Silly Season 2024

The Nature Boy said:
It's not politics.

WBR and Penske gave Matt over a year's notice that he was out of the 21 at the end of 2021. He had plenty of time to lineup sponsors and try to get a new ride. He knew he had no funding so finding backers was imperative. What did Matt do? Publicly beg to keep his ride at WBR, thought he was entitled to stay in the 21 once it was clearCindric was going to the 2 (Cindric was originally slated for the 21). He also alienated his Reddit fanbase by telling them not to call him DiBurrito, which while it seems silly on its face, was actually a good example of him alienating fans, which doesn't look good for sponsors.

He also does these bizarre "updates," which is a sign that he has no idea how to be a public figure.

The only political thing is his association with Benny Johnson at Phoenix when he said "Let's Go Brandon" while wearing his firesuit without clearing it with his sponsors. There are many openly right wing figures in NASCAR. No one gives a **** what Matt believes. People do give a **** when you do things like that without communicating with your team and sponsor. It shows poor communication skills.

Matt likes to play the "woe is me" victim but his predicament is his own fault. There are lesser talents who have been able to find enough funding to keep themselves on the track. Staying in Cup might have been difficult for Matt in 2022 but he could've lined up enough money to at least get a part time schedule in a good Xfinity ride and set himself up for 2023.

Don't fall for Matt's "I've been politically persecuted" bull****. Matt doesn't have a ride because Matt is a ****** idiot.
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I think Matt would be a good fit in the ARCA Menards Series. Can get his wins, sponsors don’t have to pay as much, still gets his TV time on FOX Sports. If it was the 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford he should be able to get 2-10 wins in the car & compete for a championship.
 
Blaze said:
When he almost won in a Leavine Family Racing car, I knew he had something. Surely almost doing it at Bristol.
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More entertaining than these punk kids with daddies money. I feel like Matt isn’t wrong about a sponsor falling thru Menards seemed to put up with his crap.
 
The Nature Boy said:
It's not politics.

WBR and Penske gave Matt over a year's notice that he was out of the 21 at the end of 2021. He had plenty of time to lineup sponsors and try to get a new ride. He knew he had no funding so finding backers was imperative. What did Matt do? Publicly beg to keep his ride at WBR, thought he was entitled to stay in the 21 once it was clearCindric was going to the 2 (Cindric was originally slated for the 21). He also alienated his Reddit fanbase by telling them not to call him DiBurrito, which while it seems silly on its face, was actually a good example of him alienating fans, which doesn't look good for sponsors.

He also does these bizarre "updates," which is a sign that he has no idea how to be a public figure.

The only political thing is his association with Benny Johnson at Phoenix when he said "Let's Go Brandon" while wearing his firesuit without clearing it with his sponsors. There are many openly right wing figures in NASCAR. No one gives a **** what Matt believes. People do give a **** when you do things like that without communicating with your team and sponsor. It shows poor communication skills.

Matt likes to play the "woe is me" victim but his predicament is his own fault. There are lesser talents who have been able to find enough funding to keep themselves on the track. Staying in Cup might have been difficult for Matt in 2022 but he could've lined up enough money to at least get a part time schedule in a good Xfinity ride and set himself up for 2023.

Don't fall for Matt's "I've been politically persecuted" bull****. Matt doesn't have a ride because Matt is a ****** idiot.
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But he has been politically persecuted. I’ve seen it everywhere. People have this weird hate boner for DiBennedetto for being a fake nice guy lol. I could give a **** less about the guy.
 
racingfan7 said:
More entertaining than these punk kids with daddies money. I feel like Matt isn’t wrong about a sponsor falling thru Menards seemed to put up with his crap.
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See you kinda lose me there. I respect your opinion on it, but I honestly don’t have much problem with it because most of the ones who got there, at least do have some talent also. Racing isn’t a cheap sport and all of them have at least some good amount of money. Some more than others. But I respect your opinion on the matter
 
