Dover

Whoa Nelly.

Well, it was interesting. Glad to ee Robby Gordon out there leading some laps, keeping his sponsors happy. Even more glad to see Elliott up there so dominant during the first half of the race (*yay!*) while playing it smart, but what the hell did they do to his car? :( (P.S. Nice cap for the golf match El. You actually pulled it off and looked rather snappy.) Great finish for Mark Martin. (*yay!*) And nice to see a little o’ the old Tony Stewart back: “Move or I’ll move you”. Well, maybe not nice, entertaining certainly, but perhaps “nice” isn’t the word to apply. Congrats to Biffle for running away from the field. Again.

It’s beats Mini-me running away from the field. Again.

BTW-Mark Martin has more class than the Ivy league college.

Now, as the various message boards call for various people’s heads at DEI, I should like to inject some perspective:

Every team has rough years. Dale’s only been in the big fishbowl of Cup racing for 5 years and three of those he has finished in the top ten in point standings. That’s not freakin’ bad. Year 6 here may be a rough one, but it’s a learning experience and “that which does not kill you makes you stronger…or gets you on daytime talk shows” and all that jazz. It happens.

I am currently wrapping up the final semester of my associates degree after 7 years of night college (all while working full time). In this one semester: my dog died, I got mono, my car was almost a week in the shop and I had empty my pockets completely to get it fixed, one of my professors is a vindictive grader who is easily threatened by questions she can’t answer, and one of my cats was just diagnosed with a long term illness. Nothing major (except Gerry passing), but a whole slew of small stuff. In the middle of all this I have not been blameless, as I have let some of my studying slip. Am I going to have a straight “A” this time around? No. But I sure as hell am not rolling over and slinking away with my tail between my legs. It’s not going to be my best showing, but I will have finished and done the best I can. There have been semesters that have been easier and semesters that have been harder and as long as I am satisfied with what I have done, that’s all that matters. That’s all that matters.

If, jesu forend, Dale Jr. never wins a championship, it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket (if I may profane the phrase), nor does it any fans. Dale is doing this (I hope) for himself. If he decides to go back to being “the fastest oil change man” in Moorseville who spends all days off on the computer or watching TV, that is completely within his prerogative. If he is committed to winning a championship for DEI that is his prerogative. If he is committed to winning a Championship for himself, that is his prerogative. The only person’s expectations Dale has to live up to are his own. That’s all that matters.

Any criticism I lay out here stems from a frustration of knowing how good a wheelman he is versus how good his finishes end up being. The frustration of not hearing him talk about having fun anymore. The frustration of seeing his unhappiness with things. Yesterday was very frustrating, from the moment I saw Dale’s obvious hopelessness in the pre-race to his slipping back from 15th. If this is what Dale Jr. wants, if this is what satisfies his soul, then some things have got to change, within the organization and within himself. Nobody is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and everyone can grow, learn and become better. A better person and a better professional. So while the fan base squabbles on, and before they move up to three teams, I think it’s time for Dale and DEI to take a long hard look at what they are doing and how they are approaching things. Introspect for a while on both what they are doing as individuals and what they are doing as a organization, really look at what is going on, each person first tackle their individual issues and then the organizational problems. Then Figure out a definite direction and go for it. Stop being reactive and get proactive. I don’t know enough about what is going on behind the scenes there beyond the confused flailing that the rest of the world sees to say what needs to be done beyond such generalizations, but DEI is not going to maintain it’s standing this way. The way they are working now, adding another team will just mean one more team taking up shop space. They will drop into the obscurity of Morgan McClure and the Wood Brothers if something in the DEI system doesn’t change.

And quite frankly, I really don’t want to see Dale Jr. cruising for ulcers anymore (even/espcially the ones that stem from problems he himself creates). That really bothers me. I really hope everyone in Moorseville can figure something out. They're all big kids, they should be able to.

BTW-I heard that RCR, RYR and DEI all used to have some sort of R&D deal going on? What happened with that? Given the sucess of these big 5 car teams, might it make sense for some of these smaller teams to start banding together? Just a thought.

Last two finals this week, wish me luck.