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Sure, racing was built here and racing belongs here, but why does Irving Mitflump? This week, our readers came up with scores of ingenious reasons, making this one of the most popular caption challenges we've had to date.
The winner:
"He’s the guy who figured out how many corporate logos will fit on a stock car!"
-- submitted by John Boylan of Hickory.
Mr. Boylan wins a place in our caption hall of fame, but instead of a place on a pedestal, he'll receive the original Kevin Siers cartoon art with his caption written on it.
The runners-up:
“He’s the only man who understands the point system AND the penalty system!”
-- submitted by Ron Wood of Charlotte.
"He was the first white collar worker to publicly admit to being a NASCAR fan."
-- submitted by Greg Jones of Charlotte.
"Him? I believe he invented the beer can pull tab."
-- submitted by Loyd Dillon of Charlotte.
“Irving led the most important NASCAR Hall of Fame category – most overnight stays at Charlotte hotels!”
-- submitted by Phil Busher of Charlotte.
Thank you for all your entries. Here's a selection of other good lines we received this week:
"Oh, yeah... He's the barber who invented the Mullet."
"Mr. Mitflump was one of the early racin' engineers.....he thought-up 'turn left'!"
"The Legend, the King, the Revenuer."
"He negotiated Jeff Gordon's divorce settlement."
"Irving Mitflump: I-77 Bump-draft Champion!"
"He was Governor Easley's stunt driving double."
"Irving calculated how to build the NASCAR Hall of Fame here without raising our taxes!"
"He's better known as the Father of the Restrictor Plate."
"That's the France family's tax man."
"He invented NASCAR table linen.......handy-wipes"
"He was Dale Earnhardt's banker."
"He's the one that came up with the idea of getting cities to compete to pay for the NASCAR hall of fame."
"He's the guy who invented the race car decal."
"Irving holds the patent on the Playmate cooler."
"He's one of only three who rented a Charlotte hotel room after the NASCAR tax."
If you'd like to add any of your own late captions, or if you'd like to discuss or comment on the judges' selections, feel free to click on the little blue "Comments" link just below this post. Please visit us again Monday for a new cartoon caption challenge.
"Mr. Mitflump? Oh, he's the guy that thought NASCAR should do special advertising to bring in more women fans. I personally would buy tickets to the E.P.T 600 in the Massengill section of the Atlanta Motor Speedway!"
Posted by: Rick Sanford | March 10, 2006 at 02:52 PM
Mr. Mitflump? Oh, he's the special moves trainer for Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. I think he needs to find Tony a easier move than climbing the fence, though!"
Posted by: Rick Sanford | March 10, 2006 at 02:55 PM
now that i understand your judges type of humor (banal and a non-sense of such) i shall not consider any further entries into your caption contest. if you can improve the results more to our liking (yes, there are more of us out there) please do so. however as long as you own the mike.....
Posted by: peter young | March 10, 2006 at 05:28 PM
I knew you wouldn’t publish my caption; you were too scared to do it. The ones you chose were juvenile and stupid. You couldn’t print a real mans caption.
"Hey! That's Irving Mitflump; He's the director of that new movie." "Switch Back Mountain," "About two.............., Race Car Drivers."
You might as well call it close caption………….!
Posted by: Dennis Mize | March 11, 2006 at 07:42 AM
I submitted my caption...
" It says here that Irving was implentational in having urinal cakes put into the urinal troughs in the men's room at the NASCAR Hall of Fame."
That's sarcasm at it's best
Your caption winner's were weak...very weak
Posted by: Clay | March 11, 2006 at 10:02 AM
The winner's caption was so lame, my four year old could think of something funnier than that
Posted by: Joe-Bob | March 13, 2006 at 07:41 PM
Joe-Bob, our caption contest is open to all. I look forward to submissions from your four-year-old. As for the rest of you, I thank you for entering, am sorry for your disappointment, and can only encourage you to try your hand again. I said at the outset of this contest that the judges' selections may look misguided to some. It goes without saying that everyone's sense of humor is different. And the "honorable mention" sampling of captions at the end of the post is just that, a sampling of the many good captions we've received, and many worthy ones don't get reprinted here. Better luck next time.
Posted by: Kevin Siers | March 14, 2006 at 08:41 AM