Well, now, who doesn't like an old-fashioned fight with a few haymakers flying around? And it's always entertaining when somebody pops off and says something others might want to say and don't have the guts to do it.

But it's a whole new ballgame when it's fisticuffs in the fast lane, as with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 aftermath at Fontana, Calif., featuring -- in this corner -- heavyweight Tony Stewart and -- in the opposite corner -- lightweight Joey Logano.

Hey-hey-hey -- don't send in any letters defending Logano. Even FOX TV analyst Darrell Waltrip advertised that all Logano will do when he's in fight-or-flight mode is stomp his foot and start tweeting tough messages on the social medium Twitter. That clearly doesn't have as much sting as a right cross from an angry Smoke, who might as well have saved his energy in last Sunday's instance by running over, waving his arms, and yelling, "Boo!"

M E M O
TO:  ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Associated Press, The Sporting News, USA Today, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, Jim Rome, AOL, Yahoo, MSN
 
FROM: Susan Wade
 
RE: Ron Capps winning the NHRA's Arizona Nationals

Drag racing fans should be mad as hell and they shouldn’t take it anymore.

I’m sure you know why.

Danica!

DANICA!!

More accurately: The fawning, sweet-as-maple syrup and sometimes TMZesque media coverage of Danica Patrick, her historic Daytona 500 pole position and her boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Is the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series flirting with disaster for a better future with 50 minute turnarounds for live television broadcasts?

Until this year, 75-minute turnarounds have been the norm for the last decade or so, and while the time limit was a challenge at first, teams adapted. Even though they were rushed at times after sustaining major damage in a previous run, they managed to do so in a reasonably safe manner. Impending weather often crunched the time to 60 minutes, a challenging and accepted proposition, was on the ragged edge of doable.

Fifty minute turnarounds have been attained already this year, however observing the process reveals potential danger lurks in the most routine of procedures. While none of these endangerments have become realities after just two events doesn’t mean reality isn’t waiting for the most inopportune time to attack.

You can only play with fire so many times before you get burned.

He had the megawatt smile.
 
He drove an incredibly quick and fast ground-pounding Top Fuel dragster -- the coolest, most extreme race car on Earth -- first for legendary boss Don "The Snake" Prudhomme then for another drag-racing pioneer, Don Schumacher, with the National Hot Rod Association's biggest team.
 
He won 10 races and set the national speed record at 332.18 mph.
 
He even earned the 2008 International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel championship, getting his license just six days before the season started, then winning the first two events within 20 days.
 
He exuded an almost childlike enthusiasm for the sport, a passion for rolling up his sleeves and helping his racer friends -- sportsman and pro alike -- work on their cars on a day off.

Promises, Promises.   

Those two words have come to mind two times in recent weeks, for two dramatically different reasons.

Once was when one of my musical favorites, Oscar and Grammy award-winning lyricist Hal David, died. David was famous for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and singer Dionne Warwick. All of us of a certain age have sung along: “What’s It All About, Alfie?,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?,” “What Do You Get When You Fall in Love?,” and other classics like “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

And, yes, there also was his Broadway hit, “Promises, Promises.”

When the economy went south in 2008 almost every American went through at least some emotional and/or financial anguish. Some lost their homes and retirement savings, while on the business side some companies were forced to close their doors. Most tightened their belts and continued moving forward. Some of the nation’s largest financial institutions continued to rake in huge profits while going to great lengths to hide their legal and ethical transgressions, some of which were the tipping point for the financial crisis in the first place. It could be said of at least some of those institutions that greed caused them to lose sight of their publicly stated ethical standards. The result is they may never recover the trust the public once had in them. The National Hot Rod Association has acted in the same manner.

The result of the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing that the NHRA has undertaken with at least three companies has resulted in an ethical lapse of astounding proportions. They’re the kind of lapses that were unlikely to have happened under the leadership of founder Wally Parks. If anything, Parks had a pristine vision for the NHRA that included high standards, fair competition and honesty in dealing with the racers, sponsors, media and fans. Those standards have been effectively trashed by recent developments.

The first ethical lapse was an indicator of things to come when carburetor manufacturer Barry Grant bought legality for his products by sponsoring the Pro Stock Challenge. Grant’s Demon Carburetors had been deemed illegal time and time again by the NHRA Tech Department and the suspicion is that a rival aftermarket manufacturer was behind the banning of Grant’s carburetors. There’s no doubt that they viewed Grant as a threat to its Pro Stock racing business, with a lawsuit partially based on an alleged patent infringement ultimately playing a role in Grant’s business going under.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Unless a major gaffe by NHRA is corrected, this is where the Pro Stock Motorcycle division is headed – to hell.

The gaffe, which clearly has stabbed the division right in the heart, is the fact Harley-Davidson sought exclusivity with one team, which they got in exchange for their status and eventually money.

If the aim in the NHRA’s bending of the rules to suit Harley-Davidson’s activation plan was to improve the class by leveraging the brand name, attracting other manufacturers and inspiring additional sponsorship, it has failed miserably.

The lofty goals envisioned with inking the deal have been replaced with sinking racer morale, distrust of the sanctioning body and a tech department struggling to maintain pseudo parity.

Be careful what you wish for.

That’s my advice to NHRA fans who say they’re happy Paul Page won’t return as anchor of ESPN2’s national event coverage next year.  

I exclusively broke the story of Page’s ouster from the booth -- and let’s be clear, it wasn’t his choice to go -- on Wednesday evening, Aug. 15 here on CompetitionPlus.com. It didn’t take much longer than the time Tony Schumacher needs to run 1,000 feet for social media and message boards and chatrooms to start smokin’. Many seemed pleased, and while I’ve read all the comments, I’m still scratching my head like a tuner trying to figure out a 150-degree left lane at Bandimere Speedway.

Those who say Page -- most famous as “voice” of the Indianapolis 500 -- isn’t a “drag racing guy” apparently don’t realize his NHRA broadcast experience goes all the way back to 1973. And that, before the ESPN business suits ever cashed an NHRA check, Page was working with the late Steve Evans and Don Garlits on the old TNN shows produced by Diamond P. And Page’s collaboration with ace analyst Mike Dunn seems to me as good as, oh, I’ll use Ron Capps-Rahn Tobler as an analogy.

Good news: The sanctioning organization has a comprehensive plan to grow the sport well into the future.

Bad news: That sanctioning organization is NASCAR, not NHRA.

I know. I KNOW! You’re not surprised.

But the length and width and height and depth of the difference between these two businesses -- and their management teams -- when it comes to dealing with next week and next month and next year and next decade is Grand Canyon-esque in dimension.

The stock car company has been flat-out on-the-gas in recent months. NASCAR restructured its communications, media and marketing operations and added lots of staff. This as a result of what it learned from a major (and expensive) research project that included demographically and geographically diverse consumer focus groups, fan interviews and candid conversations with top industry stakeholders. Key areas explored: Public relations/marketing; social and digital media; attracting the next generation of fans; improving the at-track experience; building the star-power of drivers.