Category: my thoughts on

By David G. Firestone

So I meant to post last Friday, and while I got around to writing, I got sidetracked, so I never actually posted it. I’m going to post both this week and last week’s columns this week. First, how I spent my summer vacation.

So every year I take two content breaks. One in July, and one in December. My July break is spent enjoying Chicago in the summer. I did a lot. While I didn’t produce content, I did get a number of things ready for YouTube. I also hung out with my buddies, one of whom comes in from California. We ate, played video games, and hung out. It was great.

My big project is something I’ve actually worked on for almost all of 2025. I’ll have more to say at a later date, but I’m still working on it as of this writing. Hopefully I will get it done by the end of 2025.

And, of course, I watched racing. I always watch racing.

With that, let’s discuss the column I planned for this week.

I don’t watch tennis that much. I’ll watch if it’s playing somewhere, but I really don’t have a vested interest. But when I saw this story, I had to talk about it. The title sums it up. This is from The Daily Mail:

“Emma Raducanu calls for crying child to be EJECTED from stadium, sparking tense row with umpire in narrow defeat by Aryna Sabalenka.”

Here is the first part of the article:

“Emma Raducanu called for a crying child to be ejected from the stadium as she came within inches of the biggest win since her 2021 US Open triumph, losing narrowly to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Sabalenka triumphed 7-6 (6-2), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) at the Cincinnati Open but there was a flashpoint while Raducanu was serving at a crucial stage in the deciding set.

Cries from a child in the stands took her focus away, causing her to stop the service action and tell the umpire: ‘It’s been, like, 10 minutes.

The official replied: ‘It’s a child. Do you want me to kick the child out of the stadium?

Raducanu shrugged but some fans shouted up ‘yes’ on her behalf before the Brit indicated her agreement.

‘I can call in, but we need to continue for the moment,’ the umpire explained during a break in play.

Raducanu went on to hold serve for 4-4 but ended up narrowly losing the match’s conclusive set.”

That whole debacle brought to mind an advice column from a few years ago. This is from Care and Feeding by Nicole Cliffe on Slate.com. The article is entitled “Was I Wrong to Let My 4-Year-Old Explore the Restaurant While We Ate?”

“Dear Care and Feeding,

My wife and I and our 4-year-old son were out to dinner last week. It was a medium-nice restaurant, not fast food, but not super fancy either. My son is a normal, active little boy, and it’s hard for him to sit through a whole dinner, so we let him explore the restaurant a little. I noticed our waitress giving him the hairy eyeball, so we asked him to stop running. He was pretty good about it after that, but he did get underfoot when she was carrying a tray, and she spoke to him pretty sharply to go back to our table and sit down. I felt it was completely uncalled for, and she should have come and spoken to us personally instead of disciplining someone else’s child.

I tipped 5 percent and spoke briefly to her manager, who gave noncommittal replies. My wife agrees with me, but when we posted about it on Facebook, we got a lot of judgy responses.

—It’s Hard for a 4-Year-Old to Sit Still”

So before I get to the official response, let me say my part. I’ve been seeing this as a trend. Parents will let their children do whatever they want, regardless of how much it bothers anyone else. I’ve seen this in movie theaters, restaurants, stores, and many other public places.

As a childless adult, I can say that this is never not annoying. I just want a nice meal or to go see a movie without kids running around and screaming. I’ve even seen whole families kicked out of places for just this reason.

The parents in this article are really enraging, because they honestly see nothing wrong with allowing a 4-year-old to run around a restaurant unsupervised. I guarantee that they will NOT be welcomed back. The aggravation you brought wasn’t worth the money you spent. Oh, and the “manager, who gave noncommittal replies,” I promise you that he was very much committed, she didn’t get in trouble, she wasn’t the one at fault.

Now to the official response:

“Dear Sit Still,

Yeah, this is your fault. It’s hugely your fault. Of course it’s hard for a 4-year-old to sit still, which is why people usually stick to fast-dining establishments while working on restaurant manners. It’s why one parent usually responds to a fidgety kid who wants to “explore” by taking him outside the restaurant, where he can get his wiggles out while not taking laps around servers precariously carrying trays of (often extremely hot) food and drink.

