Flashman's Take

The NASCAR Hall of Fame nominations usually make me yawn. Year after year, mostly because of the Hall’s policy of only naming a few to the Hall and the fact that it includes drivers, owners, mechanics, and the front office people, it seems that those truly deserving of getting in the Hall aren’t accepted.

The old joke is that I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. Well, Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway wasn’t that bad, but it seems the little skirmish between Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears seems to have taken away from what was a fantastic finish.

We now have seven different winners in seven races. I’m sure no one at the sanctioning body dreamed this would happen, but it did, and I’m sure we will see repeat winners as the season goes along. The trouble is Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kasey Khane, Clint Bowyer, and a couple of surprises haven’t won.

It’s hard to judge a season by two races, especially if one race is at Daytona and the other is Phoenix, two tracks that are atypical of the rest of the series. One is a restrictor plate track where almost anyone can win and the other a quirky one-miler with flat corners.

When the powers that be began to announce what we already know—that NASCAR was going to change the Chase to have excitement equal a “seventh game moment,” but that won’t happen unless there is violence.

It has been a week since I headed for Charlotte and the 2014 edition of the Sprint Media Tour Presented by Charlotte Motor Speedway. I’ve waited until now to digest all of it and come away with an opinion of the events.

Day Three of the Sprint Media Tour concluded with visits by Front Row Motorsports, the Wood Brothers racing team and Team Penske. It was all a part of Ford Day at the four-day program.

Day three of the Sprint Media Tour concluded with Team Penske. Penske’s lineup is somewhat different this year. Returning members are 2012 Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney. Blaney will split his time between the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series in 2014.

I didn’t think much of it and it has nothing to do with who did or did not win the championship. I couldn’t care less about that. Once upon a time, winning races mattered, but today it’s the Chase from February until November.

The racing at Martinsville Speedway this weekend was a refreshing as a dip in a West Virginia lake in the month of February. The collective fan base woke up, dried itself off and became interested again. Funny how a short track does that.