Mind of Montgomery
A NASCAR BLOG BY Lee Montgomery
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Gotta love NASCAR
Apr
11
Why do we love this goofy sport? We all could probably list 100 reasons, but a few things happened this week to confirm that it’s the people in NASCAR who make it a great sport.
It started on Monday night, when Kansas beat Memphis to win the NCAA championship. What, pray tell, does that have to do with NASCAR? Well, in a restaurant in Winston-Salem, N.C., driver Clint Bowyer watched the game with a few of his dirt-track racing buddies.
Bowyer, you’ll recall, is a native of Emporia, Kan., where there’s not much to do besides play in the dirt, avoid tornadoes and follow Kansas Jayhawk basketball. For you North Carolina natives, think UNC, Duke and N.C. State rolled into one school.
And, yes, Bowyer is a Kansas fan, so he enjoyed the thrilling finish to the national title game. And he enjoyed watching it in a quiet setting.
“You know, North Carolina is so funny,” Bowyer said. “Wasn't too many people out watching the game in North Carolina.”
Gotta love that. Unless you’re a UNC fan.
Speaking of UNC fans, Elliott Sadler provided the next light-hearted moment. Sadler, whose older brother Hermie graduated from UNC, was eating dinner in the motorcoach lot at Phoenix International Raceway with his friends when they noticed a truck backing perilously close to the Sadler coach.
Before you could say “Gillett Evernham Motorsports,” the truck slammed into Sadler’s coach. Those buses aren’t cheap, so you figured Sadler would be hopping mad.
Well, no. The driver of the truck that hit Sadler’s coach was none other than Carl Edwards, winner of last weeks’ race at Texas and three of the first seven Sprint Cup races of 2007.
Edwards was understandably repentant, offering to pay for whatever damage had been caused. Sadler, though, enjoyed a good laugh at his fellow driver’s expense.
"You've won three out of four races this year, you're making us look stupid on Sundays, how do you back your truck into [motorhome]?" Sadler said. "...He's good going forward, but I don't really know about him backing out anymore."
Speaking of backing out, Kevin Harvick gave Jeff Gordon a bit of a backhanded slap when talking about a serious subject. Harvick blasted NASCAR for it substance-abuse policy – or lack thereof – in the wake of comments made by Aaron Fike.
Fike, who once drove – and wrecked – for Kevin Harvick Inc., admitted taking heroin on some NASCAR race days, to which Harvick responded with venom toward NASCAR. The sport needs more random drug testing, Harvick said, and he’s often said the same thing to NASCAR officials.
But his suggestions fell on deaf ears, Harvick said.
“To me, it was kind of one of those meetings where they were content to listen to what I had to say and that was about it,” Harvick said. “My name’s not Jeff Gordon."
Speaking of Gordon, I understand he appeared in a recent issue of Vogue. I happened to see a picture of him and wife Ingrid Vandebosch, who was sporting a new, short hair cut. Why do I mention Gordon and Vogue?
I’m not sure.
Gotta love this sport.
It started on Monday night, when Kansas beat Memphis to win the NCAA championship. What, pray tell, does that have to do with NASCAR? Well, in a restaurant in Winston-Salem, N.C., driver Clint Bowyer watched the game with a few of his dirt-track racing buddies.
Bowyer, you’ll recall, is a native of Emporia, Kan., where there’s not much to do besides play in the dirt, avoid tornadoes and follow Kansas Jayhawk basketball. For you North Carolina natives, think UNC, Duke and N.C. State rolled into one school.
And, yes, Bowyer is a Kansas fan, so he enjoyed the thrilling finish to the national title game. And he enjoyed watching it in a quiet setting.
“You know, North Carolina is so funny,” Bowyer said. “Wasn't too many people out watching the game in North Carolina.”
Gotta love that. Unless you’re a UNC fan.
Speaking of UNC fans, Elliott Sadler provided the next light-hearted moment. Sadler, whose older brother Hermie graduated from UNC, was eating dinner in the motorcoach lot at Phoenix International Raceway with his friends when they noticed a truck backing perilously close to the Sadler coach.
Before you could say “Gillett Evernham Motorsports,” the truck slammed into Sadler’s coach. Those buses aren’t cheap, so you figured Sadler would be hopping mad.
Well, no. The driver of the truck that hit Sadler’s coach was none other than Carl Edwards, winner of last weeks’ race at Texas and three of the first seven Sprint Cup races of 2007.
Edwards was understandably repentant, offering to pay for whatever damage had been caused. Sadler, though, enjoyed a good laugh at his fellow driver’s expense.
"You've won three out of four races this year, you're making us look stupid on Sundays, how do you back your truck into [motorhome]?" Sadler said. "...He's good going forward, but I don't really know about him backing out anymore."
Speaking of backing out, Kevin Harvick gave Jeff Gordon a bit of a backhanded slap when talking about a serious subject. Harvick blasted NASCAR for it substance-abuse policy – or lack thereof – in the wake of comments made by Aaron Fike.
Fike, who once drove – and wrecked – for Kevin Harvick Inc., admitted taking heroin on some NASCAR race days, to which Harvick responded with venom toward NASCAR. The sport needs more random drug testing, Harvick said, and he’s often said the same thing to NASCAR officials.
But his suggestions fell on deaf ears, Harvick said.
“To me, it was kind of one of those meetings where they were content to listen to what I had to say and that was about it,” Harvick said. “My name’s not Jeff Gordon."
Speaking of Gordon, I understand he appeared in a recent issue of Vogue. I happened to see a picture of him and wife Ingrid Vandebosch, who was sporting a new, short hair cut. Why do I mention Gordon and Vogue?
I’m not sure.
Gotta love this sport.
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