Blaze said:
See you kinda lose me there. I respect your opinion on it, but I honestly don’t have much problem with it because most of the ones who got there, at least do have some talent also. Racing isn’t a cheap sport and all of them have at least some good amount of money. Some more than others. But I respect your opinion on the matter
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The Truck Series used to be a lot more popular when they had drivers like Skinner, Bodine, Sauter, Hornaday, Benson, Sprague, Mike Bliss and Cup series cast offs than these punks like Hocevar who wad **** up one week & win the race the next. Sponsors don’t seem to mind equipment getting torn up as long as you fluff things up PR wise.
 
FLRacingFan said:
DiBenedetto would be a perennial playoff-caliber driver at the Xfinity or Truck level in even just decent equipment. It’s too bad he’s fumbled away opportunities yapping too much and not having enough interpersonal skills.
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Yes he has shown he's a good driver overperforming in the 32, 95 and 21. He overperformed in the Rackley 25 truck. Ty Dillon won't touch what Matt did there. Kudos to Menards and Paul Menard giving him the shot in the 21. I don't think the Wood Brothers or Penske necessarily wanted Matt but Paul saw that Matt was a very good driver. And he made the Chase his first season there. I guess the Let's go Brandon stunt that Matt pulled in his last race in the 21 pi%%ed off a bunch of people. I don't know why. A huge swath of NASCAR fans embraced the Let's Go Brandon (Yes we know what it really means) phrase. Don't forget the whole Let's Go Brandon thing was started by a clueless announcer and that it effectively ruined Brandon Brown's career ironically on the heels of him winnng a race. Matt and Brandon are great drivers and have shown it overperforming for years. Unfortunately, this politically correct crap killed them off. Meanwhile, Bubba was rewarded for and capitalized on the Summer of 2020 hysteria. Who can forget the "Noose" travesty. PC sponsors flocked to Bubba who has underperformed. He missed the Chase in 2022 and barely got in (in the 16th and last position) in 2023. Yet he probably has the best funding in the whole Cup series.
 
StandOnIt said:
Sanchez is fast. 5 poles last year. If they clean up their act a bit they could be high up in the playoffs this year. Finished 6th last year.
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Yes he's a good driver. He did well in the 48 right off the bat in the xfinity series in 2022.
 
Mark said:
Yes he has shown he's a good driver overperforming in the 32, 95 and 21. He overperformed in the Rackley 25 truck. Ty Dillon won't touch what Matt did there. Kudos to Menards and Paul Menard giving him the shot in the 21. I don't think the Wood Brothers or Penske necessarily wanted Matt but Paul saw that Matt was a very good driver. And he made the Chase his first season there. I guess the Let's go Brandon stunt that Matt pulled in his last race in the 21 pi%%ed off a bunch of people. I don't know why. A huge swath of NASCAR fans embraced the Let's Go Brandon (Yes we know what it really means) phrase. Don't forget the whole Let's Go Brandon thing was started by a clueless announcer and that it effectively ruined Brandon Brown's career ironically on the heels of him winnng a race. Matt and Brandon are great drivers and have shown it overperforming for years. Unfortunately, this politically correct crap killed them off. Meanwhile, Bubba was rewarded for and capitalized on the Summer of 2020 hysteria. Who can forget the "Noose" travesty. PC sponsors flocked to Bubba who has underperformed. He missed the Chase in 2022 and barely got in (in the 16th and last position) in 2023. Yet he probably has the best funding in the whole Cup series.
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The word great is tossed around way too freely in this instance.
 
