• I know that you can’t please everyone (you’ve got to learn to please yourself).  It’s why they make vanilla and chocolate. But if you truly are an auto racing fan of the NASCAR variety, then you must agree that Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 was one of the most entertaining Sprint Cup regular season races in recent memory.
• It was a stark reminder  of how different a perspective you get when you see the race in person rather than rely upon the visual and verbal descriptions offered by both television and radio. While there was apparently quite a bit of racing going on in the field, the FOX Sports television broadcast saddled viewers at home with the same monotonous shots of the same cars. The PRN broadcast, heard via Raceview, wasn’t much better although radio did talk about some of the midfield racing action.
• Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus on win number 76, which ties Johnson with the legendary Dale Earnhardt. Johnson is my pick for the title this season.
• Goodyear brought a tire combination to Atlanta that was just good enough to have forced teams to manage their tires. Compounding that issue was that the race was dictated by long green flag runs. Kudos to Jeff Gordon in the television broadcast booth for pointing out the tire management issue.
• The long green flag runs we witnessed on Sunday may be a harbinger of things to come this season, especially on the 1.5-mile tracks. That 20-minute clock idea doesn’t look so silly now, does it?
• Gordon’s insight in the booth, even two races into the season, has been invaluable. Especially if you’ve been a Gordon fan. You get to further appreciate why he was so good a driver for so many years.
• I also like the role that Larry McReynolds now plays on the FOX Sports broadcasts. A much better fit.
• There were times during the long green flag runs when you literally thought some of the cars were having trouble because they appeared to be going much slower than before. That’s the magic of Atlanta. Its coarse and aged surface wreaks havoc on tires and setups and causes tremendous fall off just laps into a run. That’s why the drivers love it, too.
• Even though the new low downforce setup was initially proposed by the drivers, you have to give a tip of the hat to NASCAR competition execs for following through with the idea. It provided the first competitive 1.5-mile race in many years. Yes, I know, it hasn’t changed the fact that the car out front always benefits from clean air, but the race leader was challenged several times. The real test will be if we see similar racing next week at Las Vegas. I expect we will.
• I can’t believe so much time and energy was spent on Matt Kenseth’s penalty. The replay showed an obvious violation of pit road regulations. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff either doesn’t know the rule book or he was showboating to cover his ass. No matter the reason, the kerfuffle put Kenseth two laps down to the leaders and out of contention. I mean, did team owner Gibbs really need to get involved?
• I think the Sunoco commercial with the drivers making engine noises is stupid.
• Ford was MIA once again with Brad Keselowski the highest finishing blue oval entry (ninth). Maybe we should we say a small hurrah for Roush Fenway with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s top 10 finish. Don’t expect this anemic showing for Ford to continue for much longer. After all, Joey Logano drives a Ford.
• I could never understand what all the excitement and media love has been over Clint Bowyer. I’ve always felt he belongs back in the field alongside the McDowells, the Cassills and the Annetts of the world. That’s where he’s racing now.
• It was easy to see by the results on Sunday which teams have their 1.5-mile setups figured out and which ones have more work to do. I remember when Kasey Kahne was the man to beat at Atlanta. Of course, he was driving a Dodge in those days. Those were also the days when he appeared in those funny Allstate commercials.
• Were you one of those people who was predicting such a great season for Kyle Larson after practice and after the Xfinity race on Saturday? What in the world happened to him and Ganassi teammate Jamie McMurray on race day? If you thought that this group would slide in to fill the void with Chevrolet when Stewart Haas leaves for Ford, think again. They’ve got a long way to go.
• Was it me or was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in just about every NASCAR oriented television commercial? I’m not disputing his being the most popular driver, but I can remember when Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson got their fair share of commercial exposure. And where are all the commercials featuring the current champion? And where are the Danica Patrick commercials that seemed to run back-to-back?
• A disappointed Kevin Harvick, who led the most laps and was burned in the final restart when he spun his tires was asked by Jamie Little after the race what he thought of the new 1.5-mile package. His answer was very revealing. “I know now it’s not how fast you are in practice. It’s how (well) does your car handle.” Don’t bet against “The Closer” over the next two races (Las Vegas and Phoenix). He may win both.

Thanks for stopping by the original Observations. Often imitated, never duplicated.

I also know I wasn’t the only member of the audience watching at home that was frustrated by the anticlimactic final laps of a 500-miler that somehow was saved from being a forgettable race by the ballsy move from race winner Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin’s win in the sport’s biggest event is long overdue. After all, he won his very first outing, a preliminary event on the legendary 2.5-mile speedway, back in 2006. Nearly every year since, coming into NASCAR Speedweeks, he’s been one of the favorites to win but for one reason or another, the Virginia boy just couldn’t close the deal. On Sunday, he finally did.

