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.
On July 16, conservative radio commentator Michael Savage set off a firestorm when he said, “In 99 percent of the cases, [an autistic child is] a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” He added, “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.’”
Kempner knows that the racing community is clued in. But he is concerned that a guy like Savage, who lauds a Ph.D., is taken seriously by others.
“This isn’t an Imus-type thing,” Kempner explains, referring to Don Imus’ comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. “It shouldn’t be confused with the shock-jock kind of stuff Imus said. What Imus said was just sophomoric and stupid. It’s certainly hurtful to the African-American community, and I wouldn’t condone it in any way, shape or form. But it’s much different than not understanding a disability or a disease and commenting like you do. It’s like telling a kid that has cancer, you know, ‘Suck it up and get better, OK.’ That exactly what the parallel is to that. Unbelieveable.”
With NASCAR’s domestic mainstays looking to downsize support in light of financial woes, it might seem like a good time for other foreign manufacturers to follow Toyota into the fray and take advantage of a possible power vacuum. But representatives from several overseas automakers contacted by the Press say that you won’t be seeing their cars at the Daytona 500 or any other NASCAR race in the foreseeable future. “I don’t see us investing money toward gasoline-powered racing right now,” said Clark Campbell, motorsports manager for Volkswagen of America. “Unless they’re going to start allowing turbos and diesels into NASCAR, we wouldn’t even be thinking of it right now.”
The ways the stars are aligning, it isn’t out of the question. Mark Martin is off to Hendrick Motorsports next year. There is much speculation about Martin Truex Jr. leaving for another team in 2009. Reports have linked Paul Menard with a possible move to Yates Racing, taking father John’s home improvement chain sponsorship with him. And DEI has been unsuccessful finding full-time sponsorship for Regan Smith. The only driver who seems completely secure for 2009 is Aric Almirola.
I don’t understand why NASCAR hasn’t yet figured out a better way to deal with qualifying rainouts. Magically, you can qualify Nationwide and Craftsman Truck teams just hours before they race. But reschedule Cup qualifying with a two-day window? Impossible!
Front Row Motorsports actually found sponsorship from Weber Grill. You think the Weber marketing crowd is feeling giddy about pursuing the next step after being jettisoned without even getting a qualifying lap?
NHRA
The seven-time Top Fuel winner opened qualifying at NHRA drag racing’s most prestigious race by clocking a lap of 3.913 seconds at 303.43 mph.
NHRA
Antron Brown opened qualifying at the 54th running of NHRA drag racing’s marquee event, the U.S. Nationals, in the provisional No. 16 qualifying position.
worldraalypics
Duval set out cautiously this morning with a comfortable gap between himself and sixth placed Urmo Aava. Struggling a little with the feeling in his car the Belgian made some small changes to his Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC07 at midday service and set out strong this afternoon with two top-six fastest stage times.
worldrallypics
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team lies first and second after a gripping second day of Rally New Zealand that ended with four drivers covered by less than 16sec going into tomorrow’s final leg.
“It’s been pretty much our Achilles’ heel all year for us to make that good qualifying pass early in the weekend. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can now try to tune it up to make some more good, quick and consistent passes down the track the rest of the weekend.”