Mark said:
Yes he has shown he's a good driver overperforming in the 32, 95 and 21. He overperformed in the Rackley 25 truck. Ty Dillon won't touch what Matt did there. Kudos to Menards and Paul Menard giving him the shot in the 21. I don't think the Wood Brothers or Penske necessarily wanted Matt but Paul saw that Matt was a very good driver. And he made the Chase his first season there. I guess the Let's go Brandon stunt that Matt pulled in his last race in the 21 pi%%ed off a bunch of people. I don't know why. A huge swath of NASCAR fans embraced the Let's Go Brandon (Yes we know what it really means) phrase. Don't forget the whole Let's Go Brandon thing was started by a clueless announcer and that it effectively ruined Brandon Brown's career ironically on the heels of him winnng a race. Matt and Brandon are great drivers and have shown it overperforming for years. Unfortunately, this politically correct crap killed them off. Meanwhile, Bubba was rewarded for and capitalized on the Summer of 2020 hysteria. Who can forget the "Noose" travesty. PC sponsors flocked to Bubba who has underperformed. He missed the Chase in 2022 and barely got in (in the 16th and last position) in 2023. Yet he probably has the best funding in the whole Cup series.
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Way too many people are buying Matt’s political persecution narrative. Phoenix was the last race of the season and Matt still hadn’t lined anything up for 2022.

The 2020 Cup Champion appeared with Donald Trump at a rally and there are multiple prominent conservatives in NASCAR.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Way too many people are buying Matt’s political persecution narrative. Phoenix was the last race of the season and Matt still hadn’t lined anything up for 2022.

The 2020 Cup Champion appeared with Donald Trump at a rally and there are multiple prominent conservatives in NASCAR.
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Unlike Matt, they know how to keep their mouths shut and not repel sponsors.
 
A couple of days ago Brodie Kostecki’s backer posted this show car to Twitter. Tonight it sounds like Brodie has had a falling out with his team and likely won’t be racing Supercars this year - at least not at the start of the season. He was originally going to be making up to four NASCAR starts this year but now I wonder if it’ll turn into something bigger, sooner.

 
FLRacingFan said:
A couple of days ago Brodie Kostecki’s backer posted this show car to Twitter. Tonight it sounds like Brodie has had a falling out with his team and likely won’t be racing Supercars this year - at least not at the start of the season. He was originally going to be making up to four NASCAR starts this year but now I wonder if it’ll turn into something bigger, sooner.

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Hmmm, that is something to keep track of if he lost his ride.
 
Mark said:
Don't forget the whole Let's Go Brandon thing was started by a clueless announcer and that it effectively ruined Brandon Brown's career ironically on the heels of him winnng a race.
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No. Kelli Stavast was trying to cover for a bunch of idiots who were feeding the stereotypical NASCAR narrative. Couldn't save them. She was anything but clueless.
Mark said:
Meanwhile, Bubba was rewarded for and capitalized on the Summer of 2020 hysteria. Who can forget the "Noose" travesty. PC sponsors flocked to Bubba who has underperformed.
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Passively blaming Bubba for what happened at 'Dega is BS. If we live in a world that we all deserve, we don't jump to those conclusions. The context made the assumption reasonable. Ever been to a NASCAR race? Why do you think Bubba is booed? Pretty sure that most of it is congruent with the assholes who sat behind me at the Championship.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Way too many people are buying Matt’s political persecution narrative. Phoenix was the last race of the season and Matt still hadn’t lined anything up for 2022.

The 2020 Cup Champion appeared with Donald Trump at a rally and there are multiple prominent conservatives in NASCAR.
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Matt is an idiot. He got fired up over his newfound Christianity, and hooked his wagon to the right. It cost him.

The 2020 Champ is bigger than Jesus....so appearing with who some consider to be a soldier of Christ makes sense.

Neither Matt nor the Champion would be considered intellectual giants, but they can drive race cars.

Be careful who you choose as role models.
 
Revman said:
No. Kelli Stavast was trying to cover for a bunch of idiots who were feeding the stereotypical NASCAR narrative. Couldn't save them. She was anything but clueless.