Some thoughts, observations and a few questions:

• Toyota spent an obscene amount of money to win its first Sprint Cup title. Apparently the deal also included a win at Daytona. The Toyotas dominated the race and their only real competition was the 88 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Once Junior fell out, it was only a matter of which JGR car would win.
• Once again O Fortuna from Carmina Burana was used as the backdrop to driver introductions. Not only is it cliched, but it becomes boring and repetitive after the first minute or so. I can think of about 25 other pieces of music that would work better. Why not have one of NASCAR’s hot shot L.A. – based executives assigned to work with the entertainment business find a suitable contemporary composer to write a piece of music specific to the event? You know, like NBC does with the Sunday Night Football theme?
• If the Daytona 500 is truly the “Super Bowl of stock car racing” as it is often referred to, then why aren’t there more Super Bowl caliber television commercials being seen during the broadcast? There were few good, new commercials as nearly all had been seen before. FOX repeated all of them just enough times to force you to either change the channel during a commercial break or just leave the room. The occasional side-by-side presentation didn’t keep you glued to the screen either because there just wasn’t much going on in the race.
• Isn’t this new Colonel Sanders the worst of the lot? Norm MacDonald (#2) was so much better.
• The Jeff Gordon “Through the Years” promo was good for the first 5-6 times you watched it then it too became annoying.
• The pre-race grid walk on the FOX broadcast is a good idea that continues to be poorly executed. I can think of two things that would make it 100% better. Get rid of Waltrip and keep Jamie Little and tell those who are on the grid how important it is to the broadcast. Right now it comes off as more of an annoyance than good television. And it doesn’t come close to capturing the electricity you feel when you’re on the grid prior to the race.
• I hope you were paying attention when the 48 team made a rare pit road miscue. It will be the only time it does so all season.
• Mike Joy credited the late, great Chris Economaki with penning the phrase “Calamity Corner” for Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway. I’ll take his word for it. No matter who came up with the monicker, it provided the only drama all afternoon. The tricky surface gave many of the best in the business (Junior, Harvick, Vickers and even the kid in the 24 car) a reason to pucker up.
• I hope Tony Stewart gets asked to call into every race broadcast until he comes back. It was a treat. He was the first to point out that the reason why everyone was having handling issues was because the race was the first time all week that the drivers were able to experience authentic race conditions. Limited daytime practice sessions and night time racing made even the best crew chiefs have to dig deep to figure out how to get more mechanical grip as the race wore on and the track loosened up.
• Get well, Smoke!
• I know its tradition to have the sport’s biggest event as the season opener but try and explain that to someone who knows little about NASCAR. It doesn’t make sense to most people. I happen to think the Homestead finale is far more important to the sport than bragging rights for winning the Daytona. I know…that’s sacrilege. So be it!

Thanks for stopping by!

With the start of auto racing in North America about to begin this weekend (I don’t count the wreck-filled, attrition-riddled joke of an event they called this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona) with NASCAR’s made-for-television race, the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway and the NHRA’s Winternationals at the Pomona (CA) Fairplex, it’s time to say a few words about the challenges both series face in the coming year. Indy cars (remember them?) which has its own set of problems, start racing next month.

First, the NHRA.

In the past twelve months, the NHRA has done the most thorough management housecleaning in its history, affecting everything from its marketing and competition departments to its communications department. While I’ll not go into a critique of each position that has a new face, I have to point out the most critical change — the hiring of veteran journalist Terry Blount to run the NHRA’s communications department.

I’ve known Blount for quite a long time and not only is he likable and knowledgeable, he’s passionate for auto racing. I’d not known him to be a huge fan of drag racing, but more an Indy car and stock car guy.  Nevertheless, his experience in telling the story and his relationships in the media world should help in rebuilding a media and communications department that has essentially been worthless and non-existent since the departure of the late Denny Darnell from that role nearly two decades ago. Darnell was very good at his job and his representation of the sport of professional drag racing helped to shape and mold the sport’s perception in the eyes of the mainstream sports media for a long time.

Blount has a difficult job ahead of him. He will be held responsible for reestablishing what was once the most popular form of auto racing in North America (yes, it was – how many pop songs does Indy car or stock car racing have written about it?) back into the psyche of not only older race fans but the millennial population that worships the speed of technology but not the speed derived from horsepower. Most popular form of racing you ask? How about “She’s Real Fine My 409” or “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” or “Dead Man’s Curve” or “Little Deuce Coupe” or the countless other surf and hot rod song from the ’60s that glorified fast cars and drag racing. Car songs have traditionally been written about hot rods, an so in effect, drag racing.

Unfortunately, drag racing of the NHRA brand has become a mere shadow of its former self. The grandstands are filled mostly with grandparents who remember those fantastic battles between the Snake and the Mongoose and when nitro fueled race cars traveled down the quarter mile at hard-to-fathom speed. They’re the same fans that if you asked them who the best Pro Stock racer of all time was, they’d (without hesitation) tell you it was Bob Glidden, even though nearly all, if not all, of his records have since been eclipsed.

The sport’s most popular driver is near the end of his career. John Force, the eighth wonder of the world, who continues to strap himself into a 10,000 horsepower Fuel Coupe and hurl himself into the unknown even though he’s nearly killed himself several times doing so, is still the driver most fans come to see and want to meet. He, along with other veterans of the sport like Ron Capps and Tony Schumacher are but a handful of recognizable drivers remaining in the sport that are easily recognizable to most of the NHRA’s fans but to no one else.

