Photo Credit: www.nascar.com

Article By: Daniel Farish

The Charlotte, NC area is home to roughly 90% of the NASCAR teams, drivers and families. With the exception of 1986 (Atlanta Motor Speedway), NASCAR’s All-Star Race has been run at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s run the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600, the series’ longest race of the season which is also at CMS. This gives the race teams two weeks at home with no travel and a chance to spend time with their families before they embark on the back two-thirds of the longest professional sports season in the country.

Now that you have the background, here is the problem. It needs to move. All-Star events have historically been, well, boring. They bring all of the superstars from the respective sport together in a made-for-TV contest. It’s a chance for the athlete’s to have some fun with each other. Celebrities come out and make sure they’re seen. But not much comes from them. In terms of “what’s at stake”, the order of importance is MLB-NASCAR-NBA-NFL.

(Yeah, I know, no NHL. This is America, not Canada.)

Winner of the MLB All-Star game between the National League and American League gets home field advantage in the World Series. The winner’s purse for NASCAR’s All-Star Race is routinely in the million’s. The NBA has their All-Star Weekend with different competitions but no significant rewards. And then there is the Pro Bowl which was and may still be on the verge of death.

NASCAR needs to move out of Charlotte. Because the competition is largely individual, a driver’s skills at a certain track can heavily affect the outcome of the race. Jimmie Johnson, between May 2002 and October 2007, competed in 17 races at CMS including All-Star appearances. He racked up seven wins, three runner-ups, 13 Top 5’s and 16 Top 10’s. At one point he won five out of six.

Last year he won a rather boring All-Star Race and NASCAR changed the format for this year, eliminating the strategy JJ used to win in 2012. But Charlotte is one of those tracks where, when you get out in clean air, you can take off. Jamie McMurray did it in the Showdown qualifier, Kyle and Kurt Busch did it in the four 20 lap segments and then JJ did it in the final 10 lap dash.

It has to be moved. Why? Because it’s getting boring. Forget the fact that JJ isn’t exactly my favorite (McMurray is, by the way). But it needs to be rotated between different tracks, more importantly different types of tracks. MLB and the NBA rotate their locations and the NFL hosts their All-Star game in Hawaii’, a locale that is 2,471 miles from the mainland.

The list of tracks that should be allowed to host it is short, in my mind. There are five.

Bristol – A track historically known for aggressive racing and wild fans, you aren’t going to see someone run away at this track. More so, you aren’t going to see the field allow a driver to run away. Kasey Kahne could have simply bumped Johnson on the final restart, but doing that at the high speeds Charlotte provides would destroy both cars and probably upset a team owner (Kahne and Johnson both run for Rick Henrdick). But at Bristol? You can bump and bang all you want and not have a wreck totaling both cars. You may have, however, a helmet thrown at a car.

Charlotte – It’s one of NASCAR’s most prestigious tracks, located in the heartland of the sport. It gives the teams and drivers two weeks of R & R, compared to a normal two week travel schedule.

Darlington – This track is located in the heartland of Saturday night racing. An abundance of short tracks where drivers build their skills surrounds Darlington which is considered one of the crown jewels of the schedule. It provides white-knuckle racing and no one lucks into a Darlington win. It is earned.

Richmond – Another short track where the physicality of racing 3400lb race cars against each other can be on the big stage. Richmond is the final track before the cut for the Chase is made, so an All-Star Race might up the ante not only for the top drivers but for some of the guys are on that cutline and expected to perform in September.

Rockingham/North Wilkesboro – Who said the race had to be at a track on the schedule? These are two tracks that were taken off of the NASCAR schedule to make way for the “Cookie Cutter Era.” North Wilkesboro was taken off the schedule in 1996, Rockingham in 2004. “The Rock” has a unique “D” shape that is challenging and puts the race back in the drivers’ hands. North Wilkesboro is just over a half-mile long with medium banking in the turns, providing high speeds on a small track.

Notice a theme? ALL of the tracks are in the southwest, the heart of NASCAR country. I see no reason it should be held anywhere else. The ONLY track I would see making sense is Las Vegas, for two reasons:

1) It’s a Bruton Smith owned track. That man knows how to put on an event.

2). It’s Las Vegas. Enough said.

Problem with Vegas is getting the teams to make a trip all the way out west for a non-points event. Time will tell if the sanctioning body realizes the problem they have, and even more time may pass before they do something about it.

by Shawn Teer

I know hockey is not a very popular sport around here, but I feel that sports fans are really starting to miss out on some great action. Take the Detroit Red Wings for example. They are one of hockey’s most storied franchises, and they have been a main stay in the NHL playoffs for years. They have had their share of problems this year. Most of them at the end of the season, where they had to win out the last four games, just to make it into the playoffs. They pulled it off, and now are giving the Anaheim Ducks a run for their money. They ended up winning the series and are heading now to face the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs. This is not an uncommon thing as the L.A. Kings were last year’s champions, and they were the number 8 seed, and pretty much written out of the playoffs storyline and they won the whole thing. If folks actually tried to catch a game, I think they would enjoy it there is so much going on that people do not realize, that it makes for so much drama and excitement that I can’t even begin to explain it all.

Tony Vanetti and his mother in 1935.  At least it seemed like 1935.  Tony's old. 

Happy Mother's Day from everybody at Clear Channel Media + Entertainment! 