A kid “exploring” a restaurant is not a thing. When you did intervene, it wasn’t to get him back in his seat. It was just to instruct him to “stop running.” You weren’t parenting, so a server did it for you. She was right. You were wrong.

Your son is not ready to eat at a “medium-nice” restaurant again until he is capable of behaving a little better. You can practice at home. You can practice at McDonald’s. You can try a real restaurant again with the understanding that one of you may need to take him out when he starts getting the urge to run an obstacle course.

I doubt that you will do this, but I encourage you to return the restaurant, apologize to the manager for complaining about your server, and leave her a proper tip.

Mend your wicked ways.”

Perfect response. Parents like this need lessons in how to parent. Kids are dumb, they come into this world dumb, they can’t help it. You as a parent have one job: Smartening up your kids. Sometimes this might come at your own determent. No nice restaurants for some time, get used to kid-friendly restaurants. You chose this life, so live with your choices.

Sources cited:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-14991075/Emma-Raducanu-crying-child-Aryna-Sabalenka.html

https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/kids-running-around-restaurants-care-and-feeding.html

By David G. Firestone

So I wanted to discuss this last week, but the column was way too long, so I’ll discuss it here. It was announced that FOX will be purchasing 1/3 of IndyCar from Roger Penske. This will, according to the press release, create:

-Innovative and industry-leading racing and entertainment events

-A hyper-engaged digital strategy and immersive content focus

-Enhanced promotion and star-building opportunities for NTT IndyCar Series drivers

While get what they are trying to do, I kept circling back to one singular question. That question is, given the current viewership numbers, and overall trends, what does FOX think they can accomplish? This isn’t a boom period, the 1990’s are over. IndyCar has made mistake after mistake after mistake during the boom period and since.

When Penske bought IndyCar, I, like many fans, thought this would change IndyCar for the better. A fresh owner would bring fresh changes, and the sport would improve. Not only didn’t anything really improve, but it got worse. The utter disaster that was the two races at Thermal made the sport look really bad. Penske blew many opportunities to bring fans in.

IndyCar moving from NBC to FOX was the best thing that happened in the last few years. NBC has been a joke to racing fans for years. It was so refreshing to watch the Toronto race on a regular tv instead of Peacock. All of the races are on broadcast TV, and ratings are up 31%. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing, but, how long can these ratings raise last? NASCAR’s ratings are down, F1 and the NHRA ratings have plateaued.

This move does have the advantage of injecting cash into IndyCar, but, again, how long can this last? FOX and IndyCar are for-profit businesses. As such, they need to make money to survive. This will work for a short while, but the fact that the fans are gone will affect things going forward. This partnership will work for a while, but FOX might sell their stake sooner rather than later.

The fan bases of racing are slowly going down. F1 and the NHRA have a very stable fan base, and they aren’t really doing badly. NASCAR has burned so many of their long-time fans, that they’ve left. IndyCar spent 35 years making the worst decisions at the worst times. Bottom line here is that this deal sounds good, but let’s see how long this lasts. Now, on to Randy Couture’s Pro Mod crash. According to TMZ:

“UFC legend Randy Couture was airlifted to a burn center with serious injuries after crashing during practice runs at a racetrack in Kansas City … TMZ Sports has learned.

Couture — who was slated to make his National Hot Rod Association racing debut this year — was involved in an accident during preparation on Tuesday … resulting in first- and second-degree burns, trauma injuries and smoke inhalation.”

Now, before we get to my Uni-Watch comment, let’s get technical and discuss the NHRA uniform requirements for Pro-Mod

NHRA Pro Mod Firesuit requirements, NHRA rule book Section 6, page 12. PDF page 166. The following items are required for all NHRA Pro Mod drivers to wear.

-One Piece driver’s suit meeting SFI Spec 3.2A/20(1)(3)

-SFI Spec 3.3/20 gloves(2)(3)

-SFI Spec 3.3/20 boots

-SFI 3.3 head sock or SFI 3.3 skirted helmet is required on all cars.

-Fresh-air breathing system mandatory.

-Glove under-liners made of flame retardant material and socks meeting SFI 3.3 mandatory.

-All clothing containing metal or plastic prohibited.