I would bet that if you placed the 2015 NHRA class champions in a lineup and asked five avid motorsports fans from all types of motorsports in America to pick them out they’d might recognize one. That’s the problem. The reason for this is that for too long the NHRA believed that the cars were the stars of the show, despite the wild antics of John Force and others who would give amped-up post race interviews so edgy that you’d think they were drinking the nitromethane fuel from the fuel tank. I know. I’ve tried drinking nitromethane mixed with alcohol for a segment back in my television days. Other than giving me flatulence, I suffered no ill effects. Many may disagree with that and I certainly don’t recommend it to others.

The NHRA professional classes are filled with the most  diverse cast of drivers in all of motorsports. And it has (potential mainstream sports) stars,  from Erica Enders in Pro Stock – who is far more personable, more fan-friendly and certainly more successful than her NASCAR counterpart Danica Patrick – to Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, one of the most articulate, entertaining and congenial drivers to have ever won this or any championship in the history of motorsports. And by the way NASCAR fans, he is African American.

As is many of the NHRA’s fans.

Far more must be done to make the drivers more recognizable and acknowledged as the skilled and courageous sportsmen they are, reaching beyond limits with every pass down the dragstrip.

Speaking of fans, the NHRA has the most ethnically diverse fans in all of motorsport, although the series has yet to take full advantage of it.  I’m not about to tell them how, but eventually they will figure it out.

Unfortunately things are not rosy on the competition side of things. When you attend an NHRA event one of the first things you will notice is the lack of Fortune 500 sponsor names on the sides of the race car. In fact, you’ll see many cars without any major sponsorship at all. That’s not because there isn’t room. It’s because there isn’t room in the marketing budget for a racing series that doesn’t appeal to the target demographics most F500 (or F100) companies aim for. What makes things worse is that the majority of team owners in the professional classes are self-made businessmen who self fund their race teams (mostly out of necessity) and who are more than willing to accept whatever sponsorship they can find for far less than its worth. Some has used their sponsorships for business-to-business (B2B) relationships. But most just want to have someone’s name other than their own on the side of the car and care little about nor know much about activation of sponsorship. Those that do are easy to spot. They’re the ones with a huge hospitality presence at the race track.

Did I mention that in the NHRA hospitality guests sit right next to the race cars in the pits, able to watch everything? If you’re a NASCAR fan visiting an NHRA pit for the first time you’ll have a hard time believing this happens at every national event. Ideal for B2B relationships.

Teams also have a difficult time in establishing a worthwhile return on investment (ROI) for its sponsors, since the NHRA’s demographics lean too old and until this year the sport’s television package was, to put it kindly, garbage that often was relegated to being aired in the early morning hours. Some of this year’s broadcasts will remain in the wee hours of the morning, but that’s usually because of the geographic location of the event.

The television package for 2016 and the near future is now on FOX Sports which has shown in the past that it understands and appreciates live motorsports. Bringing production of the television product in-house to the NHRA is also a step in the right direction. However, airing live drag racing is a lot like sex. Some times it’s just not good and you wish it was and it’s often filled with awkward gaps of nothingness while you’re wishing something exciting would happen. Live drag racing has been done in the past and despite all the changes being made to speed up the show and prevent delays by mechanical meltdowns, cleaning up a nitro engine explosion is a tremendous bummer and a waste of very expensive television time. The jury is out on this and I wish the NHRA and FOX Sports nothing but the best of luck with their live broadcasts and in dealing with this inevitable issue.

For 2016, the NHRA has finally moved the last true manufacturer vs manufacturer class in the sport — Pro Stock — into the 21st century by mandating fuel injection on all entries. This is long overdue and should make this class, which has become excruciatingly boring in the past decade, much more exciting and competitive as some teams will get the new combination right and others will not. There’s nothing like a good old Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge battle to capture the attention of race fans. NASCAR tries to do this but it just doesn’t work.

And finally, one of the changes not made for 2016, but most drag racing fans are literally begging  to happen is the return of nitro class racing to the full quarter mile (1320 ft). Pro Stock remains as the only pro class that runs the traditional quarter mile and while there’s many reasons too maintain the current 1000 ft distance for the fuel cars, the NHRA needs to respond to its fans in the way that NASCAR does (now) and bring this one critical and historical element of the sport back. I know the arguments, but it can be done and would bring back many of the sport’s fans that left when the playing field was shortened.

If you’ve never been to a professional drag racing event, it’s bucket list stuff. It’s impossible to describe the other worldly feel of watching two 10,000 horsepower race cars in full song. It’s scary, exciting and sexy. Yes, sexy. Take your best girl (or guy) to an event and expect them to be talking about it for weeks afterwards and then be expecting to go again the following year. It’s just that remarkable of an experience.

Professional racing begins tomorrow (2/12). Final eliminations will be live on Sunday beginning at 5:00 PM ET on FOX Sports1.

