Despite being physically and mentally exhausted when I rolled into the driveway at almost 2 a.m. Monday morning, I'm having trouble moving on from the TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday.I mean, Carl Edwards hurts his thumb in a Super Late Model race, and I kind of shrug my shoulders. Ginn Racing is usurped by Dale Earnhardt Inc., and I bat my eyes. The Brickyard 400 is 5 days away, and it's an afterthought.
I'm still caught up in Roger Brown winning the biggest race of his life.
He's young and a little bit brash, and I like that. American-Canadian Tour director Tom Curley is always telling people that we need local heroes again, but he's only partially right. We need the villians, too, the villians that act as the perfect foil for heroes.
I loved the fact that Brown said he wasn't lifting when David Avery tried to beat him to the 1st turn late in the race.
"Not then," Brown said. Classic.
I've also been thinking about the promise I made to OPS owner Bill Ryan, Super Late Model owner Jay Cushman and PASS North Series drivers Johnny Clark and Cassius Clark last week, when I told them the story I wrote in last Saturday's Kennebec Journal would be the last one I'd write about the ongoing Super Late Model/Pro Stock-Late Model debate. It's a promise I intend to keep, if only because I don't know what more I can add to it that's fresh. Probably nothing.
Of course, I also thought it was amusing that people thought I was "throwing Bill Ryan under the bus" once the race started, because he must have "locked me out of the press box" on Sunday. Musing whether or not the field was too OPS weekly regular-heavy is not throwing anyone under the bus, and neither is noting that passing can be difficult in Late Models.
As I told both Bill Ryan and Johnny Clark at different points in the 2 weeks of coverage leading up to this event, I don't have a car in this race (I was tempted to use "dog in this fight," but the whole Michael Vick thing is so distasteful, I refused) and I like both ACT and PASS racing.
In some ways, given how much time and effort is put into the Oxford 250 from team, promoter and media perspectives, it's a shame this race isn't run at the end of the year. Then again, teams are out of money by the end of the year, and it wouldn't be the same.
It does make me wonder how the Daytona 500 managed to kick off the Cup schedule for so many years. Imagine the hype if that race came in mid-July or early August. Then again, the same guys race against one another every week in the Cup world, and it would always feel like just another stop on some level -- kind of the way the Brickyard does. Great, great event in a special place, but it's still just another race in a long season that pays the same number of points to everyone.
The Oxford 250 remains special because it draws people from all different backgrounds.
It's just that we may not see Carl Edwards get the chance to race it next year.
3 comments:
I'm frustrated with the post race coverage/discussions. Much of the talk has been the debate between late-models vs. pro-stocks. I could care less. I'm more interested in the stories that evolved in the race, which no media or the track seem to be willing to report. Examples: It's Wed. night and the race is still not official. What's going on there? There was a on track confirtation between Avery and Shaw. Who did what? Several cars were strong and lead laps, to only have problems. What happend to each of them? Why were some cars better or worse than normal? How about some quotes from guys that didn't make the race. That could be interesting. Are there any paybacks due? To me, this is the stuff that makes the 250 more than just another race.
The race has been official since late Tuesday. Everything checked out. Time to move on.
In a perfect world, cc71, you would be right.
Now try covering a live race that ends about 10 minutes before your deadline.
It just about nullifies any chance of getting across the track to get to the bottom of the stories you're talking about.
I think most of the papers covered the guys who didn't make the race, particularly Jeff Taylor.
I'll concur with your overriding point, though. The Late Model/Pro Stock story might not be a dead horse yet, but the coverage has been positively Barbaro-like.
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