Random thoughts while debating the merits of a banana and mayonnaise sandwich.
So this is how you know it’s a slow news day: Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted a picture of the above-mentioned monstrosity. The tweet got nearly 2,500 likes and 1,400 retweets. For a nasty sandwich. Of course, one of Jr. Motorsports sponsors is Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Otherwise, you know he gets down with Duke’s, just like every other self-respecting Southerner.
Anyway, NBCSports wrote a story on the tweet about the sandwich. Remember when I wrote that column a couple weeks ago about NASCAR Twitter? I take back all the nice things I said.
Werner is the official ladder of cutting down the nets. They signed a contract with the NCAA saying as such. No telling how much money they paid for that. There is also an official scissor and mop. And student-athletes get in trouble for selling game-worn stuff or taking a meal. That sounds fair.
Am I the only one who picks up some tension between Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon in the Fox booth?
I was at Martinsville when Earnhardt made the announcement about donating his brain for concussion research when he dies. Four years ago, he was sidelined for two races after suffering two concussions. Very noble step since there is much left to learn about brain injuries.
The NASCAR Camping World Trucks have run three races in 2016 thanks to their very weird schedule (two races then a month off, one race and then a month off before races three straight weeks). The top four in points may have two full-time sponsors between them. John Hunter Nemechek leads the points with his family-owned blank truck. Parker Kligerman is second, three points back, then Timothy Peters (who does drive for a big team, but has had blank panels this year), then Tyler Young, driving for family-owned and sponsored by same team.
Nemechek has a win. Kligerman is the only driver in the series to finish in the top 10 in all three races. The sad thing for these two is that they are having great starts, but neither may be around to see the end of it. Nemechek is locked into the truck chase if he attempts all the races. That is as bit in doubt because the team may not have to the money to go to the next race in Kansas. Kligerman is a little more secure. His team is committed to running the first six races of the year. Without more funding, their early-season success may be squandered.
Despite the financial woes, this is what I like about the truck series. Kligerman’s team, RBR Enterprises, is based in Cerro Gordo, North Carolina and has a grand total of three full-time employees. But still they have come out every week and run with the big teams like GMS and Thorsport. Pretty badass.
I would be a bit remiss this week if I didn’t say something about the man who got me into racing cars when I was a little kid.
Before I knew about NASCAR, I knew about little tracks like Florence and Caraway because that’s where my uncle Tracy raced old Pontiacs and Buicks (that had a hand with an outstretched middle finger painted on them). Smart enough to know what his car would do but crazy enough not to care, he had a little bit of success driving cars built by my other uncles.
I mention this today because my uncle Tracy turned 50 this past Monday. He has hit some hard times lately, but I still look back at those days more than 30 years ago when I got to play with real racecars and watch someone I knew go race.
Andy Cagle, a former spokesman for Rockingham Speedway and motorsports public relations consultant, writes about NASCAR in a weekly column.