But what’s more fascinating is the 12-page inventory list that CEM had catalogued. While there’s no prices or whether items can be sold separately, it’s fascinating to look through the list.
I can tell you a handful of things I’d buy (assuming I could afford them and, without prices, who knows):
1 — Garage sign (Indy); just because that would be a cool conversation piece.
3 — Roof flaps; you never know when you’ll find yourself in a precarious position on the Northern Virginia Dragway, i.e. I-95.
1 — Pit road catch can; again, another conversation piece. With enough cleaning, it might make a nice summer drink dispenser.
1 — 18 volt Sawzall, DeWalt; back in my college days, I worked the summers with our Facilities Services division. One day, a full-timer and I were charged with removing a stand-alone shower from one of the college’s buildings. He fiddled with the thing for 20 minutes and couldn’t get anything undone. “Go get me Sawzall,” he finally said with an exasperated tone. Ten minutes later, the shower was history.
Car #018 (DEI) Complete w/Motor & Transmission; suddenly, that 20-minute commute to Alexandria would be a lot shorter. Then again, that could be out of my price range. So maybe I’ll just settle for…
Show Car Complete w/Decals; it’ll still look fast, right? Speaking of things too pricey for me (but would still be cool to have)…
Pit Box — Loaded, Computer, 3 monitors, CD stereo, misc. pit supplies, etc. — pit cover; I shudder to think the damage I could do with that. Perhaps I’d tote it into the office here and sit behind assistant sports editor John Harvey at night. With walkie-talkie in hand, I’d say, “Hey, it’s ‘Wizards,’ not ‘Wixards.’”
I may just e-mail Mr. Auer to see what’s available. Chances are, my price range will be limited to…
1 — Flash Light

Of course, life isn’t like the commercial – not all the time anyway. In fact, the life of a Nextel Cup driver goes far beyond showing up at the track and driving away after the checkered flag, a media session and a cold shower. There are sponsor commitments, appearances, testing and a whole range of other duties that keep Kahne and the rest of Nextel Cup’s top drivers busy.

Kahne was in Washington on Wednesday, stopping by to help promote the Sept. 9 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond. One reporter asked Kahne when his last day off was. To our surprise, it was Monday, when Kahne took a day off after finishing 22nd at Watkins Glen.

He spent Tuesday at the Knoxville Nationals sprint car competition in Iowa. Kahne owns a sprint car, driven by Joey Saldana, that finished second in the 30-lap ‘A’ feature on Sunday.

Wednesday was the busiest day of the week. He left Charlotte at 6 a.m. on his way to Richmond, where he made a trip to RIR. There, he sold tickets, posed for photos and signed autographs. After that, he headed north to Washington.

He spent better than an hour at the Hard Rock Café downtown. He did interviews for local TV stations before grabbing lunch. Then he had a sit-down with four area reporters. On his way out, he posed for a few more photos and signed a few more autographs.

Then, he was to catch a plane to Columbus, Ohio. Tonight, he’ll be racing in the Old Spice Summer Sizzler at Eldora Speedway in New Weston, not far from the Indiana border. The Summer Sizzler is a sprint-car race that features several Nextel Cup regulars, including Kahne, Dave Blaney and Tony Stewart – Eldora’s owner.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Brooklyn, Mich., where he’ll start preparing for this weekend’s GFS Marketplace 400. He said he’s got a few appearances to do Thursday, but on Friday and Saturday his focus will be on the track. Sunday, then, is race day. After the race, he’ll fly back home to Charlotte and start it all over again.

Michigan, by way of Ohio and Virginia, all in less than 24 hours.

Still think the life of a Nextel Cup driver is glamorous?

The first comment from Earnhardt on the situation was that McFarland’s mentality and attitude didn’t match up with what they, as a race team, were looking for. McFarland, apparently, was too laid back for Earnhardt’s tastes. That’s fine, but it doesn’t seem that attitude should be any kind of benchmark for a driver. In the past three years, Nextel Cup has had two champions with an attitude (Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch) and one that seems as laid back as they come (Matt Kenseth).

Results are a different story. Earnhardt’s team was well down in the standings, and if results were solely the reason, perhaps it’s a bit more understandable. (The expectations of that team are a different story, and one we’ve already covered.)

Being a stark-raving lunatic as a driver, of course, has its advantages. While Earnhardt didn’t exactly say that about soon-to-be driver Shane Huffman, he did say Huffman has an edgier attitude than McFarland. On the other hand, a sense of calm could be a benefit too.

Will Earnhardt jump the gun as quickly if Huffman proves to be a loose cannon, on and off the track?

Earnhardt added that he tried to get McFarland to reveal more of his personality to the media. Somehow, I’m guessing that if McFarland ever drove into Victory Lane, we’d see plenty of that which Earnhardt would like to see.

That comment, of course, brings a sense of marketability to the question. I’ve written about Tony Stewart and Casey Mears and others when they’ve been jerks; and maybe there really is no such thing as bad publicity. But I don’t buy for one second the notion that a first-class jerk is a prerequisite to being a first-class driver.

But it’s Earnhardt’s team and ultimately, he can do what he wants. But he’s also been around enough to know that in the wake of a driver change, it’s the owner that has to stand up and explain why everything went down like it did and tell his fans why their driver needed to go.

To his credit, Earnhardt did stand up and explain that. But his comments were hardly enough to fully button up the issue.

