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NASCAR Listens, Policing the Sneaks, and It's Time to Race! | | By Carol Einarsson | 01/26/2010 | Category: Cheers and Jeers | | | CHEERS to the spoiler. Okay, I know I wasn't exactly rallying around this change before, but I'm finally catching the excitement, especially when I hear that there's going to be a full-field test at Charlotte in March! Are they selling tickets? Will SPEED televise it??
CHEERS to the bigger opening in the restrictor plate, but am I the only one that wonders how much difference 1/64th of an inch can make? Let's just go crazy and have those openings be a whole inch instead of 63/64ths!
JEERS to an injury for Denny Hamlin, and we can't help appreciate the irony that when some teams restrict extra-curricular racing activities of drivers for fear they'll get hurt, something as innocent as basketball (and last year, Frisbee) can affect a whole season. He's reportedly not having surgery on it until after the season? I wonder how many times over the course of 38 races (shootout and dual included) Denny will wince when he pushes that clutch pedal.
CHEERS to Larry Carter who seems to be a nice enough guy, but we're unconvinced that someone with a clean reputation is what NASCAR needs in that position. Remember Gary Nelson who wrote the book on cheating and then went on to be the NASCAR chief of police? Larry Carter just doesn't seem to have ever been sneaky enough to now be in a position of monitoring the sneaks. (Note to self: email Chad Knaus to suggest a post-crew chief position when he retires from the 48 team.)
CHEERS to SPEED who took quite the bashing from me last week, for being named the exclusive TV home of NASCAR's HoF. As long as they keep Despain at bay, the rest of the talent (Mike Joy, Steve Byrnes, et al) should offer some fantastic programming on a foundation of solid historical knowledge.
CHEERS to Kyle Petty, Chick-fil-A, and all the riders and sponsors who are part of the charity ride each year, but JEERS to the decision to head south again, thus bypassing Nebraska.
CHEERS to the return of the Wood Brothers, even if we're skeptical about their success. It's nice to see a small team that doesn't give up, and at least they're keeping Bill Elliott busy part time.
CHEERS to the inclusion of a drug list in the rule book. I wonder how long it will be until the list is published. And I wonder if Adderall is included.
JEERS to the weirdness around the 55/51 car. Michael says he's racing the 51 instead of the 55 because he won in the 15, and the 51 is a variation of that. So I wonder what a variation of winning looks like.
JEERS to pestering Chad Knaus about not yet having a contract extension. He still has a year to go, and is there anyone that believes he'll go anywhere else? I can't imagine any roadblock – any request he might have – that would stand in the way of a new contract. Well, unless he made his continued employment with HMS contingent upon success and multiple wins for the 88 team.
CHEERS to a whole new reason to make sure I watch the SPEED pre-race show every Sunday – Kyle Petty signed to a new contract that will have him on NASCAR RaceDay and also on the Victory Lane show, too!
CHEERS to Kyle Petty, also, for a new house in Nashville. Yes, we all hope there’s a Waffle House nearby, but even if there’s not, might the city bring him back to making more music?
JEERS to a new show for Jimmy Spencer. Now granted I haven't seen a preview of the show, but given his propensity to rant in an often ugly way about things he later has to try and undo, we wonder if giving him his own show is giving ulcers to the legal staff at SPEED. Oh, and if he's going to have his own show, maybe someone can first tell him it's "Hendrick".
CHEERS to new sponsors in the sport, but JEERS to two sponsors working together on Kevin Conway's car: ExtenZe and Alteril. All we need now is for Ernest and Julio Gallo to come on board and the evening would be complete.
CHEERS to an announcement, finally, from BAM racing. Drum roll, please... and the winner is: David Gilliland! As soon as I read it, I knew it was perfect. And the best part of all, this makes Robby Gordon and Gilliland practically teammates!
CHEERS to the expansion at Stewart-Haas not happening yet. That means it could (we hope) coincide with Kevin Harvick's availability, though many think he'll follow Tony's lead and start his own team. I don't know which I'd like better for Harvick, but we just want him Happy again!
JEERS to Max Papis and to NASCAR while we're at it. Now we appreciate honesty, so there is some measure of respect (I suppose) for a guy that says he plans to start and park. But where is NASCAR in that? And when he does start and then park, why will there be an official "cause" of his early retirement? Maybe it's time, if NASCAR won't/can't prevent this, that they make an official note on the final results that's labeled "S&P" instead of "engine" or "vibration" to explain why the car was out on lap five.
And finally,
CHEERS to NASCAR's attempts to undo what they've been doing the past ten years. While we applaud the efforts to make racing safer, especially in the wake of losing Dale Earnhardt, it seems the voice of the fan has finally been heard. It would have been nice if it had been heard when it was just a voice, though. It seems it took the collective falling away in viewership, lower attendance at race tracks, and a growing disinterest among the southern fan base to get NASCAR's attention, but what's important is that it finally happened. Last year there was a noticed effort to reincorporate the South, but it wasn't enough to bring us back to where we once were. It's old school racing we wanted, and now it seems NASCAR has heard that loud and clear and has responded with sweeping rules changes, abolishing restrictions that were once stringently enforced, and answering fans in a way that brings to mind our two favorite words: "Rubbin's racin'!" Now let's race!
| | | Comments: | | CHEERS to finally letting the drivers race! Will have to wait and see just how far they'll let the guys take it before they yank the chain back.
