Hendrick's NASCAR Penalty

It's hard to understand what happened yesterday, 3/20. All penalties except for the $100,000 fine that were levied on Hendrick's Motorsports for the C-post infraction on the 48 car at Daytona were rescinded by final arbitrator John Middlebrook.

Apparently Middlebrook is a long time friend of Rick Hendrick. Did that matter? Why did a three member panel uphold all the penalties the week before?

NASCAR has never explained to the public what the problem with the C-post was. Apparently the car was pulled out of the inspection line before reaching the point where templates are applied.

This goes to the credibility of NASCAR. It has the appearance of a vendetta. It's been known for sometime that NASCAR has a distinct dislike for Chad Knaus, crew chief of the 48 car.

NASCAR needs to come forward and explain their problem with the C-post and explain how they determined it warranted the fines they issued. To this old, long time fan, this looks very murky.

NASCAR Television Ratings

I imagine the champagne is flowing at NASCAR headquarters. I bet the genius trio of France, Helton and Darby have a spring in their step not seen in recent years. Their contented sighs must, by now, be annoying all those around them. The reason? Why, those television ratings from the first two races! They are right out of sight!

Let’s be clear on what helped those ratings. For the Daytona 500 three things were in play. First, the weather was terrible in most of the country – except Florida. People were forced inside to spend the weekend with the television remote in hand. Second, there wasn’t a heck of a lot on television. No Olympics, no Tiger Woods, no crucial NCAA basketball contests. Thirdly, viewers surfing through their channels probably caught a glimpse of the unique two by two racing and stopped to ponder what this new spectacle was. A perfect storm led many to find the FOX telecast the only interesting event.

Then, for the Phoenix race, some of the same things happened. A fierce line of storms was moving across mid America forcing outdoor activities to be cancelled. Again, there was no significant television competition from other sporting events. And then there was Trevor Bayne. Even people who did not watch the Daytona 500 heard about the 20 year old and had to get in on the next big thing.

I hate to throw a wet blanket on all the celebrating, but most of these things are going away real soon. Spring will arrive and we will all come out of hibernation from in front of the television set. Other events: March Madness, the Masters, baseball start-up, pro basketball and hockey play-offs will all divide our attention when we do pick up the remote. That unique two by two racing at Daytona and, probably, at Talladega, will get old to fans real quick. And Trevor Bayne will not win any more Nextel Cup races for a while (but will do very well in the Nationwide series).

I predicted last year that we had reached the bottom of the television ratings and would stay there. It had gotten down to us hard core fans. I still believe that. NASCAR, along with FOX, ESPN and TNT better not kick back and start gloating. We will see temporary ups and downs, but the ratings for the overall season will be pretty close to last year.

Points System

So NASCAR has finally bought into the idea that the points system needs an overhaul. Duh! How many of us hard core fans have been saying that for years. The current system was designed to keep the car fields full. Teams had to be encouraged to keep coming back every week even if they were not running well.

That was then, this is now. Every week at least 35 real good teams show up to compete. And, there has not been a field of less than 43 cars since NASCAR went to that car count for every race. So NASCAR has decided to change the point structure to award the winner 43 points, and then drop down a point for each position so the 43^rd place driver receives one point. Bonus points, apparently, have not been decided on.

I’m having trouble seeing the difference from the current system. Rumor has it that the winner will get a few extra points. But, the proposed system is the same as it is now, other than us mathematically challenged people will have a little easier time of it. Someone ran last year’s finishes thru the new formula and came out with the same results for the first seven positions, then minor changes in eight thru ten.

There are two things wrong with both the current and the proposed point structures:

1 – Finishing at the front is not rewarded enough. I like the idea I’ve heard of putting the top three finishers on a podium. That will be good for the drivers, teams and sponsors. And reward those top three finishers point-wise. Make it really worthwhile to finish third rather than fourth, second rather than third, and first rather than second. Give each one of those positions 20% more than the next position. The racing will become really exciting!!

2 – Field trailers and “start and parkers” get rewarded with points. Since the top 35 in points are currently guaranteed starters that might be a good number to cut the points off after. If you finish 36^th thru 43^rd you get no points. No more just hanging around. Finish in the top 35 or get nothing. An added benefit of this will be to eliminate some of the back markers from getting in the way late in the race.

