We've got questions...does anyone have answers?

Jimmie Johnson's off to a mediocre start this season. Sound like a broken record for Mr. Five-Time? Maybe he needs Chad Knaus to refit his car with a little heavier artillery.....(Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   More car makers, more sponsorship money, and the timing could be ripe, considering the free agents on the market.
   Missed opportunity?
   Certainly.
    For both VW and NASCAR. If VW wants more visibility in the U.S., NASCAR is clearly the place. And VW does racing.
   The background here: The German car maker has set an audacious goal of becoming the top auto maker in the world and dethroning Toyota. But VW has long had an anemic marketing operation in the U.S. Which would make NASCAR seemingly a no-brainer.
   However Ulrich Hackenberg, who is head of technical development for VW, says of NASCAR: "Nothing for us. There is certainly the one or the other person out there in the world that would wish for that, but we don't have that on the program."
   VW's major marketing venue in racing is the Dakar Rally – the off-road world's version of the Tour de France – and VW wins the Dakar with regularity.
   One outsider looking in says "Even though NASCAR made no sense, with VW's past of linking on-track technology with street cars, I was kind of wondering if it was going to jump into NASCAR -- due to its massive redirection in the corporate strategy.
   "Since VW decided to be a world high-volume car maker like Toyota, building cars to directly challenge the Camry and Corolla, while opening a plant in Chattanooga to build the new Passat (the Camry challenger), I figured NASCAR was in the cards.
   "Sadly the new VWs have been cheapened, so Americanized, they are non-identifiably as VWs.  I don't even think VW of America employees like them.  VWOA corporate is in the same office park as me, and I see plenty of Audis and VW SUVs, but not a single new VW sedan."

   Mark Martin says it's time for fans to give Danica Patrick a break because she's working hard at this NASCAR thing....and judging from her first few Nationwide races, she is doing better. But how will she fare at Bristol? That could be worth the price of admission. Hmmm. Didn't Janet Guthrie run there a couple times? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   -- What's the deal with Kevin Harvick?
   He was mikemulhern.net's pick to win the Daytona 500, but blew up early. He was mikemulhern.net's pick to win this year's Sprint Cup championship, following up his strong run in 2010. But he's already in a deep hole, even deeper because of NASCAR's new points system, which makes 'bad days' even worse than under the long-standing Bob Latford championship system. After that 42nd at Daytona, a rebounding fourth at Phoenix, then a disappointing 17th at Las Vegas, Harvick sits a distant 20th in the stands -- he's 42 points down, but try to figure out just what that means under this new points system. Simple? Right.
   Well, if you want to judge Kevin's mood for yourself, steal a press pass and take him on mano e mano in some go-kart racing Wednesday March 16th at Dan River Grand Prix in Danville, Va. It's really a media event for the Martinsville 500, but you can gamble. And you might get better answers than we will....
  

  Who's running the NASCAR on Fox operation anyway? Ratings are up, replays are good, but overall coverage is pretty darned mediocre, too much missed action. Is David Hill (here) even watching NASCAR this season? Maybe he needs to check the replays...and shake up the on-air talent too. Tell let these guys take off the gloves and stop being so darned politically correct. And if the guys in the booth can't play that game, get some guys who can. (Photo: Fox)
  

   -- Will somebody wake up Fox' David Hill, please.
      Tell him to review the NASCAR races his network is carrying and start handing out report cards.
       Or maybe Hill needs to set up a NASCAR fans council of his own to offer suggestions.
      Ratings may be up this season, but the camera work and production work has been bad. Like bad.
     If it weren't for multiple-angle replays, the broadcasts themselves would barely rate a C.
     What's the problem with NASCAR's TV production men?
     Those at the track who can compare Fox' production to what they're actually seeing on the track can only shake their heads at all the action missed.
     If Fox had done a better job of production on the Daytona 150s, and put up better camera angles to explain the drama of the two-car drafting, the Daytona 500 itself might have had even better ratings. But Fox did a poor job of translating much of the Daytona drama to the viewers.
     Viewers complain about the announcers of course, whose babble has generally had little-added value, exception for promotional hype. It's long past time for Fox to revamp its roster of broadcasters. It's hard to complain about the ratings going back up. But with better product on the screen -- and an end to those long commercial strings that Fox appears disinterested in coming out of even for breaking action on the track – think how much better the ratings could be yet.
   Here's an idea: take both Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip out of the booth, and put them down on pit road to work the pits and the garage.
   Mike Joy does a solid job in the booth, but he needs new running mates. How about moving Krista Voda and Steve Byrnes up to the booth, and lease Tim Brewer (from ESPN) for Sunday booth work too….and let the outspoken Brewer get fired up. After a couple of races with Voda, Byrnes and Brewer in charge of calling the action and dissecting the play – if TV would let them speak their peace without getting chewed out for not being politically correct – rating might be moving up even faster.
   Surprising that once-savvy David Hill, the Fox boss, has been asleep at the switch through all this. Or may be he's just working on a post-NASCAR game plan for when the current contract runs out.
  
   
   

    Old school versus new school? This guy (L), Kevin Conway, called the cops when confronted by Robby Gordon at Las Vegas. This guy (R), David Pearson, took matters into his owns hands, literally, that afternoon at Daytona in a pit road post-race showdown with Tim Richmond. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    -- And then there's the strangest story of the year so far: Kevin Conway complaining to the Las Vegas police after an altercation with Robby Gordon over those six races Conway drove Gordon's car last summer.
    Gordon says Conway owes him nearly $700,000, and that matter is in court, with depositions.
    But complaining to the police?
    Gordon had a succinct word for that. And it didn't have anything to do with 'manly.'
    The whole situation is somewhat reminiscent of that afternoon at Daytona when Tim Richmond called David Pearson 'an old man ' -- and Pearson responded by cold-cocking Richmond out on pit road in front of 100,000 fans. NASCAR penalty on Pearson? Nope. Back in the days when men were men, and they didn't have to be told 'Boys, have at it.'

  These guys are having a rough go of it so far, crew chief Gil Martin (L) and Kevin Harvick (R) . They were leading the NASCAR standings at this point last year. This spring they're mired in 20th. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)