Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

NASCAR needs Bill Clinton…and a few thoughts on Stewart and Busch

Disputed drug test results, lawyers, lawsuits, conspiracy theories and even accusations of murder. The Jeremy Mayfield vs. NASCAR vs. Jeremy Mayfield saga is looking more and more like a low-rent reality TV show from some obscure cable television channel.

Face it; we won’t know who will be kicked off the island until this case suffers through years of legal wrangling. Well, forget that! This thing needs to be resolved now! It’s time to bring in Bill Clinton.

Look, you’ve got to admit that he’s good with people. If he can facilitate an agreement with North Korea’s tinhorn, nuke-wielding, crackpot, big-haired dictator who suffers from short-man syndrome, then he certainly can deal with a conspiratorial Sprint Cup driver, his high priced lawyer and the army of legal minds that represent NASCAR. Who knows, maybe Clinton can even get Mayfield’s B urine sample that’s held hostage released to an independent lab for a definitive test.

OK, let’s get serious now. Two news items from this week caught my attention. First, Tony Stewart admitted on Wednesday that Stewart-Haas racing most likely will not expand to a third team in 2010. Smart move. There’s really no reason for Stewart to do that now, especially in this economic climate. Isn’t rapid expansion what has gotten so many people and corporations into trouble in the first place? “… we’re not going to have them (extra teams) just for the sake of having them. We want to make sure we’re running well before we add a third team and have all three running well before we add a fourth,” said Stewart in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday.

Second, on Aug. 4, Kyle Busch told members of the media that he won’t be driving in the Nationwide Series full time in 2010. This is also a smart move. In order to grab the Sprint Cup, Kyle needs to focus like a laser beam (another Bill Clinton reference) on his performance in the top series. OK, we know he’s young and has boundless energy, but running in so many races has got to take its toll. “…we’re already talking about next year and cutting it back and getting our Cup efforts back up to where they need to be,” Busch said on Tuesday.

Here are the results from two recent polls on this blog. The Aug. 3 poll asked if Pocono should continue to have two races in a season. Thirty eight percent said yes and 61 percent said no. A July 24 poll asked if Danica Patrick should make the move to Sprint Cup. Fifty Eight percent said yes and 41 percent said no.

Finally, the Sprint Cup cars hit the turns of Watkins Glen this weekend. As you may have guessed, I like racing. I like it so much I’ll even watch lawn mower racing. But I have to admit that I haven’t always been a fan of watching stock cars on a road course. The ovals always seemed to be the proper place for stock cars, but eventually my purist attitude changed. Over time I’ve come to look forward to the two road course races each season. I’m just hoping that we see a performance on Sunday that rivals the great race we saw at Infineon earlier this season.

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