I’m afraid nothing will be accomplished by the rumored point changes. That seems to be the way of NASCAR. There is not enough brainpower at the top to make real good changes.

Clint Bowyer Drama

There is an aspect of the Clint Bowyer illegal car drama and penalty that I cannot grasp. Cars are inspected at least three times – before practice, before qualifying, and then again before the race. So why wasn’t the 1/16 of an inch discrepancy discovered then? Why wasn’t it discovered until after the race?

This is very disturbing. It’s been stated that NASCAR can do a more comprehensive examination of the car when they get the car to their facility in Charlotte. It doesn’t seem right that the same examination cannot be done before the race. It’s bewildering.

I’m assuming that there was no concern about the car being modified to become illegal while the race was going on. No change during a pit stop resulted in the car going from OK to not OK.

And, I don’t understand why the issue with the car that Carl used at Richmond is relevant to this discussion. That was a different car. Laughably, NASCAR officials basically said the Richmond car was legal, but they better fix it before it is used again. Huh?!?! Sorry, we fans can only see these things in black and white terms. Legal and not useable, or not legal. One or the other. NASCAR has done this before, see my blog dated October 7, 2009.

I suspect that there are many fans as confused as I am about this process of declaring a car illegal after it had passed inspection three times. This is another area that NASCAR continues to build on their lack of credibility.

Brian France - Step Aside!!!!

Brian France needs to step aside before he does any more damage. Although he continues to make money for NASCAR and the race tracks, he is in danger of losing too many fans.

I attended the Nationwide Series race at Richmond last Friday night. I have been to that race 10 of the last 11 years. There were less than half as many fans there as there were 5 years ago. Attendance, even compared to last year, was down at least 25%. The track did not open nearly as many sections as they used to.

I watched Saturday’s Cup race on television and could easily see at least 25% of the seats were not sold. That race was a sellout just a few years ago. And, there are fewer seats than there were then because they widened each seat! Television ratings for the race were down more than 10% from last year. Justifiably, ESPN doesn’t mention the attendance and ratings numbers. I don’t think enough is being said about it.

Brian France and his cohorts need to rethink some things. His bodacious attempt to steal football fans in the fall with the Chase has fallen flat on its face. The scary thing is he is about to tweak that format again, still thinking that it is a winner.

And now they are talking about messing with the Nationwide Series to somehow limit how Cup regulars participate in it. There was a time when that seemed like a good idea to me. Now it seems like it might kill the series.

I know Brian France and company will not change their thinking until money is being lost. That is probably a ways off. But, if things continue downward as they have been, it’s hard to say how far off that is.

The two things that need most to be done to the Cup series to begin righting the ship:
1 – Eliminate about 6 races. There are just too many to keep fan interest. A correlation can be seen between when they increased the number of races and when fan interest starting dropping.
2 – Eliminate the Chase and replace the points system with one that favors the top 5 finishers very heavily. The fans will love it. The drivers will no longer settle for top fifteen finishes.

It’s not surprising that NASCAR fan interest peaked like it did about 8 years ago. It’s not surprising that it went downhill from its peak. What is surprising is how far and how fast fan interest has fallen. The blame for that falls squarely on Brian France and the rest of NASCAR management.

Edwards and Keselowski NASCAR Penalties

NASCAR cannot have it both ways. Either they are going to let them race or they aren’t. Which is it?

The nonsense they came out with this year - “boys, have at it” apparently was nothing but public relations to try to raise fan interest. NASCAR has chickened out on that stated policy. The incident at the end of the July 17th Nationwide race at Madison has resulted in a $25,000 fine, loss of 60 points and probation for Carl Edwards, and probation for Brad Keselowski.

I do not like to see incidents like the one at Madison where a driver’s well being is put in such jeopardy. When Carl turned Brad at Atlanta it was even more frightening. But, NASCAR has a habit of not being consistent. They just cannot seem to determine whether they are willing to take risks or not.

NASCAR has said many times over the years that they will let the drivers settle it on the last lap. Well, they have to be consistent on that or, once again, lose credibility with fans. Do you remember the Bristol night race in August, 1999 when Dale Earnhardt Sr. turned Terry Labonte on the last lap and went on to win? Dale “just wanted to rattle his cage”. No penalties resulted. Sure, some fans booed, but NASCAR knew that it was good for the sport.

