Category: my thoughts on

By David G. Firestone

I’ve got a few things to discuss, so buckle up. First thing, let’s get this out of the way. Yes this is another post on weather, yes it’s about weather that sucks, and no, I’m not apologizing for it. As I sit here, my back to the southern window in The Hauler, I’m getting reports that there are thunderstorms heading my way. I’m kinda looking forward to it, and at the same time I’m not.

Growing up, I’ve always had a fear of thunderstorms. I took some grief for it. Besides, what 6 year old would be afraid of darkness, heavy rain, loud noise, bright flashes, and the power going out? But, after growing up, and getting jobs that mandate me working outside, I’m very nervous about thunderstorms. I’m genuinely afraid of getting hit by lightning while working outside.

It’s why I started making thunderstorm videos. If I am making a video about something, I can’t be that scared of it. I don’t know what it is, but using a camera helps me stay calm in a situation that I consider frightening. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it is.

The second thing I want to discuss is the seemingly random postings over the last couple of weeks. There is are valid explanations for why this happened. Let’s rewind to April 8^th. I wake up later than I had wanted to, and rush to the shower to catch the bus. I notice there is no hot water, but as I have to rush, I don’t think about it. I get to work, and then it dawns on me, what’s wrong with the hot water.

After my shift, I get home, and I need to state that I walk 2.5 miles home after my shift at work. I get home, check on Alejandro, and go downstairs to see what’s wrong, and I realize that the hot water heater has burst. After a few phone calls, I was able to spend most of my Saturday getting it fixed, and after $1800, it was fixed, and I have to admit, the new one works great.

The next day, I go into see a doctor. The reason I see him on Sunday is that he is Jewish, and has weekend hours, and will be open on Sundays. He insists I get a blood test, so I had to go through that pain in the ass. And while we’re on the subject of medical tests, can I ask a question? Is there any way that these forms you have to fill out CAN FUCKING BE SIMPLIFIED? HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE ANNOYING! I’ve gone to this same place every test I have ever had, I’ve gotten the same set of tests every time, I still have the same insurance, and I STILL HAVE TO SPEND 20 MINUTES FILLING OUT FORMS!

It’s also important to note that I was fasting for the test, so in addition to all the other bullshit, I’m hungry and I can’t have an energy drink, so I’m tired as well. After filling out forms, and spending ANOTHER 15 MINUTES IN THE WAITING AREA(Why are there as many people getting blood tests on a Sunday?) I get my test done, and I treat myself to Taco Bell, because I have that kind of money. I go home, watch the Masters. Towards the end of the evening, the doctor calls me, and apparently, I have some thyroid issues. So now, I have to make ANOTHER appointment, this one with a specialist. It goes without saying, I was NOT happy with these issues.

I made the command decision(I LOVE that term, by the way) to skip My Thoughts On, and I skipped working on my stuff, which is why the Tracker ran on Thursday April 14, as opposed to Wednesday April 13. Since then, I’ve gotten back on track, and I’m back to normal.

The last piece of news I have to discuss was a bit of a punch to the chest. I’ve grown up, and lived my whole life in Evanston, Illinois. I LOVE Evanston, and can’t picture myself living anywhere else. I learned last week that an Evanston institution closed this week, namely Dave’s Italian Kitchen. Dave’s was an Evanston institution 10 years before I was born. Dave’s was the first restaurant I ever went to. I had my middle school, high school AND college graduation parties there. We’ve had many family gatherings there. That news hit really hard.

What makes it even worse, is that nobody seemed to know why Dave’s closed. Then, as I was writing this, I saw this announcement on the Dave’s Facebook page:

“Bad news/ Good news
Bad: Getting out my cookbook/memoir may take longer than I thought as I’ve started another project.
Good news: That project is a new restaurant which will be known as Dave’s IK, a much smaller & more streamlined version. It will be the size of my very first place – the menu & dining room will be smaller but the heart will beat louder than ever. And it has a big front window! I hope to open on Noyes Street in late May. I thank all of you on FB who have been supportive and loving – without that support, I would be busking in New Orleans. I look forward to justifying your kindnesses. Thank you again — Dave “

While I will miss the original Dave’s, I can only hope that the new version is just as good as the original. I’ve eaten in Italian restaurants all over this great country, and I love to call Dave’s my favorite!.

One last piece of news, aside from The Vest Project, I will be involved in another project this week, something really ambitious, so I’m probably not going to do Paint Scheme Grades this week. I will bring it back next week. See you then!

