My Two Cents Worth for 10/25/04

By Todd Berger, LGR Staff Correspondent

Last week I told you that I love Martinsville.  Well, I am now changing that to I LOVED Martinsville.  While the resurfacing of the track was necessary, the method they used was horrible for racing.  A track that finally had two grooves is now very smooth, very fast, and looks very boring.  And it’s now owned by ISC, so that doesn’t make me want to like it any more either.

What we saw yesterday was the desperate and angry Martinsville racing of old.  Guys waited and waited and waited and finally had to get guys out of the way.  Some did it nicely and some didn’t.  For Elliott Sadler (just one example) to get out and say that Robby Gordon wrecked him was ridiculous.  Elliott entered the corner at an impossible angle and paid the price for it.  And driver shooting that inside line entering the corners that couldn’t hold his car to the bottom either wrecked or took someone else out.  I tell anyone watching that race or its replay this:

Don’t watch the two cars.  Watch the tires of the inside car in relation to the bright yellow raised curbing.  If the bottom car drifts up and away from the curb, then IT’S HIS FAULT!!

And if NASCAR doesn’t grind the bottom groove again ike it was before, we will have lost one of the few actually competitive and racey tracks on the circuit. 

NASCAR’s vaunted Chase for the Championship was intended to give us several drivers competing for the title down to the final race.  Will it?  Me thinks not.  Kurt Busch has yet to suffer an even minimal failure, resulting in his 96-point lead over Jeff Gordon and his 125-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Every other driver is at least an entire race weekend behind, and with four to go, Busch is simply not going to fall off that badly. 

This is now, in all likelihood, a two-car race and three at most.  If Junior and Jeff have one more bad race, this thing’s going to be over before we get to Homestead. 

And how are the guys well back in the chase doing compared to where they would have been if we were still using the old points system? 

New System:

1 Busch 6015

2 Gordon -96

3 Earnhardt Jr. -125

4 Johnson -207

5 Martin -224

6 Stewart –246

7 Sadler -255

8 Kenseth -260

9 Newman -266

10 Mayfield -364

The chase for 11th

11 McMurray 4053

12 Jarrett -197

13 Harvick -244

Old System:

1 Gordon 4471

2 Earnhardt Jr. 4391  -80

3 Johnson 4305  -166

4 Busch 4304  -167

5 Stewart 4144  -327

6 Kenseth 4062  -409

7 McMurray 4053  -418

8 Sadler 4051  -420

9 Martin 3989  -482

10 Newman 3930  -541

11 Jarrett 3856  -615

12 Mayfield 3834  -637

13 Harvick 3809  -662

14 Labonte 3761  -710

15 Kahne 3755  -716

Amazing, isn’t it?  All the fluff and publicity in the world can’t change the fact that things were pretty good the way they were.  We’d still have a two-car race, but the fourth place driver would actually be CLOSER than he is now.  How ironic THAT is!!

I repeat the following for Brian France and Mike Helton:  All that is needed (and all that was EVER needed) is a change in the points that rewards someone fairly for actually winning and gives everyone from 30th back the same points so torn up cars can just be parked for the day.   THAT and a front valance 6 inches off the ground will fix your racing.  No network-endorsed playoff system is gonna do that. 

Will the “chase” ever give us a memorable championship race like we saw in 1992?  Maybe, but that just shows you that you can’t make these things happen. 

Jimmie Johnson won back-to-back races and is back to forth in the standings, but is still, in all likelihood, too far behind to win it all.  It is still a testament to that team’s toughness and resilience that they got off the deck and won two in a row.

Dale Jr. had the kind of day that Bill Elliott had down the stretch in 1992.  Everything that could go wrong did, and when it wasn’t his fault, it went wrong too.  I felt like I was back at Martinsville in the Fall of 2000 when Junior was wrecking so much and driving poorly that his late father actually ordered the team to park the car.  It was too late to do that, as Junior had already put it head-first into the turn one wall and had it burst into flames.