-Undergarments that are worn in addition to those mandated that are made of flammable materials (e.g. nylon, rayon, polyester,spandex, etc.) are prohibited.

-All jewelry prohibited, with the exception of a high temperature rated silicone wedding band.

NOTE 1: SFI Spec 3.2A refers to SFI Spec 3.2A, which is the SFI standard for firesuits.

NOTE 2: SFI Spec 3.3 refers to SFI Spec 3.3, which covers all other Driver Accessories. These include gloves, underclothing, hoods, socks,shoes and boots,helmet supports,harness pads,arm restraints,helmet skirts and sports bras.

Note 3: SFI 3.2A/20 and SFI 3.3/20 are rated to protect the wearer from second degree burns for 45 seconds. These suits have up to seven layers. A typical NASCAR Cup Series or IndyCar Series driver suit is rated SFI 3.2A/5, is rated to protect the wearer from second degree burns for 10 second and has three layers.

Now I’m going to repeat what I said on Uni-Watch about the situation:

“My feeling is that one of two things, if not both, happened. Either he was not wearing the appropriate rated suit (since this is practice, the rules might not be as rigidly enforced) or since this was practice, a full safety team may not have been in place during the run in question. Safety officials were on scene, but not as much as a full race weekend. Since Pro Mod cars can reach speeds over 270MPH in a matter of just under six seconds, if something were to occur with one or both of these scenarios, it could easily lead to what happened.”

With that, It’s also possible that it was just an accident, and even with all of the saftey systems in place, it still caused the damage. Auto racing is an inherently dangerous sport, and accidents happen. Randy is up and about, and he is still preparing to debut in Pro Mod sometime in 2025. That is a good thing.

Next week, unless something major happens, how I spent my summer vacation.

Sources:

https://racer.com/2025/07/31/fox-corporation-acquires-one-third-interest-in-penske-entertainment

FOX’s IndyCar Ownership Stake Is a Game Changer

https://www.tmz.com/2025/07/09/randy-couture-airlifted-burn-center-serious-injuries-crash/

https://uni-watch.com/ticker/uni-watch-news-ticker-for-july-11-2025/

Click to access 2025%20NHRA%20Rulebook.pdf

Click to access Spec_3.2A_062620.pdf

Click to access Spec_3.3.pdf

By David G. Firestone

I was going to do a “how I spent my summer vacation” column this week, but events transpired that I need to discuss. The first, and most obvious, is the fact that the Chicago Street Race will not be coming back in 2026. Instead, San Diego got a street race, and Chicago’s place on the NASCAR calendar moving forward has yet to be determined.

I can say a lot, but I can’t say that I’m shocked. While it proved decently popular with NASCAR and many of their fans, it wasn’t popular with Chicago residents. Many people were pissed that the Taste of Chicago got moved to August, and many more who live and work in Downtown Chicago were pissed at street closures. All in all, this was inevitable, and I’m not sure it will come back. Given how it came to be in the first place, this isn’t shocking.

Second news story is the Shawn Reed crash. At Seattle, Reed suffered a crash as a result of a blown tire. As a result, Reed suffered a hand injury, damaged thumb, the loss of his left index finger and broken ribs. Reed has stated he plans to make a comeback. He also discussed the tire in question. To quote Autoweek.com, link at the bottom, according to Reed:

“Goodyear’s reached out and they’ve found about 99% of the tire. They took some time and picked up every single piece—and that thing was bagged up and sent back to their home office in Akron where they’re dissecting everything. I’m not going to speculate. We do the best we can with what we’ve got, and they’re trying to put out the best tires. These cars are exceeding speeds today and forces that they probably never even thought about 10 years ago.

Whether that tire came apart or whether something went through it, we’ just have to work toward making them better. If we find that something went through it, we have to find what went through it and work on keeping it attached to the car. If it’s a freak accident and something blew up and something broke, then we have to find a better way to attach that stuff. That’s all I’m after and I think that’s what most racers are after.”

My thoughts and prayers to Shawn Reed.

Now for my most controversial story, the death of Hulk Hogan. On July 24, 2025, Terry Gene Bolea, known to the wrestling world as Hulk Hogan passed away. This let people into one of two camps. Camp #1 is the camp that remembers Hulk for all the good work he did in the ring. Camp #2 reviles Hulk for the who he is as a person. I’m firmly in camp #2.

