After being involved in racing all my life, I never imagined I would be standing on top of a race hauler in the middle of the NASCAR garage area at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 14,1994.

Just four days earlier, I had reported to Cotter Communications in Charlotte, NC after they had hired me to become the Public Relations Representative for driver Bobby Labonte and the No. 22 Maxwell House Pontiac Winston Cup team.

The job was my first-ever team PR assignment at any level of racing and looking back, I didn’t know my butt from a hole in the ground.

You could forgive me if I was more than a little overwhelmed. I was fresh fish, a NASCAR rookie after earning my way here by working short tracks all over the Midwest for nearly 10 years in an effort to get this chance.

Whatever my experience level, no one could have been prepared for what this day – my fifth on my new job and my first at the racetrack – would later bring.

Before the first practice for the 1994 Daytona 500 rolled off, I walked from the garage area out to pit road to get the lay of the land. It was amazing.

As I sat on the pit wall, I could smell the fresh cut, immaculately manicured grass in the tri-oval area and I wondered aloud what they would think of all this back in snowbound Wisconsin, my home state. The size of the track and huge, empty grandstands were overwhelming. Everything about Daytona is impressive, especially the first time you go there.

I’d covered the Indianapolis 500 as a newspaper reporter, but this was something else.

This was Daytona, NASCAR’s hallowed ground.

I had made it. This was the ‘big time.’

With practice about to start, I began the long walk back to the garage area. On the way, I waved to Neil Bonnett as he rolled by heading for pit road. You couldn’t miss Neil’s neon pink and yellow No. 51 Country Time Chevy – or his smile – as he as he idled by.

Neil was one of a kind, not just in NASCAR, but in all of racing. He was also one of the few people I knew in the garage area that day.

A year earlier, I had the pleasure of working with Neil when he agreed to be the Honorary Chairperson for the Wisconsin Motorsports Charities Recognition Dinner. The banquet, which raised money for disabled adults, selected Neil as the 1993 Chairperson because of his long battle back from a debilitating head injury he’d received in a racing accident at Darlington (SC) Raceway in 1990.

Neil flew to Milwaukee for the event and as a board member and public relations specialist for the charity, I was assigned to take care of him. Despite the fact we were only together a little more than a day, I felt like we were best friends when he left.

Then again, Neil had that kind of effect on a lot of people.

The day prior to my inaugural 1994 Daytona gig, Neil’s PR rep and my new Cotter Communications co-worker, Jon Sands, was called to Phoenix to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. Since Maxwell House Coffee and Neil’s sponsor – Country Time Lemonade – were Kraft General Foods sister companies, two other new Cotter associates, John Singler and Keith Waltz, and I were to “look out” for Neil’s No. 51 car while Sands was away.

I was told that meant simple, procedural things like distributing the press kits and funneling any interview requests to Neil. If anything else were needed, Singler, the senior member of the on-site staff, would handle it.

The extra duty was only going to be for a day or so because Sands was expected to be in Daytona by the end of the weekend. Besides, it was just practice, nothing was going to happen.

Nothing.

Except the worst.

Within minutes of start of the first practice session, a panic rushed through the garage area. Neil had crashed hard in Turn 3 and the buzz was it was serious. Waltz came to me and said I needed to get over to Halifax Medical Center as quickly as possible. Neil was being transported directly to the hospital and Singler was already on his way. Waltz indicated he would stay behind to take care of business at the racetrack.

I quickly headed toward the hospital just a few blocks up International Speedway Boulevard. Once inside the hospital’s Emergency Room, I went to a private waiting area where Singler came out and told me the gravity of the situation.

His voice cracked as he gave me the news – the doctors were working on Neil, but it was bad, real bad. I was told to not say anything and let the doctors and NASCAR make any statements. Just mingle in the crowd Singler said, try to keep everyone calm.

It didn’t take long for the press and a dozens of NASCAR race team personnel to flood the waiting room at the hospital. Neil had a lot of friends and they all wanted to be there. Everyone wanted to know what was going on back in the emergency care area.

I did what I was told and said as little as possible. I remember looking around the room and thinking here were all the people I was used to seeing on television every Sunday. Normally, I would have been a little star-struck at the gathering of famous racers, but given the surreal events of moment, there was no joy in seeing their faces.