I’ll address NASCAR tomorrow. And Indy cars (remember them?) in the near future.

Thanks for stopping by.

It will still focus on motorsports, but I will expand my thoughts beyond NASCAR to include other forms of racing, mostly the four wheel kind. I’ll also toss in a few thoughts about other topics, as well – especially the motorsports media and life and people in general. I don’t know everything about everything, but I know why I am here.

There have been many reasons why my postings on this blog have been so scarce in the past year – unfortunately I still I cannot discuss why. But those restrictions will soon be removed and I shall find myself back where I can say what is on my mind. I think that’s how you like it.

Thanks again for visiting Sledgehammer! I pledge to keep you engaged and entertained as we move forward.

• Although each of the Gang of Four in the season finale had his own unique and appealing story, Busch’s as the “comeback kid” was not the most attractive according to the media I talked to. Most were looking to a miracle win by Jeff Gordon. Least attractive? A repeat by Kevin Harvick.
• But as we’ve seen happen so often this season, Harvick played the bridesmaid once again. Second is the first loser, right?
• It will be hard not to compare Jeff Gordon’s final season with Tony Stewart’s upcoming finale in 2016. One big difference between the two champions is that Gordon has remained competitive until the end. Stewart hasn’t been a threat to win for several seasons. I hope that changes.
• OK, so Kyle Busch has won the championship, but I’m still thinking about how Joe Gibbs Racing went from having four cars in the Chase (and being the outright favorite to win the title) to having just one in the finale.
• As Sprint Cup races go, the season finale was another of the many ho-hum affairs NASCAR fans have been forced to endure this year. Restarts provided the only excitement all evening and even they were in short supply. I think everyone is happy to see that this current competition package on the Cup cars has run its final race.
• We’ve been talking about a Kyle Busch championship for years. But every year Busch always fell flat during the Chase. This time around, one thing was different. He really wanted (read: needed) it. After spending time in a hospital bed, thinking about how the whole dream might be over, changed him. Trust me, after spending a good deal of time in a hospital bed myself, your life changes.
• It would be a mistake to overlook the 18 team’s flawless final pit stop with ten laps to go that secured Busch’s win and the title. During my travel throughout the year I often will meet someone for the first time and I tell them I work in NASCAR. In explaining why they too should be a fan, I always insist that among everything else, it is important that they understand that it is a team sport.
• How about a championship race where only the final four (or maybe six) teams race each other in a 100 lap shoot out, perhaps split into four separate segments? Sounds crazy, right? But so did group qualifying when I wrote about it ten years ago. Back then I was met with “Are you out of your mind, Margolis?”
• The departure of Brett Jewkes as the head of NASCAR’s Integrated Marketing Communications group is a welcome change by this writer. Under Jewkes direction, the dynamic of how NASCAR was being covered by the media changed dramatically — and not in a good way. Under Jewkes’ reign, the sport experienced a homogenization and pasteurization of coverage. Like taking a glass of fresh organic milk and turning it into a McDonald’s milkshake. Sweet, somewhat appealing, but you hope there are still some remnants of “real” ingredients involved.
• I shudder to think of who will be Jewkes’ replacement. I know of a few good candidates, but I seriously doubt any of them will get the gig.
• I’ve had the pleasure of spending a good deal of time in and around the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and if you’re not paying attention to what’s going on in that series, you need to. There was a tremendous amount of young talent in the pipeline to the senior series this season (Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Tyler Roddick, Daniel Hemric and others). The races are short (most are under two hours), the competitors see NASCAR as a full contact sport and the passion for winning is genuine.
• Speaking of Jones, he may be the best young pure talent to come into the sport since Kyle Busch. I know he’s already in the Joe Gibbs Racing pipeline, but I can’t help but think that when the bidding war for his talents begins, Rick Hendrick will be there as the highest bidder.
• After spending billions of dollars in its NASCAR program, (yes, that’s with a “b”) Toyota finally gets a Cup title. Money well spent? The manufacturer spent the same kind of money, over an eight year period in Formula One, and never won a single race. There were five runner-up finishes, however.
• Has the Xfinity Series lost its appeal for most NASCAR fans? I wonder how many can tell you who the top three drivers in points were at the end of the season. The series suffers from the Goldilocks syndrome — something just isn’t right. The current competition package makes for lackluster racing.
• Now that Kyle Larson’s sophomore slump is officially over, I’m looking forward to the Ganassi Racing driver putting this season behind him and taking command of his future by winning races and being a contender in the 2016 Chase.
• Will this season’s disappointment produce a hangover in 2016 for the 22 team? Is Joey Logano the kind of leader that can rally a squad back to the top?
• Could we see Michelin make an appearance in NASCAR in the near future? I think so.
• You can bet the farm that next year’s Ford Championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway will have a Ford team (or two) among the final four. I wouldn’t exactly call it embarrassment on the faces of Ford execs this past weekend, but there were a lot of forced smiles. Ford’s failure to have a team in the final four has made for a difficult start to Dave Pericak’s tenure as head of Ford Performance.
• Meanwhile, Chevrolet execs are still scratching their collective heads and wondering how two of their top teams (Hendrick and Stewart-Haas) couldn’t beat one Toyota. I don’t think they were all that excited about Furniture Row winning since that team will be a Toyota team in 2016.
• Speaking of execs, look for changes in NASCAR’s competition department executive suite in the near future.
• Things I’ll miss next season: GoDaddy’s prominent sponsorship that helped keep Danica Patrick’s career afloat; and Budweiser, which has sponsored a car in NASCAR since 1983. The change from Budweiser to the Busch brand on the 4 car is not smart marketing. This is what happens when you’re company is no longer American owned and being run by the bean counters.

