Best and mostly worst of a year full of reader e-mails (cont'd)

Some folks were more polite, including Richard from Scotland, Pa., who was writing in about a column promoting the budding driver rivalry between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch (read more). He began his e-mail with the respectful salutation: "Good day, sir," and then added: "I THINK YOUR THOUGHTS ARE ENTIRELY WRONG!! I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING NASCAR SINCE THE LATE 50s, and I THINK YOUR WRONG. ... I MAY NOT HAVE THE EDUCATION YOU HAVE. I BET YOU PROMOTE THE IRAQ WAR! HEY, IT'S A RIVALRY, RIGHT? I ENJOY THE RACES FOR THE RACES NOT FOR SOMEONE BANGING INTO SOMEONE ELSE, JUST BECAUSE THE GUY HASN'T GROWN UP. IN MOST OTHER RACES, NON-VEHICULAR, PARTICIPANTS ARE DQd OR PENILIZED (sic) FOR INTENTIONALLY INTERFERRING WITH ANOTHER QUEST TO BE THE VICTOR. COURSE, ALL THE NEW ROCK STAR FANS NOW ARE ALL IN FAVOR OF YOUR THINKING."

Joe Menzer and Jimmy Spencer

“

Joe, Having trouble determining who is the biggest tub of blowhard lard, you or Jimmy. But then for all I know you might be twins separated at birth.

”

JON

Richard, I said this last year and I'll say it again to all out there who intend to write in during the 2009 season: PLEASE DO NOT CAPITALIZE ALL YOUR LETTERS IN YOUR E-MAILS! It makes me feel as if you are YELLING AT ME and us new rock-star fans (whatever that means) do not like it! As for my education, hey, I'm proud of getting my degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio during a decade I wish to remain anonymous. But I don't like to wave my BGSU pedigree in folks' faces.

One of the subjects many e-mailers harped on relentlessly all year long was the success being enjoyed by Toyota in all three of NASCAR's top series (read more). This included the anonymous guy who wrote in and said: "Hey numb nuts, do you realize if it wasn't for the luck some of the Toyotas have had lately, they'd have won (even more) races? They're freaking cheating, and it's getting OLD. ... Go eat another Twinkie, moron."

Um, all I can say is that I don't recall having eaten a Twinkie in years (even though my boss, Duane Cross, told me they're now selling deep-fried ones at Bristol). But did you hear they're selling like hotcakes in Japan now?

Herb also checked in on the subject under the simple, but to-the-point heading: "You are stupid." He accused me of attempting to "ram Toyota down" the throats of good American people and insisted "everybody in south Georgia is talking about it." He concluded by warning that he told "the better part of the 350 employees where I work at to tune in to Old Joe the Toyota Man" to see what ol' One Menz had to say next week.

Herb, that's quite a conspiracy theory (but thanks for your efforts to boost readership of my articles). It's hard not to write about a manufacturer when it gets off to the start that Toyota did this year in the Sprint Cup Series. Funny thing is, I don't recall you writing in later in the year when I started writing about how well Rick Hendrick's Chevrolets (read more) and the Fords of Roush Fenway Racing (read more) were doing. Did Old Joe miss something there?

The love I felt from Jon of Haughton, La., was immeasurable after he obviously was moved by a question-and-answer piece I did with former driver Jimmy Spencer, now a television analyst (read more). Jon wrote: "Joe, Having trouble determining who is the biggest tub of blowhard lard, you or Jimmy. But then for all I know you might be twins separated at birth, both of whom have singularly uninspiring careers! Keep up the good work, though; it beats reading about Obama and Hillary, but not by much!

Dangit, and I thought I was much more handsome than Jimmy.

And then there was William, from parts unknown (obviously along a river deep in the woods somewhere), who responded to a column in which I called Kyle Busch NASCAR's version of Happy Gilmore (read more): "Yeah, Busch is NASCAR's version of Happy Gilmore. ... kind of like, you are NASCAR.com's version of Bobby from Deliverance. Excuse me while I take a Joe and wipe my Menzer."

Pretty clever, William. And so who did you play in that epic film?

Finally, there was this inspiring little diddy from Mike, who wrote of yours truly: "You are a retard. You should quit writing NASCAR articles before someone fires you. If you new who a real NASCAR fan is you'd write differently."

Hey, I'm still relatively knew to the sport. And also, the politically correct phrase these days is "mentally handicapped." I thought you new that!

Can we now get back to Paul at the beginning of the column, please?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.