Sunday, 17 May 2020

Sunday fun day with NASCAR

Any type of live sports makes COVID-19 pandemic life better

Kevin Harvick leading a NASCAR race on my TV.
    I think I just became a fan of Kevin Harvick.
    The 44-year-old race car driver from Bakersfield, Calif., dominated my television screen on Sunday as the NASCAR Cup Series returned to action after pausing 10 weeks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Sunday’s race would be the fifth of the 2020 season for the Cup Series.
    Driving his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Harvick posted his 50th career victory on NASCAR’s top circuit taking The Real Heroes 400 held at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. He led for 159 of 293 laps and became just the 14th driver to win 50 career Cup Series races.
    Over the past eight days, folks were able to follow live sports in North America thanks to UFC and NASCAR. It was a welcome development.
    UFC got the ball rolling holding three fight cards at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena without fans. The first was UFC 249 held on May 9 and a pair of fight night cards followed on Wednesday and Saturday.
It was great to have a NASCAR Cup Series race on TV.
    I didn’t watch any of those cards live, but I ended up catching the highlights and post-fight interviews on a TSN channel. While Mixed Martial Arts is not something I watch on a regular basis, it was great to see highlights on major Canadian sports networks of something that happened that day.
    It felt normal to see Robin Black on TSN doing analysis after those fight cards. Way back on Aug. 23, 2015, I covered the UFC Fight Night card that was held at the SaskTel Centre, and Black was in town working that event.
    While I was new to that world and only in it for a short time, Black and I hit it off right away, and he pretty much took me under his wing. I tried to soak up as much of his insight as I could, and he was a huge help in guiding me through why fights would unfold as they did.
    Still, I was looking forward to seeing NASCAR’s top level return to action once I found out there would be a live race on Sunday. I covered local level stock car racing during my time in Medicine Hat, Alta., from 2004 to 2014 and a handful of events at the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon.
Jimmie Johnson is coming right into the living room.
    The Wyant Group Raceway is usually home to an annual NASCAR Pinty’s Series stop, which is of the minor league circuits that prepares drivers for the NASCAR Cup Series.
    I admit I wouldn’t even consider myself a casual follower of NASCAR. I am one of those that will watch it once in a while and knows when the Daytona 500 is on.
    With that noted, any time I watch any type of car racing I love it.
    Of course, Sunday’s race at the Darlington Raceway wasn’t your normal race. There were no fans in the stands, and it seemed like everyone on the track that appeared on television were wearing protective masks.
    Prior to Sunday’s race, the last time drivers were in their cars came 71 days prior on March 8 at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
    NASCAR is not holding practices or qualifying for the first four races back except for the qualifying of the Coca-Cola 600, which will be held this coming Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
The NASCAR field comes down a straightaway on my TV.
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were new safety protocols including health screenings, social distancing rules and mandatory masks. Some the racing teams had personnel that would normally be at the track performing their roles remotely at other locations.
    Considering the drivers were basically coming in cold without having raced in real cars for an extended time, the race itself was fun. Outside of seeing people in protective masks and noticing there were no fans in the stands, I thought the race proceeded like normal and the quality of the driving was high.
    I got excited when there was a driver I knew in veteran Jimmie Johnson, who has won the NASCAR Cup Series title seven times, jump into the lead during the early portion of the race. My heart dropped when Johnson’s day ended after he crashed into the wall after rubbing with another car before 100 laps were in the books.
    Shortly after the race passed 100 laps, Harvick jumped into lead and remained in front of the field for seemingly the rest of the race.
Kevin Harvick is on his way to victory on my TV.
    It felt like everything he did on the track was clean including when he entered and exited the pits.
    Harvick crossed the finish line with a healthy edge on second place finisher Alex Bowman, who was driving his No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports, and third place finisher Kurt Busch, who was driving his No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Chip Ganassi Racing.
    During these crazy COVID-19 times, it was a treat to see Sunday’s Cup Series race. It made life feel more normal and increased optimism that other sports might come back sooner than later in North America.
    Thinking about the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon, it would be cool, if it could get going on the local level with the same format as Sunday’s NASCAR race.
    While Shaw doesn’t have the ability broadcast local events anymore, it would be sweet if Access 7 could come up from Regina and show Saturday action from the Wyant Group Raceway live across the community channels on its network and Shaw without fans in the stands.
It would be great to have Wyant Group Raceway action on TV.
    Local golf courses in Saskatchewan are open to anyone in the public to go hit a round, but competitive provincial golf events have been held yet.
    On the racing front, NASCAR at the highest level has shown a way for stock car racing at the local level in Saskatoon to get going.
    Now we just need the medical health officials in Saskatchewan to give the green light to make it so. Dreaming and imagining what can be are always good things.

