NASCAR Rant

"The caution flag is out. He's talking about racing again."

Jimmy Johnson, my favorite driver, got a $10,000 fine over the weekend for blocking the label of a Powerade bottle. Powerade is a Coke product, for those who don't know. Jimmy is sponsered by Pepsi.

Now, I'm sure that Jimmy will be taken care of by the Pepsi folks, but I think that expecting a driver to ignore the sponsor who is paying a TON of money to back his car is kinda much for the folks at NASCAR.

It makes it even worse that the guy who made the rule necessary, Tony Stewart, never got fined for knocking a competitor's product off his car at the end of a race.

Of course, I've never liked Tony anyway. I worked for Lowes for almost eight years, four in management. I remember when Lowes started backing a car in NASCAR, and the people at Home Depot mocking us. A few years later, when they saw the loyalty that NASCAR fans have to sponsors, they went and got themselves a car.

I'm not a Depot fan, though I have shopped there before (and may end up working at one this fall ...). I got too caught up in the "Battle for Atlanta" when Lowes went into Depot's back yard with a bunch of huge new stores and cut into their market share in a BIG way (I helped open four of those stores). So I guess whoever drove #20 wouldn't be my favorite driver. But Tony Stewart rubs me the wrong way (like he does a lot of people on Sundays on the track). And seeing Jimmy get nailed for something Tony never got in trouble for bugs me.

ANYWAY -- tomorrow some interesting content -- maybe my high-speed access will return. Or maybe I can rant some more about Adelphia's customer "service".