By David G. Firestone

I wouldn’t normally post something during the weekend, but last week, Uni-Watch ran a very brief column discussing the Stewart-Haas Racing announcement concerning the 2017 switch to Ford. Specifically, the fan’s reaction is what stunned a lot of people. People were really upset that Stewart is making the move to Ford. The comment section included a number of really good observations concerning the move.

I got to thinking about this subject. While I understand the manufacturer loyalty, the average non-racing fan or non-car guy wouldn’t. Now let’s get the obvious out of the way. We are all brand loyal to some extent, I am, you are, we all are. We all have brands we like, and we all have brands we don’t like. For example, I live in Evanston, Illinois, and I am very partial to Gulliver’s Pizza, WBC Craft Sodas, and Green River. I have a good friend who HATES Gulliver’s, and will only drink Pepsi. We all have brands we are loyal to, and brands we avoid.

When it comes to vehicles, brand loyalty just seems to run a little deeper. Car guys are very, VERY brand loyal. It’s common for whole generations to be loyal to one brand of car. The same way generations of people root for sports teams, is the same way car guys feel about manufacturers. In the 34 years I have been alive, we have ALWAYS had at least one GM brand car in our driveway, and have never had a Ford, or a Nissan. In my dad’s case, he had a terrible experience with a Datsun in 1985, and to this day will never have a Nissan in our driveway. Growing up Jewish, my dad HATED the fact that Henry Ford was a raging anti-Semite, and so we will never own a Ford.

Hot rodders, car guys, and car collectors can be VERY loyal to one brand. Much ado was made about the condition of the Corvette Collection of artist Peter Max. There were a lot of Corvettes that were in bad condition that were covered in dust. Bill Stroppe was a long time Ford racing builder, who revolutionized off-road racing with the Rough Riders. Tim and Pam Wellborn run the Wellborn Muscle Car Museum and have one of, if not the biggest collection of Dodge muscle cars in the nation. Toyota has a fan club, the T.O.R.C., or Toyota Owners and Restorers Club. Every make has a deeply devoted fan base.

With loyalties that stretch for generations, it comes as no surprise that Chevy fans reacted the way they did to the announcement, but there is a bit more to it than that. In the world of racing, rivalry takes a much bigger scope than in most other sports. For example, when the Cubs play the Mariners, there are two major rivalries, the team rivalry, and the city rivalry. In a NASCAR race, there are the drivers, the teams, and the manufacturers. 40 individual drivers, as many as 30 different teams, and three manufacturers. All the drivers and teams racing for one manufacturer are considered technical partners.

To better explain the rivalry of manufacturers, I’ll use the analogy that each manufacturer is a team. Each individual team and driver is a member of that team, even if they against each other on track. So on a technical level, RCR, Stewart-Haas Racing, and JTG Daugherty Racing are teammates. Even though Richard Childress Rracing, Stewart-Haas Racing and JTG are all different teams, and have no connection with one another. This breeds an interesting partnership, which is knows as “coopertition” which is a portmanteau of “cooperation” and “competition.” All of Chevy’s teams have factory support, even though they are mostly independent teams. RCR supplies engines for JTG Daugherty Racing, Germain Racing, Tommy Baldwin Racing, and Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing. Former clients included Furniture Row Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing. Hendrick Motorsports has a partnership with SHR, and The Motorsports Group has independently built engines.

Over on the Ford side, Roush Fenway Racing is one of the bigger Ford teams, and their engine program, known as Roush-Yates Engines, and has technical partnerships with Team Penske, Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM), Front Row Motorsports, Leavine Family Racing, Premium Motorsports, and FAS Lane Racing. While the Wood Brothers doesn’t have a partnership with RFR per se, they do have a partnership with Team Penske, so all of Ford is running the same equipment.

When it comes to Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota Racing Development supply engines to Gibbs, and Furniture Row Racing, and BK Racing has an in-house engine program, though it has factory support.

The reason manufacturers are as neck-deep in their racing programs as they are is because of one six-word phrase that the auto industry lived by for decades. That saying is “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” Long before the days of the internet, auto racing was seen as a way for manufacturers to show off their products, and whatever make won the race would see an increase in sales after the event. Since the majority of auto racing fans are car guys and car gals, this isn’t that far fetched. The other thing that manufacturers got from winning a race was bragging rights. If a GM won the Daytona 500, or the Southern 500, they had the right to gloat.

