mikeyfan1599

This is not to bash the Junior Nation but after the outcry this weekend and another beer chunking incident at Richmond because of a racing accident I'm wondering if the rest of the NASCAR fans are getting tired of the so called Junior Nation?  I ask this because there is a pole on Foxsports asking who was at fault for the wreck Saturday Night, the picks are Junior, Bush, or neither.  Surprisingly, out of 319,580 votes as of this writing 87 percent have said the wreck was Juniors fault.  Me I voted neither it was a racing accident.

But seeing that vote reminded me of how another driver gained his fame and popularity in this great Sport.  In the late 70's a brash young driver was emerging as an outstanding driver.  He was bold, brash and everytime he got in front of a camera he let it be known that he was going to whip the competition.  He even told COO COO Marlin once that Bristol was his track and not COO COO's even though Marlin was from that area of Tennessee.  Of course I'm talking about Darrell Waltrip, but his rise isn't the story, in 1979 the old Alabama Gang was worried that DW would finally win a championship, so they made a pack that they would do what they had to to keep that from happening and a young unknown by the name of Dale Earnhardt won his very first championship.  Now Dale was popular because he was from North Carolina and also because he wouldn't back down to DW and his talk, nor his pushing on the track.  Well for a few years after 79 Dale was not heard of again but then he teamed with Richard Childress and well you know the rest of his success.  DW on the other hand teamed with Junior Johnson and started to win races and dominate the circuit and was so bold that he brought T-shirts to the races to sell to his fans so everyone else could see how popular he was.  It became such a big deal in the stands that if you didn't have a DW T-shirt on they you were rooting against him.  It didn't matter who won the race to these fans as long as it wasn't DW.  After Dale Teamed up with Richard Childress the fans soon learned that Dale was ready to fight fire with fire and he would bump and bang his way to a win too.  So a lot of those fans who rooted against DW naturally starting rooting for Dale and wearing his gear.  Thus, the popularity of Dale Earnhardt, not because he was considered a great driver when he started out, but because he was a driver that didn't back down to DW and his threats.

Now the question of this blog, are the rest of the NASCAR nation getting so tired of the "NATION"  that they are going to start backing anyone that is willing to stand up to the NATION and keep their driver out of victory lane?  Could the Dale Junior fans unwittingly be pushing a driver like Kyle Bush to the forefront of NASCAR popularity?  I know there are a lot of people who dont' like Kyle, in fact Kyle has very few fans, but he is starting to gain attention and if he is willing to battle Junior for the win and he is not afraid to race him hard and if they both lose then so be it. I think you may see him become a favorite of those who don't like Junior because of the NATION.

Think about it.  History does have a way of repeating itself.

Ok, here is my rant on Richmond,  When they first penalized Michael for rough driving and parked him for the remainder of the night, I was as furious as one could be.  And even though my good friend Section was trying to interject some common sense into the incident I didn't want to hear it.  I also took out some of my frustration out on the Junior fans whose driver was involved in a racing incident at the end of the race.  I'll take care of those issues with a thread.  But after having a chance to sleep on it and also to calm down after I woke up here is what I have come to a conclusion on.

What Mikey did was totally uncalled for and he should have been punished, for 50 laps I'm still not sure but that was NASCAR's call and I'll live with it.  Another thing I tried to rationalize out of this, this stunt that Mikey pulled, if handled after the race may have resulted in a points reduction.  With that being said, I figured Mikey would probably have finished around the 20th position. Maybe as high as 18th with the late cautions.  So if a point reduction would have been taken after the race say 25 to 50 points then by NASCAR setting him down it actually cost him 51 points so I'd say he paid his dues and Nothing else should come of it.  Especially how NASCAR handled the Kurt Bush incident last year and Kurt put a crew member in danger and Mikey didn't really put anyone in danger.  It was uncalled for but nothing that should warrant anything more than what was done on the track.