What is the difference between that incident and the one between Edwards and Keselowski? Has NASCAR become so mainstream, so plain vanilla, that they will not tolerate a villain? Earnhardt Sr. was viewed by many fans as a villain. NASCAR knew that, and they knew it was good for the sport.

The incident at Madison is being interpreted as a continuation of the Edwards – Keselowski feud. It was, instead, a move by Edwards coming off the final turn of the race to win the race. It has to be treated the same way as the Earnhardt Sr. incident at Bristol in 1999.

Above all things NASCAR must be consistent. Fans see right thru it when they aren’t. And, if they want a bunch of namby-pamby drivers going around in circles, that is fine. That is not what the fans want.

NASCAR Track Attendance

While watching Cup races on television I always keep my eye out for crowd shots that reveal the attendance for that race. It appears that the televising networks rarely show crowd shots like they used to. I’m sure it is because so many races are now poorly attended.

I believe that the New Hampshire track used to sell out when they had one event per year. At best, it appeared the event of June 27th only had about 60% of the seats occupied. Since turnstile counts are rarely announced by a track or NASCAR, we will probably never know for sure what the attendance was.

It certainly is not unique to the New Hampshire track that attendance is way down from, say, 15 years ago. Every track they race at, even Bristol and Richmond, are having attendance problems. I used to attend the September Richmond event by signing up to be eligible to request tickets on a certain date. I’d go in to work late just so I got my ticket order in. They even sent me a decal that I could display that I, proudly, had my Richmond tickets.

NASCAR’s pointing of the finger at the recession has grown old. It’s not the problem and they know it. There are too many races for the fans. Much like the television ratings continual decline, fans are so over-exposed that they have curtailed their attending races too.

I guess NASCAR only looks at the bottom line. It must be more profitable to have two not so well attended races than it is to have one sell out. It must be more profitable to have lower television ratings for 36 races than to have excellent television ratings for, say, 30 races.

That approach seems short sighted. As fans lose interest, are there more fans coming in to make up the difference? It seems like just a matter of time before we see the number of races scaled back.

NASCAR's Overtime

For the 6th time out of 14 races so far this year the Pocono race went into NASCAR’s version of overtime. It resulted in a horrific crash, as had most of the other overtime races. Teams that had earned a decent finish for a hard day’s work ended up loading a destroyed car.

Miraculously, no drivers were injured. NASCAR dodged that bullet again. How long will NASCAR play with fire before it gets burnt?

If fans are interested in seeing that kind of carnage, risking drivers’ lives, then I’m very disappointed. NASCAR has resorted to a Roman gladiator type approach to increasing fan interest. That is sad. What is sadder is that this, apparently, is what the fans want. It won’t be long before the charges of NASCAR being a blood sport are heard again.

There is nothing wrong with finishing a race under caution. The race can, and should, go for the advertised distance. Let strategy for fuel come into play.

I’m afraid it will take serious injury or death before NASCAR realizes that Green-White-Checkers is not the best way to increase fan interest.

NASCAR at Talladega

The recent races at Talladega were quite a spectacle. NASCAR and the media were giddy after the races as a result of all the lead changes, the three exciting green-white-checkers it took to decide a winner in the Cup race, and the wild crash at the end of the Nationwide race. I saw things much differently. I saw incredibly close racing that was dangerous to the drivers, crews, and fans.

NASCAR has totally given in to the fan. Television ratings and track attendance is what is driving NASCAR. They have, once again, been lulled to sleep by the safety improvements that seem to have made the drivers, crews and fans immune to injury. The fact is NASCAR has been nothing but very lucky.

What I saw was a demolition derby. When they wrecked, the cars looked like pin balls in a video game. Fans at home and in the stands are so mesmerized by these wrecks that they seem to have lost a sense of just how hard and dangerous these impacts are.

These cars are not foolproof safety wise. The drivers are still vulnerable. The fencing meant to protect the fans will not always hold. A picture of the fence after Dennis Setzer’s impact left me wondering how many fans would have been injured if there were grandstands located near that section of fencing.