• It took a dedicated NASCAR fan to stay awake for the rain-shortened penultimate event of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. I feel asleep about 75 laps in. Woke up at lap 122. Long rain delays are miserable if you’re at home — stuck with watching hours of NASCAR talking heads going over the same stories several times. Its far worse if you’re at the track.
• Just to change things up, NBC should have taken their cameras into the media center to hear a different angle on the sport, from those who work in the media trenches — the beat reporters. They have the closest connection to the fans — via social media — not the television network’s talking heads.
• Last week I wrote that the outcome of the race at Phoenix would have little impact on the top four teams in points that will duke it out at Homestead. That’s exactly how things played out. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out.
• Who will win the championship? Any one of the four drivers: Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr would make a great champion to represent the sport. Each one can put two sentences together in a meaningful way, each represents a long-standing and dedicated sponsor and each driver has a special story.
• Gordon is in his final season and his win at Martinsville was like magic. Some fans will always insist that some higher power in Daytona Beach scripts the story for the sport and Gordon winning his fifth title in his final year as a driver is just the kind of storybook ending NASCAR needs at this juncture.
• Harvick has been the driver to beat all season and his is easily the best of the four teams. A repeat win by the Stewart-Haas driver would be beneficial mainly to those who are in the sport. It would serve as another reminder of how hard work, combined with team wide talent and chemistry is what makes champions in auto racing, not big money or a talented driver alone.
• Busch’s season is easily the most remarkable. Sitting out for nearly a dozen races due to injury and then returning to destroy the competition with a mid-summer winning streak is truly a story for the ages. Being a father has changed the younger of the Busch brothers and it’s easy to see that the devastating injuries Kyle suffered at Daytona was a wake up call about racing and the meaning of life.
• Truex Jr.’s team is a lone wolf organization that chose to build its cars a thousand miles away from the competition, making the acquisition of the talent necessary to win all that more difficult. Somehow, team owner Barney Visser has done it. To be honest, moving to Colorado is really a no-brainer. This single-car team is clearly the underdog of the Gang of Four and while winning the title would make a good story, it wouldn’t have the lasting power of a Gordon or Busch win.
• NASCAR championships are not decided by who would make the best story. If that was the case, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would have won six titles and not Jimmie Johnson. This year the title will be won by the team that has shown consistency all year long.
• I’m thinking that means it’ll be the 4 car. Unless they screw it up.
• By the way, the race is in Homestead and NOT Miami. I don’t have anything against Miami. I grew up there and graduated high school there. I love Miami. I love the city, the people, the food and the weather. But, the track is in Homestead, just like Auto Club Speedway is in Fontana and NOT Los Angeles.
• I wonder how Ford executives feel about hosting the season finale, known as the Ford Championship Weekend, yet there are no Ford teams in the Gang of Four? They have to feel like the only one at the dance without a date.
• The Air Titans (I love that name) were once more called into action at Phoenix. I would prefer not to see them on the track until sometime next June or July.
• I’ve not written anything about Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the rain-shortened race at Phoenix. It just seems meaningless after a marathon day that disappointed everyone but the winning team and the four going to Homestead for the title.
• I never like to prognosticate, but I do think that if the race continued after a brief rain delay, Joey Logano would be in the Gang of Four.
• See you in south Florida. Let’s get together for a Cuban coffee and a pastelito de guava.