The point is that fans don’t just root for the driver, they root for the badge. The fact that Stewart-Haas Racing is seemingly turning their back on the Chevy badge is why Chevy fans are upset. I’m badge-neutral, I don’t have one specific badge I root for. I actually agree with their decision. Stewart is the team owner, and as such, his primary goal is to get his cars into victory lane, and achieve on-track success. If that means switching from Chevy to Ford, so be it. I disagreed with Joe Gibbs switching to Toyota, and when Penske switched to Dodge, but it paid dividends for the teams. If this switch is voluntary, then he obviously thinks he made the right move for the future of the team.

When I interviewed Jack Beckman back in January, he had a quote that I thinks help explain the move. When I asked if he taped the visor to remove distractions, he referred to it as the “Clydesdale Effect ” and said “…I’m a big proponent of doing anything that you think will make you perform better. If you think a red glove will make you drive better than a blue glove, it will.” That’s the logic Stewart uses. It’s why he’s the only team in the Sprint Cup, and in fact all of the major leagues of auto racing, who doesn’t have a team driver suit supplier. Stewart is a Simpson stalwart, Kevin Harvick is partial to Sparco, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch wear Alpine Stars driver suits. If each driver thinks that wearing the brands of uniform they are partial to will help them win, Stewart supports it. If Stewart thinks switching badges will help them win more races, he’s all for it.

However, there is something that does need to be addressed. I’m thinking that there may be other forces at play here. Most of the time, a manufacturer change isn’t voluntary, or there is more than meets the eye. I’m not fully sure, but I have a couple of theories. The first theory is that at some point, Ford realized that they needed a better team than Roush-Fewnay to lean on, and that’s when negotiations started. The other theory is that at some point, Hendrick Motorsports made the decision to stop providing engines for satellite teams. The Hendrick theory is supported by the fact that towards the end of the season last year, Furniture Row Racing announced a similar switch, this one to Toyota. Hendrick provided the equipment to Furniture Row, as well as Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s also telling that Hendrick announced that they would not be replacing either team in their engine department.

One last thing that I need to address, because this has been irritating me. According to most people, Stewart might be seen as “GM stalwart.” He could be, provided you overlook 2008, where he raced 38 events, including the Budweiser Shootout, Gatorade Duel, and All-Star Race, and won the wreckfest that was the 2008 AMP Energy 500 in controversial fashion, and had 10 top 5’s and 16 top 10’s. If you wanted to argue that Jeff Gordon or Kevin Harvick are “GM Stalwarts,” I’ll agree with that. Gordon raced 797 consecutive races from 1992 to 2015, 93 wins and 4 Sprint Cup Championships, Harvick race 545 consecutive races, 32 wins and one Sprint Cup Championship, ALL OF THEM IN CHEVYS! I have a hard time taking the idea that a driver who had success in Toyota not too long ago could be a GM stalwart.

I’m not going to wrap this up in a nice little package, because there really isn’t one here. I also want to state that I’m working off the information I have as of right now. There could be something that changes in the future that would shed some more light, and if so, I’ll address it. I’m going to do another My Thoughts On this coming Tuesday.

By David G. Firestone

I’d like someone, and I don’t care who, to explain to me, why when a player, coach, or a radio personality is fired, they quickly get signed by a rival? Why does this keep happening? Why do losing coaches, and awful radio people keep getting jobs? I just don’t get it! I don’t understand how people can fail horribly at something, and yet be able to quickly get a job?

Here is why I’m wondering about this. Earlier this week, I noticed that Chip Kelly was making statements as head coach of the San Francisco 49’ers. I don’t really follow football, and I really don’t care about the off-season, so I missed his signing. But given how much of a controversial disaster Kelly was during the 2015 season, I have to wonder how desperate the 49’ers are.

In 2015, Kelly alienated many players with his personnel moves, took a 10-6 team down to 6-9, and was fired before the season was even over. He was in charge of football operations, and had free reign to sign and release players. The team did not perform well for most of the season. Yet Kelly, for reasons I can’t even begin to understand, he denies any and all responsibility for everything that went wrong in 2015.

Kelly made it clear that, despite the fact he was in charge, he did the best he could. I don’t thing that for a second. When you are in charge of something, and you make the decisions, the blame lands on you. When you flat out say that you aren’t the problem, often times, you are. Kelly thinks that by doing this, it means he isn’t showing weakness. That may be, but he is showing stupidity. He is the criminal, who was a victim of circumstance, even though all the evidence makes it clear that said criminal is guilty.

