Sometimes Even Good Reporters get it Wrong/ Poll Day
Sometimes Even Good Reporters get it Wrong
Sometimes when good journalists rely on good sources, their sources can be wrong. Last night on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, Robin Miller reported that:
“Mike Bliss was supposed to be there (at Wednesday’s opener at IRP) but NASCAR threw in a truck test Wednesday night.”
Part of this statement is true. According to both the PR Departments of Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a test is scheduled for Lowe’s Motor Speedway for Thursday beginning at 11:30am eastern. Probably not enough time to get from Indy to Charlote via commercial airline. Part of Miller’s story says there is a test Wednesday night. That part is not true. The only Truck Series activity at Charlotte Wednesday is the parking of race haulers. Quoting the Manager of Communications of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, “If there is a test Wednesday night at Lowe’s, I don’t know about it.”
Robin Miller continued with his conspiracy theory last night saying:
“NASCAR is in bed with USAC and they don’t want this series to do any good… NASCAR sees it as competition and they would like to see it go away faster than see it start.”
I read that quote to my source in NASCAR and he just laughed. He said that the sanctioning organization would never prohibit one of their drivers from running a race with another series. The truck test scheduled for all day Thursday, one day before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte, is designed to test the new pavement at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for grip.
In the last post I called Robin Miller a “loon.” A poster on a message board called me out for it and he is right. I shouldn’t be name-calling. That is childish and leads nowhere. I do count myself as a fan of Robin Miller. He is way ahead of me in the experience and contacts departments (maybe even talent). Miller is not right 100% of the time but he does have more information and sources than most Open Wheel journalists. Sometimes reliable sources are wrong. That is a chance we take when we trust sources.
One final note, if you are anywhere near Indianapolis Wednesday night, you need to get over to Indianapolis Raceway Park and see the inaugural event for the Premiere Racing Association’s Big Car Series. Tickets are only $20 and include a concert. It should be a great event!
PJ Jones to Attempt the 500
Car Owners Greg Beck and Kent Baker announced today that they have entered PJ Jones
It was the first time since 1983 that a complete weekend of qualifications was rained out.
Did you know?
There have only been three complete postponements of the Indianapolis 500. Those came in 1915, 1986, and 1997, all because of rain.
IRL and CCWS Lose Fans
If this is not a call for reunification, I don’t know what is. Both the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series lost voted from 2004 to 2005 in a web poll on ESPN.com. The IRL dropped from 6.8, leading F1 to 6.1, trailing F1 for fifth place. CCWS didn’t fair any better. The series remained in sixth place dropping from 1.8 to 1.4 in percentage of votes. All racing series with the exception of F1 lost votes to NASCAR when ESPN asked the question “What is your favorite type of Motorsports?”
2005
NASCAR 59.5%
NHRA 13.4%
Motorcycle events 9.7
Formula 1 6.3
Indy Racing League 6.1
Champ Car World Series 1.4
Other racing series at 0.4.
2004
NASCAR 57.6%
NHRA 13.9
Motorcycle events 9.8
IRL 6.8
Formula 1 6.0
Champ Car World Series 1.8
Other racing series 0.5
Danica Patrick Best Female Driver Ever
So say the readers of The Charlotte Observer’s online poll. The voters at http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/motorsports/ give Danica Patrick the lead by 1421 votes over Janet Guthrie.
Danica Patrick 2368 votes (41%)
Janet Guthrie 947 votes (16%)
Lynn St. James 719 votes (12%)
Someone else 628 votes (11%)
Louise Smith 468 votes (8%)
Erin Crocker 340 votes (6%)
Sarah Fisher 335 votes (6%)
Erin Crocker Leads Race Babe Poll
Erin Crocker may be second to last in the “Best Female Driver Ever” poll but the Dodge driver is leading the “Race Babe poll with 26% of the votes.
Speed’s Connie LeGrand
and Krista Voda
along with Champ Car World Series hostess, Michelle Biesner
and Kevin Harvick’s wife DeLana Harvick are all tied for second. You can still vote from now until the Indy 500 by scrolling to the bottom of this page. Click on this link http://openwheeler.blogspot.com/2006/04/who-is-your-favorite-race-babe.html to view all of the candidates.
Images appearing in this blog courtesy of FOX, FX, NASCAR Images, Indy Racing League, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS Productions, ABC, Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, SPEED and the respective nominee’s websites.