Passively blaming Bubba for what happened at 'Dega is BS. If we live in a world that we all deserve, we don't jump to those conclusions. The context made the assumption reasonable. Ever been to a NASCAR race?
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Except this didn't happen in an area accessible to the general public, which is even a moot point, because there was NO GENERAL PUBLIC there anyway. NASCAR wanted us to believe that either a Talladega employee (NASCAR) or an employee of one of the race teams was purposely responsible for creating a racial charged incident. First off, I seriously doubt that anyone from EITHER party would do such a thing in the 2020, even if they might possibly be racist in their heart. Second, with the pandemic rules, there was almost no opportunity for anyone to do it in a time frame where it was known which garage stall Bubba's car would even BE in. Third, even if there was the SLIGHTEST possibility that someone from inside the NASCAR circle was guilty of something like this, you absolutely DO NOT go public with it until you know a LOT more about the chain of events. Anyone with the IQ of a house plant could have deduced in about ten minutes that this was not a racial message, but NASCAR had to turn it (literally) into a Federal case with not one ounce of evidence to back it up. NASCAR management ended up looking like complete idiots and SOMEBODY should have lost their job over that one. Bubba's reaction was not quite what I had hoped for, but based on the manure spreader full of bull**** he was given, I don't fault him for the resulting circus. In NASCAR's half assed attempt to make him the victim of a "hate crime", they inadvertently made him a victim of misplaced public outrage.
 
Formerjackman said:
Bubba's reaction was not quite what I had hoped for, but based on the manure spreader full of bull**** he was given, I don't fault him for the resulting circus. In NASCAR's half assed attempt to make him the victim of a "hate crime", they inadvertently made him a victim of misplaced public outrage.
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This.
 
Formerjackman said:
Except this didn't happen in an area accessible to the general public, which is even a moot point, because there was NO GENERAL PUBLIC there anyway. NASCAR wanted us to believe that either a Talladega employee (NASCAR) or an employee of one of the race teams was purposely responsible for creating a racial charged incident. First off, I seriously doubt that anyone from EITHER party would do such a thing in the 2020, even if they might possibly be racist in their heart. Second, with the pandemic rules, there was almost no opportunity for anyone to do it in a time frame where it was known which garage stall Bubba's car would even BE in. Third, even if there was the SLIGHTEST possibility that someone from inside the NASCAR circle was guilty of something like this, you absolutely DO NOT go public with it until you know a LOT more about the chain of events. Anyone with the IQ of a house plant could have deduced in about ten minutes that this was not a racial message, but NASCAR had to turn it (literally) into a Federal case with not one ounce of evidence to back it up. NASCAR management ended up looking like complete idiots and SOMEBODY should have lost their job over that one. Bubba's reaction was not quite what I had hoped for, but based on the manure spreader full of bull**** he was given, I don't fault him for the resulting circus. In NASCAR's half assed attempt to make him the victim of a "hate crime", they inadvertently made him a victim of misplaced public outrage.
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Rational....but the climate in the country was anything but....Again, if we live in the world we deserve, we don't jump to these types of conclusions. The **** I have heard shouted at Bubba from the stands makes everything possible. I would rather have the sanctioning body overreact than marginalize. The fact that people still **** themselves over this really makes me wonder what their motive is. Are some trying to use this to suggest that racism doesn't exist? .....That it is a made up construct of the radical left? I'd say likely....and again, Bubba is caught in the middle of this bull****. He is a young man that carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I admire the hell out of him. I wish I had a tenth of the stones he has.
 
