March12th2007

THE WEEKLY SMACK BY DJ RADANOVICH
MARCH 12TH, 2007

Jimmie Johnson won his third consecutive Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Sunday beating out
fellow teammate Jeff Gordon to the stripe. Gordon dominated most of the race but came home
2nd after Jeff Burton and JJ flew past him. Burton was strong at the end of the race but
something went wrong with the Cingular Wireless #31 Chevy and Burton finished 15th. After a
lap 251 caution for Kasey Kahne, Burton took his car down pit road while it was closed and Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. followed. Earnhardt, Jr. did not see the red light and the penalty cost him a top 5
as he came home 11th. Others began to follow them down pit road but the were able to get back
on the track before they reached the commit cone. Bad mistake by Jr but it could have been
worse. Besides that, the race was pretty uneventful despite several caution periods for the
multiple wrecks.

For the record: Casey Mears is upset with Robby Gordon again as the two tangled going into
turn one early in the race. But upon further review, it appeared to me as if Gordon had the
inside lane and Mears just lost it. But, that's my opinion. Mears is in a pressure cooker ride now
that he drives for Rick Hendrick and he has to blame someone. It seems that Hendrick will never
ever be able to replace the original #25 superstar he had in Tim Richmond.

Even though Dale Jr. made a critical error, the DEI group had a pretty good race as Jr. finished
11th and Martin Truex Jr. finished 12th. Paul Menard finished four laps down in 32nd after a late
race spin.

Right after the green flag dropped, I asked my pals Scotty and Davis how long it would take
Kasey Kahne to crash. Whenever Kahne is strong at a track it never fails, he'll crash out. Things
may be looking up for Kasey as he did last 251 laps before backing it into the turn two wall.

My kudos of the race goes to Bobby Labonte. He started 42nd, kept his nose clean and brought
the Richard Petty flagship home 12th. Another "older...Budweiser" driver Sterling Marlin had a
great run going but the engine went south during the Kasey Kahne caution on lap 251. Marlin
spent the majority of the day in the top 10. Who says these guys are "too old"?

Last but not least, NASCAR took another thump, but not as bad as the previous two races, as the
Nielsen TV ratings slipped 3.1% from last years Las Vegas race. So far this year, NASCAR's TV
rations have slipped almost 12%, not a good sign for NASCAR. One good thing though is at least
this race sold out. I believe there are two major reasons for NASCAR's demise: 1) the tracks
they run and 2) the drivers themselves. Let me improvise on number one; every time NASCAR
wants to build a new track they want to "model" that new track after an existing facility. The track
proposed in Washington State is to be modeled after the Kansas Speedway. Why? We already
have a Kansas. We now have two Michigan's (California being the other), several Charlotte's,
and now they want another Kansas? Get real NASCAR. The reason people bitch about
Rockingham and North Wilkesboro closing is not because they want to diversify NASCAR and
have a track in every area of the country, it's because these tracks were unique in their own way.
As my pal Scotty pointed out Sunday, that what makes Darlington so special. NASCAR has too
many cookie cutter tracks and these tracks aren't anything special like the ones they have
forgotten about. Now let's look at today's NASCAR drivers. The drivers NASCAR produces today
have little or no character whatsoever! NASCAR doesn't produce drivers like Harry Gant
anymore, or folks like Benny Parsons, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, and so on.
This new generation of drivers seriously lack character and here's why - the struggle of life
determines your character, and I believe that few of these folks have had many struggles. Think
back to the early days of Darrell Waltrip. Darrell spent his wedding money to rent a car to race at
Salem Speedway. If he won the race we would have enough money to pay the rent on the car
and rent it again the following week. And yes, he did win and the rest is history from there. Now
take Jamie McMurray for example, is this how he was raised racing or did his family buy their way
into the sport? I really can't bash the guy though as NASCAR has swayed the camera's away from
the drivers and onto the multiple commercials that bore us to death.

OK, enough of NASCAR, on to some other news. Steve Kinser won his 534th career World of
Outlaw win as he took home the checkered at the USA Raceway Park in Tucson, Arizona March
2nd. The one question I have for Steve if I ever get to meet the guy is what keeps this 52 year
old going after so many years? He can't accomplish much more in the sport than h already has,
so what's his motivator?

Rookie Matt Hawkins won the Sears Auto Centers 200 at Lakeland, FL. in his first career start in
Hooters Cup. Not a bad beginning to a promising career for this young man from Canton, GA.

Well that's all for this week but stay tuned as the racing season starts in 19 days! We'll be at
Midway Speedway in Crooksville, OH to take in our first race of the year and our first race there.
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