The Eagle Will Fly

As most Americans were preparing for Super Bowl Sunday, as reported by Bloomberg, Goodyear (GT:NYSE) the largest U.S. tiremaker, will close its main French plant and cut its workforce in the country by 39 percent amid labor disputes and plunging auto demand in Europe.

Why Goodyear has a plant in France is puzzling, but given the five years of negotiations with workers to resolve labor disputes with union leaders, the closing of this plant could not come as a shock.  Imagine that, unions making unrealistic demands and killing jobs.  Who could have seen this coming?

On the heels of regrettable slavery issues and some rather disturbing worker relations as the industrial revolution was emerging in our country, there can be no doubt that union representation played an important role in our history.

The French are notorious for hardly working, as evidenced by union victories against employers inclusive shortened work weeks and increased vacation. It would be great to hang our all the time, but nothing constructive comes from an inefficient work force handicapped by uncompetitive workers demands.

As such, Titan International, (TWI:NYSE) who specializes in tires for farm equipment and off-highway vehicles and acquired the Goodyear North American farm tire assets in 2005, was rumored to potentially be a purchaser of the plant.  No so fast!

Maurice Taylor, Chairman of Titan, wrote a letter to the French industry ministry informing them the company would not be purchasing the plant, citing French workers as "lazy" and "overpaid".  Taylor, it was reported, noted the French work force get "one hour for breaks, talk for three hours and work for three."  No doubt, that workforce will be unable to compete our global economy.

In America, unions have completely infiltrated and infested many large work forces, and the evidence of destruction is truly staggering.  More money is spent on our public school system than just about anything else with very poor scholastic results, alarming indoctrination and inhibiting political correctness.

Union bosses collect fees to line their pockets, elect progressive democrats and increase control over those they have fooled.  Can you imagine being forced to donate money our of your paycheck to thugs who distribute those funds to groups, associations or politicians who are at odds with your beliefs?  Unions are opponents of the free market system, as they establish wage and benefit packages for their workers that exceed common variance of similar packages in the private sector and create inefficient markets. Corporations who have lost these negotiations pay a heavy price and struggle to compete in the marketplace due to their bloated overhead. 

Their socialist objectives, inclusive of wealth transformation, fly in the face of the freedoms our country was based on.

Oppose these union bosses at your own peril, because these thugs do not operate on the same playing field you do. You may recall James Hoffa, Jr. threatening Tea Party members, who advocate free markets and fiscal sanity. The ends do justify the means with this group.

Meanwhile, this was a good decision for Goodyear.  The customers of Goodyear are hard working individuals and families all across the fruited plain, and the tires they travel on are very important. 

But the most demanding customers of Goodyear are the good ole boys who travel NASCAR's Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Truck Series on tracks across America.  NASCAR provides a great testing center for research and development, helping Goodyear provide their everyday customers with the best product possible.



This type of excellence in an extremely competitive environment does not allow for the infiltration of impostor representatives who think they know better how the Goodyear workforce should be treated and compensated than the company itself. 

The market will dictate, and as such, that France plant will in fact be closed as opportunities for a more efficient plant location can be identified.

I continue to be a longtime shareholder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT:NYSE),  having once ridden in the famous Goodyear blimp out of Pompano Beach, FL, and International Speedway Corporation (ISCA:NASDAQ).

GM Pontiac G8 GXP Burns Up Road, Government Burns Down Detroit

The events leading up to and including the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler is beyond appalling. Personally, the elimination of the Pontiac Motor Division is particularly painful, and it would not have been necessary if our government would stayed out of the way. I remain steamed, but there is nothing I can do.

At least the folks aver at FOX News understand the quality of machines that are going away. On the way to the winners circle, wider will forever be better.


Meanwhile, GM has informed several NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series teams they are withdrawing Chevrolet manufacturer support, including teams owned by Rusty Wallace, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

I am afraid this is the first of series of announcements that will shake NASCAR to the core. Agitating the NASCAR fan base will be like pouring gasoline on an already burning electorate. If I were still an owner of International Speedway Corporation stock, (ISCA:NASDAQ) I would be a seller in the current fascist environment.

The good ole boys are up at Michigan International Speedway this weekend, and I would hope car owners the likes of Roger Penske, who just bought Saturn from GM, Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick would be having a pow wow to formulate some sort of plan to combat the current onslaught, cause they are burning Detroit down!

The White Knuckle Highway

When the good ole boys hit the Superspeedway restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, the races usually invovle a major accident, which is commonly referred to as the big one. Often, the big one has been followed by a late race accident involving cars getting airborne.

The reason NASCAR implemented the restrictor plate, a small plate placed over the carburetor which restricts the flow of fuel to the engine thus reducing horsepower, was due to the following crash in 1987 as Bobby Allison in his Miller High Life Buick almost entered the grandstands. Check it out:



The placement of the restrictor plate slowed the cars down about from about 210 to 195 and seemed to bunch the cars together for tight racing, but it did not stop the major crashes. Take a look at Neil Bonnett, who was returning to competition after a few years in the television booth in the Mom and Pops Chevrolet Lumina, a car owned by his buddy, Dale Earnhardt.



