Track Smack: Talladega

Our driver guest today is Kasey Kahne, who joins us for the second time this year. Our fan is Thomas Dowell, a Kevin Harvick fan from Alabama. We figured we'd give Thomas a shot at Track Smacking on his home turf.

Is Rusty Wallace going to keep up his resurgence? What is the main reason behind it?

Marty Smith: Jeff Gordon hit a boulder. Just kidding. I've said all along the softer tire would benefit Rusty, put more feel back in the car, but I don't necessarily think it's a "resurgence." He's run up front the entire "slump," just never closed the deal.

Thomas Dowell: I think so, he really seems to have it clicking with the new crew chief, I would be surprised to see him win several more this season, I guess they have found a combination that works well.

Ryan Smithson: It seems like Rusty's finally comfortable with the people around him. Lord knows the personnel changes he's had since the Pemberton glory years. His pit crew was really good on Sunday, and that was the difference.

Lee Montgomery: Yes, for sure. He told me in the offseason that he thought Larry Carter would help get him back to Victory Lane, and that's the reason. Larry has brought stability to the team, and that's why Rusty has improved.

Kasey Kahne: I think Rusty is going to be tough all year. He seems like he has some good things going for himself. I agree with that to he is always up.

Ryan Smithson: One thing that got me watching him on Sunday, guys, is that Rusty seems like the youngest 47-year-old in the world.

Thomas Dowell: I am sure he is relieved to have the "slump" of his back now, with everyone asking him about it constantly.

Lee Montgomery: He's always been optimistic.

Marty Smith: I hear what you're all saying, but I honestly don't know that it was a slump. He nearly won the '02 Brickyard 400. There were times he led hundreds of laps, just didn't win. I don't think he was as off as we all played it up to be.

Nice emails (Will not get read) Marty Ryan Dave Lee

Thomas Dowell: I agree Marty, he just couldn't ever seem to pull out the win.

Ryan Smithson: Marty, I am not sure, man, he was out of the top 10 last year for the first time in ages. Clearly, something major was wrong. Three straight top-fives though.

Lee Montgomery: A lot of guys were out of the top 10 last year and this year. Doesn't necessarily mean something was majorly wrong.

Lee Montgomery: Just shows how tough this sport is.

Marty Smith: So was Tony Stewart for nearly the entire season, Ryan.

Ryan Smithson: Yeah, I reckon. Lot tougher than 1993.

Mean emails (Will get read) Marty Ryan Dave Lee

Lee Montgomery: If Rusty had a problem, it was not letting the crew chief run the show.

Marty Smith: Exactly. He likes to make the calls on pit road. And, if pit stops are bad, he'll pull the trigger on your tail end. He holds those guys accountable.

Thomas Dowell: You can't have a team where the driver is making all the decisions, have to have that other person who is not out there in the car.

Ryan Smithson: Thomas, has Rusty got a large fan base in Alabama?

Thomas Dowell: Yeah, I think he has a pretty fair amount of fans anywhere there are people who have been with this sport for ages

Kasey Kahne: My first NASCAR shirt ever was Rusty in the 27 Kodiak car.

Ryan Smithson: Kasey, nice, you must have been nine years old.

Kasey Kahne: About.

Marty Smith: Ha! Awesome, Kasey. I remember that video when he's jumping on top of the car, the hood, all the way to the ground. He'd get fined $100,000 for that now.

	So, Dale, any idea who stole your sleeves?

Kasey Kahne: Yeah, that is for sure.

Ryan Smithson: Kasey, you should go up to him and tell him that story. Make him feel ancient.

Kasey Kahne: I am thinking about it. I was in third grade.

Thomas Dowell: "One of my first memories was watching you Rusty..."

Ryan Smithson: Like when Steve Lyons came at bat in the major leagues -- the catcher was Bob Boone, and he goes, "Wow, Bob Boone, I saw you play in Eugene (Ore.) when I was three." Boone told him where he could go.

Marty Smith: Dude, you're Rain Man. Who knows that crap?

Thomas Dowell: He has to have somewhere to keep all those stats...

Marty Smith: I'm old. Just had a birthday last Thursday. Ugh. Sucks...

	I stole Dale Jr.'s sleeves, Elliott.

Kasey Kahne: I had one last Saturday.