Finally, at 1:17 p.m., the announcement that Neil Bonnett had passed was officially made.

People sobbed as the statement was read. I cried as well. Neil was my friend too. Maybe not like those in the room who knew him for years, but a friend just the same.

Now, in what I would come to know as racing’s dark side all too many times over the next 20 years, Neil Bonnett was dead.

He was only 47.

When the garage opened that fateful morning, I stopped by to greet Neil’s race hauler to tell him Singler, Waltz and I would be handling things in Sands’ absence. Neil was cool with the arrangement and seemed more eager to discuss my new good fortune of landing a NASCAR Winston Cup PR job.

One of the last things I remember Neil saying to me was “Welcome to NASCAR, John” as he patted me on the back and headed into the trailer to get ready for the upcoming practice.

Looking back, I was probably one of the last people to talk to Neil – and surely was one of he last to see him alive as he motored by me heading out on the track that morning.

I’ve never quite been able to shake that and it’s hard to believe it has been 20 years since that fateful day. Talk about a lousy first day at the track experiencing your ‘dream job.’

Welcome to NASCAR indeed, John.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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After nearly 40 consecutive weeks on the road and untold hours of work leading up to the events, NASCAR racers busted out of South Florida Sunday night heading for home, vacations, and – for many – new employment situations in 2014.

Call it the ‘Exit 500.’

It’s a race that happens every year, but one that never shows up on the NASCAR schedule. By the time the checkered flag falls on the final lap of the season at Homestead, countless NASCAR associates have their bags packed and are ready to get the heck out of Dodge.

The fortunate ones – those who have jobs for next season – stay in Florida or head to nearby spots in the Caribbean for a well-deserved vacation.

Those who aren’t as well healed, but are still in the NASCAR employment mix, head home for some overdue R&R.

The third group – those looking for work after being reshuffled in NASCAR’s ‘Silly Season’ – point their compass toward Charlotte and the race shops that may provide next year’s opportunity.

Regardless of situation, all can’t wait to put Homestead – and the previous NASCAR season – behind them.

It doesn’t matter if you are the division champion or an also ran, the weight of the NASCAR marathon has beaten you down. You can be sure everyone from Jimmie Johnson to J.J. Yelley was happy to see the Homestead Speedway lights in their rearview mirror Sunday night.

After all, they have to recharge quickly – the 2014 Daytona 500 is just 97 days away.

Get A Scorecard –

Speaking of the upcoming NASCAR season, here are a few of the changes – and some unsettled situations – that are heading to a Sprint Cup race near you in 2014.

Kevin Harvick – third in the points this year – moves from the 29 at Richard Childress Racing to Stewart Haas Racing the 4 (39 last year).

Austin Dillon will move up to Cup replacing Harvick in the renumbered RCR 29 – now the 3.

Ryan Newman – who drove the 39 at SHR, goes to RCR where he replaces Jeff Burton in the 31.

Michael Annett will take his Flying J sponsorship money to Tommy Baldwin Racing replacing Dave Blaney in the 7.

Kurt Busch will leave the 78 for a seat in the 41, a new fourth team at Stewart Haas Racing.

Martin Truex, Jr. will replace Busch in the 78.

Kyle Larson moves to Cup full time replacing Juan Pablo Montoya in the 42.

A.J. Allmendinger makes it all the way back taking over for Bobby Labonte in the 47.

Justin Allgaier will be the wheelman for the new 51 team.

These familiar faces in new places will be joined by some old faces that appear to be in no place for 2014.

That group includes retirees Mark Martin and Ken Schrader along with faded veterans Jeff Burton, Joe Nemecheck and the Labonte brothers, Bobby and Terry.

Meanwhile, there’s a bunch second- and third-tier Cup team/driver combinations still to be settled prior to the green flag at Daytona. Almost all will be determined by the amount of partner/sponsorship money involved.

Make sure you have a scorecard when Speedweeks roll off at Daytona in February. You’re going to need it.

Last Call –

Lost in the wreckage of the driver, sponsor and team changes listed above are that hundreds of NASCAR Cup, Nationwide, and the Truck division crewmembers, office and team support people are out of jobs today.

