Smack: Darlington back from extinction with race

Editor's Note: The Track Smack gang got together on Wednesday afternoon, before Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he would have a news conference Thursday morning.

1) What does Darlington's success in selling out three consecutive Mother's Day Weekend events mean?

David Caraviello: It means everything to a facility that for a decade struggled to sell out and lived with the uncertainty of what might happen. And it gives NASCAR some needed street cred with traditional fans.

Raygan Swan: Starting in 2005 the track added drivers' moms as honorary starters, which I think is a wonderful element that has added to the show and likely ticket sales.

Dave Rodman: It means a lot of things. Proves that Mother's Day and NASCAR can co-exist; proves that a good-weather date, even on a traditional non-racing weekend can thrive, which is something The Rock never really had a shot at.

David Caraviello: I think the Mother's Day angle here is overblown. It didn't work before because the effort wasn't put into it. Fans will show up for a race on Christmas on the moon if it's promoted properly.

Dave Rodman: To really tell, we'd have to rotate that date around to a number of other tracks and see how they did. Make it a lottery. If you succeed, you stay on the schedule, if not ...

Raygan Swan: So Mother's Day festivities are overblown, meaning they aren't a big deal at the track for fans and mothers?

David Caraviello: The track ties them in nicely. But as far as it being a key in the track's success -- if anything, it's the other way around.

Dave Rodman: And this year, proves the COT might be gaining more widespread acceptance among the fandom. It's either acceptance, or the Coliseum dwellers want to see the "Lady in Black" tear those homely suckers apart.

Raygan Swan: Why do they call the track "Lady in Black?" Something to do with the tire marks on the walls? Explain.

David Caraviello: Because if you don't treat her right, you'll pay for it. Very much like the last woman I dated.

Raygan Swan: Wow, David!

Dave Rodman: Dark. Sinister. Deadly. Treacherous. Need I go on?

Raygan Swan: Nope.

David Caraviello: It works because it's a Saturday night race under the lights at a facility where there's typically plenty of action. It works for the same reason Bristol and Richmond work.

Dave Rodman: To a degree, I think people have seen The Rock is gone and it ain't coming back. So they'd better support this one. But David, I think you're dead-on with the Saturday night's all right for fighting ... uh, racing, aspect.

David Caraviello: The ticket demand aspect is key here, guys. Now, instead of trying to sell out 120,000 seats every year, you're trying to sell out 63,000. This is a case where realignment has worked.

Dave Rodman: So that's why the Nextel All-Star Challenge, despite plenty of good promotion, has beaucoup empty seats?

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In a news conference at his JR Motorsports race shop on Thursday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he will leave DEI at the end of this season.

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David Caraviello: The all-star race is a totally different animal, Dave, with the immensely popular 600 at the same track a week later.

Dave Rodman: They don't sell that out, either.

David Caraviello: LMS has what, 300,000 tickets to sell over two weeks? That's a tough chore.

Dave Rodman: I've never bothered to figure out if those are saleable seats, or do they count the seats that were turned into sponsor signage on the backstretch?

David Caraviello: Regardless, again we're talking about ticket demand. And Darlington has proven it can sell 63,000 once a year rather easily, leading you to believe that more seats for that facility aren't out of the question.

Dave Rodman: Overbuilding is a fine line to walk -- but Richmond has proven the demand is there for a great show, as it continues to add seats and amenities.

David Caraviello: And Darlington's success shows in the $20 million ISC has poured into the place over the last four years. And more money is coming. Darlington survives where others didn't because it made the one race date work, which means for the first time in a long time, people around there can breathe.

Raygan Swan: Well, I still haven't found a hotel to stay in this weekend if that gives you any indication of how popular this race is.

Dave Rodman: Think that's more an indication of how bucolic that neighborhood is.

Raygan Swan: Bucolic? Can you use that in a sentence for me?

