Backfire

4.20.2006

by Terrell Davis

Harvick really is “Happy”

Okay, I admit it. After meeting him at Music City Motorplex at the Fairgrounds, I’ve become a Kevin Harvick fan.

Ouch! It kind of hurts to say it. But now, after seeing the easy and cordial way he interacted with everyone, the sting of admitting to being a Harvick fan is more like a mosquito bite than a bee sting.

He really is a nice kind of guy…off the track, anyway.

Harvick and his Busch driver, Burney Lamar, hung out in the Motorplex’s main suite with the folks from Harvick’s Busch team sponsor, Dollar General, during the Dollar General Race Night at the Plex Friday night. They visited the pit area and signed a lot of autographs for fans, but instead of hopping in their limo and heading back to the Nashville Superspeedway where they were racing on Saturday, they visited for a couple of hours and caught some of the Motorplex’s racing action.

Harvick seemed to be particularly impressed with the Sportsman Division cars. Maybe during the Superspeedway’s race in June, Harvick can bum a ride from someone.

That would make everyone….Happy.

***

Deborah Renshaw returning to the Fairgrounds

Deborah Renshaw told Ride & Drive Middle Tennessee Racing News that contrary to previously printed stories (not in RDMTRN…we knew better), her career in racing isn’t over. While the former Fairgrounds Late Model racer admits that she doesn’t have a firm offer for an upper level NASCAR ride at the moment, she “will probably drive in several races” at Music City Motorplex at the Fairgrounds.

“We’re working on something that could bring us back for several races,” Renshaw said Friday night at the Motorplex. “Racers want to race and I’m a racer.”

Renshaw also spent some time speaking with Kevin Harvick in the Dollar General suite.

“Kevin had helped me in a race a while back and we were just chatting,” she said.

Renshaw said that plans should be in place within a few weeks, if the Fairgrounds Late Model deal comes together.

***

Liz Allison bookin’ to the Today Show

Liz Allison seems to be everywhere…and all at one time. In addition to doing three shows a week on a Nashville Radio station, Liz has written another book and she’ll be promoting it on a nation level.

Allison is scheduled to head for New York to appear on NBC's Today on May 17 to discuss her latest book The Girls' Guide to NASCAR. She also has appearances on CNBC on April 24 and Fox on May 18. A local book launching party will be held on May 2nd.

***

Rim in action, fence repaired

Highland Rim Speedway ran its regular Saturday night program last week after repair work was completed on a section of concrete wall that was broken away two weeks ago when a car crashed into it during qualifying run.

The Rim, located in Ridgetop, Tennessee is scheduled to hold its full regular racing program again this Saturday.

***

Is Nashville a lost cause?

While we don’t whole heartedly agree with this piece by Monte Dutton from the Gaston Gazzette, the logic is hard to argue. Like a good country song, it may be sad, but true.

The tragic inability of Nashville Superspeedway to acquire a Nextel Cup date is almost a microcosm of what is changing in the world of major-league stock-car racing.
The track’s plight is practically hopeless.
NASCAR seems uninterested in the market. The movers and shakers in Daytona Beach cast longing stares at New York City and the Northwest, but in Nashville’s case, it’s little more than a wayward glance.
New York, of course, is served — or should be served — by the track in the Pocono Mountains that is no more than a 90-minute drive from Manhattan. New York is encircled by reachable tracks, including those in Loudon, N.H., the Poconos and Dover, Del.
That’s too far? Not as far, taken together, as Nashville from the tracks in Bristol, Indianapolis and Talladega.
Yet, thanks to the existence of a lawsuit, any flickering chances nearby rest in Kentucky, near Cincinnati.
Let’s extol the virtues of Nashville as a fan destination for a moment.
It’s the home of country music, which, while this may come as a surprise to the Lords of Daytona, is still pretty popular among stock-car racing fans, even those who don’t come from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Las Vegas Motor Speedway draws fans partly because it serves a vast market, but its allure undoubtedly rests in part because it is a city where fans want to go. The same can be said in favor of the track in Texas, which, thankfully, now hosts two annual races.
What’s more, the Nashville
track is unique, and in this day and age, that fact sets it apart. It’s paved in concrete, like the popular tracks in Bristol and Dover, and its length, 1.333 miles, is both unique and appealing to fans who actually like to see all the way around the track without benefit of binoculars. Rockingham’s gone. Pause for a moment and weep silently. For those who miss grand old North Carolina Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway would be the next best alternative.
Undoubtedly, NASCAR officials will point out that, according to local reports, Saturday’s Busch Series race, the Pepsi 300, drew a mere 25,000 or so. That, by the way, is very close to capacity.
Guess what? If the track were granted a Cup date today, construction of vast new grandstands would commence tomorrow. Whether the track, located about a 30-minute drive east of downtown Nashville and extraordinarily well served by infrastructure designed to get the fans in and out efficiently, could attract more than 100,000 fans isn’t even a practical matter of debate. It would draw fans not just from the region but from all around the country.
Why? Because it’s near Nashville, and Nashville is an attractive place to visit.
But it’s not owned by either of the superpowers, NASCAR-affiliated International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Inc.
Thus, it has no chance. What a crying shame. George Jones ought to sing about it.

