% Tony Jr.'s fault...they both just stopped listening.

This weekend, however, was a breath of fresh air. The crew chief talked to the driver and told him everything he was going to do. The driver gave excellent feedback on what the car was doing on different parts of the track. The crew chief subtly got the driver to try a different line around the track, producing better results. They together decided not to mess with the track bar any more, but instead to adjust the wedge and voila...the car handled better. The driver was very interested in everything the crew chief had to say, and the crew chief listened carefully to the driver and discussed the changes with him. TJ Majors got a bit of a vacation up there as he didn't have to prompt the two to exchange vital information. I can only pray that this lasts and praise Rick Hendrick for handling this so well. And a huge shout-out to Majors, by the way, for never losing the desire to help the team in every way he could.

Jeremy Mayfield...what will become of Jeremy Mayfield? The doctor gives him a prescription to treat ADD and he takes a Claritin D for his allergies and BLAMMO he gets kicked out of NASCAR! Wouldn't you want your drivers to be paying better attention on the racetrack? I would think so. BUT the fact remains that he tested positive for amphetamines and this is a no-no in sports. One question I have is... did Jeremy tell NASCAR ahead of time he was taking this medicine? Did they okay it? I think this may be the fulcrum in the teeter-totter that is Jeremy Mayfield's situation and it will tip one way or the other this week. A bad side effect of this situation is this...parents of kids that suffer from ADD frequently give their kids similar medicines to help them succeed in school. (I know firsthand... I have been in that situation myself.) If Jeremy gets vilified because of this, what message are we sending to our kids? Didn't I just read that NASCAR wants to start marketing itself more to kids? I don't want to be mean to NASCAR here, but surely they want to appeal to ALL kids.

Jimmie Johnson is the third of the four big J's...and I think he's well on his way to a fourth big championship. The 48 team peaked at the beginning of the chase last year, and I fear they are starting their peak now for this year. Kudos to Tony Stewart for leading the points but he better really enjoy it now, because I think it may be short lived! The Johnson freight train is a'comin' folks, so stay outta the way or get run over.

On to J number four...The Jerk. No, I don't mean that old Steve Martin movie. I mean Kyle Busch. You would think that a driver that is as talented and successful as he is wouldn't feel the need to take verbal stabs at drivers that aren't having as good a season as he is. But no, Vile Kyle has to open his big mouth and once again verbally abuse his nemesis, Dale Junior. (He indicated that it was the driver, not the crew chief that was the problem but that 'NASCAR's most popular driver wouldn't be blamed, it would always be the crew chief's fault.) Kyle says over and over that he wouldn't want to be the 'Most Popular Driver.' Yet his comments say otherwise. If Dale Junior meant as little to Kyle as he claims he does, then Kyle wouldn't even mention him. True the media folks asked him what he thought about the crew chief change this weekend, opening the door for controversy, but he could have been gracious about it. Instead he showed his true side and let his petty jealousy show through. And the universe got revenge, didn't it? Usually I feel bad for any driver that blows a tire and hits a wall but all I could do was shrug when it happened to Kyle. Twice. What goes around, comes around I always say. And why in the heck does he look like Pee Wee Herman? Are they related? A good friend of mine pointed this out to me about a year ago. I think of all the 45 or so drivers that show up for each race weekend, there are no weirder celebrity look-a-likes in the garage than Kyle Busch and Pee Wee Herman!

A parting note to Kyle... Junior's fans are his fans not only because he's a good hard racer, but also because he's a good person, a class act and a gentleman. You will never have fans for any other reason than your racing talent. If that is what you want, then take it and shut up about it. Don't repeatedly throw classless barbs at Junior and his fans because it does no good. You're just showing your green, jealous backside to the world and eventually the world will put you in your place. Just get into your car and race. That's the only thing you're good at.

And so we come to the end of the "Good, Bad & Ugly" week in NASCAR. Big stories, big personalities. We also said good bye to Fox Sports which in my book is bad, but we also said good bye to Digger, and this is good. Junior and Jimmie's situations are good, Jeremy's situation is bad. And that leaves only one guy to be the Ugly. If the shoe fits, Kyle...