Auto racing and Baseball are my two passions in life, when it comes to professional sports. While I’ll tune into a football game or cheer for my Raptors, nothing drives me (pardon that pun) as much as auto racing and baseball. I sometimes wonder why I’m fascinated by these two sports, and not by, hockey, for example. I mean, what red-blooded Canadian doesn’t live for hockey? There aren’t many of us. I grew up playing hockey. I even achieved some level of success until came the day that I hung my skates up. You’d think my enthusiasm for the sport would carry over as a fan. I do have my Ottawa Senators to cheer for and I grew up attending many games with my folks. I never once attended an auto race with them. Motorsports was simply not a topic in my household, not for any other reason than my parents didn’t grow up on it, so why would I? As for baseball, I have always been so happy that my father made me play the game as a kid. At the time, I wanted to play soccer and many hockey players played soccer in the summer to keep up the cardio. But for some reason, my father made me play baseball. Once I got into the game, I could never go back to anything else. Some of my most pleasant memories as a child was going to Montreal to see the Expos with my dad. Montreal is about an hour and a half away from Ottawa, so getting there was no problem I don’t know if he realizes how much those trips meant to me.

Anyway, this ain’t Bridges of Madison County, so I’ll end the sentimental stuff and focus on the topic at hand. Why do I love baseball and autoracing so much? I think I figured I out. Both sports are actually very similar.

Both are the ultimate team sport. You can hit as many homeruns in a game as possible, yet its impossible for the team to win without strong pitching and the other 8 members on the team performing well enough to give you as many at-bats as possible to hit all those dingers. You can be the fastest natural driver in the world, have the absolute best instincts on the road, yet its all moot without a great pit stop crew, clever mechanics and great engineers. While its certainly a thrill watching Michael Jordan take over a basketball game, or Wayne Gretzky score all those goals, there’s something about an individual being able to beat the opposing team by himself that urks me a little.

Yet at the same time, both auto racing and baseball come down to individual battles. In baseball, its mano a mano, as the pitcher faces the batter. Pitcher wants to strike him out and the batter wants anything but a strike out. A stick and a ball. It couldn’t be simpler in a very complicated and intricate game. With racing, it’s a battle with the driver in front of you, or behind you. All that horsepower, all that technology behind the vehicles and it still comes down to a mano a mano battle between two drivers. Two super athletes going at it inside a souped up racecar.

Both sports are incredibly simple despite their complicated structure. Both sport represent the perfect mix of individual prowess and team effort. You can be a great baseball player or a great driver, but you can’t be a champion without an excellent team riding with you. (second pun!)
Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!

Still waiting on the fate of Long Beach and its getting harder by the day. Someone make a decision! And the right one! With everything on the line for Long Beach, should Champ Car continue to race there next year, there are a few things that need to be improved. The first and foremost is something that Mr. Jim Michaelian brought up, and that is the fact that there is no other race for 5 weeks following the GPLB. It is difficult to have this premiere event, draw people in and then tell them to wait 5 weeks until the next show. We live in a society where attention span is at an all time low and we need constant reminders of our product. Set up one race prior to Long Beach and then another two weeks after Long Beach. Although I like the set up of having a couple of races in the Spring, full time summer schedule, and a couple of races in the Fall. I just think that we can’t have LB on its own like that. It needs a little brother to follow its act. Hopefully something is in the works for 2006.

By the way, the first installment of ‘Overheard At the Track’ is now in the hands of the people who have the power to air it on the website. It should now be a matter of moments before it goes up there. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do it. Here we have this ultra-pro motorsports website with instant updates, knowledgeable writers pumping out daily, informative stories and just about anything anyone would ever want. How the heck are you going to throw in some guy dubbing voices over completely meaningless track footage? Hee. Should be interesting. Oh, and my apologies to those who expect it, but I thought I should warn you right now. I don’t have any footage of Jimmy. He was already on track by the time I got there and I never saw him. I’ll work on that from now on.