***

Church Lures NASCAR Fans
A church in Manatee County was hoping the presence of a legendary NASCAR driver's car would have people racing to its Easter Sunday service. Bayside Community Church planned to have the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s black No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo available for viewing and photos. There was a catch. People had to sit through a service to get a ticket to be photographed with the race car. To get the free 4-by-6-inch picture, they had to return the next weekend and sit through another service.

The nondenominational church expected to more than double its normal attendance of about 1,100. It had mailed 40,000 fliers, sent out news releases and advertised on a country radio station and at the DeSoto Speedway. Lead pastor Randy Bezet was tying the Earnhardt car into Sunday's service. The theme: "Finishing the race of life."

Using the car wasn’t a gimmick, he said. The church is just coming up with "fresh ways to communicate the ageless Gospel," he said. Bezet, who is not an avid NASCAR fan, got a photo of his family with the car.

At press time, there was no word on attendance figures.

***

"Gotta Race" Out This Week
Ken Schrader's much anticipated autobiography will be available starting this.

Schrader who is a four-time NEXTEL Cup winner and three-time pole sitter at the Daytona 500, currently drives the #21 Little Debbie/U.S. Air Force/Motorcraft Woods Brothers Racing car on NASCAR's premier circuit. Schrader is also America's acknowledged Prince of the Short Tracks race anywhere, anytime on dirt or asphalt, in Nextel Cup, sprint car, midget or dirt late model.

GOTTA RACE! recounts 35 years of racing adventures, told in Schrader's own distinctive voice to Joyce Standridge, a nationally known racing columnist. The book covers all of Schrader's career from his beginnings in the 1970s at tiny St. Louis-area bullrings, to wild open-wheel rides around the country, to the glamour of Indianapolis and Daytona.

The author also shares an intimate look at family life, his views on racing today, and thoughts on how to get started in racing. A successful entrepreneur who now owns tracks in Missouri and Kentucky, Schrader talks about the business side of racing and his plans for the future, once he hangs up his Nextel Cup helmet.

GOTTA RACE! also provides insight into Schrader's many racing relationships. One chapter is devoted to his friendships with luminaries like Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and Jr., Richard Petty, Tony Stewart, Cale Yarborough, and many others.

If you have ever watched his television show, heard him interviewed or been given the opportunity to meet him in person you will want to read his book. Ken's lust for life and wittiness are revealed on every page, but there is also a deep and honest caring vividly portrayed throughout that captures the reader from page one.

The book is packed with 350 photographs, both dramatic and touching, that serve as a personal history of the past 35 years of the sport. It also includes 59 pages of Schrader's race records, detailing his races from 1971 to 2005, listing date, track, type of car, car owner, race winner, Schrader's finish, and comments about the race.

GOTTA RACE! is available at $23.95 plus $6.00 shipping and handling. To order, call Coastal 181 toll free at 877-907-8181 or online at (www.coastal181.com)