I loved this headline when I saw it yesterday afternoon.
NORRIS NAMED CREW CHIEF FOR CARL EDWARDS
I would do a good job, too. Four tires, every stop. No exceptions.
But it's not me. It's Chad Norris, a veteran research-and-development guy at Roush-Fenway Racing who's been instrumental in developing the careers of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. He replaces Bob Osborne, who's worked with Edwards for the past nine years.
I wouldn't want the job anyway. When Edwards was here last winter visiting the Canadian Motorsport Expo, I asked him if he'd do anything different this season as compared to last when he'd lost the NASCAR Sprint Cup title by a whisker.
He said no, they had reviewed their season and wouldn't do a thing differently.
A don't like people who are rigid. If he'd won, maybe I could understand doing things the same going forward. But he'd lost, which meant he'd probably lose again if he diidn't embrance change.
And staying the course obviously wasn't the right approach, or else Edwards wouldn't be 11th in the standings at the moment and that team wouldn't have seen the need to hire another crew chief in mid-season.
I hate to say I told ya so - but I will.
Carl should know, though, that if this move doesn't work out, I am available - after I coach the Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup. . .
After being MIA at the Honda Indy, Target has come out of the woodwork for the Edmonton Indy this weekend.
The Minneapolis-based department store organization, which is opening stores in Canada in the spring of 2013, is donating $5,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area on Thursday and inviting some of the children those organizations support to meet Target Chip Ganassi drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon to talk about sportsmanship and being a team player.
Which is terrific and great to see. But it also makes Target's absence at the Honda Indy Toronto even more puzzling.
As well as Target, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series was missing from Toronto as was the Canadian Touring Car Championship.
The fact that these all-Canadian series and their sponsors pay to race at events like the Honda Indy, as well as buying signage, renting corporate suites and buying tickets to give away to clients and customers, means somebody lost out on a lot of money.
Talking of sponsorships, NASCAR has joined the NFL, the NBA, the IndyCar Series and Major League Baseball in urging the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to shelve an amendment to legislation that will be voted on today that would forbid all branches of the the U.S. military from involvement in sports sponsorships.
The National Guard sponsors cars in both NASCAR and IndyCar and other arms of the service do business with football, basketball and baseball teams.
There are concerns that the possibility of the amendment passing led to a decision by the U.S. Army to terminate sponsorship at the end of the 2012 season of a car entered in NASCAR by Tony Stewart (Ryan Newman aboard). The leagues want to stop this amendment from doing any more damage.
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