April5th2007

THE WEEKLY SMACK BY DJ RADANOVICH
APRIL 5TH, 2007

Jimmie Johnson won again at Martinsville as the Rick Hendrick racing stables continue to
dominate the early part of the 2007 season. I'm not quite sure what these teams have figured out
this year, but it won't be long before the rest of the pack gets wind of it. Tradition tells me that
those who start the year off strong kind of fizzle out towards the end. However, this may not be
the case for the well prepared Hendrick's cars.

On to better things here, Greg Wilson picked up the season opener at Attica this week in the
410's as Bryan Sebetto picked up the 305 feature and Larry Kingseed won the Late Model A main.
Wilson was passed by Lee Jacobs on a lap nine restart and in victory lane Greg had this to say
"When Lee drove around me, I gotta be honest, it scared the crap out of me. But I remember the
plaque in front of that treadmill I was on all winter..."Never, Never, Never Give Up," and this team
won't." If that's not inspiration for ya, I don't know what is. Kudos to Greg on winning his 15th
Attica feature and never giving up. I like that in a driver, refuse to lose. Unfortunately the Attica
Coors Light Spring Nationals slated for this weekend has been cancelled due to the ridiculous
weather we have here in Ohio. That really sucks because I was pumped for this weekend. Oh
well, there will be other races. Midway Speedway opened their doors this week as well with
Mark Banal bringing home the Late Model feature and Michael Douglas winning the UMP
Modified feature. Attica and Midvale have already cancelled for this weekend and I'm sure all
the others will cancel as well.

More news... this past Saturday's Canton Repository had an article on Randy and Sue Smith's
dream of building a racetrack at the empty Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton. The track would
be a 1/3rd mile and seat around 5,000 fans and could start up by spring of 2008 if he gets the
green flag to purchase the vacant stadium. Randy and Sue appear to have some of that ugly
political yellow tape to get through, but I'm sure they will bring a big pair of scissors to the fight.
If anyone can get this to swing it's Randy, the guy is a pretty sharp cookie, but I'm sure city
politicians will make his battle tough. I remember back when my pops, Funky Chunky, flagged at
the old Canton Motor Speedway and the city complained that they could hear the cars racing
while the National Anthem was playing at the baseball games. Boo Hoo. Racing is not a crime,
it's a way of life, but not in the eyes of the city officials of the time. Beyond their goal of getting a
track in Canton once again, I have mixed emotions on the deal. Yes, I would love nothing more
than going to a racetrack within ten minutes of my house, but the big picture tells me otherwise.
I remember in the mid to late 80's when Canton and Midvale both ran on Saturday's and both
tracks struggled to get the cars they desired. Midvale tried to run on Friday's one year, and then
on Sunday's the next. Both tracks tried to adjust the rules to get cars to run at both places, but
it never seemed to work out. Canton went on to close and that solved the problem for Midvale,
for a while. In the 90's Midvale did struggle to get a decent Late Model field but their numbers
have grown in the past few years. When Mansfield opened and ran their weekly program they
eventually took cars away from Lorain and they closed early last season. Mansfield has since
dumped their weekly program and Lorain will be open for business again this year. Depending
on what program the Smith's plan on running, I believe that it will have adverse effects on the
other tracks operating in the region, like Midvale, Barberton, and Lorain County. Midvale did
have a strong field of Late Models last year and they should benefit from Mansfield dropping
their weekly program, but another local track would hurt. Exactly how bad no one knows until it
happens. But if history repeats itself, one of these tracks could suffer the same fate Lorain did
with the Mansfield deal. Now this is strictly my opinion but I do truly believe that Mansfield did
take away from Lorain, unintentionally of course, that's just where the drivers preferred to race.
I would rather see a few tracks with a strong field of cars than many tracks with a few cars, once
again though, my opinion. The one thing I would love to see is though is more travelling series
at some of these tracks mentioned above. Last year Lorain did have the ASA Late Model Series
and the MSA Super Modifieds, but the others failed to bring variety to the weekly program.
When I talk with race fans across northeastern Ohio that's one common complaint they all seem
to have - no variety at their local racetracks. How about bringing the ASA Late Models to town,
or the ARCA Trucks, maybe the CRA Super Series, or even the USAC midgets. I remember when
Barberton ran a Thursday Night Thunder midget race back in the late 80's and that place was
packed to the gills. It was one of the memorable night for me and I'll never forget it. We need
some variety in our racing diet. I'll end it with this, best of luck Randy and Sue, I just hope this is
a win-win situation for all.

Due to the emails I have received about the Weekly Power Rankings for NASCAR, I guess I have
to continue it. I did it just for fun for one week and apperently folks liked it, so here we go again!

1. Jimmie Johnson - Off to one of the best starts in recent memory.
2. Jeff Gordon - He would have dumped anyone but his lover.
3. Jeff Burton - One spot from another top 5 and is running strong.
4. Matt Kenseth - Battled all day for tenth.
5. Kyle Busch - Driving in deep and three wide? This will catch up with him sooner or later.
6. Denny Hamlin - Ran strong all day and came home third.
7. Clint Bowyer - Finished 11th, could have been worse.
8. Tony Stewart - Eighth in points with 2 DNF's, he's running pretty good.
9. Jamie McMurray - Biggest leap in the rankings, is running better than expected.
10. Carl Edwards - A modest 17th this week but appears to be slipping a little.
11. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - This team appears to be a more focused each week be needs to practice
their rain dance a little more.
12. Kevin Harvick - Stupid issue with safety foam catching fire and fuel pump issue. Going the
wrong way.
13. David Stremme - First race outside of the top 20 this season but still a good year so far.
14. Mark Martin - Missed two races yet he's still 15th in points. Hot dog!
15. Elliott Sadler - Like Harvick, he's going the wrong way.
16. Juan Montoya - He's not making many friends, but he's doing what he's supposed to.
17. JJ Yeley - Finished 23rd but I think this team is headed in the right direction.
18. Kurt Busch - Started 12th, finished 12th, trying to salvage a bad start to the year.
19. David Ragan - Not doing so bad replacing Martin, team needs time to mesh.
20. Ryan Newman - The Penske teams are struggling but for how long? Has had some mechanical
issues hinder his season.