You know, it’s been pretty cold outside the past few days. Cold enough to make a young fellow wonder just why on earth he continues to stick around the upper midwest. Then he realizes that he doesn’t have much choice at the moment, as moving would cost a fortune he has not yet earned. Maybe some day.

This cold weather reminds me that the Winter Olympics are going on. Unfortunately, I haven’t watched any more than a few minutes of the events. It looks just as cold there as it is here, and I don’t need anything reminding me how cold it is outside.

Bryant Gumbel made a funny about the Winter Olympics the other day. A lot of people got in a tizzy about the following sentence: “So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.”

I heard Gumbel’s remarks in their entirety, and while I don’t take issue with his racial remark so much, I do take issue with his Thomas Paine quote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” In quoting Paine, Gumbel suggests that Paine thought this of the Winter Olympics, which is of course absolutely preposterous because Paine could have never even heard of the Winter Olympics. They didn’t begin until the 20th Century, and as you may know Thomas Paine was around in the late 1700s and died in the early 1800s. Shame on you Bryant Gumbel for your slanderous remarks.

In the past, I haven’t watched the Winter games as much as the Summer games. I get pretty excited about the summer games, particularly the track & field events, but for curiosity’s sake only I tend to watch Bobsledding, Luge, and other sports when I have the opportunity. Curling seems to be a fascination among many people these days. Why? I’m not so sure. To think you can get Olympic Gold just for sweeping ice in front of a sliding stone. What will they come up with next?

Stay warm.

I’ve uploaded the photos from last weekend’s NHRA races at Brainerd to the photo album. Click here to check it out. Of course, a permanent link is on the main photo album page. Enjoy!

Now I’m off to go watch the NASCAR race on TV. They’re at Michigan this weekend, and Michigan is always a good race. So I can’t miss it. See-ya later!

For the most part, this weekend’s vacation to the north woods of Minnesota for the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway was a great success. The racing was good, the weather was beautiful, and all the usual friends made it there. We met some nice people who also live in the Twin Cities area, and met some people from other places. That’s one of the best parts of going to the races, the people. But the best part, which never disappoints, are the cars and the speed.

Unfortunately, all the drivers that I root for were eliminated fairly early, so that’s too bad. I go for Tony Schumacher in the US Army top fueler, I’m not too partial to anyone in particular in the Funny Cars, but I always go for Warren Johnson in the pro stocks. On the bikes, I like Antron Brown.

I had the opportunity to shake Antron Brown’s hand this weekend, which was quite the thrill. I have a lot of respect for the guy, being a minority and making it to the top in racing is something that’s been unheard of in past years. But in NHRA particularly, that has changed. I’d say probably a quarter to a half of the drivers in all the divisions of NHRA are women and other minorities, and that’s pretty cool. NHRA is certainly doing something right, and NASCAR should ask them what it is. It didn’t occur to me until this weekend how diverse NHRA is. But I’m not just talking about the nice assortment of minority drivers, I’m talking about the fans, too. All types were there, even in a Scandinavian-dominated northwoods place like Brainerd. Why is it that you don’t see the same thing at many NASCAR events? Why has NASCAR alienated so many minorities, especially drivers?

You may recall that NASCAR hired Magic Johnson to co-chair their diversity commitee a while back. I doubt that it’s had any effect. It was a nice gesture, but clearly just an attempt to be compliant and to make themselves look good. For diversity to truly happen in NASCAR, it’s not really going to be up to the sanctioning body or a comittee. It’s up to the car and team owners, to stop looking only as far as the next good ol’ boy who tears up the dirt tracks in Indiana or North Carolina. There are plenty of good minority candidates out there, and I hope the big teams will give them a shot.

Ultimately, as I said, the weekend was a success. I did, however, get an incredibly bad sunburn and my allergies are all out of wack right now. We slept in a tent and it got pretty cold during the evenings, so I’m sure part of it is a cold, too. Sunday and today I’ve felt pretty awful, major sinus congestion, sore throat, and pretty much sore everything else.

But now it’s time to get everything back to normal. Back to work, back to doing all the other regular day-to-day things. Coming back from a vacation is always the worst, but I’ll get over it. I’ll have a photo album up from the races this weekend soon.

Something new on the site! Tonight I decided to make a new blog live, a blog devoted to a big topic I certainly have a lot to say about: NASCAR. It’s called NASCARblog, which you can find under the miscellany section or just go to nascarblog.dustinmarson.com to get to it. So if you enjoy my rants about racing, now you’ll get to see them more often there. I’ve actually been planning it for a while, just haven’t had much time for it but decided to commit to it tonight. Hopefully I can keep up with it.

Well, that’s all for now. See you again soon.

NASCAR team Roush Racing announced today that 2004 Nextel Cup Champion Kurt Busch has advised them that he’s off to greener pastures beginning with the 2007 season. He’ll be moving on to Penske Racing South, to replace retiring veteran Rusty Wallace in the #2 Miller Lite Dodge. Man, I wonder what that letter of resignation looked like.

Dear Jack Roush,

Although you are probably one of the top two most powerful and successful mega-team owners in NASCAR’s modern era, and I owe basically all of my success to you, I have decided to move on to a Penske Racing South, a team that has not won a championship in this racing series since 1989. I am a fool.

Sincerely,
Kurt Busch

Don’t get me wrong, I hate Penske with a passion. I always have. They are all that is wrong with NASCAR, they have a monopoly over winning races. They’ve turned NASCAR into a big show, and that show is called: Which team will win this week, Roush or Hendrick? No one else has a chance against these guys. Not even brilliant and hard working teams like Evernham Motorsports or Penske Racing. It’s not so much that Roush has more money into his race cars, he has the money to hire all of the pure talent like Kurt Busch. That kind of combination devastates everyone else. Well, it looks like the tables are turning, Mr. Roush. Busch can win without Jack, and I hope he does. This Roush dominance has to stop.

