Monday, December 04, 2006

The end of the season...

And the start of something new The amount of disinterest I held for The Chase this year was rather, well...it was boring. Yes, Lil E and JG made it in. But we knew they wouldn't win. Neither of them had it on this year. Good, as always, just not WOW. Even the Champ Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth put on a slightly ho-hum show as they closed in on the final races. The stories I wanted to watch (Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton) while intriguing in their novelty, just didn't do it for me. Of course, the Saturday afternoon Cup Series that was the weekly prelude to the Sunday Cup event did nothing to spur my interest either.Let's just say that I'm glad it's over. And there's so much coming! 2007 is the season of interest. Toyota, immigrants from the IRL series, veterans taking it slow...leaving Mr. Gordon to look ever more like the elder statesman. (Mike Waltrip will never earn that accolade). The much debated Car of Tomorrow will take its bow. And right now Goodyear is trying to stave off a very ugly invasion by Hoosier. Goodyear might lose their contract if they can't settle a strike with the Steel Workers Union (it took me a moment to figure that out...until I remembered steel belted radial tires..ah! Steel!)On the local scenes...Mike Dillon won the BGNE series with Sean Caisse giving him a run for the money. Sean is young and very eager...too eager if you remember his debut in a Busch car at Dover. Patience Grasshopper It will come. However, fighting off the seasoned new-comers to NASCAR from other top flight racing series will be no easy task. The bar just went astronomically higher.Rousch...with Mark Martin stepping out and heading over to the competition, who will lead the garage? Biffle? Kenseth? Neither of them strike me as a spokesman for their fellow drivers. Edwards...maybe. But who's gonna listen to him? MacMurray? Nope. Also, the deal for selling half the team to the Red Sox fell through when the head office decided to bid for that ritzy Japanese pitcher. Things don't look so good to me.Hendrick...smart move inviting Casey Mears on over. Well, that's all for now. No, I don't have comments about drivers in tuxes. They don't belong in them. I'll try to start blogging more consistently, but other endeavors have distracted me, and as I said, there wasn't a whole lot to be said again Catch ya later!