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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.

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 …

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!”

What Think Ye of NASCAR “Drama”

 

Kevin Harvick winning at Charlotte actually Cued the Circus Music

Keep in mind that UMBRAGE is good.

So, last week Charlotte turned into a Festival of Spider Monkeys when Brad Keselowski — who gives me an Eddie Haskell vibe, which might just be due to physical resemblance — got crazy at the end of the race and started bashing people on the cool down laps.

How Much Information is Too Much and Criticizing the Critics

If you’re a life-long student of mass communications like I am, two tragic incidents recently — the death of Kevin Ward Jr. when he was hit by a car driven by Tony Stewart, and the death of Robin Williams — provide opportunity to observe The Media in action and, more interestingly, public reaction to the media in action.

Twitter and Facebook have a lot of downsides, but one of the big upsides is they allow people to voice opinions, and allow the world access to those opinions like never before.

Usually these media critiques come down to a few main themes:

• Too much information
• “Sensationalized” information
• Inaccurate information
• Willful attempts to use the power of The Media to damage someone
• A relatively new one: lack of standing to comment
• An oldie-but-goody variant: intentional laziness or favoritism because the media are complicit with one side or another.

In general (please see discussion below for all the caveats and nuances) 1) people don't get that the media is a business and that it's VERY market-driven and 2) I tend to error on the side of more information over less, within reason.

Let’s break it down (I wish I was getting graded on this term paper …)

Reactions to NASCAR at Michigan and IndyCar at Milwaukee

 

Will Power puts on his gloves before carving the field, surgeon-like, at Milwaukee.

Couple of ovals on the schedule this weekend, which turned my Sunday into a Mr. Sluggard on the Couch day. Insert wife chagrin here. So let’s recap …

NASCAR at Michigan. UMBRAGE TAKEN! Remember that umbrage is good, and we had some umbrage after this one. Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson spent several minutes face-to-face, looking unimpressed with each other, gesturing more wildly as the conversation went on, but no pit brawl broke out. Each was unhappy with the other’s alleged gratuitous paint swapping on the track.

Kenzie Ruston Drives from P15 to P2 at Iowa Speedway

Kenzie Ruston on her way to P2 at Iowa Speedway

Kenzie Ruston credited her drive from a starting spot of 15th to finishing second at Iowa Speedway to great car adjustments that gave her "tons of drive" on the high line. She drove to P4 before a late caution let the field pack up and gave Ruston her opportunity for the win. She said the victory probably slipped away when she spun her tires on the final restart.

Brandon Jones held on to win by half a car length. Story here.

Transcript of Ruston's comments after finishing second at Iowa Speedway on August 1:

NASCAR, INDYCAR … Attendance, Schmattendance

I used to be all about attendance for races in both IndyCar and NASCAR. But I no longer care. Not that I don’t care-don’t care, just that I don’t care.

Let me explain.

Admission: in the old days (five-ish years ago) I used to hope for poor attendance at the races I didn’t personally enjoy. Even worse, I would revel in what I perceived as crappy attendance in races I didn’t personally like, because I thought it was The Market coming to my rescue to rid me (us!) of these unworthy venues.

Surprising IndyCar Twisties, Montoya Rapprochement, NASCAR at Kentucky and Electric Katherine Legge

It's possible I have misjudged this man.

A little bit about a lot of things. Pull up some dark roast and … DRINK, ye BASTARDS.

IndyCar’s Surprising Twisties — (Note: “twisty” is not a pejorative, just my shorthand for road or street track). My somewhat bipolar relationship with IndyCar twisties continued this weekend with a double dip (doubleheader, try to keep up) at Houston. First race: RAIN. Road and street races in the rain are always awesome, because the precip adds a big-ass dose of RANDOM to the event.

pressdog's Guide to Iowa, 2014 Edition

 

Welcome to Iowa, WORLD headquarters for pressdog.com. People are always saying to me, "Des Moines is like New York City surrouned by CORN! It's amazing!" 

No. People never say that. Mostly it's "GOD, we have to go to Des Moines? What's there? Tractors on the streets and hogs running loose in the city?" Hardly. While you're here to view the IndyCar/Truck-like Vehicle Race at Speedway on July 12 or the Nationwide race on Aug. 2, allow me suggest some fine dining, entertainment and motel options.