Kudos to Sterling Marlin and Jeff Green for having top ten days toward the end of disappointing seasons.  Actually, I don’t know how disappointed Jeff Green was.  He knew full well that car was crap when he agreed to drive it, so he’s probably just thrilled to have “earned” over 3.1 million dollars in purse money this year.  He and his owner are last and third to last in points of all the cars that have run every race.  I guess that five-year plan didn’t work out so well, huh?

There were a record 17 cautions in this race, and I could talk about each of them, but I won’t. 

I can’t write about racing and I can’t think about racing anymore for a few days.  The tragedy that occurred yesterday has hit me harder than I thought it would.

One sidenote.  I don’t like NASCAR’s penchant for not telling us things they know during or at the end of broadcasts.  There’s no question that everyone knew Dale Earnhardt was dead by the time Fox went off the air that day in 2001.  I am also sure that everyone had been notified by the time Jim Hunter told us the FAA had lost track of an airplane.  I know you don’t want to tarnish your “show,” but there are times to not leave your fans wondering and waiting for Jimmy Roberts to tell us about it during beach volleyball. 

After Hunter’s announcement, I panicked.  I have a friend whose husband works for Hendrick Motorsports on race weekends, and I had this awful feeling that he was on the plane.  I spent the next hour searching in vain for information before finally finding trickles of information that told me he was not on board.  I was relieved.

However, once my initial and short feeling of relief that my own personal tragedy had passed, I began to realize the scope of this fatal accident and how it will affect the sport and Hendrick Motorsports in particular.

Ricky Hendrick, only son of Rick and Linda Hendrick, was the owner of the number 5 Busch Series car driven by Kyle Busch.  After suffering a career-ending racing injury, Rick had given Ricky ownership of that team as his entrance into the other side of the racing business.  I am sure it was his plan for Ricky to take over running HMS when he was older.  Now, that will not happen.  Two parents and a sister have lost a son and a brother all too early. Ricky was 24 years old.

John Hendrick was Rick’s brother and was one year his younger.  He was a husband and father and was the man who ran Hendrick Motorsports while Rick was under house arrest and recovering from a rare form of Leukemia.  He oversaw the operation as it won a title for Jeff Gordon in 1998.  John has been heavily involved in the day-to-day operations as President of HMS ever since.  His wife Cathy and a daughter, Alesha, survive him.

John Hendrick’s twin daughters Kimberly and Jennifer were on the plane as well.  They were 22 years old.

Scott Latham, one of Tony Stewart’s chopper pilots, was scheduled to ship off to Iraq on Tuesday to fly an Army Reserve helicopter.  He is survived by his wife Traci, twin sons and a 14-year-old daughter.

Dick Tracey and Liz Morrison were the pilots and had been employed by HMS for five and three years respectively.  While Tracey’s age was unknown at the time I am writing this, Liz Morrison was 31 and had dreamed of flying since she was a teenager.

Randy Dorton was 50 years old and the head engine builder at HMS.  He had been employed at HMS since 1984 when Hendrick purchased Dorton’s company, Competition Engines and hired Dorton at that time. With his help, HMS has won five Cup titles, a Busch title and three truck titles during his tenure. 

Joe Jackson was DuPont’s director of NASCAR motorsports program, including its 13-year relationship with HMS and Jeff Gordon as his primary sponsor.  Jackson is survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren.

Jeff Turner was Vice President and General Manager of Hendrick Motorsports.  He had been employed at HMS since 1984 and served in various roles such as tax director of dealership and racing operations, VP and GM of Hendrick Sportswear and Motorsports Traditions, and CFO of Hendrick Motorsports.  He was promoted to GM in 2002 where he oversaw day-to-day operations of it’s five teams.

I was immediately ashamed for my relief as I began to realize how many lives had been affected by this tragedy.  The fact that one of NASCAR’s biggest families and teams has suffered such a catastrophic loss is incredibly sad to say the least.  There are not words to describe this accident’s impact on the racing community and NASCAR in general.  This is the worst aviation-related accident in the history of the sport.

My thoughts go out to the victims and their families and everyone impacted by this tragedy.  I have no words to offer comfort or peace to any of you.  I just wanted to say that I am thinking of you all.  May God bless you all as you struggle to get through this most difficult time.