Marty Smith: Happy Birthday, man. I'm like, eight years older than you, I think.

Ryan Smithson: I'll bet you didn't figure you'd be celebrating your 24th birthday in Tennessee. Hope you didn't go to the Wildhorse Saloon.

Kasey Kahne: No. I would have never thought that. I celebrated it at some cool country bars.

Lee Montgomery: Drink some Mountain Dew, did you Kasey?

Is a mid-week Nextel Cup race something that is feasible?

Thomas Dowell: I think that a lot of people would still watch in the middle of the week, but I definitely think you are losing a lot of viewers, depends a lot of the day and time too, maybe a prime time thing?

Ryan Smithson: I'll bet Martinsville would be a good candidate for a Wednesday, one-day event with a 400-lap race at night. Me and Marty discussed this last week. Night races suck for networks. People do not realize that.

Marty Smith: It's feasible, but it'd only make the budgets skyrocket. To have more shows you've got to have more people. Salaries are the highest expense right now in NASCAR. The crew guys are already stretched way thin.

	Which one is the field filler?

Ryan Smithson: No one watches the Bristol night race.

Thomas Dowell: Yeah, a shorter race to fit it into a few hours

Lee Montgomery: I'd hate it. Let's keep the races on the weekends. It would kill attendance.

Thomas Dowell: A lot of people wouldn't be willing or able to miss the middle of their workweek to travel to the track

Marty Smith: Plus, Wednesday night on Fox is all American Idol, all the time.

Lee Montgomery: Oh, Lord.

Marty Smith: (Wife) Lainie loves that crap, man. Survivor, American Idol, Fear Factor, Big Brother, Apprentice. Dude all 'em. All I want to do is watch the Braves, man.

TRACK SMACK: THE AUDIO  Too lazy to read Track Smack? Check out the audio version where we debate whether Jeff Gordon should have been allowed to repair his car under the red flag at Martinsville.

Thomas Dowell: Yeah, who can see Fox ousting American Idol for Martinsville Idol?

Lee Montgomery: I'm glad Laura loves West Wing.

Ryan Smithson: I guess none of you guys think it is feasible. Interesting.

Lee Montgomery: Kasey, you watch much TV?

Kasey Kahne: I just watch racing pretty much. I go to some movies once in a while.

Ryan Smithson: I guess part of me thinks NASCAR will try it eventually.

Marty Smith: The one thing that would make it truly feasible is the push by ESPN. They wouldn't have to shuffle a ton of programming, I wouldn't think, to pull it off.

And believe me, ABC is pushing hard to get NASCAR back.

Thomas Dowell: Maybe so, but I am not sure how profitable it could be, for the tracks at least

Marty Smith: Just watch SportsCenter. It's obvious.

Lee Montgomery: But do you think ESPN would get a good race?

Marty Smith: Get a good race? What do you mean?

Ryan Smithson: The days of cable getting good races are over. So no.

Lee Montgomery: A traditionally good ratings race, like Texas.

Ryan Smithson: One that would get high ratings, Marty.

Marty Smith: Sure they would. If they were NASCAR's outlet to prod the mid-week guinea pig. Absolutely. Lord, that sounded like Rodman. Sorry, boys.

	We simply do not have the words.

Thomas Dowell: Hey someone has to stand in for him...

Ryan Smithson: But the high ratings races are the ones that seat over 200,000 people.

Indy, Daytona, Texas.

Ryan Smithson: You can't sell 200,000 seats on a Wednesday.

Lee Montgomery: Heck, no. Unless it's Bristol. And I don't even want to think about traffic there on a Wednesday.

Ryan Smithson: Why? Because it's church night?

Thomas Dowell: Not even if you offer the local daycares free candy and coloring books!

Lee Montgomery: Weekday.

Marty Smith: No. It's Phil Fulmer night at Shoeless Joe's.

Ryan Smithson: Can you imagine somebody saying, "Geez, look at al the traffic headed down to Bristol Baptist?"

Thomas Dowell: Maybe they could have services before the race...

Ryan Smithson: They already do, Thomas. Pretty brief though.

Lee Montgomery: MRO. Dale Beaver is the man.

Ryan Smithson: Very nice guy.

Marty Smith: Boys, is it me, or isn't there already church traffic at Bristol? I mean, we race there on Sunday in the spring.