Revman said:
Rational....but the climate in the country was anything but....Again, if we live in the world we deserve, we don't jump to these types of conclusions. The **** I have heard shouted at Bubba from the stands makes everything possible. I would rather have the sanctioning body overreact than marginalize. The fact that people still **** themselves over this really makes me wonder what their motive is. Are some trying to use this to suggest that racism doesn't exist? .....That it is a made up construct of the radical left? I'd say likely....and again, Bubba is caught in the middle of this bull****. He is a young man that carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I admire the hell out of him. I wish I had a tenth of the stones he has.
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My very point was that a LOT of the hatred for Bubba goes back to this incident, and that is on NASCAR. Trying to find racism where it does NOT exist waters down the effort to stamp it out where it DOES exist, and only serves as fuel for the haters. To believe that that stupid ass garage door rope might be some kind of message means that you have to be willing to believe that 21st century professionals working under very trying circumstances ( pandemic ) would be willing to take the time and effort and risk throwing away their career if caught to send a message to a driver that probably would never see it anyway. That premise is so damn thin you can read a newspaper through it. This was NASCAR pandering at it's absolute worst, and it totally backfired on them, but it's Bubba that has to pay the price, not the mental midgets that added 2 + 2 and came up with 43.
 
Formerjackman said:
My very point was that a LOT of the hatred for Bubba goes back to this incident, and that is on NASCAR. Trying to find racism where it does NOT exist waters down the effort to stamp it out where it DOES exist, and only serves as fuel for the haters. To believe that that stupid ass garage door rope might be some kind of message means that you have to be willing to believe that 21st century professionals working under very trying circumstances ( pandemic ) would be willing to take the time and effort and risk throwing away their career if caught to send a message to a driver that probably would never see it anyway. That premise is so damn thin you can read a newspaper through it. This was NASCAR pandering at it's absolute worst, and it totally backfired on them, but it's Bubba that has to pay the price, not the mental midgets that added 2 + 2 and came up with 43.
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I believe this incident was right around the time that Nascar moved to eliminate the confederate flags from their races. So while you exaggerate, minimize and gaslight, there were other factors involved. It was a historical pivotal moment in time to eliminate the flags and very easy to think that the noose was some form of retaliation. It was never proved that it was or wasn't retaliation. Much better to err on the side of caution.
BTW. yesterday a son beheaded his own dad after being jacked up by far right wing propaganda.
 
StandOnIt said:
I believe this incident was right around the time that Nascar moved to eliminate the confederate flags from their races. So while you exaggerate, minimize and gaslight, there were other factors involved. It was a historical pivotal moment in time to eliminate the flags and very easy to think that the noose was some form of retaliation. It was never proved that it was or wasn't retaliation. Much better to err on the side of caution.
BTW. yesterday a son beheaded his own dad after being jacked up by far right wing propaganda.
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This is also why we have investigations. The FBI investigated and found nothing. NASCAR alerted the authorities because they had a suspicion, which was the right thing to do given the climate at the time.
 
StandOnIt said:
It was a historical pivotal moment in time to eliminate the flags and very easy to think that the noose was some form of retaliation. It was never proved that it was or wasn't retaliation.
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Wasn't it was found the same ropes were on the bottom of every garage door, to make it easy to pull them down?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Wasn't it was found the same ropes were on the bottom of every garage door, to make it easy to pull them down?
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IIRC Bubba's garage was the only one where a noose was tied but pictures from the fall 2019 race showed it was already tied back then. (Bubba was not in that garage for that race)
 
I think the incident with Bubba was overblown, a reaction within the heightened atmosphere of that time to a pull rope on the garage door. Bubba was putting himself out front of the movement, and this dragged him right into the grinder. He conducted himself well, and the teams and drivers helped him.

I welcome diverse race car drivers and team members. As long as they earn their way in, more power to everyone! I don’t want patronage or artificial candy wrappers for the sake of image. Bubba needs to improve some things IMO; his temper, his potty mouth during interviews, and get help with his emotions. But there is no question in my mind he is a good race car driver. He really stepped it up last season. I hope we have a female driver eventually earn her way into the series. Glad to have Suarez doing well, and more international talent like SVG. The series will be stronger as a result.
 
Eh, the silly season thread is about wound down, most of the movement has occurred. It will pick up towards the end of the season. That's how it works.
 
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