Dave Rodman: Darlington: A bucolic setting more attuned to cotton fields and cattle ranches than the heavy metal, rolling thunder revue that Nextel Cup racing has become.

Raygan Swan: That's very good.

Dave Rodman: Note, I didn't say it didn't belong, you just asked me to use it in a sentence and to explain why you might be sleeping under a few cotton plants.

2. How much influence does Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- or any other driver, for that matter -- have on issues?

Raygan Swan: Obviously, Junior has influence on NASCAR, evident by the repair to the bump at Texas Motor Speedway and time will tell if his clout will carry over to improving the COT.

Dave Rodman: I don't think Richmond's gonna get repaved any time soon -- just like I don't think we're gonna see a major re-design to the COT.

David Caraviello: Hard to tell. But if I'm Junior, I'm sure as hell going to try and exert it. The guy seems to understand that his popularity gives him leverage, although I'm not sure if it reaches all the way into the NASCAR hauler.

Dave Rodman: By a lot of decisions that are made, it's hard to tell who has the most influence when you consider drivers, owners and the fans and the weight they respectively carry.

David Caraviello: Sponsors have all the influence in this sport, every last bit of it. They pay the bills. They say jump, NASCAR jumps. The drivers could have influence, if they chose to use it. Many are content to ride the gravy train.

Dave Rodman: How did I forget them in that list? You're right. More than anyone else, they play the fiddle.

Raygan Swan: Drivers and team owners have influence over NASCAR but it's all in the way they voice their opposition. And Junior knows how to be diplomatic in getting things done.

Dave Rodman: I believe NASCAR thinks that drivers and owners grow on trees. Multi-million dollar sponsors, on the other hand, don't come along every day, especially if a percentage of that money is theirs.

David Caraviello: You're right, Rodman, they won't be paving RIR anytime soon. But Junior's comments were enough for the track to send out a press release refuting them. They wouldn't do that if David Stremme had sounded off. Nothing against David Stremme, of course.

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Dave Rodman: Of course. When did Junior make those comments, at Lowe's on Monday?

Raygan Swan: Yeah, Stremme doesn't need any more bad press, DC. Kahne already said he was fat and out of shape.

Dave Rodman: What?

David Caraviello: Something tells me Stremme would break Kahne in half.

Raygan Swan: He definitely could and may at their Wrigley photo shoot, if Kahne doesn't back off. Can you say "NASCAR RUMBLE" -- sponsor-style!

David Caraviello: Forget De La Hoya-Mayweather II -- how about Kahne-Stremme I? Humpy, the ex-boxer himself, would promote it.

Raygan Swan: Stremme is going to stick gum in Kasey's hair!

Dave Rodman: Or leave it on his chair before he sits down.

Raygan Swan: Drivers talking smack through the media crack me up. At least Jeff Gordon will come after you on pit road. Remember him and Kenseth last season?

Dave Rodman: Well, once the media gets the bit in its teeth, so to speak, they won't let go.

David Caraviello: And Gordon and Stewart at Watkins Glen in 2000. That's still my all-time favorite.

Raygan Swan: Tell me about that one DC, I was covering cops.

Dave Rodman: The Glen rules for brawls. Remember Billy Hagan chasing Tommy Kendall around his car with a cane?

David Caraviello: Tony and Jeff wreck on the first lap crowding into a corner. They go chasing each other through the garage area. Gordon looked like a wild man, the way he was going after Stewart. Great word exchange. Classic. Look it up on YouTube.

Raygan Swan: Will do. I hope he took off his helmet that time. Dang, at Bristol he looked like a space cowboy!

Dave Rodman: Kinda hard to knock someone's lights out wearing a hard hat.

Raygan Swan: Question? If a driver throws down with another driver off NASCAR property, does he still get slapped with a fine and put on probation?

Dave Rodman: Yeah, by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office -- or wherever they happen to be. NASCAR didn't put Michael Waltrip on probation for a road accident.

Raygan Swan: Gotcha. Because he's irrelevant to the sport now?