It’s 2025, we have to stop separating the art from the artist. We can’t just judge things based on how successful they are anymore. We have to accept that a lot of celebrities are terrible people at their core. Hogan has a decades’ long list of confirmed examples of being a terrible person. He died on the 24th, but look at what people were saying about him on the 23rd.

In a Slate article, Luke Winkie made my point better than I ever could. In an artilce titled “Everyone Hated Hulk Hogan,” Luke stated the following, link at the bottom:

“Why do people despise Hogan? You need simply look at the cavalcade of hurt feelings and callous double-crosses he left in his wake. In a career spanning half a century, the man developed a genuinely Jay Leno–like reputation for the viciousness in which he protected his top spot in World Wrestling Entertainment. His ego frequently degraded the product itself.

There are too many stories to recall here, and all of them require a certain fluency with pro-wrestling customs, but I’ll try to distill a few highlights in layman’s terms. For instance: In 1993 Hogan outmaneuvered Bret Hart—another one of the greatest wrestlers of all time—by persuading company Chairman Vince McMahon to alter the ending of WrestleMania IX at the last minute. Instead of Hart defending his title in the main event, Hogan snatched the belt back on an anticlimactic technicality. Hulk paraded around the gold for the last few months he had left on his contract, in a farewell tour only he seemed to want. Hart never forgave him.

An even weirder incident occurred four years later, when Hogan was working for WWE’s rival wrestling promotion WCW. He was playing a bad guy at this point in his career, and he was booked to wrestle the beloved babyface Sting. It was, legitimately, the most anticipated match of its era, and the company cloaked it in all sorts of soap-opera pageantry. The storyline, heading into the match, was that Hogan had skewed the rules to his favor with a crooked referee named Nick Patrick. Patrick was supposed to execute what is known in the industry as a “fast three count.” When Hogan pinned Sting, Patrick would pound the mat as fast as possible to award Hogan the victory—thus ditching the impartial cadence enforced by the imaginary rulebook. It would demonstrate to the crowd, in no uncertain terms, that its hero had been screwed out of his rightful victory.

The one problem? When the match reached its climax, Patrick didn’t perform a fast three count after all. There are conflicting reports on why, but years later Patrick alleged that Hogan was the one to call the audible. At his most ruthless, it could often seem like Hogan believed wrestling to be real.

To be fair, he was not alone in that distinction. Pro wrestling has always been a cutthroat institution and, historically speaking, has favored its most cold-blooded operators (Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and even the Rock all come to mind). But Hogan’s crimes had a nasty way of escaping the fantasia of the ring.

In 1986 Hogan committed perhaps his greatest sin, when he scuttled a burgeoning unionization effort in the WWE. The labor action was led by future Minnesota Gov. Jesse “the Body” Ventura. He planned to organize a wildcat strike in the days before WrestleMania II, when the performers had maximum leverage. (Health care and retirement benefits were among his core demands.) After Hogan caught wind of the effort, he took it straight to McMahon, who subsequently threatened to fire any wrestler involved in the effort. Just like Hart, Ventura never made amends with Hogan, who characterized what he did as a betrayal. To this day, WWE wrestlers lack a union.

I could go on. Hogan was the vessel for one of Peter Thiel’s first forays into political donorship, when the tech baron dumped oodles of cash into a lawsuit that brought about the destruction of Gawker Media. Hogan was suing the publication ostensibly because it had published his sex tape, on which he uttered racial slurs, specifically about the Black man his daughter Brooke was dating. In reality, it seemed clear he was Thiel’s willing partner to take down a longtime foe. Still, the slurs got him briefly booted out of the WWE, and when the company reinstated him in 2018, he offered a half-hearted mea culpa to the wrestlers backstage. According to those present, Hogan began his apology by warning the roster to be mindful about being recorded without their knowledge, rather than addressing the charges head-on. A group of prominent Black wrestlers eventually released a statement about the meeting, asserting that they’d need to see Hogan make a “genuine effort to change” if he were to gain their trust again. (It is safe to say that that never happened.)