Sometimes when good journalists rely on good sources, their sources can be wrong. Last night on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, Robin Miller reported that:
“Mike Bliss was supposed to be there (at Wednesday’s opener at IRP) but NASCAR threw in a truck test Wednesday night.”
Part of this statement is true. According to both the PR Departments of Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, a test is scheduled for Lowe’s Motor Speedway for Thursday beginning at 11:30am eastern. Probably not enough time to get from Indy to Charlote via commercial airline. Part of Miller’s story says there is a test Wednesday night. That part is not true. The only Truck Series activity at Charlotte Wednesday is the parking of race haulers. Quoting the Manager of Communications of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, “If there is a test Wednesday night at Lowe’s, I don’t know about it.”
Robin Miller continued with his conspiracy theory last night saying:
“NASCAR is in bed with USAC and they don’t want this series to do any good… NASCAR sees it as competition and they would like to see it go away faster than see it start.”
I read that quote to my source in NASCAR and he just laughed. He said that the sanctioning organization would never prohibit one of their drivers from running a race with another series. The truck test scheduled for all day Thursday, one day before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte, is designed to test the new pavement at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for grip.
In the last post I called Robin Miller a “loon.” A poster on a message board called me out for it and he is right. I shouldn’t be name-calling. That is childish and leads nowhere. I do count myself as a fan of Robin Miller. He is way ahead of me in the experience and contacts departments (maybe even talent). Miller is not right 100% of the time but he does have more information and sources than most Open Wheel journalists. Sometimes reliable sources are wrong. That is a chance we take when we trust sources.
One final note, if you are anywhere near Indianapolis Wednesday night, you need to get over to Indianapolis Raceway Park and see the inaugural event for the Premiere Racing Association’s Big Car Series. Tickets are only $20 and include a concert. It should be a great event!
PJ Jones to Attempt the 500
Car Owners Greg Beck and Kent Baker announced today that they have entered PJ Jones
It was the first time since 1983 that a complete weekend of qualifications was rained out.
Did you know?
There have only been three complete postponements of the Indianapolis 500. Those came in 1915, 1986, and 1997, all because of rain.
IRL and CCWS Lose Fans
If this is not a call for reunification, I don’t know what is. Both the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series lost voted from 2004 to 2005 in a web poll on ESPN.com. The IRL dropped from 6.8, leading F1 to 6.1, trailing F1 for fifth place. CCWS didn’t fair any better. The series remained in sixth place dropping from 1.8 to 1.4 in percentage of votes. All racing series with the exception of F1 lost votes to NASCAR when ESPN asked the question “What is your favorite type of Motorsports?”
2005
NASCAR 59.5%
NHRA 13.4%
Motorcycle events 9.7
Formula 1 6.3
Indy Racing League 6.1
Champ Car World Series 1.4
Other racing series at 0.4.
2004
NASCAR 57.6%
NHRA 13.9
Motorcycle events 9.8
IRL 6.8
Formula 1 6.0
Champ Car World Series 1.8
Other racing series 0.5
Danica Patrick Best Female Driver Ever
So say the readers of The Charlotte Observer’s online poll. The voters at http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/motorsports/ give Danica Patrick the lead by 1421 votes over Janet Guthrie.
Danica Patrick 2368 votes (41%)
Janet Guthrie 947 votes (16%)
Lynn St. James 719 votes (12%)
Someone else 628 votes (11%)
Louise Smith 468 votes (8%)
Erin Crocker 340 votes (6%)
Sarah Fisher 335 votes (6%)
Erin Crocker Leads Race Babe Poll
Erin Crocker may be second to last in the “Best Female Driver Ever” poll but the Dodge driver is leading the “Race Babe poll with 26% of the votes.
Speed’s Connie LeGrand
and Krista Voda
along with Champ Car World Series hostess, Michelle Biesner
and Kevin Harvick’s wife DeLana Harvick are all tied for second. You can still vote from now until the Indy 500 by scrolling to the bottom of this page. Click on this link http://openwheeler.blogspot.com/2006/04/who-is-your-favorite-race-babe.html to view all of the candidates.
Images appearing in this blog courtesy of FOX, FX, NASCAR Images, Indy Racing League, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS Productions, ABC, Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, SPEED and the respective nominee’s websites.
posted by Blake Johnson at 6:36 PM
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