NASCAR will continue to roll the dice at Talladega and Daytona until injuries (or worse) happen again. At some point NASCAR will roll craps and charges of blood sport will be heard again. It’s time to lower the banking at one end of these tracks so the restrictor plates can be removed resulting in breaking up the packs of cars. ESPN’s Andy Petrie said that, as a crew chief, he had many times brought cars home “in a box” from Talladega. I contend that NASCAR needs to make changes before it’s the people that are brought home “in a box”.

Carl Edwards vs. Brad Keselowski

Carl Edwards has shown his “dark” side before. Remember when he threw a fake sucker punch at Matt Kenseth? Carl is an expert at smooth talking the media and fans, but there is a streak in him that is disturbing. What he did at Atlanta shows he is really not the All-American boy that he has fooled us into thinking he is.

He had many other options. He could wait for an opportunity at a far less dangerous track to put the bumper to Brad Keselowski. Carl could get in his way when pitted next to Brad. He could block him on the track when Brad is obviously faster. These are much safer than turning someone at 195 MPH right in front of the grandstands. They say that revenge is a dish best served cold. Carl should have thought of that.

Not that Brad Keselowski didn’t deserve a dose of his own medicine. Aggressive drivers are the kind we like to watch. But, Brad always seems to go a little bit over the line. Just ask Denny Hamlin. Brad will be a very successful NASCAR driver if he just dials it back a notch.

And, of course, NASCAR is very culpable in what happened. Their inability to get certain things right never ceases to worry me. They had no qualms before the season began of stating that they were going to “let the boys be boys” and resolve their own disputes. Well, you know that they cannot say such things and allow drivers to use their 3,500 pound machines as weapons. When NASCAR said that they sounded like a half-drunk redneck saying “Hey! Watch this!”. It was clearly an attempt to raise sagging television ratings.

I do agree with NASCAR’s punishment of Carl Edwards – the three race probation. I also understand why many fans feel Carl’s stupidity deserved a more severe punishment. But, NASCAR needs to get real clear about what they are going to allow and not allow. To me, anything like this that happens under the green flag can not be tolerated.

Green-White-Checkers and a Pothole

Most fans think the green-white-checkers finish procedure previously instituted by NASCAR and recently modified is a great thing. I do not. I know it is here to stay and that I’m out voted, but here are my reasons:

1 – Races are advertised for a certain distance – 500 miles, 400 laps, whatever. The race should last only that distance. Teams set up the car and figure fuel requirements for that distance. Fans may think that adding that element of mystery or confusion at the end of the race is a good thing, but the teams don’t.

2 – As we saw at the Daytona 500, those end of race restarts turn into a demolition derby. Teams that had a great day going end up in the middle of someone else’s overly aggressive attempt to gain a position. Luck becomes even more a determiner of success.

The pothole that delayed the race by well over two hours should never have happened. Track officials claim the track was examined before the race. It’s extremely difficult to believe that evidence of the problem was not apparent prior to the race. The problem gave a black eye to what was, otherwise, a very good race.

The New Season

The new season is suddenly upon us. I hold out a small amount of hope that the series will be improved over recent years. But, it certainly has a long way to go.

Improvements:

1 – The attempt to standardize race start times to be, mostly, 1 PM in the east. West coast races and night races will, obviously, be different as will the 600 mile race in Charlotte. Texas has already been granted a move to 3 PM in the east. Even so, this is a good change as long as 1 PM doesn’t become 1:40 PM as the networks are prone to do.

2 – The wing will be replaced by a spoiler early in the year. The wing is ugly. It makes the cars look anything but “stock”. The drivers seem to feel that the cars will race better with a spoiler rather than the wing. Now, let’s hope they do something about the splitter.

3 – The restrictions on bump drafting at Daytona and Talladega have been lifted. This will make for better racing, but also for more accidents. Call this an improvement, but those tracks will continue to be overly dangerous until they modify the tracks so they can race without the restrictor plates.

4 – Some tracks, notably Richmond, are reducing their number of seats by making the existing seats wider. This is long overdue and needs to be considered by most other tracks. It’s hard to enjoy a race when packed in like sardines.

NASCAR is saying “see, we listen to the fans”. To some extent that is true. But, they take too long to make a change and need to address more of the fans complaints:

1 – Most fans want to scrap the Chase. The championship is a season long process. The ratings show no bump during the 10 race Chase. Scrap it.