So this is where we leave Hogan—a conniving and sadistically opportunistic person who is, nonetheless, permanently sanctified in the canon. I’m sure if you had the chance to ask him, he’d contend that all of those qualities were vital to his success, that it is impossible to scale the oily theogony of pro-wrestling immortality without making a gallery of enemies, both on-screen and off. The trade-off? Unlike so many of his peers, Hogan never did earn a beatific final chapter. Nobody came to kiss the ring. Those glory years in the 1980s, when Hulkamania truly ran wild, have been completely overshadowed by his cruelty. Toward what we now know was the end of his life, fellow legends seemed to take special pleasure in offering parting potshots. Just days ago, I listened to the Undertaker give his opinion on the hellish reception Hogan received in Los Angeles: “Sometimes in life, things come back.”

In the end, Hogan’s life and career in the ring will forever be overshadowed by who he was as a person. Why should we overlook a life of a Racist, greedy, backstabbing, untrustworthy, selfish, narcissistic entitled shill because he could cut good promos and wrestled well enough? Why should we separate Hulk Hogan from Terry Bolea? Granted there are wrestlers who were worse, but they don’t deserve praise either.

The bottom line here is that who you are off screen will be judged as harshley as you are on screen. Hulk Hogan is another example of bad behaviour behind the scenes tarnishes a legacy. Hogan isn’t the first, he isn’t the worst, he won’t be the last, but he is a perfect example.

Sources Cited:

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nhra/a65501444/goodyear-issues-statement-horrific-shawn-reed-nhra-crash-seattle/

https://slate.com/culture/2025/07/hulk-hogan-died-death-news-cause-trump.html

By David G. Firestone

So some newsworthy racing stories happened this week. The first of came from the NHRA. I’ll quote the NHRA from their own website:

“NHRA has levied a $5,000 fine and deducted 100 championship points from Erica Enders’ score for the use of rear wheels at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals that did not meet NHRA’s approved specifications for Pro Stock.

Following the disqualification of Erica Enders’ run during the fourth round of qualifying on Saturday in Bristol due to the use of rear wheels that did not meet NHRA’s approved specifications for Pro Stock, the following additional penalties have been announced: a 100-point deduction and a $5,000 fine.

The team has the right to appeal the financial penalty if they wish to do so. The funds collected from this fine will be used to support and enhance the capabilities of the NHRA Safety Safari.”

The NHRA later followed up on this statement clarifying the issue at hand:

“The NHRA Technical Department has issued a statement to further explain the fine and points penalty levied on Erica Enders’ Pro Stock team after it was found to be equipped with prohibited beadlock liner wheels at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

Following the fourth round of qualifying at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Erica Enders’ Pro Stock car was found to be equipped with beadlock liner wheels, including an inner liner tire. These wheels and (inner/liner) tires were originally developed to provide increased sidewall support during launch and reduce the likelihood of tire shake. The widespread adoption of this combination in other categories where wheel liners are legal demonstrates that the performance benefits of improved tire support outweigh the added weight.

Based on this, the NHRA Technical Department determined that the use of these wheels and (inner/liner) tires was intended to create a performance advantage not permitted in the Pro Stock category.

The 2025 NHRA Rulebook clearly states that “…unless optional performance equipment or performance-related modification is specifically permitted by this Rulebook, it is prohibited. All model, engine, or equipment changes or modifications not specifically addressed in this Rulebook must be submitted in writing to NHRA for consideration prior to competition…”

The Elite Motorsports team had a conversation with an NHRA Official regarding this topic during the Epping event, and this rule was communicated to them at that time. By choosing to use these wheels and tires in Bristol, they demonstrated a willful disregard for the instruction given by NHRA.”

Based on that, I think that there’s no room for interpretation. This was clearly an attempt from a struggling team to get a competitive advantage using an illegal strategy. It’s been no secret that Elite Motorsports has been struggling for some time. It’s no secret that they are frustrated, and want to turn things around. But did they really think they would get away with it?

Seriously, do cheating teams thing that sanctioning bodies are that dumb that they could run blatantly illegal equipment and not get caught? It rarely works, and there are serious consequences. The loss of points has effectively ended her playoff hopes. Her season is over. Even if the team appeal the penalty, it’s unlikely she will win. It’s not like these wheels are in the gray area. They are outright banned. Teams and drivers know good and well what equipment is legal and what equipment is illegal. Erica is screwed, she knows it, and she can’t blame anyone but herself.