• Despite having won the previous three Chase races and the previous two Cup races in-a-row at TMS, Jimmie Johnson was on no one’s pre-race radar. All the pre-race talk was about Kenseth, Logano and nearly everyone else. After being such a regular fixture in Victory Lane for the past decade, it’s odd to think of “Six-Time” as an underdog. But he was.
• Johnson’s win on Sunday is number 75, one shy of tying the record held by the late Dale Earnhardt. Yes, hard to believe for some, but the past keeps slipping further away in the rearview mirror. Problem is, too many fans haven’t accepted the new NASCAR and still look fondly at the past.
• Here’s a stat: Johnson never ran out of the top 10 all afternoon. His worst position was 10th.
• How quickly did the word “karma” come to mind when Joey Logano lost a tire early?
• I keep thinking that Kyle Busch will have a bad race. That’s usually what happens to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in post-season, ending in an early exit from the Chase. This year, the 18 team has been just good enough in the Chase to move onto the next round. Given the year Busch has had, winning the championship would make one hell of a story.
• Except Jeff Gordon winning it would make an even better one.
• One of the things I love about NASCAR is that the best car doesn’t always win the race.
• Tires weren’t an issue in Friday’s Truck Series race or Saturday’s Xfinity race. It only goes to show the kind of voodoo setups the Cup teams are using these days.
• An overhead shot by NBC Sports Network during the Cup race showed a lot of empty seats, something I’m not used to seeing at TMS. Some might say its because the Cowboys have a home game on the same day. Others will say its because it’s just a lot less hassle to park oneself in the Lazy Boy in front of a 65 inch screen and not have to pay $7 for a beer. I’ll go with the latter.
• Of course that “comfy at home” scenario might be the ticket for some, but TMS is one of those tracks where you get a real sensation of the speeds capable by today’s Sprint Cup cars. One of my favorite spots in all of NASCAR is in the Turn One grandstands at TMS, watching Cup cars barrel into the corner at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. It’ll take your breath away.
• I really think that there’s something to the theory that all the blasting of the TMS track surface by the Air Titans opened up some of the seams in the track, which in turn, caused the tire problems. I would think that the aging surface will need some serious attention paid to it (possibly sealing) before next spring’s Cup weekend. It might change the character of the track, but it will also supply ammunition for people to bitch about something.
• Thinking about betting against Kevin Harvick winning at Phoenix next weekend? Don’t!
• I do believe that the top four drivers right now (Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr.) are the four who will decide the championship at Homestead in two weeks.
• It really bothers me that the cars outside of the Chase get absolutely ZERO coverage by NBC Sports Network during a race. You never know how the non-Chasers will impact the championship — until one of them does — like we saw happen on Sunday.
• In case you missed it, some members of Congress are once again targeting spending by the military at sports events. Much of it centers around funds being spent in the NFL, but some of the money is spent in NASCAR. The dollar amounts in question are minuscule compared to the billions being wasted elsewhere.

Thanks for stopping by!

I have found it difficult to write here for the past year. I’ve gone through some extreme changes in my life, both personally and professionally and unfortunately most of them have been unpleasant. As a result, it’s left me with little desire to write about anything, much less NASCAR, for which most of you come here to read about. And since I’m not being paid anymore for my opinions and words, my former employer Bleacher Report having found my work not to their needing or liking and so they cut me loose, I am left with this blog, for which I am grateful for and even more important, for your support by coming here.

On the occasion of the announcement yesterday that the legendary driver Jeff Gordon is planning to end his NASCAR career at the end of the 2015 season, I felt compelled to write about the two people associated with Gordon who have meant the most to me.

First up, however, I must say a few words about Thursday’s media teleconference with Gordon and team owner Rick Hendrick. From a technical standpoint, it was poorly designed and executed. The setting was bleak. There were numerous technical difficulties at the start of the teleconference that made it difficult for questions to be asked. And the volume on Hendrick’s microphone was so high that I could hear every breath, groan and clearing of the throat he made while Gordon was talking. When Hendrick was finally asked a question, his microphone was so high, it nearly blew out my computer speakers.

And while I admit that it was an emotional day for both men, their mood appeared overly somber and serious, they exuded an uncomfortable feeling that made them appear to have been forced into doing the teleconference. There were rare smiles from either man and both appeared less than enthusiastic about their surroundings. Guys, this was a time to celebrate Gordon’s unbelievable career, not look like you were both on Xanax!

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There have been tributes aplenty in the past day or so, all of them praising Gordon as a game changer for NASCAR (he was), a role model for drivers (he is) and much, much more. I’ll not add to those platitudes here. I prefer to watch the man in his final year behind the wheel of a Cup car, making magic in his Chevy race car and once again reaching for that highly prized trophy called the Sprint Cup. In NASCAR, it’s tough to be at the top two years in a row these days. Even the dynamic duo of Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson know that. Gordon and his teammates had a slow start to the 2014 season and peaked at the right time. Had it not been for the race at Texas and Brad Keselowski’s questionable bump pass, NASCAR would have crowned Gordon the champion and not my pre-season pick, Kevin Harvick.

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Which brings me to Alan Gustafson. Gordon’s crew chief since 2011, Alan has been my friend for much longer. He and I met during his first season as Kyle Busch’s crew chief on the 5 car. He gave Busch a great car every race and the young and brash Busch took full advantage of it, winning races, but just as important, scoring many, many top fives and top 10s. Gustafson taught me a lot about a Sprint Cup car back then. He was the person who took the time to explain how everything worked.

Gustafson became my “go-to” guy for many of my questions. I could always count on an easy to understand answer to any technical question I had. And I also learned over the years about leadership, the Gustafson way. The kind of leadership that kept the 24 team together. At the beginning of the 2014 season, their bad luck had them disappointed, frustrated and questioning themselves. Gustafson knew what to say to them and how to say it. He is truly a leader of men. And he is to be applauded for resurrecting Jeff Gordon’s championship style.

On occasion, Al and I would also talk about each other and our families and life in general. His southern accent is, well, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a NASCAR crew chief. Most of today’s Cup crew chiefs come from the Northeast or Midwest. Not that that’s bad or anything. But NASCAR would do well to keep its southern roots strong and healthy in order to keep the sport moving forward in the 21st century. Which is, another blog for another day.

