Off with his head!

"Seriously?"

That was the 1st word out of my mouth when I saw the penalty levied against Robby Gordon. For full disclosure I'll admit that I have never really cared for Robby Gordon. He's just rubbed me the wrong way a few times. However in the past couple of years he's earned a lot more respect from me. I've always known he can drive, that's never been a question. In time thought I've seen some maturity. For example, after responding a bit foolishly and way over the top during the Canadian Busch Race last year he stepped up and made a tremendous peace offering to Ambrose. I think it said a lot about his character.

It has to be nearly impossible to be the last of an all but extinct breed. The owner/driver just doesn't exist in this sport anymore and surely not on a successful and competitive level. Kyle Petty hasn't been a factor in so long that when he knocks out that 1 top 10 for the year we all smile with pride. He'll hand over his ride soon enough. That leaves Robby trying to put it together like so many of the drivers from history have done. Competing against mega super power teams like Hendrick and Rousch-Fenway every day. He's on his 3rd manufacturer in as many years.

I'm impressed he's still in business, let alone competitive.

And competitive he was at the 500 to open the season. He stayed out of trouble and rode out a long day where the contenders were finding themselves spinning through the infield and slamming into walls 1 or 2 at a time. In the end he locked up a nice top 10 finish and started out the season with a tremendous advantage over a number of teams trying to get into the top 35 before Martinsville.

The problem was that he didn't keep his nose clean before the race. The fact that the #7 Dodge had template issues less than 3 weeks after changing manufacturers doesn't shock me. The fact that it was the nose shocks me even less. With today's cars, the nose is the only manufacturer specific part on the entire body. So it makes perfect sense that there could be a template issue, but apparently NASCAR saw it as something more.

$100,000
To most teams, that is the most insignificant part of any penalty. My guess is that to a team like Gordon's this is a ton of money and it will affect them tremendously.

Crew Chief out for 6 races
This is a issue for most teams, but for Robby it is going to hurt. As a team they don't have the depth and tools that a Hendrick has. Chad Knaus was sent home from the Daytona 500 2 years ago and his team still won. Why? Because Hendrick has about 3 guys per team that can crew chief for almost any other team. They've also got 17,325 engineers set aside for the left front shock. My guess is that at Robby Gordon Racing the Crew Chief handles more than about any other team.

100 driver & owner points
This could be the nail in the coffin for a team that is going to fight for a top 35 spot. Look at Michael Waltrip last year and see what a 100 point penalty will do. Coming out of a whole is nearly impossible with todays competition level. However, Robby is guaranteed starts in all of the 1st 5 races and he's offset his penalty with a very solid finish in the 500.

I understand NASCAR's stance of ruling with an iron fist over today's car. After all the fuss people are starting to see that this new car is going to help with cost and competition, but I think that they missed the mark a little bit here. Some things are situational and need to be looked at from a different vantage point. Robby has said he will appeal, but we've seen time and time again how productive that can be. If I were him the 1st thing I would point out is that Dale Jr.'s team had an illegal deck lid and spoiler on their car, it was placed on after inspection, and the received far less of a penalty.

Oversaturated? No. Over covered? Yes

To understand the myth of Dale Jr. oversaturation one will have to understand smart business practices. Do you ever wonder why ESPN rarely shows the Seattle Mariners, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, or even the White Sox on a regular basis? However, it seems as though weekly they televise a Red Sox or Yankees game. The reason behind this is pretty standard. The Yankees have the largest fan base in all of baseball followed by the Boston Red Sox. This is very significant to tv ratings across the country. Everyone is expected to draw viewers in their market, but these 2 teams span ALL markets. For example, in Kentucky there is a heavy saturation of Cincinnati Reds fans. Even so, there are healthy amounts of Yankee and Red Sox fans (amazingly no Kansas City Royals fans).

My point? Regardless of what you think about his driving ability, Dale Jr. has by FAR the largest number of fans in NASCAR. It's not debatable, it's fact. I'll also admit that a lot of these fans don't delve deep into the sport and just care about "their guy". So news outlets know that in order to draw interest to their print, tv, radio, and internet option that they need to cover Jr heavily to improve their user base.

Right now some people are wrongly holding this coverage against Jr. In the past several months Jr has done very minimal appearances and interviews. I know it doesn't seem that way, but set back and think about it. How much have you heard from the driver of the #88 and compare it to the amount of ridiculously shallow topical coverage from the media. When there is news I, as a fan, need to hear it. The thing is, there's been no news. Once Jr. said he was leaving, that was about all you heard from him. However, every radio show and media person went on and on and on and on and on about where he would sign. Then he signed and we heard from Jr. Then it was media coverage going on and on and on and on about numbers...then sponsors...then wait, that's it. Dale Earnhardt Jr. "news" dried up. He's had no real "announcements". He's had no major developments. That's the biggest problem I think he's had. Stopping creating news hasn't stopped Sirius, XM, Rowdy, nascar.com, Nascar Scene, Speed Channel, ESPN, etc from needing to attempt to bring in that massive Jr. fan base. So we've had 3 good months of the same old information hashed and rehashed continually. I know I'm sick of it myself, I could just imagine how someone who's not a Jr. fan would feel. Really...how many times do we need to discuss the following?

• "How's he going to fit in?"
• "What's he learned from Jeff and Jimmie?"
• "What's Jeff and Jimmie learned from him?"
• "What's the difference between DEI and HMS?"

Here it is in short...He's going to fit in fine. If there is going to be "ego" problems, it's something we won't see until MUCH later in the season. The season hasn't started and until a few test days last week the amount of time anyone has had to "learn" anything has been far too short. As for the difference between DEI and HMS? 6 Championships.

Let's move on.

In my mind Junior is far from oversaturated. He's got a massive legion of fans dying to hear from him and dying for new information. Has the coverage of Jr. been a bit much? Yes. However, that's on the people covering the #88. There is only so many ways that the same small news bits can be covered and stretched into 3 months of waiting for the season. I think we've all had our fill of it and tomorrow that all stops.