NASCAR Pinty’s Series simulation is a treat

Cayden Lapcevich in action in 2017 at the Wyant Group Raceway.
    I also learned on Sunday watching a simulated sports even can be a fun thing too.
    After the real life The Real Heroes 400 NASCAR Cup Series regular season race was held at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, TSN showed a virtual race from the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, which is a minor league circuit to the Cup Series.
    The virtual Pinty’s Series race was computer simulated to look like action was going down at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. The actual competitors from the Pinty’s Series were driving their cars on simulation machines at their respective homes.
    Outside of noticing the obvious computer graphics, the race looked real. I was glued to see how one of my favourite drivers in the young 20-year-old Cayden Lapcevich was doing.
    Lapcevich has made a name for himself on that circuit over the past four years.
    I watched the first half of that simulated race before going on to do other things with my day.
    Still from what I saw, I can see why people would enjoy watching simulated sporting events, when real sporting events have been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    In Saskatchewan, I know the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League has been streaming simulations of its junior A league playoffs. Those simulations seem to be attracting a sizable following and have drawn good reviews.
    On Friday, the Pinty’s Series cancelled the twin races set for July 29 at the Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatoon. It would be sweet to see a simulation held for those two races at some point in the future.
    If most live sports continue to stay on the shelves in Canada and North America, here is hoping other leagues will follow through with showing simulated games, because they do help get your mind off of what is happening in the current day with the COVID-19 pandemic.

CFL’s former training camp day passes quietly, other thoughts


    It was somber Sunday for CFL fans and anyone who has a stake in that league.
    Sunday was the day main training camps were supposed to open across the circuit. Unfortunately, the CFL’s activities have been shuttered at the moment thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Currently in North America, only the UFC and NASCAR Cup Series circuit have come back to life holding live events.
    For a number of years, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have held training camp in Saskatoon. This year, the Roughriders were going to hold their training camp in Regina, but they were supposed to come to Saskatoon this coming Saturday for their “Green and White Day” at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, which was to include a mock game type scrimmage.
    The fact that the Roughriders weren’t hitting the field anywhere for camp activities made the COVID-19 pandemic appear even more real to football fans in the province.
OG Brendon LaBatte (#57) takes part in Roughriders training camp in 2015.
    Followers of various other sports like hockey have seen those worlds come to a stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they have dealt with what CFL football fans are now feeling for some time.
    On the Roughriders front, it would have been cool if fans could have been chasing down star quarterback Cody Fajardo for autographs or debate the team’s chances for topping the West Division for a second straight year or possibly winning the Grey Cup at home in November.
    Now fans of the CFL just hope the circuit survives the pandemic.
    During the final week of April, news came out that the CFL was looking for financial assistance from the Canadian federal government.
    The CFL is looking for $30-million in Canadian funds now to manage the impact of COVID-19. The circuit is asking for additional assistance for an abbreviated regular season and up to another $120-million in Canadian funds for a completely lost season.
    In other words, the CFL is looking for $150-million in financial assistance if its nine teams are unable to play the 2020 regular season and playoffs.   
    CFL fans hope the silence on the football fields for practices and games won’t become a permanent thing.
    It would be uplifting if the CFL was able to return to action in 2020.

  • Alan Poirier, who was my first managing editor at the Medicine Hat News, put together a column on his blog “On Second Thought” that looked into a couple of theories regarding the origin and start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poirier is a conservative thinker, but he has penned a lot of good columns that make you question why things are the way they are in a good way. He has a knack of making observations and speculations that turn out to be correct. I’ve seen a lot of his columns over the years, and I thought this one ranked near the top as one of the best. Feel free to check it out clicking right here.
  • It was sad to hear Canadian Forces Snowbirds public affairs officer Capt. Jenn Casey died, when a Snowbirds plane crashed to the ground in Kamloops, B.C. on Sunday. That is a tragedy and condolences go out to all of Casey’s family and friends.
  •  This COVID-19 pandemic has made me miss a lot of friends in the hockey world. In recent days, I have missed visiting with former Regina Pats general manager Brent Parker at various games in media an scouts lounges. I miss being in my spot in the SaskTel Centre press box next to Saskatoon Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk. We have had a lot of good visits talking about all sorts of subjects. It was great to say “hi” to former Blades general manager Daryl Lubiniecki at a CO-OP grocery store in Saskatoon about a week ago.
  • I’ve enjoyed rediscovering Madden 2008 for the Sony PlayStation 2. I’ve been using the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos for the season I am currently playing. I pretty much rebuilt the Panthers team through free agency, which included signing receiver Calvin Johnson. Over a 16-game regular season, Johnson hauled in 83 passes for 2,398 yards and 23 touchdowns. Now that was fun.
    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------                                     
    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,