Will be interesting to see where the top 2 "free agents" Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne last. Kasey, I think, all depends on the performance of RPM and Ford. Kevin - after last season. I don't know. I think he just may be gone after this year from RCR.
Definately will also be interesting to see how Denny fairs this season with the torn ACL. And why is it that the drivers the media picks to dethrone Jimmie always ends up hurt. Last year it was Carl. (granted his season was already over with when he got hurt, but still.) |
| | Top 5 after 66 of 312 laps: Geoff Bodine; Alan Kulwicki; Mark Martin; Sterling Marlin; Darrell Waltrip...in the 1991 Pyroil 500 at Phoenix. You wanna see REAL racing? I got boxes of it in the storeroom!
JEERS to another 3 weeks to Daytona. We need to get these drivers back into race cars...where it's safe!
Extenze and Alteril, sheesh! What are the assoicate sponsors? Barry White CDs and Ripple?
CHEERS to Waffle House. JEERS that the closest one to our fair city is way over in PA. C'mon guys...NY isn't THAT far away!
CHEERS to David Gilliland...anywhere. Hey...mabye this BAM gig will go somewhere. If not, it keeps his face in the garage area for a few races, and that's never a bad thing.
--Mike. |
| | LOL at "Ernest and Julio Gallo to come on board and the evening would be complete."... good one Carol!
I doubt you will ever see an S&P designation in the final results. NASCARs standard operating procedure is to pretend/ignore any issue that highlights the fact that there is an issue. It's called PR in corporate circles although to regular people it's called BS.
Regarding that last comment.. we'll see if there is any beef in those promises. In the past most such announcements that "we are listening to the fans" have been lip service and minor changes. I have to admit going back to a spoiler is significant but I am still skeptical. If they really want to put a smile on the traditional southern fans' faces why not just move Darlington (THE Southern 500) back to Labor Day Weekend.
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| | | I don't have a problem with S&P in the case of Max Papis. He said they're going to attempt 20 races this year and plan to run the distance in those races. They may just try to S&P in some or all of the other 16 to earn some additional money. I don't mind S&P as much in that case, when a team is trying to compete and improve but has limited resources and not enough funding to run a full season. On the other hand, I do have serious issues with S&P with a team like the #66 that seemingly has no intentions of running full races or building for the future. |
| | CHEERS to Nascar making some positive changes, I hope that it works for those fans who have been dissatisfied and complaining. There are a few things that I have disliked, but overall I am going to watch racing regardless of the rules.
I am all for "rubbin is racin" on any track, except the plate tracks. Dega and Daytona are just not made for "mixin it up". I realize that bump drafting is a necessary evil for these two, but removing all restrictions in this area could be costly. But hey... let em race... and no complaining when your driver is caught up in the big one because someone who does not know how, decided to slam draft in the corners.
CHEERS to Kyle Petty being apart of Nascar Raceday and VL.
CHEERS to the thought of Kevin Harvick driving for Tony at SHR. I do think Kevin would be successful as an owner, but the selfish side of me, would really like to see he and Tony as teammates.
CHEERS to the 2010 season... almost here... I can already hear a faint roar of the engines in my head!! Looking so forward to seeing the cars on the track, and the green flag waving!! Woohoo! Let's go racing boys!
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| | You wrote: "CHEERS to the bigger opening in the restrictor plate, but am I the only one that wonders how much difference 1/64th of an inch can make? Let's just go crazy and have those openings be a whole inch instead of 63/64ths!"
Well, you have to remember it's 1/64th squared, times pi, times 4 (since there's 4 holes in the plate). Seems like a lot more now, doesn't it :-) (it's about 15hp, if I remember correctly).
And you wrote: "CHEERS to Kyle Petty, Chick-fil-A, and all the riders and sponsors who are part of the charity ride each year, but JEERS to the decision to head south again, thus bypassing Nebraska."
Yeah, I can't understand that. It's a nice ride across US30, following the railroad (the rest of Nebraska is about as dull as dirt - only Kansas is duller - but US30 is a good road).
Also you wrote: "JEERS to the weirdness around the 55/51 car. Michael says he's racing the 51 instead of the 55 because he won in the 15, and the 51 is a variation of that. So I wonder what a variation of winning looks like."
LOL. A variation of winning would be loosing, something Mikey does have a tad of experience with.
Plus you wrote: "JEERS to Max Papis and to NASCAR while we're at it. Now we appreciate honesty, so there is some measure of respect (I suppose) for a guy that says he plans to start and park."
That's a bit unfair. JEERS, I think, to the economy; and perhaps JEERS to NASCAR for not making it easier for low-budget teams to participate (altho I'm not sure I know how they could). But Max Papis is a good guy, it's not fair to fault him for the team being unable to run the race (you can substitute Dave Blaney's name for Max, incidently; another guy who wants to run the whole race and would if the team could let him). At least Max is taking a positive approach, and using the start-n-park events as an opportunity to learn the tracks, to be ready when they can attempt complete races.