I have no doubt in my mind that Alan will be able to duplicate the success that 24 team saw last season in 2015. If Gordon remains healthy, he is my pre-season pick for the championship.

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Jon Edwards. Most people know his face, but they’re not exactly sure who he is and what he does. His official title is somewhere in the vicinity of publicist. But in reality, he’s one of Gordon’s closest confidantes. They’ve worked together almost since Gordon’s entry into NASCAR. If you’re a member of the media, Edwards is your go-to guy for anything regarding Gordon and an invaluable ally when you needed to connect with the driver of the 24 car.

It was a rare occasion that Edwards would say no to a request. He often will go above and beyond to get the job done, presenting an extremely professional face to the world for anything relating to Jeff Gordon. I am proud to say is also my friend, someone whose first question when seeing me is always “How are you feeling?” And then our conversation turns to Formula One racing or something other than NASCAR. I met Jon when I first came to work in NASCAR. He is always there to answer any question, whether my role was as a journalist, publicist or television producer. Yes, television producer. I had approached Gordon’s father with an idea for a television show for Gordon several years ago. I believed it was perfect for him and I spent quite a bit of time putting it all together. It never did see the light of day. There were issues with logistics and many other reasons. I still believe it is the ideal vehicle for Gordon to segue into once he puts his driving gloves away.

Once you know Jon and how he works, it’s easy to see why he won the 2014 Jim Chapman Award for Excellence in Motorsports PR, a most prestigious honor!

And he’s just a good guy, too.

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I don’t profess to know Jeff Gordon the way some journalists do. He was already an established star in the sport when I first began to cover it some 15 years ago and for whatever reason, my relationship with him just remained professional. But, I have always and will continue to admire both his talent and his person. He has done it all, from winning championships and the sport’s biggest races (more than once) to hosting “Saturday Night Live.” I mean, it is very easy to blast out a thousand words of praise and affection for the man. But, I’ll leave that to those who feel they know him better than I.

I prefer to watch Gordon do his thing, alongside the two men in his life who I consider to be among the most important to him. And that I can proudly call my friends.

Thanks Jeff for all those great years of racing. I look forward to your final season.

And thanks Alan and Jon for your friendship. Knowing both of you the way I do makes it easy to see why Jeff Gordon is so successful. He’s got both of you working with him.

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Thanks for stopping by. And I promise to write more. Really!

My year-end look back comes next week. Despite this being a difficult year for me personally, it’s been an eye-opening past six months.

Thanks for stopping by.

Like many of my friends in the media and throughout the NASCAR and racing community in general, I was deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Denny Darnell. When he announced his retirement earlier this year, we exchanged emails and wished each other well. He was such a good guy. When I was battling cancer, his notes were always like a whiff of hot rubber from a race car that had just come off the track. They were a quick snapshot from someone I knew had written it to me from the front lines of the racing business while I lay in a hospital bed with a chemo bag attached to my arm.

Although I only knew Denny for a comparatively short time, we were good friends. We were not such good friends when we first met. And the story of how our friendship began is one that I always have loved to tell.

It started when he threw me out of the media center at the U.S. Nationals, the most prestigious drag racing event of the year.

Back in 1997, I was writing for one of the earliest motorsports news sites on the Internet, GoRacing.com. I was not only the main writer, I was the editor-in-chief and I took photographs, as well. We had a small staff of writers that covered the main motorsports here in North America, but I took a special interest in both Indy Cars and NHRA drag racing. It was in my attempt to cover drag racing that I met Denny.

Darnell ran the communications effort for the NHRA back then. I wasn’t sure what his affiliation was with the organization—whether he worked for the NHRA or R. J. Reynolds, the company that made Winston cigarettes, the title sponsor of what was then the NHRA Winston Drag Racing series.

Denny was very good at what he did and under his reins, the NHRA received a good deal of media coverage. But, then like today, it was mainly local newspapers (USA Today was just beginning to gain an audience) and local television and some specialized national television coverage.

I was able to get a credential for NHRA events as an Internet journalist only because the company that owned GoRacing.com that I worked for, also did the website for the NHRA. As an Internet pioneer, it was a strange time with limited phone lines available to me for use to file my work. I worked closely with Compuserve motorsports editor, the late Mike Hollander, who like me was an Internet pioneer and who helped me considerably.

Having a media credential at the prestigious U.S. Nationals didn’t mean I had a seat in the media center. Darnell had made sure that the limited space in the tower at the starting line that housed the media center was delegated to the newspaper reporters that had come to cover the event. Any left over seats were then assigned to the public relations person from selected drag racing teams. It made for an interesting mix of media and pr that was strangely incestuous.

My seat? It was in the room next to the deadline media area, alongside where the media was being fed. I didn’t complain. It was a seat and I had access to a phone line that was pretty good and my Internet speed was fast.