Isn’t this ironic. Penske Racing hopes that Busch will be able to buy out his contract and run the #2 Miller Lite Dodge in 2006, replacing veteran Rusty Wallace. Odd that Roush is now being put in the exact same position as he has put Chip Ganassi in, when he recently signed Jamie McMurray to replace retiring veteran Mark Martin. McMurray was signed by Roush to drive Martin’s #6 Ford in 2006, but just like Kurt Busch, his contract with Ganassi isn’t up until the end of 2006. Interesting coincidence we have here.

Current driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge is Rusty Wallace, who is retiring and says he will in no way shape or form come back in 2006. Mark Martin, who is also retiring, has agreed to run one more year if McMurray is not let out of his contract with Ganassi, which also runs thru 2006.

Think about if you put in a two weeks notice at your job, would you give it your regular best during those two remaining weeks? Some might, but most probably wouldn’t. Would Busch do his best at Roush for the next year and a half? Let’s face it, you basically leave your job mentally the moment you found out you were hired somewhere else. Even though we’re talking about full seasons here, millions of dollars, sponsorship deals, etc., I think that the same problem applies here, especially if Busch isn’t happy at Roush.

Here’s a clue. NASCAR.com has some quotes from Roush driver Matt Kenseth expressing a great deal of annoyance over Jamie McMurray’s recent signing for the #6 car. None of this deal was communicated to any of the Roush drivers, they had absolutely no say. I’m starting to see something here. Roush has grown so powerful that he doesn’t even care what his drivers think anymore. I mean, what do these punk kids he’s hiring know, he is their God and they should do what he says and never question him! Right? I can see that being the way things are at Roush, and I can see why Busch is leaving.

So Busch joins Ryan Newman, my favorite driver, at Penske, which is partially why this is such a big deal to me. Does this mean I have to start rooting for the guy I have rooted against for so long, because he is my favorite driver’s teammate? Like I said, he was a part of the dark side: Roush. But let me look at it this way: this is a sign of something going wrong at Roush, drivers are disgruntled, drivers are leaving, I should be rolling in happiness. And my favorite driver, Newman, is going to have a recent champion on his team, and not just some old fart (Rusty Wallace). I see a bright future ahead for Penske, and that makes me very happy.

What’s been wrong at Penske? Well, I’ve always gotten the vibe that Wallace is a know it all, wants to give advice and not receive it. There has been a lot of media attention that has basically given that fact, saying that the #2 and #12 car don’t ever share any information, because they hate each other’s guts. This is why Penske can’t win championships, there’s no teamwork at all. Unfortunately, in this era of NASCAR, you need to share information, you can’t depend on one driver to get the job done like you used to. I think that’s about to change now that Wallace is finally retiring. No more seniority at Penske, no more tension and division.

Well, I’ll admit it. I’m looking forward to seeing Busch in the #2 car. I really am.

This weekend is my big weekend up at the races in Brainerd, so I won’t be posting here like I usually do on the weekends. The weather looks like it’s going to be good, and that’s great news. I can’t wait, my favorite weekend of the year is finally here! So I’ll see you here next week sometime. Have a good weekend.

After weeks - no, months - of dim cloudy skies, the sun peeked out yesterday - two days late - and then came out full blast today while we all had to work, the ultimate slap in the face. Typical sun, coming back from wherever it was whenever it feels like it and offering zero apologies. It had the character of someone who knows that everyone is mad at him, but hopes his wonderful personality will make up for his mistakes. He hopes we’ll be happy to see him. Look, everyone, Mr. Sun is here! Instead he gets hard looks, indifferent handshakes, and everyone looks at Mr. Sun with utter hatred. Just go, will you? Just go.

For many it’s been too long to even remember what that big yellow circle up above is. People are walking around in confusion and fear, followed by strange dark shades on the ground that seem to mock them in their every step. Scientists call these “shadows” and explain that they are a part of nature, but still the masses are unnerved. These “shadows” leave us when we enter buildings, then fall behind us when we go back outdoors. Within the safety of our buildings, we fear that these shades are milling around, conspiring, plotting some revolt when we emerge again. How we long for the return of the clouds, the comfort of cold rain, the solitude of a walk without the long gray ghost trailing behind us.

Joy! The Weather Channel has announced we are due for storms tomorrow. Rain again! Blessed relief. I shall now celebrate by banging my head against the wall for a few hours.

Minus the weather I had a lovely weekend. Caught up with the family up in North Dakota, went to a graduation, saw that new George Lucas flick (too shabby, it wasn’t). Sunday was race day, most notably the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500. All but three men lost the race to a girl. Oh yeah, and that one guy who’s won an incredible four out of the five races so far this season won the race, in case the news forgot to tell you while over-sensationalizing the heck out of you know who.

NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 also ended in great excitement, except that I think the guy everyone was rooting for in the oh-so-close finish was the one who came up short. What a bummer. I heard the finish on PRN radio while driving home from up North, and holy moly those radio commentators know how to get you excited. They also seemed quite intelligent, and actually spoke proper English. Please, I’m begging, fire everyone at Fox and NBC and hire those guys to announce the races on TV from now on.

Anyhoo… Getting back into the regular old routine after a weekend like that is the pits. But it must be done. The bills have to be paid, the cat has to be fed. Work could have been much worse today, as a matter of fact it wasn’t bad at all. Traffic was a nightmare, though. But that comes as no surprise. Hopefully you had a nice Memorial Day as well, and are surviving the return to your normal routine. Look at it this way, it’s only a four day week, Friday will come a day sooner than usual.

Ta ta for now.

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