It’s that way every year.

It comes with the territory and if you work in NASCAR long enough, it will happen to you. For some, like this writer, it happens more than once. I have a closet full of team shirts to prove it.

It’s a tough deal for many. Being jobless during the holidays is upsetting regardless of what kind of career you have.

Eventually, the racers – those addicted to the sport – find a way to get a new gig and will be in a new shirt come Daytona. Others won’t be as fortunate. Some will fall off the grid moving on to other opportunities.

That said, if you are a NASCAR team member and you are out of work today, hang in there. You’ll work it out.

If you’re a racer, you always do.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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With million dollar budgets and the quest for the all-holy brand recognition, NASCAR teams have been lining up in large numbers to jump on the cause-marketing bandwagon.

Week after week, NASCAR teams are ‘logoing up’ to bring attention to a seemingly endless string of societal concerns, foundations and charitable organizations.

Frankly, the list is mindboggling.

For instance, here’s a list of causes NASCAR teams featured on their race vehicles this past weekend at Phoenix –

Veterans Day

Troops To The Track

Wounded Warrior Project

Whooping Cough Awareness

American Diabetes Month

Drive To Stop Diabetes

Wake Up Narcolepsy

Donate Life

Meanwhile, recent weeks have seen NASCAR teams hype these initiatives –

Drive To End Hunger

Hire Our Heroes

Breast Cancer Awareness

Driven For A Cause

SupportMilitary.org

Living Beyond Breast Cancer

Drive Sober Arrive Alive

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital

Fraternal Order of Eagles

There’s more, but you get the picture.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I’m not against ’cause marketing.’ Needless to say, there are an endless number of worthwhile initiatives to be supported. And – there are certainly plenty of good, caring people who fashion NASCAR media and marketing programs who are true in their motives when supporting such causes.

That said, the sheer number of these cause awareness campaigns is a bit troubling.

When does ‘awareness’ cross the line with shameless self-promotion?

When does attaching yourself to a cause for a weekend become exploitation?

As a former NASCAR media and marketing person, I helped fashion numerous cause-marketing campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s. Almost all of them were season-long, behind-the-scenes initiatives that were specifically designed to highlight the charity or cause we were supporting – not necessarily our race team.

Times change.

Today, it seems like teams jump from cause to cause on a weekly basis. In an effort to garner the eyeball count, team promotional departments compete just as hard off the track as the driver and car do on it. Hit the right cause-marketing button – or the latest public interest spike – and you’ve just taken the checkered flag for your sponsor regardless of how the team does on the track.

It’s a fragile balance, a razor’s edge tightrope walk making sure your driver and team get the appropriate exposure through a cause-marketing campaign without it being exploitive.

That said, I’m not totally cynical. I’d prefer to give everyone the benefit of the doubt assuming all NASCAR team/sponsor cause-marketing initiatives have honorable motives.

But when cars/trucks start showing up in large numbers at NASCAR events each week with different/seasonal cause-marketing campaigns as they have been recently, it makes you wonder a bit just how sincere some of these teams and efforts really are.

Winds Of Change –

As the 2013 NASCAR campaign winds down, there’s been the usual ‘Silly Season’ banter as to who is racing where next season.

This year, a number of long-time Cup division veterans – Bobby Labonte, Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte, Jeff Burton and Mark Martin – apparently will be out of the mix when the 2014 season takes the green flag in Daytona next February.

While it will be tough to see some of them ‘retire,’ the fact is it’s time when you consider their recent performances.

A quick look at the stat sheet reveals –

Bobby Labonte hasn’t won a race since 2003 and has just two top-five finishes in his last 246 events.

Ken Schrader’s last Cup win was in 1991. His last top-five finish was in 1998.

Terry Labonte’s last win was also in 2003 and he’s had one top-five finish since then.

Jeff Burton hasn’t won a race since 2008. He finished 20th and 19th in the final championship standings the last two years and can finish no higher than 18th this season.

Mark Martin is the only driver in this group that is still competitive and hasn’t overstayed his welcome. Martin – now 54 – earned his last win in 2009 when he scored five of them. He’s also notched 14 top-five and 36 top-10 finishes over the last four years nearly winning several of those events.