Alright, I gotta go complete the second installment. There will likely be a total of three ‘Overheards’, so keep checking the website for the latest ones. I’ll also try and post a link here. But you know me and the Internet, we don’t always get along. You want proof? Ask the travel department at Champ Car. Seems I can’t even book a simple Toronto-Milwaukee round trip online without ending with several tickets in my name, most of them going everywhere else BUT Milwaukee. Its quickly becoming a nice, little tradition this year: I try and book online, screw it up severely and get a phone call from Champ Car the next day wondering what the heck I was doing. I’m all for traditions, so I expect this one to continue.
Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!

NASCAR NATION. PART 2: The Scary Part

Anybody wanna come to the Subway 500? Or maybe the Sharpie 500? Food City 500? Darn, we just missed the Samsung/RadioShack 500. maybe next year.

I’m all for sponsorship. Sponsorship makes the world (or in this case, the cars) go round. But come on! Seldom to I associate my meatball subway sandwich with an autoracing. While they have kept the Daytona 500 name intact, down the road there is the Pepsi 400. Not to mention the Coca-Cola 600. What worries me, is that in their effort to expand their market and bring in a wider audience across America, they have taken some of the tradition and integrity of the sport away, but shilling to all these willing candidates. They aren’t the only one’s doing it, that’s for sure. The Rexall center? The new Rogers Center in Toronto. Same sort of idea, but nobody seems to be able to do it like NASCAR can. Seeing Jeff Gordon finish a 500 mile race, completely dehydrated and having to take a swig of pepsi as soon as he gets out of the car is kind of gross. I mean, nothing against Pepsi. But its not meant for marathon runners.

My gut feeling is that because of all these endorsements, coming from every sector of the free market, the sport is slowly getting that carnival/circus feel to it. And while it continues to expand for the moment, eventually people may stop seeing it as a real motorsport and simply as a product-placement circus where sponsors are bombarded down our throats by the announcers and by graphics on the screen. I never had a big problem with auto companies sponsoring events, or car-related products. But Sharpie? Isn’t it only a matter of time before it’s the King Burger 500 Formerly known as the Daytona 500?

I know, every sport does it. Golf, tennis, whatever other sport that has weekend events are usually called something that has absolutely nothing to do with the sport in question. But do they do it as much as NASCAR? Again, great marketing on NASCAR. They completely utilize the fact that Gordon is sponsored by Pepsi and that Pepsi is the primary sponsor of a race at Daytona, therefore Coca-cola needs to step up their game and become a big sponsor themselves. Home Depot on Stewart? Well, I’m sure Lowe’s can counter that. Look, they just did! Its internal competition and the winner is NASCAR. I just hope that there is a limit to this madness, or at the very least they don’t lose focus on the purity of stockcar racing in America. Or to put it in more prophetic terms: the soul of the sport.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, every reporter and fan suggests that Champ Cars need more primary sponsors. Very true. Champ Car is in a tight situation where nobody seems to want to touch the product on account of its dicey past. They’ll come back, but it may be for a few years yet. Once they realize that it’s a completely independent company from the one that was once known as CART, they’ll come back. For the time being though, what Champ Car needs to do (and has been doing) is focus on the city they are going too and attract local sponsors on the cars and in the title of the race. Champ Car’s biggest advantage is the fans in attendance at the races. No question about that. Local merchants love that kind of publicity. It’s a lot more difficult for the marketing department over at RusSport to try and attract a different sponsor for every race to be placed on AJ’s car. But right now, it’s a necessity for the series. A few can have the luxury of having a big sponsor on their cars for the entire year (I’m looking at you Bourdais!), but until that time comes, they need to hit the local merchant of the upcoming race and show them the benefit of having their product on the sidepods for the weekend or in the title sponsor of the event. It looks like its something some have been exploring the last couple of seasons and I am betting the returns for both the series and the merchant are worth it.
Champ Car baby! Champ Car for life!!