Dave Rodman: Because NASCAR doesn't much reach off the property of its venues into activities that are non-sanctioned.

David Caraviello: One last point on Earnhardt. The DEI negotiations are a prime example of how much leverage the guy has. He has his team over a barrel. If he ever really wanted to affect change in NASCAR, all he'd have to do is the same thing -- threaten to walk.

Dave Rodman: I don't buy that, David.

David Caraviello: If Junior says, "Change this car or I'm going to the IRL," they're changing the car.

Dave Rodman: Hahaha -- that's rich. Brian France would ask him to send a letter indicating how much push there was in a Dallara vs. loose, once he had a chance to drive one for a while.

David Caraviello: He's the one personality they can't afford to lose.

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The war of words between Kasey Kahne and David Stremme is back on after the two got caught up in a wreck at Richmond.

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Dave Rodman: But they would try. And that's too hypothetical to even imagine. Threatening to swap teams is one thing. Junior's not gonna walk out of the sport that made him.

David Caraviello: Well, nobody ever thought he'd leave his father's team, either.

Dave Rodman: His father's team made him -- but now that he's made, he can, in turn, make someone else's deal, next.

3) What alternatives could there be to what Junior called: "Maybe the worst week of the season, with the race at Richmond, Lowe's testing, Darlington and Dover testing ..."?

Dave Rodman: None. Shut up and drive -- even though I think when that phrase was coined was probably one of the three most inappropriate coinings in history.

David Caraviello: Well, the rain at Richmond made a mess of all that.

Dave Rodman: If anyone isn't happy with the COT, they need to test it to get it right. Either that, or lobby Goodyear to create a tire design that more appropriately matches the characteristics of this car, vs. the standard model.

David Caraviello: It's tough to expect guys to be in the cars Friday and Saturday at Richmond, Monday and Tuesday at Charlotte, then to race in Darlington and test again at Dover -- all in what, 14 days?

Dave Rodman: Twelve days, actually -- with nine of them in the car.

David Caraviello: But this is what they're paid to do.

Dave Rodman: It's hard to stand here and gauge the emotional ebb and flow. You could say they had a day off Saturday at Richmond -- but they definitely didn't.

Raygan Swan: I agree, DC, it's what they are paid to do -- but it can get pretty taxing.

David Caraviello: If there's no rain at Richmond, this isn't as much of an issue. But it does seem odd that those LMS and Dover tests can't be spaced out more.

Dave Rodman: Still, better than working for a living.

David Caraviello: Actually, I'd rather work than strap myself into one of those things.

Dave Rodman: Without the driving history all these guys have, I think you might be right -- though giving it a try would certainly be a hoot -- as long as I didn't have Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart or Kasey Kahne mad at me, at the end of the day.

David Caraviello: The thing is, if we still had the open number of test days, teams would be all over the place trying to get a handle on the COT. They'd be testing more than they are now. So the complaints ring a little hollow.

Dave Rodman: Great point. I was trying to think of a hole in the schedule where they could put that Dover test. It ain't there. And they like to test at facilities as close as they can to race days, to better validate the data.

Raygan Swan: Hey! Who sings that song "Shut Up and Drive"? Is it Twain? Rodman, you've got it stuck in my head now!

Dave Rodman: Search it out.

David Caraviello: Then they're asking for it. Rodman, can you imagine the testing schedule teams would have under the old format? They'd be camped out at Darlington all week.

Dave Rodman: Except the one week out rule would be in effect. But I had Pete Wright tell me at Richmond teams used to go to Daytona -- for example when they downsized the cars -- a dozen times before Speedweeks, to test. But they could test in both December and January then.

David Caraviello: Although if I'm one of these struggling Toyota teams, I'm headed to Rockingham on my free days this week in preparation for Darlington. Test upon test upon test.

Dave Rodman: When making the races is at stake, you do what you have to do.

David Caraviello: No wonder guys are a little testy.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writers