Finally got to the Snowball Derby in Pensacola this weekend and it was a gas with Joe Nemecheks boy John winning in a last lap shootout over Dalton Sergeant, Derek Thomas, hometowner Hunter Robbins and Grant Enfinger before a packed house. John showed a lot of his dads genes passed down to him in beating the most competitive short track field of the year -- the difference between the pole sitter and last place starter was .24 seconds on this very fast half mile. NASCAR GN Champ Chase Eilliott looked like the man to beat until he ran into misfortune on a stunning afternoon of blue skies and 69 degrees. This was American asphalt late model stock racing at its finest and the raw talent we saw was terrific and left no doubt that a number of the guys we saw today would end up as star wheelmen in Cup racing one day. Grant Engfinger, the Alabama wizard who won six ARCA races this year, continues to impress me. He is absolutely ready for Cup competition now…no need for him to get into a truck or GN car. He reminds me so much of Jimmy Johnson that it is scary! * * * I continue to be unimpressed with Las Vegas as the host of the yearly Cup banquet. Should have never been moved from New York City, the media capital of the world where the new champ would always get a session on Good Morning America, CBS and ABC as well as countless other shows. Vegas simply has little media and that is a huge reason to have it in the first place. While it is wonderful to stage a huge party and fete the new champ it is big publicity that should result. It went to Vegas because of big money the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau put up to get it away from NYC. But is money everything? Not in this case. The sport needs that national publicity today worse than ever which was the big reason Bill France Jr. took it there. If he was still around it would still be there! At any rate, congratulations go out to newly crowned champ Kevin Harvick and beautiful wife Delana. They worked hard for this! * * * What have we learned from the NASCAR tests about the 2015 season? Dont know yet but the boys are working hard to eliminate the aero-push that makes it so easy for the lead car to run away with things so keep your fingers cross but until we run races at Atlanta and Vegas we wont know. The aero push is not a big factor at Daytona because of restrictor plates. * * * Very impressed with the new improvements being made at Clint Elkins Carolina Speedway south of Gastonia N.C. Hes adding seats and putting new dirt in to revamp the existing 4/10th mile track that, despite record rainouts, had their best profit season ever. Carolina runs on Friday night and the place is packed. First race will be in March…and down at Cordele, Ga., that asphalt track will host a big Speedfest in mid January with record fields of cars expected at Marvin Ragans (Davids uncle) former track. Marvin recently sold it. * * * * Look for a resurgence of mini racing along the East coast next season with those hot little mini-outlaw karts selling lemonade on a hot Georgia day. These are simply karts with outlaw-type wings atop and put on a whale of a show. When they race on the same card as Ricky Dennis arena cars they put on great and cheap entertainment like we recently saw at the Millbridge N.C. Speedway near Mooresville North of Charlotte. However, these arena cars have triple the hp the arena engines had and it makes for a better and more exciting race.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 03:05:15 +0000
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