In January of 2017, Steve made the offer to me to come into the fold of this very radio network you all have grown to love us on. I never pictured myself being in any form of media, whether it was television, radio, internet or print. From that day on, I would forever be there. One thing I first learned him was something valuable, and its a phrase still used to this very minute: It’s better to be last and GET IT RIGHT, than be first and GET IT WRONG. Some stories that have been broken of late, as in the past few years, have been very wrong. One in point was from when Jim Utter stated with pure fact and assumption that in 2017 Kurt Busch was leaving SHR, and he ended up driving another year for them in 2018 before he moved to Ganassi in 2019. There are several other examples I could use, but it’d take me the rest of 2020 to state them all. We pride ourselves at CRN on only giving facts about “confirmed” stories, instead of filling our time talking about nothing but “unconfirmed” rumors……
…….”steps onto soapbox,clears throat, begins rant”………..
This week, I have been ready to blow a proverbial gasket when it comes to a certain wing of the NASCAR media brigade. All over the sport, there has been speculation and questions of late about when the series would roll onto the track again now that this COVID mess is settling down. Different dates, Different times, and different tracks have all been tossed around as a potential starting point for the Cup cars. Martinsville, Texas, Homestead, Charlotte have all been used at some point for potential starting points, all while NOTHING is confirmed. A couple of weeks ago, The Lady in Black, better known as Darlington, entered the fray as a potential starting point to get the season back going. It really gained steam late last week as Darlington for the return track. Granted, NASCAR has an INSANE AMOUNT of logistics and things to align before it can be set in stone as to when and where the season will resume, all while watching the fluidity of the pandemic situation for each respective state on the target list to travel to and race in. For those who DON’T know, Steve and I are also part of the staff at Darlington Raceway as well. We work PA on the race weekends there as well. All this time, we HAVE NOT, and STILL not gotten any kind of clue as to anything in plans for there from our hierarchy at the track. They are being MORE than courteous to us by not telling anything to us until a 100% confirmation is made, which we beyond respect. Granted, the event probably will run with bare stands, but that doesn’t mean that they may or may not still need us to come help with anything they may need us to do to help with the event.
This week, a reporter from Autoweek, which I won’t name, has virtually beat his twitter feed to death this week with trying to be the first to share the “potential” schedule for the return of NASCAR. On THREE, yes THREE DIFFERENT OCCASIONS, he has shared THREE DIFFERENT SCHEDULE FORMATS. Lets remember this, NASCAR hasn’t officially confirmed anything or said a peep YET, and this is being typed in the 10 pm CST hour on 4/29. Normally the notorious ones for sharing things like this have beat him to the punch, but they have been as quiet as a mouse so far. This entire time, the staff at Darlington hasn’t confirmed a thing to anyone that has asked, because NASCAR hasn’t confirmed it. I saw a couple days ago where a reporter, that was piggybacking off of this Autoweek story, asked Bristol GM Jerry Caldwell about it, because one of the three schedule shares had Bristol running on May 27th. Jerry Caldwell DESTROYED him and said “When NASCAR confirms our date, not a reporter, you’ll hear from us then.” The next day, Bristol wasn’t anywhere on the radar as a early return venue, supposedly. This guy has done nothing but make a fool of himself by trying to be the first to break the schedule, all while NOT ONE DATE has been set in stone by the sanctioning body. He is now a part of our “untrusted” brigade of reporters, because hes tried to break three different schedules in three days. And none of them are confirmed yet to the nation by NASCAR. To our trusted, loyal listeners and followers….with Steve and myself as part of the Darlington staff, if Darlington is to be an early return venue, you WILL know it from us, because we will more than likely hear something of some sort as to what will happen from our hierarchy there. That’s why WE haven’t speculated or broke anything on our network because NOTHING HAS BEEN CONFIRMED.
Maybe this reporter in question needs to take some pointers from Steve, and make himself look way better than he has this whole week.
“BE LAST AND GET IT RIGHT, THAN BE FIRST AND GET IT WRONG.”