Finally you wrote: "CHEERS to NASCAR's attempts to undo what they've been doing the past ten years. and now it seems NASCAR has heard that loud and clear and has responded with sweeping rules changes, abolishing restrictions that were once stringently enforced, and answering fans in a way that brings to mind our two favorite words: "Rubbin's racin'!" Now let's race!"
Yes, CHEERS to that. The pity is they have so far to go, and it seems to me the committment is weak. What NASCAR desperately needs is less rules, and more freedom for the teams to compete - yet it was only a couple of days ago that Robin Pemberton was quoted as saying (apropos fuel injection) "The thing that we need to put into play is how are we going to regulate it". That's not the words of someone who's thinking "just let them race".
John
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| | FWIW.... When I was watching my tape of the Fall '91 race from Rockingham, the fact was noted that James Hylton ran four laps (in a borrowed car) and retired from the race. As I recall, the announce team made quite a big deal of it, like it happened all the time.
Partially-related, the World of Outlaws point/dollar structure for their sprint car races pays pretty much the same from 15th or so on down. This gives some of the local guys a chance to run against the regulars for a bit -- then retire before over-taxing their equipment trying to keep up. In fact, listening to my scanner at WoO races, the series management pretty much encourages this.
S&P is not new. Maybe the number/quality of cars/drivers doing it is, or maybe NASCAR is trying harder to sweep it under the rug. But it's as old as racing itself, and manifests itself across (almost) all levels of it.
The trick is to raise the quality of all the teams (and the purses deeper in the field) to the point that they feel they can be competitive over the full distance of the race, without going broke in the process.
Or...accept this as a means of getting uncompetitive teams out of the way of the fast guys, and move on.
--Mike. |
| | | Since Toyota recently pulled out of F1, because they were not winning, and they are in Nascar, I would guess that they would take some of the budget that had been used for F1 & offer Chad whatever he wants to join them...Gibbs...? They need a championship to save face. |
| | I would like to cheer the return of "old school" racing, but I will reserve that until we see how it all unfolds.
And I would not say NASCAR is attempting to "undo what they've been doing the past ten years." Rather, I think the last ten years were necessary to reach the point where NASCAR believes they have addressed safety concerns to an extent that they can ease up on the reigns a bit.
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| | giluvracing,
I know S&P isn't new, but what aggravates me is that it used to at least be masked. Calling in sick when you're not isn't new either, but yet when we do, we still say we're sick. If we, instead called in and said, "It's a beautiful day outside today, it's been a long winter, and I'm just achin' to go fishing for an afternoon, so I won't be in to work today..." what would an employer say? Yes, it's been going on forever, but at least we mask it.
That's my trouble... if NASCAR is against S&P, they need to do something about it. If they are not against it, they need to stop claiming they are.
C |
| | Well, Carol...
I guess whether I'm aggravated by S&P or merely annoyed pertains to who gets bumped out of a starting lineup by an S&P'er who just happened to have a faster qualifying lap that week.
Consider this scenario: Driver A, 36th in owner points, spins in his lone qualifying lap at Cookie-Cutter Speedway, missing the starting lineup for the Random Sponsor 500. Driver B, as a result of Driver A's misfortune, makes the field, starts the race, and retires due to a "vibration" before his tires get warm. Driver A's chances of moving up in the standings were obliterated by one bad turn, whereas the guy who replaced him gets to be first in line at the pay window. If I were a car owner or fan of Driver A, I would be steamed.
I'm with you, Carol. If NASCAR wants to stop S&P, they should do so. One way would be, as I mentioned above, to improve the payouts down the line. Another would be to require that a minimum number of laps be run (barring a wreck or catastrophic mechanical failure) in order to qualify for a paycheck. If NASCAR required that each team compete (at or above minimum speed) for at least two fuel stop cycles before retiring from a race, you'd see a lot fewer guys dropping out for "handling" or "brake" issues before the lap counter reaches double-digits.
You may find yourself with some shorter qualifying fields (perhaps even below the magic "43" mark), but you'd be assured that those who come to the track have the intention of racing on both Friday AND Sunday. That has to be a good thing.
Question for the F1 fans in the group: I kinda wonder why you don't see this there. F1 points are only paid for the top few positions, and the megabuck (megaeuro?) contracts that are signed at the beginning of the season render the individual race purses irrelevant. So, why do all of the backmarker teams run the full distance, burning fuel, tires, etc., when there is little or no hope of gaining anything as a result?
Inquiring minds want to know....
--Mike. |
| | @giluveracing:
F1 teams do it for the same reason that guys with wrecked cars come back out and tool around slowly even when there's little hope of improving position: because the sponsors are paying to have their name paraded around in front of the audience.
You'll note teams rarely start-n-park if they've got any sort of sponsor, at least one that's paying enough to cover the tire bill.
John
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| | | It is going to be great seeing Kyle be Kyle and doing so no matter what people think! |
| | And how is that any different than what he's done before? I mean, what's new about that?
C |
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What happened to me in 1983?
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