NASCAR NATION

Second most watched sport in the United States. Number one sport in Attendance, billion dollar contract renewal with the networks, can NASCAR do anything wrong? As it stands right now, there were 200 thousand people in Texas last week and a 150 grand in Bristol not too long ago. Had Texas put 100 thousand more seats, then one hundred thousand more people would have showed up. Forget about the fact that there is another race there later in the season. This is NASCAR country and nobody is stopping it. Literally.

The sport is growing exponentially at an alarming rate. It’s the biggest cult phenom in the United States. Wherever you go, you have to watch NASCAR when it’s on television and attend a race when it comes to within 100 miles of where you live. What happen? What happen to the southern regional sport that drew local die-hard fans? All of a sudden NASCAR is experiencing the highest ratings they’ve ever gotten for the Daytona 500 in New York City and Los Angeles?? This wasn’t supposed to be the case. This was a good old boys club. Football is a religion. Baseball is a tradition. NASCAR? It’s quickly creeping up on both of those and etching its own market and niche.

There are countless factors as to why this happened and some are likely more accurate than others. Lots of crashes, a new breed of American heroes lost in other sports through scandals and bad behavior, great marketing, good racing. All these warrant some attention. Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise? Hey, you never know. Could have helped. The Brickyard 400 where Jeff Gordon won the inaugural event? The split between the IRL and Champ Car, leaving the market open for NASCAR to grab? Maybe. But the bottom line is that NASCAR is able to get hundred of thousands in attendance and many millions more on television to watch big stocky cars go around a track at good, but not incredible speeds for 500 miles!! Many of the NASCAR races take up to 4 and a half hours to complete. That is longer than two basketball games! And in that 4 and a half you can bet a good chunk of it is yellow flag caution period, with cars slowly following the pace car around the track.

Is it the new breed of American heroes that parents all across the States were seeking for their kids? An interesting aspect of NASCAR is the hush hush on salaries and sponsorship deals. Its no secret they make big money. But the exact amount is not usually displayed publicly. The closest we got recently was with the divorce of Jeff Gordon, with his wife threatening to go public with the NASCAR money being thrown around. For what it’s worth, it was estimated that Jeff makes about 1.2 million a month. For a hard working adult to turn on SportScenter and watch as some whiny basketball player complaining about his multi-million dollar salary, then to hear of a free agent in baseball who is seeking whichever team is offering more money or to witness what a quarterback in the NFL got as a signing bonus, its not always easy to digest. In NASCAR, you don’t hear much about money. And to top it all off, these drivers are putting their life on the line every race. Watching the highlights of a baseball game, I seldom worry if the second basemen will survive the game.

NASCAR will have no trouble with steroids, naturally. Aside from the Jeff Gordon divorce from a couple of years back, you don’t hear many drivers getting in off-track altercations with other people or the law. And, let’s not forget, Gordon is not just a driver, he’s a celebrity. He’s hosted SNL, he guests-hosts Regis and Kelly. His divorce was covered on Entertainment Tonight more than it was covered in the inner-circle of racing.

NASCAR winners are always quick to thank their team (after the sponsors, of course). They recognize the hard work of the pitcrew throughout the race and the work of the engineers. The commentators are also very good at pointing this out. The drivers are tired and dehydrated after an event. Some, in the old days, would be on the brink of collapsing after stepping out. Has Manny Ramirez ever broken a sweat? Has Vince Carter?

These drivers, who are increasingly born all over the country and not just in NASCAR-counties anymore, are perfect role models for children. They are clean-cut, well behaved off the track (for the most part) and though sometimes let their emotions get the better of them during an event, they are usually good for an apology the week after.

I also think that people can connect more to NASCAR drivers than most other athletes because of their physical stature. If I am not over 6’3, then my chances of becoming an NBA player are slim. If I am not a huge specimen of a human being, then football is probably not my calling. I would mention ‘roids and baseball, but that would be low. Oops, I just did anyway.

