Double Duty at Indy, Charlotte Should Be Back in Play

Tony Stewart scored top 10s in both races in 1999.

This upcoming Sunday is my favorite sports day of the year with the Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon and the Coca Cola 600 (NASCAR’s longest race) in the evening. That’s 1,100 miles of great racing action in one day. 

It wasn’t all that long ago when drivers could attempt both races in the same day and the likes of Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti did. The most spectacular result was win Tony Stewart scored top 10 finishes in both races in 1999 (meaning he completed all 1,100 miles).   

However, a few years ago the Indy 500 pushed back its start time to where it would pretty much be impossible to run the Indy 500 in Indianapolis, Ind. and then get in a helicopter or plane and fly to Charlotte, N.C. in time for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. 

Since then people have been talking about how great it would be to see drivers compete in both races on the same day again and how the Indy 500 should move ahead the race in order to entice drivers to do so. 

There are many drivers in both sports with seat time in both IndyCar and NASCAR: Stewart, Robby Gordon, Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti among the notables. Seeing one or more of those big names try the double duty would be well worth getting up a little bit earlier for the Indy 500. 

Hopefully sometime in the near future we’ll have the opportunity and pleasure of seeing the double duty at Indy and Charlotte completed again. 

2012 NASCAR Boring Because of Lack of Passing, Not Lack of Wrecking

Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart went on a sarcastic rant during a post race press conference at Talladega on Sunday in which he basically insinuated that all NASCAR fans want to see are wrecks, after numerous complaints from fans about boring racing this season, which, for some really unexplained reason has seen fewer wrecks and cautions. 

Now, it is true that some fans of NASCAR really do enjoy seeing wrecks and that’s what they tune in for. I don’t think that those fans are true fans of the sport or motorsports, in general. But, I also think Stewart is being a somewhat of a jerk in this situation, because the racing this season honestly has been boring. 

It hasn’t been boring because of the lack of wrecks, though; it’s been boring because of the lack of close and side-by-side racing. Nobody wants to see the leader have a 10 second lead over second place or win a race by multiple seconds over second place. 

It seems like we’re getting a lot of single file, little passing for the lead racing this season in NASCAR and that is racing at its most boring. If NASCAR fans really wanted to see follow the lead racing then they probably would’ve tuned into Formula 1 racing many years ago.

NASCAR is known for side-by-side, close quarters racing with beating and banging, which I may add can be done without wrecking, but hasn’t seen much of that this year. It really boils down to the lack of actual passing this season rather than the lack of wrecks that has made NASCAR boring. 

Fans who want to see wrecks are wrong and idiotic, but Stewart insinuating that that’s all us fans wants to see is just as wrong and idiotic.   

My MLB All Stars After April

Pitcher:

AL: Jake Peavy, White Sox 3-1, 1.67, 33 K

NL: Stephen Strasburg, Nationals 2-0, 1.12, 34 K

Catcher:

AL: AJ Pierzynski, White Sox .309, 4, 17

NL: Buster Posey, Giants .353, 4, 9

1B:

AL: Paul Konerko, White Sox .383, 5, 15

NL: Adam LaRoche, Nationals .329, 4, 17

2B:

AL: Ian Kinsler, Rangers .297, 5, 12

NL: Omar Infante, Marlins .328, 5, 7

3B:

AL: Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays .310, 7, 20

NL: David Freese, Cardinals .333, 5, 20

 

SS:

AL: Derek Jeters, Yankees .396, 4, 13

NL: Starlin Castro, Cubs .324, 0, 13, 10 SB

OF:

AL: Josh Hamilton, Rangers .395, 9, 25

Josh Willingham, Twins .353, 5, 15

Nick Swisher, Yankees .284, 6, 23

NL: Matt Kemp, Dodgers .425, 11, 24

Andre Ethier, Dodgers .277, 5m 24

Jay Bruce, Reds .296, 7, 17

Wright, Childs Continue Journey as Lifelong Teammates

One of the most unique stories of the NFL Draft, and one that has been grossly and unfathomably unreported on, is the story of now former Arkansas Razorbacks receivers Jarius Wright and Greg Childs. 

Wright and Childs were both selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft on Saturday afternoon by the Minnesota Vikings. Now, it’s unique enough that the college teammates were both selected by the same team to play in the NFL, if both make the roster by opening week, but it actually goes back a lot further than just being teammates in Fayetteville. 

You see Wright and Childs have pretty much been teammates for their entire lives. Both are from the small Arkansas town of Warren, which is a town of about 6,000 people. Both were teammates at Warren High before heading north to college and before that the two were teammates at the junior high level, the middle school level and the elementary school level. It doesn’t seem that there is anything in this world that can separate Wright and Childs. 

Now I don’t know for sure, and have no clue how one would even really go about looking such a thing up, but I’m willing to bet that something like this, especially from such a small hometown has ever happened in the NFL. It’s a unique enough and special enough story to have me rooting for both Wright and Childs to make the Vikings roster this season.