Welcome to "Inside The Pit Box" By- Rob Faiella Check out ALL our sections and features here!! There is plenty to keep you busy on our main page! So, you found us? Thanks for coming by and I hope you find yourself enjoying your stay. Before we go too far, remember to check out the other areas of this site such as,Dear Robby, The Archives and the Other Divisions as well as well as our Needed Commercials" and Race Previews. And read the Letter from the Publisher for an idea as to what we are all about. With that said, let's take a look back at the year that was, and a look ahead to the year that will be. 2001 brought us very high and tragically low. We all know what happened in February so I won't go thru that again. We saw 19 different race winners, although I feel that a few of those were pure luck. Ok, winning in Winston Cup takes luck as well as skill, but Michael Waltrip and Elliott Sadler showed me nothing last year and nothing after their wins this year to make me believe it was anything but luck. Waltrip won because 19 of the front runners were taken out in the big wreck. Sadler because of a lucky break on fuel mileage. Tony Stewart made us mad, made us laugh and, in my opinion, gave us something else to follow besides the gruesome details of the Earnhardt investigation. Which, also in my opinion, proved nothing. I may go into that in more detail someday, but for now, I am looking for closure and to put it all behind us. Nascar stepped up with safety measures for drivers and crews. Nicely Done! They have rearranged the rules for the restrictor plate races to try to avoid the "big one". I have a feeling that the Daytona 500 will be boring, but with the driver's safety being improved on, then I am for it. I feel we will see changes again before they hit Talladega. Nascar will take what we learn at Daytona and tweak it some more. They want to find that balance between safety and high competition. I hope they can. The Busch series saw some great battles, both on the track and off. Fines were the name of the game for many drivers and crew members. Frustration and tempers were high and it made for some interesting TV. With Harvick and Green moving up to Cup full time, the door is wide open for a new big name for the title run. I am thinking Jason Keller has the best shot at it, but I wouldn't count out Scott Riggs in Green's old ride. Add in Jack Sprague and Ricky Hendrick in Hendrick cars and it should be a great battle. Oh yeah, Greg Biffle may have something to say before its all over. The trucks were the trucks. Beating and banging, bad TV scheduling. I hardly watched any truck races. Hendrick pulled both his drivers over to the Busch series, Childress and Earnhardt closed up their teams a couple years back. I think the series is in trouble. The fields aren't anywhere near full and there are only a handful of guys with a remote chance at winning. Nascar needs to rethink its strategy over there. Nascar TV is coming to Speed Channel (formerly SpeedVision) and rumors have the lower divisions of Nascar getting more TV time. This is a much needed entity. The teams can't attract big name sponsors without a big market to advertise in and the networks can't sell quality TV time when the cars sponsors are all mom and pop operations and won't buy the time themselves. Hopefully, the sake of promoting these divisions takes center stage and not Nascar's greed at making more money. Nascar's proposed "Pay-per-view" trial events has me scared. I can see them trying to do something really stupid and I don't like it. (More on that as the season unwinds) So, sit back, watch those ESPN Classic races and get all your chores done on the house. Racing season will be here soon and if you don't fix that broken screen door now, forget it. Racing consumes us. Why? Who knows and for that matter, who cares. We love it and that's all anyone needs to know. Give this site some time to get up to speed and all the sections to come in to play. Check back often as things will be constantly updating. Let us know what you think on the User comment link and please God, TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VISIT US!!!!!! PLEEEASSSSSEEE!!!!!! Thanks!! E-mail Rob Here Check out ALL our sections and features here!! There is plenty to keep you busy on our main page! Return to Archives Return to the Main Page