Listening to what Kelly said, I can’t understand why the 49’ers would be willing to work with him. He threw the Eagles owners, players, and coaching staff under the bus to make himself look better. If I were one of the players, one of the coaches, or the owners, I would be very worried right now. Because if he did that in Philly, he’ll do that in San Fran. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Also, why is it that in local radio markets, the same people keep getting hired and fired? How bad does someone have to mess up to never be back on the radio again? Ok, let me rephrase that, how bad does someone have to be, without being racist, sexist, or homophobic, to never be on radio again? I’ve been trying to listen to radio when I’m at home, but the DJ’s SUCK! Furthermore, on air talent will change periodically, but nothing improves. I’m thinking, at this point, I should just throw my radio out, and just watch BBC America.

By David G. Firestone

I’ve been thinking about a few things this week. Being Jewish on Easter is really, REALLY boring. There is nothing to do for the whole day. I decided to adjust a few of the display cases in The Hauler, while Spring Training Baseball played in the background. As I moved these objects, I began to think about the objects stories. I love learning the stories of the objects in my collection.

Every object we encounter has a story. I wonder about the whole story for every object. How did this object get to my collection? Who handled this object besides me? I love learning the backstory of the objects in my collection. The more I learn, the more interesting the item is. I find that learning the stories are fun.

Much less interesting is the fact that I had to cut someone out of my life this week. This wasn’t an easy thing to do, but it had to happen. I don’t talk about people behind their backs, and I don’t backstab people…unless I’m playing Spy in Team Fortress 2. If I have a problem, I let it simmer, and if I feel I need to confront someone, I do it to their face. It really bugs me when someone has a problem with me, but doesn’t have the backbone to call me out.

I found out that someone I know was going behind my back, bad mouthing me for no real reason. This individual could have confronted me face to face, but couldn’t. I’ve known this person for many years, and have never had a problem with him, but apparently, he felt the need to blast me over something I thought we had resolved. I want to tell the whole story, but I don’t want to identify him, so I’ll start from the beginning.

We had been discussing something that he took very seriously, and while we had differing opinions of some parts of the subject, it was a civil discussion. While we were in this discussion, I apparently said something that he really disagreed with, and was factually incorrect. He contacted me concerning this, and we discussed it, and I thought we had worked things out. He didn’t seem mad, and I thought we had worked this out.

Last week, I learned he had been badmouthing me and badmouthing The Driver Suit Blog concerning this debate. The things that were said cut really deep, and I was really hurt by what I heard. I really did like him, and I never meant to hurt his feelings. I try my best to work through this kind of thing, but a lot of the stuff he said was so hurtful, and so cheap, I couldn’t forgive him, and I doubt we will ever be in the same room ever again.

One thing I try not to do is carry a grudge. I don’t know how it took me so long to realize that carrying a grudge does no good for anyone. It doesn’t do me any good, and doesn’t do the person I’m mad at any good. You would be amazed how good it feels to drop the anger you carry around with. But the level of stuff he said about me, and the way he said it really gave me no choice.

If you have a problem with me, get in touch and we’ll talk. I’m honest to my faults, and if I hurt you, I didn’t really mean to. I just wish the above story didn’t have to happen.

By David G. Firestone

I’ve got a couple things to discuss today. First, I want to discuss the arrival of spring. We all have identifiers for the beginning of Spring. When you live in an area of the country where winter brings lots of snow and cold weather, you look for anything that means that spring is coming. Some people look for flowers, or the traditional robin. Some look for warmer weather to start, no matter how briefly it lasts. My two identifiers are the racing season beginning, which it already has, and the other one, which started this week, SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL!

Spring training baseball is the greatest baseball on earth, because it’s the most laid back baseball played at the professional level. Watching spring training is so much fun! It’s baseball with the pressure off. No playoffs, no divisional championships, records don’t mean anything, it’s great! The teams are laid back, and the fans are laid back as well. It’s just fun to watch.

Spring training baseball is like getting the neighborhood kids together and playing a game in the street. That is when baseball is fun. Neighborhood baseball is just a fun afternoon. Once the regular season starts, it stops being as fun to watch, because the pressure comes on. Suddenly, those 162 games become important, records become important, the playoffs are a factor, divisional championships become a thing, and the relaxed, low-pressure atmosphere goes away right quick.