Next we move on to Formula 1. The 2026 Formula 1 schedule came out, and a stunning change was made. To quote the Formula 1 website:

“The calendar sees further improvements to the geographical flow of races, including the Canadian Grand Prix now following Miami in an earlier slot from May 22-24, delivering significant freight efficiencies as some equipment can move directly from one event to the other.

This change creates a consolidated European leg of the season across the summer months, beginning in Monaco from June 5-7 and finishing in Spain, where Madrid will make its F1 calendar debut from September 11-13.”

As Adam Stern phrased it:

“Person familiar with @F1’s thinking disputed the characterization that the Canada switch was made to encroach on the Indy 500, adding that F1 respects Indy but had to better regionalize its schedule and factor in the wishes of the @F1GPCanada promoters.”

Well, here’s the problem. Regardless of intention, F1 is running opposition to the Indy 500. While the Monaco/Indy/Charlotte system worked well for years, and got everybody good TV numbers, this new setup will cost F1 a lot of live viewers. NASCAR, which does three to four times the viewership that IndyCar does, won’t try to run opposition, since they understand the significance of the Indy 500 in North America.

The only time a nationally televised race tried to compete with the Indy 500 was the 1996 US 500, which was CART desperately trying to prove they were just as good as the Indy Racing League. It was such a disaster, CART never tried to compete with the Indy 500 again. It says a lot that, in 1996, the US 500 couldn’t get a broadcast tv deal, or a title sponsor.

If Formula 1 thinks they are going to win this battle, they are dead wrong. Formula 1 barely has the foothold in America to tie NASCAR, even with the move to Amazon Prime. If they honestly think they are going to put a dent in the Indy 500 viewership, they have another guess coming. The Indy 500 is too important to the American racing scene for the Canadian Grand Prix to put a dent in the ratings.

Why would F1, which is desperate for a foothold in the American market try this is mind boggling. This won’t work, and even with a broadcast on ABC, they won’t put a dent in the Indy 500 ratings. I know I sound like a broken record, but it just won’t happen. It won’t work, so please don’t try.

Sources Cited:

https://www.nhra.com/news/2025/fine-points-deduction-levied-enders-rear-wheel-infraction-bristol

https://www.nhra.com/news/2025/nhra-prohibited-pro-stock-wheel-liners-offered-performance-advantage

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/formula-1-reveals-calendar-for-2026-season.YctbMZWqBvrgyddrnauo8

https://x.com/A_S12/status/1932622518353002817

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/06/10/source-f1-indy-500-clash-in-26-not-meant-as-slap-at-indycar/

By David G. Firestone

Just a brief column this week, since I have other things to focus on. So I’ve been holding back on this one for a bit, but I’ve been wanting to talk about this for some time. For the last two seasons, Kyle Larson has attempted to run The Double, both the Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600 on the same day. This has been tried by a number of drivers, with varying degrees of success. But the question that needs to be asked is: Is it a good idea to run The Double?

Simple question, simple answer, no. No it is not a good idea to run the double. Racing drivers are built different than the rest of us, that’s never been up to debate. But there are personal glass ceilings for everyone, and the human body has its limits. Even the best and most in-shape drivers shouldn’t be allowed to run 1,100 miles of racing over the course of 8 hours and over 200 MPH. No matter how good you think you are, the after-effects of that amount of physical exertion will catch up with you eventually.

My other issue with the idea of running The Double is that Kyle is fighting for a championship in The Cup Series. Even with multiple wins on the season, a wreck can do a lot of damage for a championship hunt. Even a playoff waiver can’t undo the damage that a wreck can do to the human body. If he was a part timer, that might be one thing, since he could take some time to recover afterwards. But he had go back to the track the next weekend.

As a driver, your safety should be your number one priority. Pushing yourself beyond your toughest limits, while admirable, could see the end of your career. No matter how safe you think your car is, there is always something that can go wrong. No matter how good you think you are, you are just as human, and just as mortal, as anyone else.

I want Kyle to have a long and prosperous career. I want him to succeed, but I think he really needs to give up on The Double if he wants a good career.