2 – There are too many races. Fans cannot maintain interest at the required level for 36 races. This is probably the thing that NASCAR has done the most wrong, yet has the least chance of being corrected. It’s much like “killing the goose that laid the golden egg”. Any good entertainment leaves the fans wanting more, but not in this case.

3 – Much like there are too many races, there is over-saturation by the networks. Too many on-air personalities are spending too much time filling up pre-race shows with nothing but blather. Even during the race it is sometimes more fun to turn the sound off.

4 – Fans began to realize last year just how unfair the “lucky dog” and “wave around” rules are. Fans are becoming less inclined to have real competition replaced by artificial attempts to keep all the cars on the lead lap. If you lose a lap apparently you aren’t that good today.

2010 will be a year of better racing and more fan interest. The little things they’ve done are steps in the right direction. Increased fan interest will lead NASCAR to, once again, think everything is fine. But, there are still many more improvements to be made before the series will get back to where it was ten years ago.

The Year is Over

With last night’s banquet the year is finally over. I hesitate to re-hash my already stated complaints:

• Television ratings are down.
• Fans are conspicuously absent from the tracks (and it’s not the recession).
• Jimmie Johnson won the championship again and many of us (including me) question its legitimacy.

Despite all my complaints I continue to watch every race. Although I enjoy them, the races many times are not what they used to be. NASCAR can do much to make the whole series and each race better:

• Modify the points system and eliminate the Chase. The best idea I’ve heard is to heavily weight podium (top three) finishes. Also, eliminate points for, say, 31st on back.
• Influence the television networks to focus on racing rather than blather. Do we really need 11 (count them) on-air personalities vying for the microphone?
• Make the cars look like race cars with more manufacturer identity.
• Eliminate the “Lucky Dog” and the “wave around”. It’s a race – not a show.
• Find a way to get rid of the restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega. What we saw at Talladega is not racing and is very dangerous.
• Try a little harder to hold qualifying rather than setting the field by points.

I will credit NASCAR with one change this year and one change planned for 2010:

• The double file restarts are a good thing. I had my doubts, but other than the “wave around”, they added something.
• The plan to have more races start at the same time (early afternoon) next year is a good one.

Let’s hope that 2010 is a good season.

Talladega Race

The Talladega NASCAR Cup race of November 1st was the beginning of the end for both restrictor plate racing and the current configuration of the Talladega and Daytona tracks. NASCAR, of course, doesn’t know this yet. They will figure it out eventually. I predict that in about five years you will hear NASCAR come up with a plan to do it. They just have to figure out a way to make it sound like it is their idea. That’s just the way they are.

The problem NASCAR has with Talladega and Daytona is twofold: boring and dangerous. During the Talladega race ABC/ESPN made it out to be the bore it was. Single file, stay in line, be careful not to bump the car in front of you in the turns or big, bad Mike Helton will get after you. Now NASCAR is deriding the ABC/ESPN announcing team for daring to say that the race was dull and hinting that the dullness was NASCAR induced. ABC/ESPN usually is very careful not to offend the NASCAR powers to be, but this time they had no choice but to ridicule what they were seeing.

The increased danger in the racing at Talladega and Daytona has been there ever since they went to the restrictor plates. The cars just cannot separate themselves from each other. No matter how hard NASCAR dictates that it not happen, wrecks will occur. Ryan Newman was blunt in his criticism after the wild ride he took. After his wreck at the finish, Mark Martin nearly bit his tongue off to prevent expressing his displeasure with the safety of restrictor plate racing. No matter how safe NASCAR makes these cars (and they have made them much safer) it is only a matter of time racing in these conditions that someone gets seriously hurt or killed.

So, five years from now NASCAR will find a way to remove the restrictor plates and knock down the banking at one end of Talladega and Daytona. They will come up with reasoning that will save face. NASCAR will deem that some kind of technological breakthrough or improvement has made the removal of the plates and the changing of the track configurations a major improvement to the racing at those two facilities. As they are patting themselves on the back I hope we aren’t mourning the loss of a driver.

