NASCAR ROCKS!

First off, I have to confess that I know next to nothing about things with motors, not cars in general nor NASCAR specifically. In fact, I am so lame that once, when a guy at the next gas pump asked me if my car was a V-8, I just stared at him blankly for a moment, slowly realizing I had no idea whatsoever. So it should come as no great surprise that the inspiring pun here, WON'T GET FUELED AGAIN, ended up laying fallow for a couple of years after I thought of it. (Note to aspiring puzzle writers: go write this stuff down! For one thing, you will eventually forget even very good gags. Even more importantly, with the occasional memory jog from your ideas notebook, your subconscious mind at work on a puzzle can be a wonderful ally.)

Anyway, I realized — finally, at last! — there are few things more American than cars and rock and roll. And if you can put them both together, well, sorry, but you've got a hit on your hands. The rest was a long slog to find songs famous enough to fill out the idea (Da Do Run Run anyone? My Sweet Ford?) I do want to add that my personal favorite here is LIVIN' LA VEHICLE LOCA, which shouldn't work — it's not even the right number of syllables! — yet somehow does.

One surprising note to add for my fellow baby boomers: I was shocked to discover that "Break on Through," the Doors's first single and iconic to my mind, in fact bombed when it came out. It couldn't even crack the top 100 on the charts. Finally, my biggest disappointment here is the omission of the lovely ballad "Drive" by the Cars. That is simply the perfect title and group for my theme, but sadly there is absolutely no way it could go in this puzzle.

NASCAR ROCKS is a clever title, pointing to the theme of "rock songs punned upon to get NASCAR-related entries." Extremely tough for this non-pop-savvy, non-NASCAR watching crossword solver. Of the five song lyrics punned on, I knew BREAK ON THROUGH and (what I was positive was) DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN. Poor George Bernard SHAD. That name seemed awfully fishy. (groan)

Speaking of groans, puns are tough to execute well. Today Michael gives us a mixture of perfect homonyms (BREAK/BRAKE), slight changes (FOOLED/FUELED), and outright changes (VIDA/VEHICLE). As a constructor who's never had a pun theme accept in any venue, it's hard for me to say what works and what doesn't. At one ACPT, I hung out with Merl Reagle as he threw out puns, and it seems like the pinnacle of punnery is to elicit a groan. I KISSED A GRILLE = groan for sure! I think? I wasn't even sure if Michael's "hit on your hands" comment was a pun, so I left it alone even though I didn't get it.

Sunday puzzles average about seven themers, so today's five stands out as low. They are all relatively long, so that helps make up for the small quantity. And at 136 words, this qualifies as part of Will's experiment with fewer themers and more long fill. Sure enough, Michael gives us some really nice fill, like ANIMAL HOUSE and SCOUT MOTTO and WAGNERIANS (surely Jim's favorite, as he's a huge fan of the Ring Cycle). Even one-worders like DOGGEREL are well-chosen, a fun word I only vaguely knew before.

The 136 word Sunday puzzle is so difficult to execute on. With so much long fill required, Michael places some of it in the across direction. And as much as I kept reminding myself that ANIMAL HOUSE, CASTS A SPELL, etc. were not part of the theme, I kept asking myself how CITIZEN KANE related to NASCAR. CITIZEN Kasey KAHNE, perhaps? That's the danger of running such long pieces of fill in the across direction.

Additionally, it felt like half of the long fill was more neutral than positive. SPOTLESS, DOCILITY, STAGNANT… those are all fine words, just not ones I would personally put a check mark next to. If the puzzle must depend on non-theme fill, so much of that must sing.

All in all, an interesting instance within Will's running experiment. Even if there had been more snazzy long fill, I think I would have still preferred a little more theme. But it's great to see the boundaries pushed.