He’s still relevant.

The others are not.

Bottom line – no matter how good you are in any given sport, you can’t outrun Father Time.

That goes regardless of who you are or how good you used to be.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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That’s right – 24 Chase wins.

That’s more Chase wins than top drivers Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. have individually scored throughout their entire NASCAR Sprint Cup careers.

Johnson’s win at Texas yesterday – the 66th overall Cup victory of his now amazing 13-year career – was among his most dominating leading a whopping 255 of the 334 contested.

About the only thing more mind numbing than Johnson’s performance Sunday is the sheer weight of his overall Chase numbers.

Since its inception in 2004, Johnson has owned NASCAR’s ‘playoff’ system. In addition to 24 wins, Johnson has finished in the top-five in 55 of 98 Chase events. Perhaps even more impressive is Johnson’s 72 top-10 efforts in those 98 championship events.

We won’t even quote the Chase stats of the next nearest competitor as they completely pale in comparison. Let’s just say the rest of the Chase fields over the past 10 seasons have fallen more into the pretender than contender category.

Along the way, Johnson has scored five NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. Sunday’s win put him seven points up on Matt Kenseth with two races remaining in the 2013 title fight.

Will Johnson win again? Is a sixth title just a couple of weeks away.

We’ll leave that up to Johnson, Kenseth and the racing gods.

But it would be hard to bet against Johnson capturing another championship at this point. Win or lose, Johnson has again shown – as he did Sunday at Texas – that he is at his best when the lights of the championship battle are the brightest.

In the end, that’s where greatness is measured in all sports. It’s what you do at ‘crunch time’ or when the title is on the line that separates the champions from the rest of the maddening crowd.

Johnson’s done that five times in the last nine years.

Don’t be surprised if he does it again.

Last Call –

While NASCAR’s Chase was on the minds of even the most peripheral stock car fans this past weekend, another ‘Chase’ was wowing the hard cores.

Chase Elliott continued his meteoric rise up the racing ladder capturing the All American 400 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Sunday.

The son of legendary NASCAR driver Bill Elliott, Chase has already captured dozens of top-flight stock car races and adding the All American title is just another jewel in an already sparkling driving career that also includes his first ARCA and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victories this year.

He’s only 16.

Friendly, polite and intelligent off the track, Elliott is the entire package.

Assuming he can continue to network the kind of funding and marketing partners necessary in today’s NASCAR business model, Elliott is the kind of driver in five or six years that could be the ‘young gun’ challenging a now elder statesman Johnson for the 2018 or 2019 Sprint Cup title.

It’s not that far-fetched.

Elliott’s that good.

And Johnson will only be 43 or 44 then.

Who knows?

Someday, it might be a ‘Chase’ who ultimately ends Johnson’s hold on ‘The Chase.’

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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After the actions of several drivers this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, it is evident that multiple competitors have completely lost their minds are in need of the tests.

Please don’t misunderstand – concussions in contact sports are a serious health issue and it is commendable NASCAR continues to trend forward in the direction of driver safety.

That said, the in- and post-race antics of several drivers in both the Truck and Sprint Cup Series events at Martinsville this past weekend were downright laughable.

Here’s the backstory –

One week after running over each other on the biggest track on the circuit – the giant 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway – NASCAR’s Truck and Cup divisions invaded the smallest track on the tour, the venerable .526-mile Martinsville oval.

Ironically, the only way to pass at both tracks was to push somebody out of the way.

The results were predictable.

Vehicles got wrecked, championship dreams got dashed, drivers got pissed.

In Saturday’s Truck Series race, Cup driver Kevin Harvick got in an on-track altercation with Truck division title contender Ty Dillon. The accident spilled over into the subsequent caution period with Harvick and Dillon running into each other several times. Harvick then steamed his wrecked truck into Dillon’s box on pit road igniting a near free-for-all in which a large sledgehammer was thrown at Harvick by one of Dillon’s team members.

Afterward, Harvick appeared to have some cognitive issues as he ripped Dillon in his post-accident media comments calling him a “punk ass kid” and stating it was a “shame” to get taken out by “some rich kid like that.”

