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Happy Festivus … and Goodbye

Today is Festivus, a holiday that sprang from the loins or our pop culture, specifically the TV show Seinfeld. Read more about it here. Two elements of Festivus … the airing of the grievances and incredible feats of strength.

Given it's a creation of pop culture of nebulous meaning ... Festivus seems an appropriate day to shut pressdog.com down. Bonus: It’s close enough to Christmas that everyone elbowing coworkers aside to get away from work and start the Bataan Death March of holiday travel may just give me the introvert ghost-away I am hoping for.

Year-End Random Thoughts on IndyCar, NASCAR and F1

 

Butler University grad Ed Carpenter celebrates winning the pole at Indy with Butler mascot Butler Blue III

Some year-end thoughts, one draft, 45-minutes of typing on various forms of racing:

IndyCar -- Insert a Festival of Trepidation here as I talk about IndyCar.

Willy P (Will Power) won the title, which was good to see, because I think finishing P2 in the championship again would have made him a danger to himself and others. I like Will Power. He’s got that volatile streak in him that makes him a threat to go Double Bird and any moment. IndyCar needs more of that. Screw being polite! Flip people off. (Shout out to Sebastian Saavedra for showing the birds to Marco Andretti at Detroit in 2013!)

Hawksworth's Ready for Super Tex and Iowa Speedway

(L to R) AJ Foyt, Takuma Sato, Jack Hawksworth and Larry Foyt will team up for 2015.

Jack Hawksworth of Cullingworth, England, (70 miles northwest of Liverpool) has something on his resume few IndyCar drivers can boast: tractor driver.

During a trip to Iowa before the 2014 IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway, Hawksworth visited the third-generation family farm of Kyle Phillips near Knoxville.

pressdog: “When you went to that Iowa farm did they let you drive the tractor at all?"

Jack Hawksworth: “They did. They let me go in a straight line. I don’t think they trusted me to do any corners or anything like that. But I gave it gas full on the straight and got it up to about 10 miles per hour.”

pressdog: “You gotta be careful … massive low-end torque on those things.”

Hawksworth: “I found it quite intimidating to drive, to be honest. There’s so much torque. I don’t think I’m qualified to drive one of those.”

While American farm tractors are typically around 150 horsepower with top “road gear” reaching maybe 25 mph, on July 18, 2015 Hawksworth will find himself more at home behind the wheel of a race car as he and his IndyCar mates take their 550 to 700 horsepower machines around Iowa Speedway at a top race speed of about 180 mph.

Shea Holbrook Launches Crowd-Funding Effort, ClutchFunded Launches New Platform

The concept of crowd-funding — using the internet in general and social media in particular to raise money for a personal or business enterprise — is on the rise. Forbes.com recently reported that crowd-funding worldwide in 2013 hit $5.1 billion, which is double the 2012 global total. (Details here.)

Race car drivers have previously dipped into the crowd funding market. In 2013 Shannon McIntosh's fans responded to a campaign by donating more than $11,000 to help get her a test in ARCA. (Details here.)

Shea Holbrook is among the latest to try crowd-funding. Shea just launched a campaign using darkhorsepros.com to asking fans to help her raise $30,000 to finance getting a drag racing license. She hopes to add a drag racing schedule to her road racing program in 2015.

NASCAR Melee -- Brand Moment? Idiocy? Staged? Awesome?

By now the video is all over the place, and I’ve read tweets that it’s getting monster air on at least one morning TV show.

In case you missed it, after the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday, Jeff Gordon thought he had been done wrong on the track by Brad Keselowski. That’s what led to this ..

OK, a few things …

Transcript: Mark Miles and Will Power Talk about 2015 IndyCar Season

Transcript courtesy of IndyCar PR and presented unedited.

IndyCar Conference Call with Mark Miles and Will Power

10/30/2014

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's IndyCar conference call. Earlier today the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule was released and features many highlights, including 17 race events, two new race venues, a total of six ABC and 13 NBCSN event broadcasts.

The diverse calendar of events, which features six ovals, six road courses, and four temporary street circuits, includes a total of 13 markets making a return to the calendar for 2015.

IndyCar Announces 2015 Schedule. What say Ye (BASTARDS)?

Drum rollllll. Here it is, the 2015 IndyCar Schedule:

3/8 -- Brazil (NBCSN)

3/29 -- St. Petersburg (ABC)

4/12 -- New Orleans (NBCSN)

4/19 -- Long Beach (NBCSN)

4/26 -- Barber (NBCSN)

5/9 -- GP of Indianapolis (Saturday, ABC)

5/16-17 -- Indianapolis 500 Qualifying (ABC)

5/24 -- Indianapolis 500 (ABC)

5/30-31 -- Detroit (Doubleheader, both ABC)

6/6 -- Texas (Saturday night, NBCSN)

6/14 -- Toronto (NBCSN)

6/27 -- Fontana (Saturday, NBCSN)

7/12 -- Milwaukee (NBCSN)

7/18 -- Iowa (Saturday night, NBCSN)

8/2 -- Mid-Ohio (NBCSN)

8/23 -- Pocono (NBCSN)

8/30 -- Sonoma (NBCSN)

Quick thoughts:

Is what is it. IndyCar is fortunate to have 16 venues, honestly. It's not like tracks are knocking down their door to get a date.

IndyCar at Dubai? It Just Doesn't Matter.

So the 2015 IndyCar schedule is allegedly coming out on Oct. 30. This is per Curt Cavin of the Indy Star. Fun-tastic.

BUT WAIT -- a glitch in the Matrix, a fly in the ointment -- somebody spotted something on a driver’s website that referenced an IndyCar race in Dubai perhaps on February 22, which, unless there’s a double-secret race before February 22, would make Dubai IndyCar’s season opener. IF it happens at all.

Ryan Newman Could Set off Umbrage Tsunami by Winning the NASCAR Championship

Spoiler chortling ... Ryan Newman (left) and Matt Kenseth could be the flies in NASCAR's win-focused ointment

I was actually contemplating how cool it was that NASCAR had created big incentives for drivers to go for the win this year when this popped into my head: Helllooooooo, NEWMAN.

Both Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth are winless this year, and if either wins the championship, the Festival of Rage, Chagrin, and UMBRAGE would be so delicious, that as a result I now want one of them to win, even though I picked Jeff Gordon in my bracket. No offense, Jeff!

Newman and Kenseth are two of eight still alive in the Chase, along with Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski. Everybody but Kenseth and Newman has at least one win.

NASCAR Emperor Chortles all the way to the Bank

When it comes to Chase contenders like Kyle Busch, Talladega just don't give a shit.

Even a day after the NASCAR race at Talladega I hear the echoes of the chortle of the Emperor in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi.

But wait, it’s a hooded, ghostly white Brian France (BZF), not Ian McDiarmid.

"I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!”