By David G. Firestone

During practice for the Indy 500, two Team Penske cars were busted for technical violation. This, in turn, led to the firing of Tim Cindric, IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski, and IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer. Tim Cindric was the highest member of the team to be fired. According to Wikipedia:

“Tim Cindric served as the Team Manager for Team Rahal from 1994 to 1999, before joining Penske in October 1999. He was promoted to the position of president at Penske Racing in January 2006. He also serves as strategist for the Penske-owned IndyCar teams of Will Power (through 2016) and Josef Newgarden (from 2017). His teams won the IndyCar championship for the 2014, 2017 and 2019 seasons. He departed the team in May 2025, three days after Will Power and Josef Newgarden’s cars failed technical inspection for having a modified part during the Firestone Fast 12 in qualifying for the 2025 Indianapolis 500.”

The reason for the firing was the modification of a rear attenuator. What is a rear attenuator, I hear you ask, well, let’s look at a well-written article on Motorsport.com by Bozi Tatarevic.

“In order to understand what transpired at Team Penske, we need to start with the function of the rear attenuator on an IndyCar. This rectangular piece sits at the back of the car and is attached to the gearbox where it serves two basic roles. Its primary role is to absorb impact in a crash and reduce the g-forces felt by the driver. It also serves as the mount for the rain light assembly.

According to multiple sources that aren’t authorized to speak publicly, Team Penske started receiving these updated attenuators back from Dallara in early 2024 and members of leadership were not pleased with the aesthetics of the new glued-on panels as they showed a bright glue line that stood out and with a large raised edge. A member of the technical leadership is rumored to have instructed members of their team to “clean up” the edges on the pieces in order to make the bright glue stand out less so these technicians applied a dark compound to the edges and smoothed them out.

Once these attenuators were modified, they were cleaned up and coated with sealer – per the standard procedure for many carbon fiber parts at Penske – and placed into their parts rotation to be installed on the cars to start the 2024 season.”

This whole situation is amazing, since, realistically, it didn’t provide any on-track advantage at all, and was just for aesthetic purposes. Many fans are complaining that IndyCar overreacted to the violation. Realistically, there could be other reasons for the firings.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that were other things that were brewing in Team Penske. Looking at the standings, it’s clear Team Penske isn’t where they need to be, in terms of on track performance. I’m willing to bet that Roger Penske saw the opportunity to clean house, which isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes you have to take what isn’t working, throw it out, and try something new.

But this brings me back to something that’s not talked about as much. The fact that the owner of IndyCar also owns a team in IndyCar is a massive conflict of interest. Say what you want, but if the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB owned one of the teams while the rest were owned by outsiders, wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?

The fact is that Roger Penske does not look good here at all. He may have fired three of his top guys, but that still doesn’t make him innocent in all of this. If you are the owner of a business, and your subordinates make a mistake, even if you weren’t at said business, it’s still on you. Nobody blames the janitor when the company goes bankrupt. Nobody blames the guy in the mailroom when a major industrial accident happens. The top brass gets the blame.

Roger needs to sell Team Penske if he is going to own IndyCar. It’s just that simple. Even if he his not involved, his name is still on the team. He will still be blamed for everything, regardless of personal involvement. Any boss who claims that he isn’t responsible for his subordinate’s actions needs to be replaced anyway.

In addition, the conflict of interest will only make things worse. If the owner of the league’s team gets busted again, or suddenly starts seeing success without explanation, wouldn’t that look suspicious? Roger Penske has given his critics all the rope they will ever need to hang him with, and they will hang him at some point, it’s just a matter of time. This will not end well at all.

Sources Cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cindric

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/penskes-modifications-arent-the-actual-problem-the-fact-that-no-one-caught-them-is/10724722/

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/indycar-president-qualifying-scandal-devastating-roger-penske/10724537/

https://apnews.com/article/penske-firings-cindric-indycar-f427dc41cdcb9660eaa4c54482aed6b1

By David G. Firestone

I’m not the biggest NFL fan, and I don’t watch college sports at all. But the biggest story of the NFL Draft was Shedeur Sanders. Shedeur Sanders, is the son of legendary NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. Coming out of Colorado, many people thought his on-field talent would make him a first-round draft pick, but he got drafted in the fifth round. For some people, this was “racist,” for some, this was perplexing.

