I know, it's outre to actually post links to an American news outfit, but this column was too sweet to resist.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/c...ht&lid=tab2pos1

I love it. A gold, flowing robe with ostrich feathers! Running a cane along the catch fencing while the rabid crowds bark in fury.

Remember when T-Stew tried to equate NASCAR with the WWE? Run with it! This is great!

Darrell Waltrip certainly played up the villain image...DW was smart to the black hat.

Excellent article. There's more truth in there than most NASCAR people would like to admit.

My favorite motorsport-related thing on TV is when Robin Miller and Ed Hinton are on WindTunnel with Dave DeSpain. They are three of the most knowledgable and, certainly, three of the most entertaining motorsports journalists in the US.

Great column. It's also true of pretty much any mainstream motorsport. Illustrated perfectly by the Alonso/Hamilton fight last year and the craziness exhibited on these forums during it all. Hill/Schumacher, Prost/Senna etc. They all helped to create a must-see experience.

Yeah, that's a good point. Especially the part where "If your guy crashes, you don't leave. You stick around, hoping your anti-hero crashes, too."

I can only imagine some fans, if Fernando retired, keeping the race on only to hope for misfortune for Lewis.

I was at the Canadian GP. When Alonso went out it was as if the hive mind kicked in. You just saw all these blue Renault shirts get up in unison and walk out- presumably heading back to hibernate until the next Friday Free Practice.


Single driver fans suck.

I'm glad to see Ed Hinton back writing somewhere with a mass audience. It's worth reading the rest of his archived columns (memories of DW in his prime, Junior Johnson on who among the current drivers "gets" drafting) for the past month or so too--the man is a motorsports writing treasure.

I love the way they keep the Focus on Kyle and not the fact that Toyota in their second ever year of Nascar are dominating the Cup series and hence why the American fans are booing.

Good politics

Toyota has been in nascar more than two years, and both the Bush brothers haven't been fan favorites for a long time. Tony Stewart doesn't get booed like KB, and isn't he in a feren car?

It is easy to forget just how good ol' Ed really is. I am absolutely green with envy regarding that column. If only Kyle and the team would watch the tapes of the performances of James Brown for the moves when the cape is brought out, well....

As much as it truly surprises me, The Shrub does grow on you. Even I am impressed....

Ed is a proper dude, and should always be praised for he way he spoke the truth about safety immediaely after Dale Sr's accident.

I have long enjoyed both Ed's writings and his stances on matters that others in the media avoid, downplay or simply are oblivious to, mostly due to being afraid of becoming persona non grata with those in Daytona Beach.

NASCAR is almost too easy a target, much as is the case with any other large business or corporation. While I do like the racing that NASCAR provides, I have seen decades upon decades of practices that would lead me to never invest a penny in such a company.

There are some things that they are accused of that really are not the case, but there is much in how they conduct business and make decisions that seem to roll right on by which need the Ed Hinton's of the world to dig into, while people go apecrap over cautions and "fixes" which are rarely the problem those on fora such as this one make them out to be. Most of the teams hate the NASCAR bureaucrats too much to take a dive; which is a polite way of saying that NASCAR can't trust anyone they buy to stay bought and that while the teams might be had, they're not that cheap. John Bishop and I had a long discussion on this very point. It was illuminating to say the least.

NASCAR has thrived with bad guy characters such as DW and Earnhardt Sr., plus Stewart to a degree. Some of what the shrub already does is pretty funny, like wiping his eyes while being booed while being driven around the track in prerace. There's an interesting potential for a good guy/bad guy title match with the media darling Edwards in the Chase, provided Carl doesn't do any more youtube moments on his teammates Overall NASCAR owes Kyle a lot for adding interest to a season which has not distinguished itself with compelling on track action. What would the storyline be otherwise? (aside from Chronicles of Dale Jr.'s Transition, Year 1?)

I don't think it has much to do with Toyota. One could argue that the other Gibbs cars are unperforming relative to their past years (granted Stewart's probably been in a distracted state with his career change); Hamlin hasn't been much of a factor in many races since his one win months ago and both are on the fringe of the Chase. Other than Vicker's improvement, the other Toyotas haven't been that impressive.

I think becoming the bad guy is more difficult nowadays. Long time ago being born in wrong state was enough. Now Scott Speed goes to F1, comes back wearing high fashion clothes, talking about pedicure in Dover Trucks race press conference...and people actually like him. Even the few remaining good ol´ boys.

http://nascarfanzone.files.wordpress.com/2...sin-thinker.jpg

With pose like this, you´d expect flying Bud cans...

Oh gawd, Speed will make a cracking villain, should he go that route.

"Where to start. Okay, we're going to start with a nice, lovely manicure. Actually it was a pedicure that I got on my feet. Got my little toenails done before I came here on the plane. A little bit of blue on the tip, just the tip, just a little bit, so I think that's going to become kind of a tradition. The car itself was definitely good...(etc)"

"As far as the toenails, obviously you've never experienced the joy of someone take care of your feet. It was quite amazing, actually. My feet were very, very soft; very beautiful for my standards."

- Scott Speed, Dover Trucks post-race press conference

Fwee Woger!!!

Ed Hinton is indeed a great writer. I was given a hardback copy of his book Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black as a gift and really enjoyed it. If you like Ed's writing search the archives at espn.com

And yes Busch should don a cape and play the villain to the max. Bad guys sell more tickets than good guys, every day of the week and twice on Sunday's.

Totally love the Shrub Bring it on. With all his attitude, things could backfire badly on him if he didn't pull it off but the thing with him is he actually delivers the goods while sticking his finger to the booing crowd.

The fact that Jeff Gordon and JJ already feel the need to start playing mindgames on him to me only confirms he is seen as a proper threat to the big boys.

Kyle with a flowing robe, yeah that would work. Remember bad boy Paul Tracy in ChampCar showing up at the next race with cape, after his near fisticuffs with weedy boy Tagliani in the previous race

Any chance the NASCAR engineers can be moved over to the F1 team?

Well, Toyota is F1 team. Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford are not. Coincidence?

Has Kyle been released yet?

Has Daniiii been to see her?

Has she still got a bottom that is likely to attract paedophiles?

Is she still doing the Locomotion?

...and to think, I didn't know she'd even been jailed.