My view of the track however, was quite poor and while I could hear the cars, I couldn’t see the starting line and by the time my line of vision was able to see them, they were near the finish line. I guess that was OK, but I had hoped for something better.

I would often wander into the deadline room to get a much better viewing experience. From there, you could not only see the staging lanes where the cars were being pushed up to the starting line, but you had a view of the entire track. It was first class media room access whilst I had economy class. Darnell would let me walk freely around the media center, but he always kept a close eye on me. He had probably been thinking that this guy is making this Internet stuff up and he’s just angling for a free ticket to the event. He was partially right there, as I did enjoy the perks of journalism like the free tickets and free food..

On the day before the final elimination rounds, I had been hanging out with the writers from the Indianapolis Star and USA Today. They had the best seats in the media center, on the front row. The writer for USA Today was another old friend, Erik Arneson, who is now the VP of Media Relations for Fox Sports 1 in Charlotte and he’s written some very good books on drag racers John Force and Darrelll Gwynn as well as a wonderful bio of the legendary Mickey Thompson.

I was never trained as a journalist, but I can offer that I learned from working alongside some of the best in the business!

One of the writers from the Indy Star suggested that since the seat where I was sitting had been assigned to one of their writers who would definitely not be attending the final eliminations rounds, that I should move my computer to that seat and work from there on the day of the final eliminations.

The writer whose seat I would be using? Robin Miller, who now writes for RACER and appears on NBCSN’s Indy Car coverage.  At that time he was a motorsports writer for the Indy Star, primarily covering Indy Cars. I guess he would show up at the U.S. Nationals once and a while.

So, on the day of the final eliminations, I showed up bright and early before anyone else and parked my stuff on the seat in the front row. It was spectacular. I would get to experience the biggest NHRA event of the year from the first class seats. It was bound to make my writing better. Hell, at that time, even the smallest things made my writing better.

As the room filled up with journalists for the big day of the finals, there I sat with the big kids for a chance to work alongside some real professionals.

Before the first pair of Top Fuel dragsters even got to the staging lanes, a very loud voice that could be heard over the rather loud din of the media room caught my attention.

“Margolis, what are you doing?” it said. it was Darnell. I turned to answer but before I could, “Get up from that seat and sit back where you are supposed to sit,” Darnell boomed out.

“But, I was told that I could sit here today,” I replied.

“By who? Not by me. Get your stuff and get back where you belong,” Darnell continued.

He wasn’t being very nice about it. And here I was, sitting amongst the big kids and Darnell was exposing me for who I was, just a lowly Internet journalist who was sneaking around, pretending to be a professional.

I walked over and tried to explain the situation, that Miller wouldn’t be there and that one of the Indy Star writers offered the seat to me. Darnell told me that the seat wasn’t the Indy Star writer’s to give up and that he, Denny Darnell, was in charge of everything in the room and if he wanted to give that seat to someone to use, it would be his choice to make.

“And you’re not going to get that seat,” Darnell said in a large voice. “Either get back to where you’re supposed to sit or get your stuff and get out.”

He was making clear to everyone there that this was indeed his media center and that he was in charge.

I went back to my now illegal seat in the front row and packed up my stuff.

As the then, editor-in-chief of GoRacing.com, I made the executive decision that my website was not going to give any more time or space to any motorsports organization that had a jerk like Darnell in their employ. And then to the dismay of the public relations representatives, who were losing a journalist who had offered them all the online space they wanted (back then, Internet sites weren’t made to look like today’s exercises in pop journalism) for their drivers and more importantly their sponsors, I walked out of the media center.

I think I heard a few claps from a journalist or three who actually supported my stance against the tyranny that Darnell used to run his media center.

Now, I’m not writing any of this to tarnish his reputation or to be negative in any way. I will admit, it was a difficult moment for both of us, as Darnell would later tell me. But, he ruled things with an iron fist and to his credit, the NHRA got more than its fair share of the media spotlight back then. Maybe even more than it does today.

Two years later, I ran into Darnell at the Daytona 500. It was a bit awkward at first, but by that time, he’d left the NHRA and was working in NASCAR. Things were different. I was now working on a nationally televised motorsports television show, Motorsports Weekly, as a producer and on-air talent. Darnell and I took a long walk through the infield of the Speedway that afternoon and we talked about a lot of things, none of them racing.

I had long since left the anger of being embarrassed and humiliated by him in my rearview mirror. And he was very different and very apologetic. He admitted that he felt that I was just trying to get into the race for free and that I had no intentions of writing anything, much less have anyone read it.

But by 2000, the Internet had exploded and it was the new medium and he acknowledged that I was indeed one of the pioneers of the medium and that I had deserved a lot more respect. And he apologized, of course.

It was the start of a long and enjoyable friendship with the man. We always joked about the U.S. Nationals episode. Over the years, he was also a trusted source for real news and information. His birthday was the day before mine and it always gave me the opportunity to remind him that indeed he was still seven years older than me.

It is a terrible sadness to think that he had to leave this life at such a young age. The world has lost one of the truly great southern gentlemen in Denny’s passing.

I am a better person having known and befriended him.