CBS.SportsLine.com's Brian De Los Santos and Charlie McCarthy provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
| 1. Carl Edwards injured his hand in a recent dirt-track race. Should owners and/or sponsors ban their drivers from competing in non-series sanctioned events? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
 While I know that if I were paying big-time money to sponsor a certain driver I'd want to protect my investment, can you really ban a racer from racing? It seems like such a ridiculous thought. Such a ban certainly wouldn't sit well with most drivers. Many grew up on the short-track dirt races and can't get enough of them. When they're not in their primary series car they're looking for a race -- any race -- they can. Accidents and injuries involving top-level stars in these dirt-track events pop up every now and then, but it's not as if it's a chronic problem. Most drivers have raced hundreds -- some even thousands -- of times without any serious injuries. I think the risk is something sponsors and owners should be able to live with, though I certainly couldn't blame a sponsor if they wanted to try to write such a ban in future contracts. |  We went through this last year after Tony Stewart broke a rib in a sprint-car accident before the season. I certainly understand why owners would want to ban their big-money drivers from non-series events, but I think the pros outweigh the cons. Drivers sometimes spend weekdays and off weeks racing at smaller venues. The primary reason for that usually is to help promote a race or track for a friend or fellow driver. But don't kid yourself, racers love to race -- anytime, anywhere. An owner risks having an unhappy driver by ruling non-series events are off limits. And let's face it, a driver just as easily could get hurt in a Cup, Busch or Truck race. |
| 2. Better Indy tradition: Drinking the milk or kissing the bricks? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
| You know, I was originally going to say drinking the milk, but, in reality, the so-called tradition is nothing but an opportunity pounced upon by the milk industry. It started innocently enough. After his victory in 1936, Louis Meyer asked for a glass of buttermilk at the behest of his mother. If the story ended there and the drivers that succeeded him thought that it was just a wonderfully, wacky way to celebrate the win, we'd have ourselves a winner. But no, it was pushed upon them. His swig of milk was captured in a snapshot and seeing a promo op, the milk industry exec ordered that every year the winner should receive a bottle of milk. There are no such shenanigans behind the tradition of kissing the bricks at the start/finish line by Cup drivers. Dale Jarrett and his cohorts were the first to do it in 1996 and every winner since has followed suit. Not because of a marketing ploy, but because it seemed like the right thing to do as homage to the speedway's great history. | Let me get this straight, Brian, you're against the milk drinking because a company has cashed in on the tradition? Yeah, you're right -– after all, you'd never see such a blatant marketing act in the land of NASCAR. (LOL. ARE YOU SERIOUS?) As far as traditions go, there's no debate -- it's the drinking of milk by the Indianapolis 500 winner. First of all, it has been around for many more years than the kissing of bricks. Second, and unless it's two weeks old, milk tastes a heckuva lot better than brick (not that I know for sure, since I haven't made out with any brick). The only reason NASCAR folks followed Jarrett's lead and created their own Indy "tradition" was to counter the longtime open-wheel moment. Couldn't they have come up with something better than smacking their lips on a surface covered with rubber and oil? Ugh. |
| 3. Who will win the Brickyard? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Charlie McCarthy |
| Dare I say 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya? No I do not. The logical choices are either Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart. Gordon has four victories at the Brickyard and has been at the top of his game this season. Perhaps no driver holds Indy closer to his heart than Stewart, who owns one victory at Indy and would stop at nothing to add another. But, while I expect they'll have terrific runs at Indy, neither is my pick. Nope, I'm going with Matt Kenseth. He has been close a number of times, with four top fives in seven trips to the track. This year I think he can finish the deal. | So you want to know who'll kiss the bricks? Well, the chalk choices are Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Points leader Gordon owns four career Brickyard wins; Stewart has won once at his home-state track and is coming off a victory at Chicago. But I'll go with another former Brickyard winner: Kevin Harvick. The driver of Richard Childress Racing's No. 29 appears to have come out of a minor slump. After finishing 17th, 21st and 20th for three straight weeks (Darlington, Charlotte, Dover), Harvick has finished 11th or better in five of the past six races. And take note: Six times the winner at the Brickyard has gone on to win the championship in the same year. |
