The Arkansas State Fighting Farmers!!
The best posts are the ones that you don't have to add any commentary to...http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=6666707
Check out this news story from Jonesboro’s Channel 8 website. I’ll give you the punchline of the story. They have a poll: “We have compiled a list of the most suggested mascot names received from Region 8 viewer email. Please select the mascot name you would most like to see ASU adopt.” Ridge Runners, Red Wolves, Diamonds, Scarlet A's, Woodpeckers, Mosquitos (Skeeters), Tornadoes, Fighting Farmers, Hellbenders and Gorillas.
The Gorillas nickname is a callback to an OLD ASU nickname used back in 1928…but really, the Mosquitoes? The Woodpeckers?? Fighting Farmers?? Is this the best they can come up with since they can’t use Indians?
Dale Jr. to Hendrick is a Good Thing!
Ok. Having just heard the press conference and knowing this was coming overnight – here’s the bottom line on this: Any Dale Jr fan that isn’t ecstatic right now needs to quit watching NASCAR. All the rednecks and beer-throwers will whine and complain about Jeff Gordon and the evil empire and so-on, but the bottom line is that right now Rick Hendrick is putting the best cars on the track week in and week out. They are light years ahead of everyone but Joe Gibbs Racing with the new Car of Tomorrow – which oh by way will be used exclusively next year – and if Jr wants to prove he’s as good as he’s supposed to be, this is his best chance to do it.
I think there’s a lot of history with the Earnhardt/Childress connection that Jr didn’t want to get involved with right now. And while RCR may be running a LOT better than they have in the recent past, they’re nowhere close to HMS with the equipment they’re loading on the haulers each week. Not to mention, you don’t walk away from Dale Earnhardt Inc to go be your own man and chart your own course only to go to the team that your daddy drove for. Like he’s said time and again, Jr wants to drive the #3 for RCR a loooong time from now.
What he wants to do right now is win races and championships, and there’s no better team to accomplish that than HMS. The beer chunkers can still chunk beer at the 24 if they want to – it doesn’t accomplish anything now and it won’t accomplish anything starting in 2008 (unless you consider getting coolers banned an accomplishment). Like I said in an earlier post, most of the Gordon haters don’t even know why they hate Jeff Gordon. They only started hating him because it was chic to hate him when they started watching the races on Fox in 2001. Anybody that thinks about it for more than 20 seconds will realize they only hate him because he’s good. Trust me, I know…being a reformed Gordon hater myself. I started watching NASCAR in 1992 when my dad finally got me hooked…and by 1995, I had already gotten over the Gordon hatred. It’s a fan-generated issue that didn’t extend to the drivers themselves, so why waste my time hating someone I’ll never meet. Just sit back and enjoy watching one of my favorite sport’s all time greats do his thing.
And now my favorite driver can prove his mettle in the same equipment that the defending Cup champion as well as the active leader in Cup Championships are driving. If you want to call it selling out, I’m fine with that. Going to a team just to win races and championships? Fine with that. NASCAR fans calling someone a sellout is the height of stupidity. 43 rolling billboards race 500 miles and Kevin Harvick dresses like Ronald McDonald every week and when he said he was leaving DEI he made it clear that it would be to go to another Chevy team – but for some reason Dale Jr going to Hendrick is selling out?? Really?
As for myself – I can’t wait until next year. I can’t wait to see Dale Jr back at a plate track with a real powerhouse underneath him. Showing up at the track every week with a car that is capable of winning. He sure as crap wasn’t getting that with DEI. With wins at Phoenix, Richmond and Bristol already, I think it’s great that he’ll be getting Hendrick equipment to compete with next year on the short tracks. HMS has already demonstrated that they know a little something about the COT on the short tracks this year.
As for the number – Jr says he’d like to keep the 8, so that’s fine with me. I have #8 Budweiser gear, but I had #3 GM Goodwrench stuff before that. I haven’t gotten drunk enough to tattoo a driver’s number on me, so I have that going for me if they decide to change it. Although this whole situation has screamed of “We’re changing our number to 6.7”, the whole thing won’t be that much different than the guys who still wear the #99 Exide Batteries Jeff Burton shirts or the #6 Valvoline Mark Martin shirts. It’ll just show that you’ve been a fan for a long time.
Like, I said already – this is a very good thing if you’re a Dale Jr fan. He’ll have the best shot he’s ever going to get to compete for a Cup Championship. Now it’s up to him to go out and win it.
And while I’m here…Shut up about the Toyotas, already. They’re here. Deal with it or get over it!! But either way - shut up about it! And for the TV guys: Richard Petty nor Dale Earnhardt are 7-time Nextel Cup Champions. Benny Parsons never won a Nextel Cup, and neither did Alan Kulwicki! You don’t HAVE to say a sponsor name every time a Cup Champion is brought up. Jeff Gordon can be a 4-time Cup Champion without being a 4-time Nextel Cup Champion…Jeff’s 4 Cups all had the three little cups on the wooden base and the big Winston logo on the front. As did all 7 of Dale Earnhardt’s. I know Nextel sponsors it now…but there’s nothing wrong with NOT saying Nextel’s freakin’ name every time a past champion is mentioned. I know that neither of these were really fitting for the Dale Jr to HMS blog, but it’s one of my pet peeves, and I felt like mentioning it.