Considering Dillon is the grandson of Harvick’s Sprint Cup team owner Richard Childress, the comments certainly appear to merit some testing of Harvick’s mental capacity.

Whoops.

Those actions also put Harvick at the head of the line for the new NASCAR baseline testing next year.

Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Martinsville produced a slew of other candidates for the newly mandated NASCAR pre-season ‘brainiac’ tests.

With the season winding down to just a handful of races and the Sprint Cup championship on the line, drivers were amped even before the drop of the green flag.

Racing high-tech, new millennium sophisticated vehicle on a narrow, one-groove oval track designed in the 1940s, the event produced a car-mangling, 17-caution period affair and plenty of hard feelings afterward.

The most visible of these came when Greg Biffle confronted championship contender Jimmie Johnson. Johnson was in the middle of a radio interview when Biffle barged in and grabbed Johnson. A verbal altercation broke out with Biffle telling Johnson “you’d better watch it,” a thinly veiled threat that he would crash Johnson if they had another incident in the final three races of the season.

Ah, there’s nothing like publicly threatening a championship front-runner to put you under the NASCAR microscope for the rest of the season.

Mr. Biffle – please take a seat next to Mr. Harvick in the neurocognitive waiting room.

And, by the way, please leave room for the idiot who threw the sledgehammer at Harvick on Saturday.

That guy really needs to be tested – and suspended.

As indicated earlier, this writing is not designed to make light of the NASCAR neurocognitive testing program here. Concussions are a scary thing and they are in no way a laughing matter. They are also an expensive one as evidenced by the mega-million dollar lawsuits that are filing in at the National Football League headquarters these days.

Fortunately, nobody got hurt in any of the incidents at Martinsville this weekend.

However, after the behavior displayed by some NASCAR drivers at the track fondly known as ‘The Paperclip,’ you have to wonder what kind of ‘baseline results’ the neurocognitive testing will produce when administered prior to next season.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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A few dates – such as a return to Eldora Speedway for another dirt track race on Wednesday, July 23 – have been confirmed on the 2014 Truck Series slate but the rest of the Truck schedule is still up in the air.

That’s also a good way to describe where the division is at these days as the series is struggling to find a balance between artistic and financial success.

While one of the most competitive and enjoyable NASCAR divisions to watch, sponsorship and event payout shortfalls continue to be core issues for teams in the division.

Team costs have skyrocketed in an era where the number of companies able to afford a targeted high-cost NASCAR team themed marketing campaign has shrunk. Based on the number of ‘blank quarter panels’ on the vehicles, it seems like half of the trucks have little or no sponsorship.

To replace the lack of sponsor funds, the financial model for most teams in the division – at least the bigger, more successful ones – is that they are now of the ‘buy-a-ride’ variety. Every seat is basically for sale.

Even the most successful team in the division – Kyle Busch Motorsports – is scrambling for sponsorship or gifted/well-healed driver candidates to fill its seats in 2014. Without either form of funding, KBM could shut down.

As it is, the organization is already laying off people.

Meanwhile, some event purses are little more than half what they were 15 years ago as tracks try to absorb today’s higher costs of hosting event – especially one top heavy with division sanctioning fees.

The purse cutback only makes it worse for the cash-strapped teams when you have events like the one at Talladega this past weekend where just about everybody from fifth through 36th took home some form of mangled/totally destroyed race vehicle.

In case you missed it, several hard, high-speed impact wrecks set the stage for the now normal Talladega three-wide sprint off the final turn for the win. At the checkered flag, it was the winner Johnny Sauter followed by four others who had somehow escaped the massive 20-truck wreck now behind them unscathed.

That’s right – everyone outside of fifth-place crashed. Thankfully, the only serious injury was an apparent broken wrist.

The prize for such bravery – all but one of the ‘finishers’ outside the top-five made less than $15,000 in prize money.

Put those things together – dwindling sponsorship funding, high-operating costs, and limited purses – and it should be no surprise that most teams in the Truck Series lose money.

The financial news isn’t much better for a lot of tracks that host NASCAR Truck Series events – even on days when the racing gods provide perfect weather and good fan counts.