Now I want to look at a couple of thing on the bright side of the race.  I appears that Mikey has subcombed to Bobby as his crew chief,  Mikey was telling him what was wrong with the car and not really making any suggestions as to what to fix.  he left that to Bobby,  Mikey was really starting to run well and it showed on the latter part of the race.  He stayed out on with 40 lap tires hoping to catch a quick caution and get back on the lead lap.  Well, that didn't work out but drivers with fresh tires that passed him early in that run, Mikey was catching back up to and passing just before he had to pit.  Mikeys lap times at the end of the run were just as good as the leaders. So maybe they are on the verge of getting things turned around.  

David had another strong run and moved ahead of Mikey in the owners points battle.  Now is the time for both the 44 and 00 to start going for the top 15 to top 10 runs.

Lets just hope that Darlington is the start of good things to come and seeing MWR starting to climb towards that top 20 in points.

Had lived.  Would there have been the go or go homers?  Would there have been a COT?  How about some of the other safety devices that are in use today?  These are questions that no one really knows for sure but we do know, according to NASCAR, the COT was developed for safety because of the wreck that Dale had.  Would the Hans device be mandatory today?  Again, it was being encourged at the time of Dales Death,  but would it be mandatory?  Would Richmond (meant Rockingham as my friend Section pointed out) have closed?  That is another question that can be brought up, would Dale have had some influence in keeping a race at the Rock. 

It is easy to ask what would of happened if..... Reality is we don't really know, what we do know his death lead to a lot of changes in NASCAR, some of them good some not so good but all done in the name of safety to keep someone else from coming to the same fate as Dale did.

Dale was an individual that you either liked or you didn't like.  There seemed to be no inbetween.  Personnelly, I was an Individual that didn't like Dale, Just when he did things that could allow you to tolerate him he would dump someone and piss you off once again.  But that was Dale,  It would have been interesting to see how he handled the likes of a Kyle Bush, Kury Bush, even his own son.  What would his thoughts of JJ have been?  Would Mikey still be at DEI and if not would he still be an owner of Toyotas.  What would Dale think of Toyota coming into NASCAR.  Personnelly, I think Dale would have welcomed Toyota, just one more whipping post. 

Again there are numerous what if"s that could be brought up.  But there is one What if that I don't think anyone can disagree with.  Whether you liked him or dispised him Dale Earnhardt was, is and always will be missed in NASCAR..  Happy Birthday Dale, and may you rest in peace.

Man it was a disappointing race at Taladega this week,  My man Mikey had the car to win but blew up coming to the white flag.  Mikey moved to the lead with the a great push from JJ.  Right after they got in the lead a yellow came out and Kyle Bush had Mikey in his sites and with a push from JPM they were able to pass Mikey.  Mikey fell back to around 10th and was looking for help when he saw JJ and Jeff moving up on the outside.  Mikey pulled in front of those two and JJ and Mikey were starting to pull away from everyone else and moving fast to the front when boom Mikey''s engine quit.  Well so much for the win but thank goodness Dale Junior decided to slam into the 26 and cause the really big one about the same time and Mikey was able to limp back to the start finish line and end up in 27th instead of 30th, that is 9 more points. 

MWR as a whole did ok,  Mike McDonald did very well on the plate track and was on his way for a top 20 finish when he got squeezed and spun out and David was caught up in the white flag melee.  But David finished 20th and McDonald finished 26th. 

With the 96 and the 22 missing this race this really gave David some breathing room away from the go or go homers.  It was brought up on a thread is it now time for MWR to do something.  All I can say is I hope their luck has changed.  David has been running in the top 20 for most of the year but something seems to happen that drops him back into the pack before the race is over and he gets a poor finish.  Mikey hasn't been running real well but he is doing better with Bobby Kennedy as the crew chief.  At least Bobby isn't afraid to tell Mikey No during the race when Mikey decides he needs or wants something done to the car. Bobby isn't intimidated by Mikey and he's not afraid to lose his job. 

I am predicting that Mikey and MWR will start to move up in the standing starting this week at Richmond, Look for Mikey to finish in the top 15 this week and David a solid top 20.  The 44 will be in the top 25 as Mike showed he can handle the short tracks when he was at Martinsville. 

Until next week.