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By now, I’m sure most of you have heard the audio from Bristol earlier in the season where Lance McGrew keys his mic and tells Dale Jr. to not lay down on him.  The team was facing some adversity with track position, and McGrew was afraid Dale Jr. had thrown in the towel for the race.  In typical Earnhardt fashion, Jr. responds angrily with a few choice words for his crew chief, and tells him not to talk about this stuff on the radio.  While it may have been a stupid thing to say, McGrew’s fears were not unfounded.  There are plenty of drivers out there who, when faced with adversity, will just plain give up.

I’m not going to name any names in this post, but I’m sure if you pay attention to the drivers and get to listen to some scanner audio, you could probably figure it out for yourself.  To me personally, there isn’t a bigger sin in any form of competition than to give up.  If somebody is just going to give up when the going gets tough, then they shouldn’t be be competing.

I don’t know at what point a driver decides that this is okay behavior, but somewhere along the way some decide that unless the car is handling perfect and the race is playing out in their favor, they can lay down.  It’s sort of a “well since the car sucks and we aren’t going to win anyway, I don’t need to try” attitude.  For those who work long hours and bust their asses to build race cars, it’s pretty much a giant slap in the face.

What’s interesting to note about drivers and adversity, is that while some choose to give up, there are others who fight harder.  That’s the guy I want to work with.  It’s a horrible cliche, but “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” describes these guys.  We’ve seen plenty of times over the years where a driver got flat, or had a bad pit stop, or was involved in a wreck, only to fight back and finish top ten, top five, or even win.

The fact that this happens at all really makes me ill.  It makes me feel bad for the guys that work on the teams with these drivers.  How do you possibly stay motivated to perform at your best when you know your driver is just out there riding around waiting for the race to end?

So to all the race drivers out there, remember that it’s not just about you.  If you want max effort from your crew all the time, then you should give them nothing less than max effort behind the wheel.  Anything less is unacceptable.

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I apologize for the delay in getting this post up.  We had some Internet connectivity issues last night that prevented me from posting.  Thanks!

There are some drivers out there, who no matter what they drive, always seem to not get enough racing.  A name that comes to mind is a guy like Ken Schrader.  He would race in the Cup Series on a Saturday night, fly somewhere and maybe race an ARCA race on Sunday, fly somewhere else and race a dirt latemodel race on Monday.  It doesn’t matter what it is, Schrader just wants to race.

We saw a few more examples of drivers like Schrader this weekend.  The 42nd Annual Snowball Derby took place at Five Flags Speedway down in Pensacola, FL.  The Derby is a four day long event which concludes with a 300 lap super latemodel race on Sunday that draws drivers and cars from all over.  This year’s entry list for the Sunday race was around 60 cars.

And if you watched any NASCAR coverage this year, you’ll recognize some of the entrants: Kyle Busch, Brian Ickler, David Stremme, Steve Wallace, Ryan Seig, Shane Sieg, Brian Scott, Cale Gale, and James Buescher.

The racing also featured some young up and comers like Johanna Long, Ross Kenseth, and Chase Elliott.

In the end, Kyle Busch triumphed for his first Snowball win, but from what I understand it wasn’t easy.  The entire field was only separated by a few tenths in qualifying and some bigger names, like James Buescher, went home.

With the NASCAR schedule being so grueling, from February to November, you’d think most drivers would want a break from being at the race track.  But not these guys.  Less then two weeks have passed since the end of the season, and these guys have already found their way to a race track.

Regardless of what you think of a driver, you almost have to automatically have respect for guys like this.  To them, it isn’t about the money, the big sponsors, or the TV time.  All they want to do is get in a car and go door to door with the best in the country.  It’s about the racing and being able to compete.

And I think, as long as there are always guys like this in the top tiers of NASCAR, the future will be very bright.

*For more coverage on the 42nd Snowball Derby, stop by Speed51.com