Pontiac looks doomed

Oh, i know you're both right on this point -- because I made the same point to GM exec John Middlebrook when he made the call to take Pontiac out of NASCAR a few years ago: I told Middlebrook that was a major marketing mistake, because of Pontiac's demographics -- youth, excitement, yada-yada....NASCAR should have told Middlebrook no on that call. This sport needs more brand identities and more brands. If I were Brian France, I'd be talking with Honda and VW; heck, he probably ought to be over in Italy talking with Fiat. And, sorry, i'm just not buying all this detroit doom and gloom. Yes, a bunch of those cars are just dumb gas guzzlers, and detroit hasn't learned many lessons over the years (does that sound like someone else we know? ), but if Obama would do what the Germans just did -- give a $3200 check to anyone buying a new, fuel-efficient car -- the car market would bounce back in a heartbeat. I know -- because I'm in the market for a new car myself.....And after writing those checks -- not to Detroit but to car buyers themselves, to let the market itself decide who makes the right cars --- I'd get rid of these common template COTs, raise the nose of these stock cars about seven inches, to give crew chiefs some room to play....and throw away about 10 or 12 pages of that darned rule book. Did anyone in Daytona notice that the Phoenix 500 TV ratings were a dismal 3.4 last weekend? NASCAR's promoters are getting on the stick and making things happen...but NASCAR officials need to give them a product on the track that people want to see.....