You can be just about any size to be a NASCAR driver. Short, tall, slim, heavier. If you have the skills and the dedication, then it’s an achievable goal. At least it’s perceived as something attainable. These guys are just like you and me. Shaquille O’neal is not like you and me. Well, I don’t know you, but he’s not like me.

This is simply my theory about the growth of the sport. You can argue with it, you can think it’s stupid. But, the truth is, there isn’t one simple reason as to how it got to where it is and most reasons are credible to a certain degree. Either way, NASCAR is something that other sports, universities and businesses can monitor and learn from.

Well Well Well

Its that time of year again kids! That’s right, unification talk! It seems that April-May is the traditional time to talk about reuniting and being one big happy family again. Though its clear that one series makes more sense, getting there continues to be the hardest part.

However, with engine packages set to change in 07 for both series, for the first time, it offers a real opportunity. For a long time, unification didn’t make any sense cause both products were quite different. But in 2007, that could change and maybe should. Of course, which package to chose is the big question. But I think that if they sit down and discuss the opportunity in a cordial way, putting the past behind them and looking out for the good of the sport, then something can be worked out.

Mario Andretti is a good person to get these talks going, no question about it. He was there when the sport was at its pinnacle and would love nothing better than to have it there again. And it looks like Tony George is finally saying that one series is best for the sport. At least it’s a start.

What worries most about the Speed article was the statement of George talking about the “philosophical differences” being the main issue. To me, this sounds like stubborn men not wanting to bend. If both organizations recognize that one series is the best way to go, If most of the sponsors recognize that, if most of the fans agree that one series is the best way to go, then there really shouldn’t be too many philosophical differences. To me a philosophical difference would imply that one group didn’t think it was best for the sport to unite. But this doesn’t seem like it’s the case. We’ll see in the next few months if anything pans out of this, but at least they are talking.

And they seem to be exploring unique options, like having “four” major races where both series run together. Interesting idea to say the least. A small way to bridging the gap. I was thinking the other day that Champ Car should unofficially introduce “majors” to its schedule. Although it may be moot, since most Champ Car events are huge in themselves, it could still bring a little attention. I mean, what makes the Australian Tennis Open so much different than the Belgium Open? Nothing really. Points system is the same and although the prize money is more I’m sure, when you’re a professional athlete, you shouldn’t be driven by money anyway. So really, it’s just that we call the tournaments “majors” that make them special. Same thing in golf. Augusta is a ‘Major’, but really its just another tournament. Naturally it would take some time to build Champ Car ‘majors’, but logistically it doesn’t seem that hard to do. Long Beach a major, Toronto a major, Mexico City a major and one of the Asian races, a major (or maybe Australia). Either way, you have four events in four different countries that are already big big events, why not up the prize money and classify them as ‘majors’?

But I digress. With the unification talks taking place (for now), let me propose my own idea for the series to get together. Let’s forget about running selected events throughout the season. Though I don’t agree with much of what George says, he does have a point that finding sponsors for those events may be difficult, if they are spread out throughout the year and ultimately don’t have any real significance to them. But, if we combine Major League Baseball and the Nextel Cup, I think we could have something special. MLB has the American and National League. Until a few seasons ago, none of them played each other throughout the regular season. Nextel has the Chase for the Cup. See where I’m going with this? Both the IRL and Champ Car have their respective seasons. At the end, a champion is crowned (like winning the pennant). Then you take their top 10 drivers in the standings and our top 10 and have them run a “chase for the Cup”type thing. 4 or 5 events, combining ovals, street and road courses. An Open-Wheel champion would be crowned. With something on the line, with the successions of the races and with an interesting format implemented, it would be much easier to attract sponsors. This would attract attention from the media and the general public because of its radical format. Like the World Series in baseball, the IRL versus Champ Car would be in effect, though all the drivers would be competing against one another. It may seem like a radical idea, but I think its something different and potential fun.