Enginehead.com

    It’s July 4, and we’re driving to Daytona International Speedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400 tonight. And our navigator: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.!
   “You drive,” Junior says. “I’ll ride shotgun!”
   We are in a new Chevrolet Impala, exactly like the one Junior will drive this evening in the race, except for the top of the roof, the bottom of the tires, and everything in between.
   We’re about a hundred miles from the Speedway when Junior comes aboard. “In one mile,” he says, “hang a right!”
   His voice sounds oddly distant, a bit tinny, as if it is coming from a navigation device suction-cupped to the Impala’s windshield. A device that might be called The Spotter, a GPS navigation system that costs $229, and is sold by a company called RightWay GPS. A device that uses Junior’s own voice to tell you where to go. Well, in general: “Dale Jr.’s voice does not speak street names,” it says on the box because -- really! -- did you think Junior has time to sit in front of a microphone and record the name of every street in the country?
   He did, however, take time to record directions to some of his favorite places, such as Mooresville High School in North Carolina, or Pie In The Sky Pizza, and there are personal photos programmed into the unit’s SD card, such as Junior’s Pets (Pit bulls! Who would have guessed?).
   Anyway, Junior routes us onto a toll road heading toward Interstate 4. We approach one of those toll plazas that let you drive straight through if you have one of those windshield-mounted SunPass cards, which we don’t, meaning we have to pull to the right and pay cash.
   “In one mile,” Junior says, “stay to the left.”
   Dude, no, I can’t, I have to pull to the right and pay.
   “In a half-mile, stay to the left.”
   Listen, I know you’re a rebel, that you don’t want to do what The Man tells you, but I really think I gotta pay, man.
   “In a tenth of a mile, stay to the left,” he insists. And we pull to the right and pay. And Junior just sits there and doesn’t say a word.
   Two miles later, another toll booth, more “Stay to the left,” and again, we disappoint him. And again we get the silent treatment.
   Then, I say some things I shouldn’t. “Listen,” I tell Junior. “I’m not so sure you are the perfect guy to be telling me how to make anything but left turns. I mean, you’ve driven by your pit stall so many times this season that they say your AMP Energy Drink car really stands for ‘Another Missed Pit.’ Your crew finally had to make you a pit-in sign so big and flashy that it looks like a Vegas casino!”
   By then, we are on Interstate 4, and Junior just sits in stony silence. I don’t blame him.
   As we approach Daytona International Speedway, though, Junior gets more animated. He steers us from Interstate 4 onto International Speedway Boulevard, then right onto Williamson, and I’m about to hang a left into Gate 40 and the infield tunnel when suddenly Junior says, “In a tenth of a mile, hang a right.”
   Huh? That takes us into the loading dock area of the back of a Home Depot. Then we wander around the parking lot, left, right, left, as if Junior doesn’t want to enter the racetrack. I understand: I tell him, “Listen, I know this place has bittersweet memories for you, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Make those pit bulls proud, dude!”
   But he won’t be swayed, and I mute him. And we drive into the infield, and a few hours later, Junior crashes on lap 76, and finishes 39th, ahead only of four unsponsored start-and-park cars.
   Afterwards, I tell him that if it will make him feel better, he can give me directions toward Pie In The Sky Pizza. Apparently, it would not.   

Grassroots Motorsports magazine and Classic Motorsports magazine -- combined, and page-wise, the biggest motorsports mags in the country -- are produced in Holly Hill, next to Daytona Beach. Saturday morning, they are hosting a "Cars and Coffee" get-together.

They sent some details: "Stop by Grassroots Motorsports/Classic Motorsports World HQ for cars and coffee from 9-11 a.m. We’re at 915 Ridgewood Avenue—at the corner of Ridgewood Avenue (US-1) and 9th Street, two blocks south of LPGA Blvd. Come meet everyone, check out the office, and maybe even snag a doughnut. We’ll provide the meeting space, you bring the cool cars."

It's Sunday night, and that's what it looks like will be the headline after Monday press conferences: That President Obama is requiring that GM CEO Rick Wagoner must step down for GM to get additional aid. If it's true, it's an astoundingly heavy-handed move that, according to one unimpressed automotive colleague, "just might reduce GM to penny stock next week."

I don't know Wagoner well, but I've interviewed him multiple times over the past 15 years or so. He is not what we would call a "car guy," but he was smart enough to hire one -- Bob Lutz, the best in the business. It stunned the industry when Wagoner hired the flashy, outspoken Lutz -- I wrote that it was the sort of thing an ego-driven micro-manager like Ford's Jac Nasser would never do, hire such a high-profile exec that could, and did, often take the spotlight from Wagoner.

Wagoner knew it was a good move for GM to have Lutz, and it was. Now Wagoner will take a second bullet, apparently serving as the scapegoat for GM's troubles. He will get little or no recognition for the progress GM has made with its product line these past few years.

Having watched the domestic industry decline over the past decades, I'd submit that some of the blame can be placed at the feet of current execs, but they inherited a lot of problems that simply can't be easily fixed. The "legacy" costs GM must bear -- retirement and health care for past employees, for instance -- add more to the cost of a GM vehicle than the cost of steel. I am not arguing against benefits, but when companies like Hyundai and Honda don't have those costs, it is difficult for U.S. companies to compete.

Shed no tears for Wagoner: He'll be fine. And requiring his resignation will likely be seen as a win-win in terms of public relations for Obama: If GM improves, it will be seen as a result of the President's deft leadership. If GM doesn't improve, Omaba's spinners can suggest that Wagoner and his team dropped the ball and let it roll so far away that no one could retrieve it. But hey, we tried!

It wil be fascinating to see where GM stock ends up at market closing Monday. A positive reaction will be license for the administration to take more of an active role in replacing executives in private industry. A negative reaction -- well, we'll know soon enough, won't we?