That’s why it will be interesting to see what tracks eventually wind up on the 2014 NASCAR Truck Series schedule – and what teams/drivers will be there when the races are run next year.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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Last weekend, I took the opportunity to reconnect with classmates from Libertyville (IL) High School. It was the first time since 1969 that I had returned to the Chicago suburb to mix with the people I grew up and went to school with.

Needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do after 40-plus years and the event I attended – a Pub Crawl through the center of the city – was the perfect way to do it.

Along the way, I got to share many wonderful moments with friends recapping what had happened to each over the past four decades. Of course, we discussed careers and to say it was interesting to hear the responses to my career in NASCAR is an understatement.

It was also an eye opener.

Of course, everyone found my 25-plus years in NASCAR interesting. After all, a career that takes you all over the country to participate in professional sports events certainly sounds exciting – even romantic.

Frankly, it was.

Everybody got that.

What they didn’t get was NASCAR.

As usual, some professed they knew little or nothing about NASCAR. In 1960s lingo, it just ‘wasn’t their bag.’ Others claimed they had a passing interest in NASCAR. Some were actually avid fans and followed the sport on a regular basis.

What was sobering to hear was – regardless of their degree of interest in NASCAR – there was an almost universal perception that something was wrong with the sport.

Here are just a few of the comments I heard.

“Man, that sport is messed up now, isn’t it?”

“NASCAR sure has credibility issues, don’t they?”

“It seems like they have some sort of a controversy every week.”

“I don’t watch it anymore. “I used too, but it’s just not as exciting as it used to be.”

“I liked the old cars better. The new cars are cool, but nobody can pass anymore.”

“If I want to watch something fixed, I’ll watch wrestling.”

“It seems like the same guys – the drivers on the big teams with all the money – win all the time.”

Ouch.

There we’re more comments, but I think you get the point.

Leave it to my friends to pour water on NASCAR career campfire.

Still, I understood. NASCAR isn’t for everybody, just as the biggest game in the land – the National Football League – isn’t for everybody.

I get that.

Yet, it was hard to hear how many thought the sport was boring and contrived. Just a couple of weeks after the big Sprint Cup race manipulation fiasco at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR’s shortcomings were fresh in the minds of many – even those who don’t regularly follow the sport.

Scandal will do that.

Call it bad timing if you will. Maybe if I had made this trip down memory lane in Libertyville prior to the Richmond race, the opinions would have been somewhat different.

Probably not.

Forget the empty seats and the falling television ratings. While those are certain indicators that NASCAR is down a couple cylinders from its halcyon days of the last decade, they don’t give you the reasons for the sport’s crash in popularity.

If you want a barometer of why things are happening, there’s no better way to find out what people think about something than by hitting the streets. There, you’ll get an unvarnished vision of what people really have on their minds.

In this case, those opinions were offered over a couple of brews on a friendly Pub Crawl. From the comments given – by both non-fans and the sport’s most avid supporters – NASCAR seems to have lost a good bit of horsepower in the world of public opinion.

There’s an old saying that ‘talk is cheap.’

Maybe so.

After all, who gives a damn about what a bunch of 60-somethings thinks about NASCAR?

Well, I do. And NASCAR should too because if you watch the chat boards and other types of public comment, the sport seems to be taking a beating in casual conversation regardless of age demographics.

That said, get ready to crack open another beer and settle in for another NASCAR Sprint Cup race this Saturday at Charlotte. Hopefully, it will offer up something good/interesting for people to talk about because based on what I heard last weekend on ‘the Crawl,’ NASCAR is in need of a serious jolt of positive public perception.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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So does a good dose of reality.

After two weeks of on- and off-track chaos thanks to the Richmond race manipulation mess, Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire was a welcome return to normal for the sport.

The action was fast and tight, the racing ‘100 percent.’

The winner was so overcome by emotion that he cried in Victory Lane.

The battle for the championship – and not the race muddling of Michael Waltrip Racing and subsequent ‘ripple effect’ decrees by NASCAR – was the primary focus.

It was a good day to remember why the hell you liked NASCAR to begin with.

Needless to say, NASCAR has taken some significant hits in popularity and credibility recently. Thousands of media reports pulled back the curtain on the sport – not just on the track – but off it too.