Photo Credit - www.chicagosidesports.com

By - Daniel Farish

Nine months. That’s how long it was between Adrian Peterson going through surgery to repair a torn ACL and Adrian Peterson starting Week 1 of the NFL. He came within nine yards of breaking Eric Dickerson’s record for the most rushing yards in an NFL season. This leads into everyone’s question: What the hell is wrong with Derrick Rose?

We are five days away from the one year mark of Rose tearing his ACL. He hasn’t been back on the basketball court. He didn’t come back during the regular season, when his team was struggling. He has made mentions of coming back during the playoffs. So all of a sudden you want to come back not that your team is good? They beat a scrappy Brooklyn team with the backup’s backups. And you, you sit there on the bench because you’re “muscle memory” isn’t right. You get paid $16.4 MILLION to make sure it’s right.

This is your JOB. It’s not some rec league where you can sit out, feel bad about it, but still go get pizza with the guys afterwards. I remember when Derrick Rose was in the MVP conversation. Now there are websites saying you are a great “decoy” for the Bulls. Seriously? Is this what you want? Is this what you envisioned when you went down last year?

When a player leaves a sport, a businessman leaves the rat race, or a person leaves this world all they have is their legacy. MJ’s “flu game” (which turned out to be food poisoning) was, and still is a huge part of his legacy. What will yours be DR? You’ll be “that guy” who could’ve been, but wasn’t. You’ll be an answer in a trivia contest in 10 years. You’re supposed to be the premier player on one of the most iconic franchises in the NBA. All you are now is the butt of a joke. To your own fans!

So what’s wrong? On the outside (as most of us are) this appears to be mental and/or emotional. It’s like you don’t trust yourself, your body, or the doctors who have fixed you. They cleared you to play 60 days ago. The Bulls would not rush you, nor would the doctors who they employ. They say when you fall off the horse, to dust yourself off and get back on. It was quite a fall you took; that injury just a decade ago spelled disaster for an athlete. No one expects you to be Adrian Peterson. It has been made quite obvious that his body is a medical marvel. But you’ve got to be you, and quit being scared.

Finally, I leave you with this:

Nate Robinson – “God blessed me with a lot of heart and no height and I’ll take that any day.”

Come on Derrick, show some heart.

The LA Dodgers Matt Kemp probably signs a lot of autographs during a game.  But this video of Kemp meeting a young man battling a tough disease, and the gesture that Kemp does, will just make you smile today.  In a world of sports with many poor examples, Matt Kemp proves there are some good guys. 

Photo Credit - News 14 Carolina

By: Daniel Farish

Well, NASCAR screwed the pooch on this one. Given the opportunity to produce one of the closest finishes in the Nationwide Series history, they tossed it aside to once again go against everything the drivers expected.

Kasey Kahne said it best.

“I didn’t expect them to throw that caution.”

As the cars were coming through the tri-oval, Brian Vickers was spun across the track, starting a wreck that involved at least 10 cars. The leaders were at the end of the tri-oval, approaching the start/finish line. Regan Smith had the lead, Joey Logano was beating the hell out of Smiths’ door to try and slow him down, and Kasey Kahne had a strong run on the outside of those two. The cars crossed the line with Kahne a splitter’s length in front of the other two, unofficially giving him the win.

And what did NASCAR do? They threw the caution as the drivers were exiting the tri-oval which ended the race and froze the field. There was absolutely NO reason to throw the caution. Some say this is a hard and fast rule. “The caution always comes out in this situation.”

The 2007 Daytona 500. Big wreck coming off of Turn 4, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick were running 1-2. If NASCAR throws the caution there, when one could argue it needed to be thrown, Mark Martin is a Daytona 500 Champion. But they didn’t throw the caution, Harvick and Martin raced back to the checkered flag and the #29 won the race. Mark Martin was robbed of a historic win that would add to his legacy.

Fast forward to today. NASCAR has no reason to throw the caution. There was not a full field of cars behind the wreck, speeding off of Turn 4 to an impending doom. The wreck WAS the field. The half dozen cars behind the wreck were not looking for caution lights. They were looking for holes to shoot through so they could pick up an extra 5-10 positions.

Now, I have no problem with who won. I think it is AWESOME that Regan Smith got the win. Some might say it is payback for the Cup win that was taken away from him (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOAXUgFvHgo) at Talladega five years ago. But come on NASCAR. Set a precedent and then stick with it.

by Shawn Teer

As we all know by now, Tim Tebow has been officially released by the New York Jets. It was just a matter of time as many believe it was going to happen as soon as they drafted Geno Smith in this year’s draft. I think it is safe to say that the Tebow experiment as a member of the Jets was a huge bust, there has been some talk that teams would take Tebow, but only if he switched positions to tight end. Of course, he declined their offer and the talks stopped after Tebow refused and now he has no team to play for. Never the less, it got me to thinking about something. Could Tim Tebow be a success in the NFL if he was to play at a different position?

According to ESPN.com, Tebow is one of five quarterbacks in the last 30 years to complete less than 50% of his passes in a minimum of 300 attempts. He also wants to run a lot so why not try and look into being a tight end or running back? It feels like to me he has the natural athletic ability and could adjust to the role very easily. Besides, if he went to a team and took on a different role, he could be a quarterback again in an emergency situation. I feel that there is not a coach out there that would not love to have a versatile player like that who in a pinch, or maybe even some designed trick plays that he could get the ball and launch it down the field. It is not an all the time thing, but I think he could be used as a secret weapon of sorts and find great success if he would get his ego out of the way.