Lee Montgomery: That's Ryan's call. I was talking about regular traffic.

Thomas Dowell: Sunday is a bigger church day than Wednesday.

What are we going to see at Talladega, and who will win?

Kasey Kahne: I think the Busch race is going to be very exciting.

Lee Montgomery: I doubt it'll be as spread out as Daytona, because Talladega isn't the handling track Daytona is. But I also don't think we'll see a 43-car pack. By "exciting," do you mean a crash-fest?

Ryan Smithson: I am going to go out on a limb here. DEI can't win forever. I'll go with Wallace back-to-back. But I wonder how the cautions are going to work.

Martinsville Predictions  Not a good week. We didn't pick the winner again. Although Marty and Lee came close.  Marty picked Johnson (4th)  Ryan picked Harvick (19th)  Lee picked Dale Jr. (3rd)

Kasey Kahne: The Nextel Cup race should be pretty good too.

Thomas Dowell: It could end up being a pretty caution free race, you of course have DEI and the favorite everywhere in Vegas, but if I had to go out on a limb and make an unbiased pick, look out for Gordon.

Marty Smith: Junior will win, but I don't expect we'll see a Junior/Mikey show. Mikey needs a win worse than Donald Trump needs a stylist. He'd hang Junior out in a second. Elliott Sadler's going to be strong, too.

Kasey Kahne: I think it will be more side-by-side racing than Daytona was.

Ryan Smithson: Kasey, we've had two caution-free races in spring since 1997, so maybe you'll be done in two hours.

Kasey Kahne: That would be cool.

Be on Smack  We've gotten tremendous response to our effort to include the fans in Track Smack. Keep those letters coming. And it helps tremendously if you have an AOL account. Want to be in Track Smack? Email us. Then email us again.

Lee Montgomery: Caution-free? No way. In either race. But it would be nice.

Ryan Smithson: I remember that year Martin won in 1997, and I swear it took the guy longer to sing the national anthem that day.

Kasey Kahne: There will definitely be a big wreck in the Busch race with those roof flaps on the cars.

Ryan Smithson: Thomas, why didn't you pick Harvick?

Thomas Dowell: Harvick could definitely win, he is great at restrictor-plate tracks, and RCR has moved closer to DEI, Kevin has just never had much luck with the restrictor-plate tracks, always gets caught a lap down or wrecked, I was just trying to be unbiased, but of course, look out for Harvick too.

Lee Montgomery: And the winner? Jamie McMurray. He was strong in Daytona.

Marty Smith: Great call, Kasey. The closing rate with those roof blades is insane. I'm uncertain some of the Busch guys are ready for that.

Kasey Kahne: Scott Wimmer will probably run real good too.

Ryan Smithson: Kasey, was you in the that big wreck in 2002 when you drove for Yates? Remember that mess?

Kasey Kahne: I wasn't at that race saw it on TV. I raced at Talladega for Robert in an ARCA race. I got squished into the wall by Tina and Deborah.

Marty Smith: Shania Twain is hotter'n crap on a tin roof. I hope she's at that deal I'm going to tomorrow. Sorry, random.

Lee Montgomery: Good random, though. Got hit by two women? Ouch.

Marty Smith: And you loved every minute of it, Kahne. Don't lie.

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Thomas Dowell: One prediction you can always make for 'Dega, as many drunk guys as you can fit in one infield, not any of which you would want to meet up with in a dark alley, unless you have the same favorite driver of course.

Ryan Smithson: Fortunately, there are few dark alleys in Talladega. Except behind the jail maybe. There's a few in Anniston.

Thomas Dowell: Tina Gordon comes on a lot of local commercials here.

Ryan Smithson: Really? What the heck for?

Lee Montgomery: Bras.

Marty Smith: Dude, she's sponsored by some underwear deal.

Thomas Dowell: Sticks and Stuff furniture commercials, for one

Ryan Smithson: This conversation just got a lot funnier.

Thomas Dowell: She used to be sponsored by them I think...

Lee Montgomery: That, too.

Ryan Smithson: We're talking about Tina Gordon because we had a rookie tell us he wrecked with her in an ARCA race.

Marty Smith: And the fact that she peddles lingerie.

Track Smack appears every Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET.

The opinions listed here are solely those of the participants.