It wasn’t pretty. Some were exposed/labeled as cheaters, others as inept meddlers.

Millions of dollars lost, more to come.

Viability issues in play.

May questions still to be answered.

Fortunately, however, all of that got put to the side for three hours on a glorious fall afternoon in New Hampshire Sunday.

Matt Kenseth turned in a dazzling performance to win his second-straight Chase race. Meanwhile, Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch finished second making it a good old fashioned waxing by JGR and their friends at Toyota. These guys have come off the top rope to open the Chase and they are definitely racing for it.

Additional story lines included the pit stop and bump-up foibles of Jeff Gordon and the problems for his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne – who may have suffered a concussion in a hard wreck 50 laps from the finish. If he didn’t, Kahne has some apologies to issue to garage-trusted and iconic NASCAR reporter Dr. Jerry Punch for his behavior in their post-crash interview.

Of course, NASCAR’s Richmond fiasco wasn’t completely out of the picture at New Hampshire. Martin Truex, Jr. – kicked out of the final championship field despite the fact he had nothing to do with the Richmond misgivings of his Michael Waltrip Racing teammates – led nearly one-third of the race Sunday.

If he had won yesterday, this would be a completely different column.

Instead, NASCAR fans were treated to a solid event with little or no controversy Sunday. Like the crisp New England day, it was a badly needed dose of reality for a sport, it’s competitors, and especially it’s fans.

It was also a reminder that no matter how badly people mess up, stock car racing is still a great sport where people do amazing things.

It’s not wrasslin’ as many today would like you to believe. Even in it’s most ‘managed’ or ‘manipulated’ states, it’s never been that.

It’s racing – highly skilled people on warp drive. Sunday’s event at New Hampshire went a long way in restoring that reality to many.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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Kenseth put a cap on one of the most tumultuous weeks in the history of NASCAR when he won Sunday’s Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. The victory, Kenseth’s sixth of the season, kept him atop the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase For The Championship by eight points over Sunday’s runner-up finisher Kyle Busch.

Kenseth temporarily turned down the flame on NASCAR’s griddle because his winning meant Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman didn’t.

Logano, Bowyer, Gordon and Newman are all wearing the scarlet letter ‘N’ branded on them by various NASCAR decrees over the past week. Also during that time, today’s court of public opinion – Twitter and Facebook – have been on fire voicing its thoughts in record numbers on multiple credibility issues in the sport.

If you thought ‘Chasegate’ and all the crazy actions/decrees that came out of last week’s race at Richmond are going away any time soon, think again – we’ve got nine more weeks of this folks.

Seriously, what if Logano, Bowyer, Gordon or Newman wins one – or more – of the remaining Chase races?

What if one of them actually wins the Chase?

The public opinion burner will be on high and the bacon will be sizzling with each win.

It will burn if one of them wins the championship.

Crispy.

It could happen.

Gordon – who was added to the Chase by NASCAR decree – finished sixth at Chicago last evening. No worries about him being 100 percent. This could be his last great chance at a title. He’s definitely got a shot at the big prize.

Newman – also a NASCAR Chase appointee – is hanging around too, 10th at Chicago last night.

Bowyer – who many howl shouldn’t be in the Chase because of his intentional spin at Richmond – finished ninth last night. He had a shot late in last year’s Chase and could be there again this year.

Logano – NASCAR’s Roger Penske ‘no look’ pass entry in the Chase – had his championship hopes significantly diminished after a blown engine relegated him to a 37th-place finish at Chicago. Still, he could win a Chase race or two.

Bottom line – if one of these four wins a race – or worse – is standing on the stage accepting the championship trophy at the conclusion of the final race at Homestead, all the burners will be on high.

If that happens, break out the fire extinguishers.

Missing In Action?

Remember last winter when there was a big wind out of Daytona about a new, game-changing track-drying system NASCAR had developed – the ‘Air Titan?’

Boasting the new system would cut track-drying times by more than 50 percent in some instances, the Air Titan was demonstrated at Daytona and on hand for the 500 this year.

Has anybody seen it since?

As reported here earlier this year, NASCAR does not provide the device to tracks – not even those owned by NASCAR parent company International Speedway Corporation (ISC) – without charging a fee.