The other thing I wanted to discuss is something that has been on my mind for a while. I’d like someone to explain to me the process of coming up with a new fast food sandwich. Let me explain the backstory here. The other day, I went to lunch with a long-time friend of the family, and we went to Chili’s. While there, I saw a burger called the “Southern Smokehouse Burger” which is described as:

“Topped with 4 slices of applewood smoked bacon, melted sharp cheddar cheese, house-made garlic dill pickles, spiced panko onion rings, fresh leaf lettuce, tomato & Chili’s Signature sauce. Served with a side of Chili’s classic BBQ sauce. “

I get that Chili’s isn’t “fast food” but, the point is that they rotate different kinds of burgers in and out of the menu. Red Robin does the same thing. What I would love to know is what goes into the creative process for making one of these new burgers. It’s obvious that some burgers are created with typical ingredients. Obviously a restaurant that makes onion rings could put them on a burger.

Other burgers add more unusual ingredients. Take the “Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger” from Carl’s Jr. for example. You would expect that something with that name would have traditional Cheesesteak ingredients, but no, this is literally a “charbroiled 1/3-pound, 100 percent Angus beef patty, topped with thin-sliced steak, sautéed peppers and onions and Swiss and American cheeses on a seeded bun. “ A burger with sliced steak on it? Do cheese steaks need more beef? Wouldn’t the cheese, pepper, and onion combo work by themselves? I think it would.

I would love to sit in on the whole process, from start to finish. I really would. Every sandwich that a restaurant releases has to go through many people, and market research. I’ve done the occasional survey, and I always wonder what wen into the design process for everything I take. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times, it seems so odd, and so weird that I wonder why it even exists. It’s an interesting thing, at least to me.

Oh by the way, the Southern Smokehouse Burger at Chili’s is really good.

By David G. Firestone

We’ve all had days where nothing goes right, and Friday was one of those for me. Friday SUCKED! I knew it was going to ahead of time, but when it actually got to Friday, it was worse. But there was one aspect that I really looked forward to.

I had gotten info that starting at 9AM, the power would be out, because ComEd, our power company here in Chicago would be doing work near my house. This meant that from 9AM to 1PM I had no heat, no power, no stove, and no microwave. I decided to spend the day getting errands done.

After getting the errands done, I had lunch at Chili’s, and then tried to get to a medical appointment on time. Since I use public transportation, this is easier said than done, and I was late for my medical appointment. After suffering through my medical appointment, I had to get to work, which, at the end of the terrible day I was having, was just insult to injury. After work, I go home, try to have dinner, and I notice my George Forman grill had died. Just another kick to the groin.

It was an awful day, but there was a bright silver lining. We’ve all had days where the world is against us, and the best part of those days is the fact that you get the best sleep ever after the day ends. I don’t know what it is, but you get an amazing night of sleep after an awful day, and you feel better for the next day, come what may.

By David G. Firestone

Winter in Chicago SUCKS! The cold can get to be unbearable. This year, it hasn’t been that bad, and earlier last week, we were all looking forward to the warmer weather predicted for the Chicago area scheduled for Friday. Going from 30 degrees to 65 degrees over the course of a week seemed like a great treat.

Well be careful what you wish for. When the serving of warm weather arrived, it came with a large side of high winds. I had my windows open, and I was scared the wind would blow over my TV set, that’s how powerful it was. It wasn’t just me. In Downtown Chicago, a number of buildings had to be evacuated, there was a lot of damage to buildings. Trees were uprooted. The CTA had to suspend elevated rail service in some areas due to the wind.

I’ve been through a few wind storms in my life, and if you’ve ever experienced one before, you understand. Years ago, March 9, 2002 to be exact, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the day, and was going to go on a date that night. As I left the Museum, the winds were insane! I took the bus to Downtown Chicago from the MSI, and decided to take the scenic route, the #147 bus from Downtown to Howard Street. It was about 4 in the afternoon, and traffic on Michigan Ave was solid, not moving at all. As we got towards Watertower Place, we learned that the high winds had knocked a scaffold off the side of the John Hancock Tower, and had crushed an occupied car. As a result, my bus went on the most overly complex reroute.

The winds made the trip down Lakeshore Drive quite interesting, as the bus driver wasn’t comfortable going over 30 MPH, and rightfully so. As I watched the winds outside of The Hauler, I was thinking about that day. Thankfully, nothing really serious, aside from some debris damage. I was worried about work that night, as I work outside, and it was as bad as I thought it was going to be. I could have been worse, as I’ve seen signs at stores nearby blow off by wind before.

The weekend was much less windy, and much more fun, as I got to watch NASCAR again! Hopefully when it warms up again, the winds won’t.

