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Awesome Bill From Dawsonville


Around the track, and the Pennzoil 400 from the Homestead-Miami Speedway at Homestead, Florida.




Around the Track ……………

Ten Teams Dropped From Pit Crew Competition

This season’s pit crew competition took a back seat to Winston Cup Happy Hour at the Rock. As some teams put it, the traditional competition that showcases the people who are the backbone of Cup racing was nothing but a joke.

NASCAR’s TV deal took precedence over the 34th year of the Union 76 World Pit Crew Competition. In order to televise Happy Hour, the time frame for the event was moved to the end of the day. And to top that off, only the top 25 teams in the owners point’s standings were invited to compete. In the past, the top 35 teams were always invited to participate. This move cancelled the efforts of past winners such as the Petty crews, the No. 5 Hendricks Racing crew, and also the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing’s crew.

A lot of team members contend that the fact that a team happens to be among the top 25 in owners points, has nothing to do with their over the wall speed. A lot of good teams were eliminated from the competition and they blame NASCAR for shutting them out. Even teams who were in the competition complained about the unfairness of the situation. This, along with a lot of other unfair moves that NASCAR has made this season, all reflects on their big greedy TV deal.

The time constraint even affected the format of the competition. Instead of running a full lap before entering the pits for the competition, the cars were started from the middle of the backstretch. Some of the last teams to compete were forced to make their stops at dusk in poor lighting. NASCAR pulled a fast one this season, but according to a spokesman for the Union 76 company, the rules will be reassessed before next season’s competition.

Lots of Fans Unhappy with NBC

That is a fact, I know, because I am one of them. The pitiful attitude at NBC concerning the airing of commercial advertising more than the racing coverage has chased a lot of fans back to watching the NFL. The NBC network is now getting so blatant, that they are not even concerned with airing the race re-starts after caution periods. Commercial advertising is takes precedence, it is the end of the season, and NBC has everyone by the short hairs. They are apparently going to make all of the money they can out of their NASCAR programming while the getting is good!
The copyright of the article Awesome Bill From Dawsonville in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish Awesome Bill From Dawsonville in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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