I’m Just Saying

By Jared Turner

It’s All About The Money

Does anyone really think Brian Scott is a better race car driver than Sam Hornish Jr.? Well, of course not. But Scott has a full-time ride in NASCAR’s top series and Hornish doesn’t. The explanation, of course, is sponsorship. Scott replaced Hornish this season at Richard Petty Motorsports because he brought sponsorship to the team. Hornish lost his ride with RPM after just one season, because he did not bring sponsorship. The real travesty lies in the talent discrepancy between the two drivers, however. Hornish, who hadn’t raced anything in 2016 prior to this past weekend, dominated and won Sunday’s XFINITY Series race at Iowa Speedway in a one-off outing with Joe Gibbs Racing. Scott, meanwhile, has yet to record a top-10 finish in 15 outings with RPM, and sits a dismal 30th in the Sprint Cup Series standings. The bottom line? Hornish, a three-time IndyCar champ and former Indianapolis 500 winner, can drive circles around Scott – and literally everyone knows it. But in today’s NASCAR, it’s more about the money you bring to the seat than it is the talent. And that’s a shame. A downright crying shame – for many reasons.

Ryan Blaney, Wood Brothers Are Impressing

With 15 races down and 11 to go in the Sprint Cup Series’ regular season, 10 drivers are locked into the Chase by virtue of having at least one win. As it stands today, the remaining Chase slots would be filled by the six drivers who are highest in points without a win. The biggest surprise among those six? It is, without a doubt, Ryan Blaney, who is in his first full season as driver of the Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21 Ford. If Blaney and the single-car Wood Brothers organization can somehow sneak into the Chase, it will be one of the biggest stories of the season – no matter what else happens.