But for me, this was another case of a kid with too big of an ego for his own good. Many of the more level-headed people pointed out that the average Joe Schmo is not a talent scout. But I think Albert Breer’s take on Shedeur Sanders is very abt. This is from “NFL Draft Takeaways: An Honest Discussion About Shedeur Sanders,” on SI.com link at the . Here are some key points:

“This starts with teams’ evaluations of Sanders as a player. The story we had on Tuesday on the quarterback class as a whole covered it. If you read that, you know it wasn’t easy to find coaches or scouts who viewed the Colorado quarterback as a first-round talent coming into the draft. He’s not a great athlete. He didn’t show great arm talent. He had bad habits in taking unnecessary sacks and bailing out of the back of the pocket. He had trouble playing on time in general and did things off-schedule that weren’t going to translate to the NFL.

A lot of times in combine meetings, teams will have a player’s worst plays ready for him when he enters the room and, along those lines, one had a particularly rough interception teed up for Sanders in Indianapolis. When asked to explain it, Sanders didn’t take blame. And as they dove deeper into it, and how it might relate to the NFL level, Sanders simply concluded that maybe he and the staff he was talking to might not be a match.

Ahead of another visit, he got an install with mistakes intentionally planted in it—done to see if a quarterback would catch them. Sanders didn’t catch them. A coach called him on it, and the resulting exchange wasn’t pretty.

Instead, in this case, a lot of teams either had a tough experience with Sanders or didn’t have an experience with him at all. Which made it tough to spend a pick on him, because if you were looking for a developmental quarterback who’d be content to slide into the shadows and work at his craft, this didn’t seem like the guy.”

This is another example of a point I’ve been making over the years. It’s simply impossible to judge anything solely on how successful it is. Too many athletes, musicians, actors, politicians, and celebrities are finding out that if you give anybody the rope they need, they will hang you with it. Shedeur Sanders is no exception.

Professional sports is full of athletes with big egos, that’s to be expected. Sometimes though, an athlete’s ego is too big for his own good. That’s the problem with Shedeur Sanders. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, he clearly thinks he is 1000% more important than he really is. If he was as egotistical as he is, but was as talented as Tom Brady, he’d would have been a first-round pick. His talent didn’t equal his ego, and now he’s a developmental player for the Cleveland Browns.

But there’s another issue at play here. Specifically, the NFL Combine, and the various meetings. If Shedeur Sanders had any common sense, he’d understand that the NFL Combine is the football equivalent of the first part of a job interview. A huge lesson I learned in middle school about job interviews is that the best thing you can do is to convince the company hiring you that you don’t make bad decisions. Shedeur Sanders never got that lesson. Read the quotes I posted again. It’s clear that he didn’t really understand the significance of the meetings, and if he did, he didn’t care.

Say whatever you want about Deion Sanders’ ego, but you can’t argue he didn’t back it up. Hell, Deion Sanders was the first and only player to both play in both a Super Bowl and World Series, but who also WON both a Super Bowl, and World Series. While it’s also clear that Shedeur Sanders has the ego of Deion, but not the on-field talent of Deion.

Here’s the bottom line: It’s clear from everything that Shedeur Sanders wasn’t meant to be a first-round pick, and that he needs work on his game, and work on his ego. While he still has hope for making it in the NFL, it’s going to be a long road, and he’s going to need a lot of humility, which, I don’t think is going to happen, at least not very easily. He can prove everyone wrong, but does he really have the work ethic to do so? Time will tell.

Sources Cited:

https://www.si.com/nfl/nfl-draft-takeaways-honest-discussion-about-shedeur-sanders

By David G. Firestone

Just a brief update for this week. So, due to reasons that were beyond my control, I didn’t upload anything the week before Easter. This was due to a series of personal and family issues. While I’d like to say that everything is back to normal, sadly, this is the new normal for me and my family. As such, due to theses personal issues, it’s less than clear where The Driver Suit Blog will go from here.

What I can say is for the time being, I will try and regularly upload and post, but real life can and will get in the way. If I’m not able to post as much as I previously had, that’s why. I’m not giving up on The Driver Suit Blog, at least not yet. That’s really all I have for this week.