Bonnett would later lose his life in a practice lap in his Country Time Lemonade Chevrolet at Daytona in 1994.

Another nasty crash at Talladega found Rusty Wallace finishing the race in sixth place in his Miller Genuine Draft Pontiac Grand Prix barrel rolling through he air. Take a look at this one:



Other drivers who have had last lap flips at Talladega, otherwise known as the White Knuckle Highway, are Elliott Sadler in the M&M's Ford and Bobby Labonte in the Interstate Batteries Pontiac.

The running of the Aarons's 449 yesterday at Talladega Superspeedway had it all. We had the big one on lap eight and then a very scary incident involving Carl Edwards as his Ford Fusion, in an eerily similar crash to the aforementioned Bobby Allison crash, almost entered the stands. Eight spectators were injured, either from debris from Edwards car or from broken parts of the catch fence. Check out this heartstopper:



I have been attending races at Daytona since 1992 and the catch fence is quite imposing and obviously capable of prohibiting the cars from breaking through to enter the stands. You can see the fencing in this photo of Jeff Gordon in his Dupont Chevy at Daytona last year:

NASCAR has made great safety strides with the safer walls, the catch fencing, the restrictor plates, roof flaps, fuel cells, roll cages and the HANS device. I remember Ernie Irvan and Dale Earnhardt wrecking in front of me on the Daytona Superstretch in 1997 when Irvans hood flew up toward where we were sitting. NASCAR is an awesome thrill and I love the sport, but I am in those stands twice a year and find it amazing there have been very few spectator injuries. Maybe ISC (ISCA:NASDAQ) might want to consider raising the fence height about two feet or so after the events of this past weekend. NASCAR is reviewing policies.

NASCAR 2009 Recap

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson for recording his third consecutive Sprint Cup Championship in his Rick Hendrick owned Lowes Chevrolet Impala SS. This is a very impressive feat, for sure.

It was not such a good year for my favorite driver, 2000 Sprint Cup Champion Bobby Labonte, pilot of King Richard Petty's famed #43 Cherrios Dodge Charger. Labonte scored only 1 top ten finish in '08, which is performance they cannot be proud of. Petty Enterprises is underfunded when compared with the mega NASCAR teams from Richard Childress, Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske. Even so, I had hoped to see some improvement in 2008, but it never materialized. For 2009, Petty has lost Cheerios as it's sponsor and as of now there has been no news of potential new sponsors, and given the current economic climate, the prognosis for one is not good.

In fact, the current economic conditions cast doubt about what the automobile industry, let alone NASCAR, may look like in 2009. At this time (see previous blog entry), the Big 3 automakers are fighting for survival begging for cash assistance on Capitol Hill. One or more of the Big 3 may not survive, and from a NASCAR perspective, this would not be good.

Currently, Dodge, Toyota (TM:NYSE), Ford (F:NYSE) and Chevrolet (division of GM:NYSE) are the manufacturers competing on the circuit. I cannot contemplate NASCAR without Ford and Chevy competing out there on the high banks. Can you? In addition, suppliers to the Big 3 and NASCAR, like Goodyear (GT:NYSE), could be severely impacted to the negative.

NASCAR is doing what it can to lobby for assistance for the Big 3 by seeking public commentary from owners and drivers alike. NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., commented
“All I ever raced is Chevrolet. They’ve been with me throughout my entire career and have supported everything I have done. Now I want to do everything I can to support them. I have awesome fans and I hope they will reach out to our leaders in Washington to help Chevy and our other domestic car makers. There is nothing more American than Chevrolet and we need to make sure it stays that way.” Contrary to public opinion, many of the drivers are politically astute and have a handle on current events taking place in America. Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson were recently guests on CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer.

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, all Chevrolet drivers, have all issued public commentary on the subject, and many of the drivers and owners own car dealerships.

As the economic conditions in the country began to deteriorate, one could easily notice empty seats at tracks all along the circuit and television ratings were down significantly as well. International Speedway Corp., (ISCA:NASDAQ), owners of NASCAR, have seen their stock price cut in half over the last year, although they are in good company on the street. Thankfully, for once, I got out before the drop when I noticed the empty seats.

With the economic storm we are facing, there could be big changes in the NASCAR world by the time Speedweeks comes calling in February. I hear a meeting of NASCAR movers and shakers took place in Charlotte this week to discuss what may be on the horizon and how to deal with the changes. I am a stock market investor and I am astonished at the carnage we all are witnessing on Wall Street. This damage is one for the ages, and the unfortunate negative impact on things we all love, like NASCAR, may be lasting. Then again, I have no idea what I am having for lunch tomorrow, so things could turn around by next week.