It’s unfortunate that winning isn’t enough, but that’s the way it is.
The San Antonio Spurs won four championships in nine years, but are saddled with the responsibility of making the National Basketball Association almost unwatchable.
Pete Sampras set a record with 14 Grand Slam crowns, but returned tennis to a distant international game after it had become quite Americanized.
The New Jersey Devils won Stanley Cups in 1995, 2000, and 2003, but helped make hockey so “blah” that the sport is now in the afterthought of America’s consciousness.
NASCAR’s leadership has always been respected for making good business decisions and all their moves seemed to always be the right ones – who could argue with near constant growth of sponsors, venues, TV numbers, and fans. But the 2009 NASCAR season might just test the true business acumen of those at the helm of the NASCAR ship because, for the first time in many years, the stars are not aligned in NASCAR’s favor. The sport had already, though recently, stopped growing and, in the coming months, there is a good chance that multiple pieces of the US financial system that directly affect NASCAR’s bottom line are all going to unwind at the same time. The “everything we touch turns to gold” days are over and with such limited choices the best way forward might just be the only way forward.
Johnson is the equivalent of the halfcourt Spurs, the serve-and-volley, rally-be-damned Sampras and the trapping, skating-in-open-ice-is-sin Devs. Style counts. And Jimmie Johnson doesn’t have any.
Jeff Gordon had not yet supplanted Dale Earnhardt Sr. as NASCAR’s most dominant driver—but according to Dale Earnhardt Jr., his dad must have already known something. “I was running late models up at North Wilkesboro and he introduced me to Jeff, in 1994,” Junior remembered while he and other Chase participants met with the media in New York Wednesday. “And if my dad introduced me to somebody—he only did that probably 10 times in my life…he was a busy guy, thinking about his race cars, and what he was doing with his life—and for him to take a minute to introduce me to someone, it must have been really important.”
“We need to get out from underneath that cloud and get more positive things surrounding us,” Gordon said. “And the only way we’re going to do that is to perform. Even if we come out of New Hampshire, just like Clint [Bowyer] last year, that was the whole story. ‘Oh, my gosh where did this guy come from?’ And that’s all anybody wanted to talk about. Things can turn around that fast. We recognize that. And the way our season had gone, that has to be our focus.”
Often lost in the circumstances involving the formation of Stewart-Haas Racing is the fact that one of those two namesakes currently resides in federal prison. But unlike Michael Vick--who may face further discipline from the National Football League following his release--Gene Haas will be welcomed back into NASCAR with open arms. Haas reported to prison in January to serve a two-year term after pleading guilty to one count of tax fraud. That followed a plea bargain resulting in the dismissal of several charges, which included reporting false race team expenses.
NASCAR’s Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards are bachelors no more. Jamie McMurray proposed to longtime girlfriend and Carl Edwards got engaged last month.
Penske Racing drivers Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch finished 21st and 43rd, respectively, in the 2008 NASCAR Cup Series finale, Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I’m excited about what I’ve got going for next year, but I’m not excited about not being here. It’s hard. These guys are my family. When you’ve been with a group of guys for 10 years and a sponsor for 10 years, it’s a long time.” --Tony Stewart
“We were good in the beginning, but faded,” said Nemechek, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet. “We just couldn’t get the proper grip to navigate the 1.5-mile oval. We made a lot of adjustments throughout the race, but nothing seemed to really click.”
By Josh Stewart
