I hate weekends like this,

[Lee]

No Winston Cup race to watch, although I fully understand and suppoet the drivers, and crews need for a weekend off now and then. Thank God there is a Busch Grand National, and a Craftsman Truck race to fill the void, or it would be a mighty boring weekend with no racing to watch.
Everyone have a good weekend.

[Joe Fan]

I hear you Lee loud and clear. This is why it is good to be a fan of all motorsports because the IRL, CART and F1 all race this weekend. I am aware of your lack of interest in open wheel racing but maybe you could just pretend that all these open wheel races consist of cars that have all had a tough time at Bristol.

P.S. this break gave me a chance to pull out some of my old tapes. I watched Adam Petty's first ASA win and Kenny Irwin's first Winston Cup start at Richmond.

[Lee]

Joe,
I have both Adam Petty's ASA win and Kenny Irwin's first Cup race on tape as well. For some reason, I just don't have the desire to watch them yet. I'll be honest, I was disappointed with Kenny Irwin, the way he started out, running in his first couple of races in Cup, I thought he was going to really show something. For whatever the reason, he didn't. Still, I think he might have eventually been a big star. Now, unfortunatly, we'll never know. As for Adam Petty, what can be said? That one hurt more than anyone will ever know. The kid was so full of promise and potential. Was so much like Richard when he was starting out. I believe he would have been the one that would have returned Petty Enterprises to its former glory. Now, just an empty void. At 19, that kid touched alot of lifes. Both of these losses are a great blow to racing. I don't know, I think, on second thought, I might just erase those two tapes, no amount of watching them will bring Adam or Kenny back. Sorry I rambled about this so much.
Anyway, as I said, the Busch and Truck series both race this weekend, so I'll have plenty of racing to watch. Although your analogy of pretending that various open-wheel cars having a hard night at Bristol was quite funny, I got a good chuckle out of it, I'm sorry, I just simply cannot muster up any intrest, what so ever, in open-wheel racing. As stated in past threads, way too many years of hard feelings, being insulted, anamosities, discrimination, and dislikes to even attempt to overcome. I'm quite happy watching and supporting the various stock car series, different NASCAR Touring series, ARCA, ASA, etc. I have no like, desire, or need for cart, irl, f-1 etc.
Anyway, Hope you have a good weekend, enjoy whatever form of racing you choose to watch, and above all, be careful and safe.

Lee

[Heeltoe6]

Look on the bright side Lee. Next year, one of these two July off weekend will be filled with Joliet or Kansas(can't remember which).

As for Irwin, like Ernie Irvan in his last yeay with RYR, Irwin got the shaft form Yates, as far as equipment, personel, attention, everything like that. The 88 was the main concern of RYR.

[Lee]

Heeltoe6,
How are you doing today? Yes, bright side for us, the fans, however I don't think too many drivers and teams will look at it that way. They need the breaks, the crews especially. I don't know about wheather Yates was giving him junk or not. Yates said that he wanted the 28 team to run like it had in the past. I think a big part of it might have been the departure of Larry McReynolds. He is great for bringing a young driver along. I think Rudd has good equipment, and I think he will win, he's overdue now.
Well, take care, and have a good day.

[Heeltoe6]

Yeah, losing LarryMac was big, and wasn't good either side it looks like. How may cc's did Irwin go through, at least two. The lack of chemistry was probably the biggest factor.

Anways, you're right, the 28 is back to old form, and only circumstance is preventing Rudd from winning now

[Joe Fan]

To Irwin's defense, Rudd brought over some of his better people and cars to the #28 team. The #28 team was pretty much a 10-15th place car before Irwin got there and I thought he did a great job in 1999 finishing 19th in the points. This was one of the reasons why I was ****ed that Yates parted ways with Kenny. Robert Yates, from what I heard, never really wanted a young inexperienced driver in the first place but that is what Texaco wanted. Yates was upset with Kenny's partying and felt he needed to dedicate himself more to the sport in 1998. This created a little bit of a riff between Robert and Kenny but from what I had heard, they left on good terms. Kenny wanted better equipment and people and Robert said that he couldn't meet his wishes.

I do think that in 1998, Dale got the best equipment because a rookie wasn't expected to compete for a championship. In 1999, Yates split up the teams in an effort to improve the operation. I am not sure how this would improve the operation other than making each teams efforts more independent of each other thereby creating more inter-team competitiveness. I think too that splitting up the teams allowed Ford to splip more money into the #88 operation to improve it and make it more of a contender without the #28 team complaining. Texaco isn't a big spender from what I heard but Yates has stuck with Texaco out of loyalty. I think if the #28 team is ever in the hunt for a championship late in the season, Texaco would open their wallet to help get the job done.

[Heeltoe6]

Just going along with the subject, this popped into my head. In 97, I think it was the 2nd race at MIS, Ernie and DJ were going to pit together. Yates ordered Ernie to pit, and promised DJ would follow, but Ernie comes down put roiad, and the 88 continues on the track for another lap or so. ESPN was spliced inot Ernie's radio audio, he was not happy.

[Lee]

In DJ's defense, could it have been his crew chief telling him to make another lap? Most, if not all drivers will do what a crew chief tells them to do. Not saying this was the case, but is it a possibility?

[Heeltoe6]

Yeah, no doubt it was Todd Parrot, that's typical of the **** he pulls. Not blaming DJ by any means. But Parrot, whoa, won't even start on him

[Heeltoe6]

Man, this censor is really sensitive. It was just c--r--a--p