The policy is no dough, no blow regardless of who you are.

It wasn’t used at Chicagoland this weekend.

If everyone is giving ‘100 percent’ here, the Air Titan would have been on hand all season regardless of facility or cost. If this technology is so much more superior, then why not provide it?

For the betterment of the sport – you know, the fans.

That’s worth a couple of million a year to cart it around from track to track and deploy it, right? The PR value of you doing it would pay for the dang thing.

The fact that the Air Titan was not on hand for the first round of the ‘playoffs’ only makes this worse. Shouldn’t this be at each track in the Chase?

Would it have shortened last night’s five-hour delay to four maybe?

We’ll never know.

C’mon guys – 100 percent, right?

Last Call –

After having a 15-year career as a NASCAR spotter, I got a big chuckle that a bunch of the fallout from Richmond was heaped on the spotters.

It used to be the standard line from a driver after a crash was “my spotter didn’t tell me.”

Now NASCAR is jumping in and seems to be saying, “my spotter told me too much.”

Laugh out loud.

The end result is NASCAR is saying no more deals on the spotter’s stand – a practice they have overtly condoned/ignored since spotters became a competition tool in the 1950’s.

Now, the spotters will be more scrutinized. They will only be allowed two radios, (both analog, no more digital radios with frequencies unavailable for NASCAR monitoring) and no cell phones (same reason.)

Also – NASCAR will install a camera on each spotter’s stand to now monitor their activities.

Spotters beware – Big Brother is watching.

Shoulda known this whole mess was the spotter’s fault.

Too Funny.

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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Allegedly, MWR drivers Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers intentionally caused cautions and surrendered positions so their teammate – Martin Truex, Jr. – would qualify for NASCAR’s 2013 Chase ‘playoff’ series.

The moves worked, Truex got in. Others did not.

A post-race review of MWR team radio transmissions seems to support the allegations. It’s pretty clear – MWR did manipulate the results.

What they didn’t do is break the rules. And they’re not the first ones to do it.

This kind of point manipulating has been going on in NASCAR for a long time. It started way before ‘team racing’ when drivers friendly to each other would give up a position late in the race. If you were a backyard – or NASCAR ‘independent ‘team back then – moving over to give a ‘factory team’ a spot could mean an extra set of tires or maybe a used engine down the road.

Happened all the time.

In the 1990’s, I was personally with a team that finished second in a NASCAR championship thanks to another Chevy team all but stopping on the back straight on the final lap to give us a position. Those three points gave us second – by one point – in the title chase over the Ford team in third.

Today in a multi-car team driven sport means teams manage points all the time. Think about it – how many times have you seen someone pull over and allow their teammate to collect bonus points for leading a lap?

Happens all the time. For decades.

I could give you more examples, but you get the picture. The manipulation of points happens all the time in NASCAR. The fact is no one inside the garage area – including NASCAR – was surprised that MWR was playing the numbers game Saturday night. The truth is every team with a chance to make the Chase was running the same numbers for their chances.

The difference was MWR was bold enough to play theirs.

That won’t earn them any points in the garage. MWR didn’t break any rules – unless NASCAR wants to hit them with their all-inclusive escape clause of ‘actions detrimental to stock car racing.’ It’s more like MWR broke the ‘code’ – an understanding of the spirit of competition rules among those in the garage area.

Fair enough.

Those in the garage will work that out internally over the next 10 races. There will definitely be some paybacks. That’s always been a part of the sport too.

Meanwhile, NASCAR says it’s going to review the MWR situation. Of course they are. They’ve got a big public relations problem on their hands because the fans have heard the same MWR team audio. Until Saturday, most fan didn’t know or ignored that these kinds of shenanigans – and those described above – existed.

Call it innocence – or naivet

John Close

John Close covered his first NASCAR race in 1986 at Bristol. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.

His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.MotorsportsAmerica.com and www.RacingNation.com.

Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.

Close is a weekly guest every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tradin’ Paint on NASCAR SIRIUS Channel 90.

You can follow John Close on Twitter @CloseFinishes and on Facebook at John Close.

Be sure to visit John’s website – www.closefinishes.com

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