(Full disclosure: I didn’t see the telecast. I was at a family reunion and only had the race on for my cousin’s daughter, an ardent Kasey Kahne fan. And by the time I tuned in, Busch was at the back of the pack and was able to piece together what happened through subsequent reports.)

There’s a debate about whether Busch had enough time to bail out between when the pit light went red and when he hit the commitment line, a stripe just at the entrance to pit road that, once crossed, compels a driver to enter the pits. Since I didn’t see the replay, it’s impossible for me to guess one way or the other; and it would probably take an ex-driver to really find a reputable opinion.

What’s indisputable is this: For the second straight week, NASCAR finds itself in another controversy. Last week at Indianapolis, officials failed to throw a yellow flag during a last-lap crash that wound up collecting Kahne and others in the aftermath. Had a yellow been displayed, there’s a chance those drivers would have slowed and avoided the wreck.

Now, NASCAR royally ticked off Busch and his team by a call that some media — though not all — felt stole the race from Busch, who had one of the weekend’s dominant cars. Perhaps NASCAR was destined to lose that fight anyway; to make a call in Busch’s favor might have royally ticked off 42 other teams.

But the vitriol from some, particularly this column from Allentown, Pa., Morning Call writer Jay Hart, makes enough smoke that one wonders if there’s a fire. Hart’s was the hardest on NASCAR, though others wrote more like NASCAR had made a mistake.

Maybe NASCAR did make the right call. But once again, it has to explain itself after the spotlight shifts away from where it should be: on the track.

Entering this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, McFarland was 22nd in points. He’s had just one top-10 finish (a seventh at Talladega), and is averaging a 26th-place start and a 20th-place finish. It’s not been a great season, by any account.

“… The reality is that as a business we have the responsibility of delivering a level of perform-ance for our sponsors,” Earnhardt said in a statement. “This change is being made to address that concern.”

But that begs the question: Were Earnhardt’s expectations too inflated? Were the Navy’s expectations equally inflated? After all, they’re the sponsor of the No. 88, jumping from FitzBradshaw Racing after last season. While it’s hard to say just what the Navy expected from their team, it seems as though Earnhardt is expecting too much.

There is no explicit link that I could find between JR Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Inc., outside of both of the team shops’ location in Mooresville, N.C. Surely there’s some sharing of information, but JRM buys engine from Richard Childress.

Still, Earnhardt would have been way offbase to expect to challenge for a Busch championship this season. JRM didn’t even exist two years ago; and in its first year, McFarland and Co. raced on the Hooters Pro Cup series. That’s a big, big jump from Pro Cup to Busch.

Moreover, the No. 88 is JRM’s lone entrant in the Busch series. Single-car Nextel Cup teams are a rare breed; single-car Busch teams are even rarer. Taking away Earnhardt’s Cup connections for a second, it’s a first-year, single-car Busch operation that is two years old. Let’s take a look at the 21 folks ahead of McFarland in the Busch standings:

1. Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing (3 Cup teams, 2 Busch teams)
2. Carl Edwards, Roush Racing (5 Cup teams, 6 Busch teams, 3 Truck teams)
3. Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing (3 Cup teams, 2 Busch teams)
4. Clint Bowyer, Richard Childress Racing
5. J.J. Yeley, Joe Gibbs Racing
6. Paul Menard, Dale Earnhardt Inc. (3 Cup teams, 1 Busch team)
7. Greg Biffle, Roush Racing and Brewco Motorsports (3 Busch teams)
8. Kyle Busch, Hendrick Motorsports (4 Cup teams, 2 Busch teams)
9. Johnny Sauter, Haas CNC Racing (1 Cup team, 1 Busch team)
10. Kenny Wallace, PPC Racing (3 Busch teams, 1 Truck team)
11. Reed Sorenson, Ganassi Racing (3 Cup teams, 1 Busch team)
12. Jason Leffler, Braun Racing (1 Busch team)
13. John Andretti, PPC Racing
14. Jon Wood, ST Motorsports/Wood Brothers Racing (1 Cup team, 2 Busch teams, 2 Truck teams)
15. Ashton Lewis Jr., Team Rensi Motorsports (2 Busch teams)
16. Todd Kleuver, Roush Racing
17. Stacy Compton, ST Motorsports/Wood Brothers Racing
18. David Green, Brewco Motorsports
19. Burney Lamar, Kevin Harvick Inc. (2 Busch teams, 1 Truck team)
20. Danny O’Quinn Jr., Roush Racing
21. Regan Smith, Team Rensi Motorsports

It’s pretty easy to see that McFarland was running against a tough field; only Leffler and Braun Racing are comparable to JRM (and Braun Racing started in 2002, moving to Busch in ’04.) All the other entrants are multi-car organizations with double or triple the resources that JRM has.

It’s also pretty easy to dump the driver and declare the organization needs a new direction — kind of like a pro sports team shipping off its coach.

But it seems pretty short-sighted of Earnhardt to jettison a promising driver when rookie growing pains should have been an obvious hazard of this season. Certainly, there comes a time when performance consistently doesn’t meet expectations and a change may be needed; but it seems that 2/3 of the way through a guy’s rookie year is well before that time.

If the racing folks at Navy were behind McFarland’s release, then it was shortsighted of them as well to believe that Earnhardt’s name alone would deliver a championship-caliber season.