June 19, 2008
By Brian Watkins
Brian Watkins
|
I’ve written about Michigan International Speedway a bit over the past few weeks in anticipation of our annual pilgrimage for the June race. One of the things I’d noted was -- that at past races, Michigan was generally a boring race with few cautions and that the highlight of the trip wasn’t so much the race itself as it was hanging out with friends.
While the hanging out with friends was still the best part of the weekend, the race this year was much more exciting and enjoyable for a number of reasons.
Part of the fun started on Friday as I was driving home from work. Qualifying was rained out, so that put “my” driver, Kyle Busch, on the poll by virtue of points. While this may not seem like a big deal to some, I should remind you that up until he retired, Dale Jarrett was my driver. I’d spent years watching him ride it out in the back of the field, taking ribs from my friends from just about the moment we left to the time we got back. Last June I sat in the stands with my DJ shirt on only to have him not make the race. This race would different -- not only did I have a driver in the race, he was the points leader, the poll sitter and since most of the group we traveled to MIS with were Dale Jr. fans, he was a source of controversy.
What follows is a collection of comments and observations from my race weekend.
Michigan still hates Jeff Gordon - Despite the Junior Nations’ collective distain for Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon still garnered more boo’s than any other driver during introductions; but while the verbal assaults were as loud as any year previous, they seemed to be less personal.
Kurt Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson aren’t Michigan favorites either, as the fans let them have it as they passed our turn 4 seats.
There are stupid people everywhere, but somehow they seem to shine brighter in the stands. One guy had a t-shirt on that listed the top-10 reasons there are no black NASCAR drivers. While I’m all for freedom of speech, I’d thought we’d come far enough that even the most closed-minded in the gene pool would have thought better than to wear a blatantly racist shirt. I thought wrong.
There’s no way for NASCAR or MIS to police every stitch of clothing that is worn in the stands, so I can’t blame them. So I’ll blame the jack-ass wearing the shirt and his mother for not raising him better.
It seems even drunk belligerent NASCAR fans have respect for old folks- The usher / security guy that monitored our section was easily 70 years old. He was polite and funny, but wouldn’t take any crap. On at least 2 occasions he had to physically grab and move drunk fans and on countless others had to give people the what-for to keep the section under control. Had he been a mid-30’s to early 50’s usher he might have gotten swung on by at least one of the fans, but his age and his demeanor worked well together and for the first race in a long time, the stands around us were a fairly tame place. Thanks usher 164!
Fan View is worth the money at least once.
For years I’ve gone to the races and never bothered with the Sprint Fan View system. I thought it was a waste of money to sit in the stands and watch the race on a little TV. After finally giving the system a whirl on Sunday I must confess that I was very impressed.
While the ability to view the race feed was nice, especially when the cars were on the backstretch and out of view from our seats, it was the ability to listen to the radio chatter that made things interesting. For those of you who feel Tony Stewart makes too many derogatory comments in post race interviews, try giving a listen when he’s bogged down in traffic.
Scanning through the channels let us get in on the Junior fuel action early, which added emotion and excitement to the finish. Not that it needed it. During the MRN broadcast, Dave Moody exclaimed that “…they’re just about tearing down the bleachers here in Michigan” as Junior crossed the start finish line. He couldn’t have been more accurate. I don’t know how well TV translated the emotion of the last leg of the race, but in the stands it was nuts.
I showed up hoping to see Kyle Busch take the win, but by the time the race finished I didn’t even know where Kyle was- it was all about Junior and finally getting the points win. While it was not as emotional a moment as Big E finally winning at Daytona, it had a lot of the same qualities. I don’t think anyone in that pace, aside from the drivers, had their butts in a seat.
And finally, a tip of the hat to MIS for parking improvements. The addition of lot numbers and signage in the grassy field / parking lot made navigation much easier. And while I commend them on the parking situation, I will have to question their quote that their new scoreboard will “change the way race fans watch the race at the track”. While it did change the way I watch the race, it wasn’t necessarily for the better.
The scoreboard is nice enough but trying to figure out who’s in the lead when they’re scrolling through the field 2 and 3 at a time is an exercise in futility. When the race first starts, it’s easy to see who’s where. Once pitting starts and cars start getting lapped, it can take a scoreboard to clarify -- especially for someone without “Fan View”. In the past at MIS, I could just look across the track at a good old-fashioned scoring tower that let me know the lap and the top 10 cars. This year when I looked across the track I got to see lots of pretty lights telling me who was running 23, 24 and 25th and then a few seconds later 26th, 27th and 28th. I’m sure with some tweaking they could do a better job of displaying the running order, but for now at least I’m disappointed after all the scoreboard hype.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
You can contact Brian Watkins at ..