By David G. Firestone

The start of the 2016 racing season has brought a number of changes. In the NHRA, the Pro Stock division has new car designs, and the broadcast team has a new color commentator in the form of Tony Pedregon, and a new deal with Fox. In NASCAR, for the first time since the 1992 Hooters 500, Jeff Gordon will not be in a car, but in the broadcast booth.

A lot of people didn’t like Tony Pedregon as color commentator for the Circle K Winternationals. He didn’t seem as relaxed and natural as Mike Dunn did. I’ll say this, Mike Dunn was a broadcaster for 14 years, and was used to playing the role of color commentator. Tony Pedregon isn’t used to his new role yet. He did a good job, in my opinion, and he will get better over time.

Jeff Gordon, on the other hand, seemed much more comfortable in his new role. I’m thinking it has something to do with his acting roles. He’s done commercials, movies, tv shows, and the like. He is used to being in front of the camera. Again, like Tony, he will get better over time. I like the chemesty that Darrell Waltrip and Jeff have with each other, and Mike Joy works well with them both.

My biggest gripe was Pro Stock. The teams did not, in my mind, have a good event. The teams didn’t have the time to do proper testing, outside of dyno testing, and it showed. I like Pro Stock, but watching that event was painful. There weren’t that many good runs, and the ones that were, you could tell, that the drivers were somewhat apprehensive about their cars. What should have happened was that the announcement last year should have been that the fuel injected Pro Stocks should have started in 2017, so that proper testing, and proper development could have been done.

While I have my gripes, I’m looking forward to the racing season, and I can only wait for IndyCar and F1 to start back up.

By David G. Firestone

The term “game changer” is thrown around an awful lot these days. It’s a new buzzword. It’s been thrown around so much that it has more or less lost its meaning. It’s really sad, because when a real game changer happens, it’s overlooked. The three point line, deferring the coin toss, the DH rule, and the goalie mask were all game changers. A new kind of wing sauce, an action movie, and a new car are not game changers.

I say this because last week, just before I went on Vacation, The NHRA made a huge game changer of an announcement. Starting in 2016, the “Back Up Certification Rule” which requires a run within one percent of a record setting run to certify it as a record has been eliminated. So, effective immediately, any run that is a record setting run is automatically the record.

I’ve never like the 1% rule, I thought is was pointless. However, in the early days of drag racing, the automatic timing equipment was far less reliable than the CompuLink systems we have today, so it was needed to work around that. Since 2009, the CompuLink system has been very effective, and the 1% rule was a dinosaur of a rule.

This is really going to change the game. Remember Brainerd last year? Oh yeah, how could you forget? There were six different record setting runs in the nitro categories. Yet only Jack Beckman and Antron Brown came away with a set record, because they backed it up with 1%, so two of the six runs were for naught. With the new rules package, all six of those runs would be record setting runs, and Matt Hagan, not Jack Beckman would have the national ET record, with a 3.879, instead of Jack Beckman’s 3.883.

With the Winternationals this weekend, could we see new national records set? Well the conditions are hotter than Brainerd, but if Nitro Spring Training is anything to go by, there is a lot of speed coming from the various teams. John Force Racing, Don Schumacher Racing, and Kalitta Motorsports had a lot of good showings, so it would not shock me if at least one record is set this weekend.

As a part of this rule change, the 20 point bonus for setting the national ET record has also been eliminated. Again, this is a real game changer of a rule. The key to winning the countdown is to get as many points as you can during those six events. Remember “The Run” in 2006? The record ET point bonus is what gave Tony Schumacher the title. This will have a definitive effect on the championship standings. I’ll be interested to see how this works out.

The other game changer is scheduled to be announced tomorrow. It’s the NASCAR charter system. I haven’t discussed my feelings on it yet, but I’m going to say that I think it’s pointless. I’ve heard it described as similar to a taxi medallion system, where the teams purchase the charter from NASCAR, and if the owner chooses to leave the sport, they can sell it. It seems like a pointless change, designed to get more cash out of team owners. Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Brian France.

Above and beyond that, if the rumors I’ve heard are true, the races will only feature 40 drivers instead of 43. Why? What could this possibly accomplish? Were there any short fields in 2015? I don’t remember any, and even if there were, it really didn’t matter that much, as there are a number of “start and park” teams that will occupy the bottom. I’m not sure that this will change that much, then again, I’ve been wrong before.

I’m going to reserve my judgment on the Chase format for the Xfinity and Truck Series, as it could actually work out quite well. That said, I understand a lot of people hate the new system, but I like the idea of taking away mulligans and keeping the pressure up. I think there will be an interesting championship scenario this year.