Another race is in the can.
Now we know why they call it “Naptown”.
Even if you take the 48 out of the equation, you get the same race. Have we ever seen more than one car in even a not-so-close-up shot at the finish line at Indy? PS. There’s a perfectly good racetrack next door in Clermont. Actually, the race might not seem so lackluster if it weren’t for all the undue hype. Some of the best parts of the event were hearing track announcer Bob Jenkins’ voice in the background.
My initial reaction to the knee pillows at the brick kissing ritual was ” What’s next? Mouth guards? Here’s how quick I am: it wasn’t until now, as I write this, that I realized the connection between the purple pillows and the race sponsor. Duh.
And I’ve seen at least 4 different titles of the event. My favorite ( and if true is it the record for the longest ?) is “Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard Powered by Big Machine Records.”
I don’t care much what’s all in the Nascar rule book, but it would be nice if more of them stood around for a longer time and, more importantly, were applied a bit more consistently. I didn’t see much difference ( re Saturday’s race ) between the start of the race and the restart involving the 2 and 22. But there was no penalty for the 54 and the 2 received the severest of penalties for his infraction. Speaking of the 54 I’ve got to give him credit for spinning himself instead of fulfilling the announcers’ expectation of retaliation against the 12.
7.29.67: At Nashville, R. Petty got his 17th win of the season. The other top contenders all fell out. Richard said ” I was doing pretty wrong, but they done wronger”.
7.29.84: At Dega. At the time it was described as the ” greatest race ever “. I don’t recall having seen it. ( I don’t recall or misremember a lot of things at this point of my life. ) Anyway, is it still considered the greatest ever?
If Ned was in the booth we’d know what’s up with Mike Chase.
By Gary Erdakos
Ref: racing-reference.info, Greg Fielden’s “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing”, Richard Sowers’ “The Complete Statistical History of Stock-Car Racing”.
