YAWN.....Did anyone on the East Coast Care about CaliBOREnia's Race?

What a yawner. The Cup race at CaliBOREnia was uninteresting, unexciting and unbearably boring. The only thing the COT has brought to racing is little passing and little racing. Who didn't know that Jimmie Johnson was tapped for the win after 2 days of hype by the racing analysts that 'no one has ever won from the pole'.....Hopefully Richmond will be better this weekend. And, how about all those empty seats in California? Darlington NEVER had that problem on Labor Day Weekend. NASCAR blew off a lot of fans when they destroyed the tradition of a Labor Day Race at the Track Too Tough to Tame. What IDIOT thought that moving that race to California was a great idea? Bet they're last name is France....

Tony Stewart MUST Make Savvy Decisions for New Teams' Crews

At last Tony Stewart will be back in a Chevrolet--something long-time Stewart and Chevy fans are quite happy about. With the recent announcement that Ryan Newman will drive the second Hass-Stewart NASCAR Cup car in 2009, the next question becomes exactly who Stewart will hire to manage the teams and crew the cars. Rumors surfaced this morning that Darien Grubb, a Rick Hendrick engineering manager for the #5 and 88 cars, would be hired as a manager for the new teams.

Tony Stewart needs to put the right folks in place with his new teams. Hiring a Rick Hendrick Racing (RHR) employee might sound good from the outside, but hopefully Tony will be smart enough NOT to let a fox run his henhouse. The relationship with RHR concerning the engines that RHR has provided Haas in the past is troublesome enough; adding a RHR employee in the mix to run things could prove to be a very bad move if that employee has RHR interests at heart and not the interests of Tony Stewart.

Smoke needs to be cautious in adding the best folks he can find. Go back several years to when Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) dominated the restrictor-plate tracks. Then, DEI hired former RHR employee Richie Gilmore, and over the next few years RHR racing became proficient in restrictor plate racing. Hmmmmmmm...... no connection there, eh? And no one seemed to connect those dots.

There IS no such thing as 'Coincidence.'

Be careful, Tony. Some of us already don't trust that your team will get comparable engines to those that the 24 and 48 get....after all, the 88 and 5 RHR teams don't get the cream of the crop in engine work. Why would RHR give something that good to someone who is one of the best racers in NASCAR--especially when he's not on their team? Stay tuned....