Hendrick Body-gate

I suspect many fans are confused and disturbed by what happened when NASCAR took the 5 (Mark Martin) and the 48 (Jimmy Johnson) cars back to Charlotte for more inspection following the Dover race. At first we heard that the bodies were illegal by a few thousandths of an inch. Then we were told that they were, after all, legal. Then John Darby shrewdly stated that he told those teams that the cars were legal, but had nearly failed, so don’t bring them back.

Huh? Is he saying that they are legal, but you can’t race them? He then tried to backtrack and say that what he meant was they are so close to being illegal that you better not use them. Huh? Darby then used a weight limit analogy to describe what he meant, thinking that if he brought it down to our level we’d understand it. Is he saying that a car right at the weight limit cannot come back? His explanations are tortured to say the least.

Many fans and competitors (Jack Roush for example) have often felt that NASCAR shows some level of favoritism toward Hendrick Motorsports. It’s hard to say if it is true, but NASCAR seems to have a penchant of making decisions that can be viewed that way. Others will point to how many times Hendrick’s crew chiefs have been suspended as proof that there is no favoritism. Regardless, penalizing the 5 team after the race is something that fans might not smile upon. Mark Martin has, in his post-retirement era, become a real fan favorite.

But, every time NASCAR does something like this they lose a little bit of credibility. I think what happened here is that these two teams found a little way around some measurements that NASCAR had never imagined. Since NASCAR has an incredibly difficult time admitting to an error or an omission, and since they were deathly afraid of taking points away from Mark Martin, NASCAR had no choice but to give these two teams a free pass.

Fans are treated with disdain and sometimes, outright contempt by NASCAR when it comes to issues like this. Otherwise, we would have been given a complete and exact description of what was found and why it was deemed to be legal.

Change the Points System

I have been contemplating possible ways that NASCAR can improve the Cup points system. Let’s face it - the current approach using the Chase has resulted in lower ratings rather than the intended higher ratings. No matter how much Brian France and his posse pretend otherwise, ratings are sacred. Sports are just another television show. All television shows live and die by their television ratings. It’s not just the money that NASCAR and the tracks make off television rights - those ratings are looked at very closely by team sponsors.

There are two approaches that NASCAR can take. One involves a major tweaking of the Chase as it is today. The other throws the Chase out and institutes a complete new (to NASCAR) points system.

1 – The fatal flaw in the Chase is that teams compete who do not have a chance of winning the championship. No other professional sport includes teams in their play offs that are not eligible to win it all.

The solution to this is to, at the start of the Chase, change the point structure to let the top 35 teams be able to win it all. How? Look at the PGA and the FedEx Cup. They start their 4 tournament playoff with a fixed number of players, all who have a theoretical chance of winning the championship. Then, after each tournament, some players at the bottom are dropped off – but those remaining are still, in theory, able to win it all.

Apply this to NASCAR. Start the Chase with the top 35 teams. After each race, drop off the team with the least points. When the series arrives in Homestead there are 26 teams left. But, restructure the points so that all teams can still win the championship.

This approach will make for some interesting racing. The only downside is that sponsorship contracts have to be designed to allow the possibility of not competing in all 36 races. But, it does eliminate the fatal flaw in the current Chase system by allowing all teams in the races to be competing for the championship.

2 – The other approach NASCAR can consider to boost ratings is to eliminate the Chase and adopt a Formula 1 type point system. Formula 1 awards points to only the first 8 finishers. Since their typical starting field is about 20 cars that is usually 40% of the field.

Apply that to NASCAR and award points to only the top 15 finishers. Weigh it heavily toward the top 3 finishers so that there is a reward to not go into “points racing” mode. Something like:
1 - 30
2 - 26
3 - 22
4 - 18
5 - 15
6 - 12
7 - 10
8 - 8
9 - 7
10 - 6
11 - 5
12 - 4
13 - 3
14 - 2
15 - 1

Using this method thru this year’s 29 races so far (three Chase races) the top five is:
Stewart - 395
Gordon - 371
Johnson - 343
Martin - 338
Hamlin - 308

With seven races to go at least the top four have a legitimate shot at winning the championship. The key concept is that a team receives no reward for a less than fifteenth place finish. The top teams have to continue to race hard or they can be caught.

NASCAR has always maintained that their points system rewards consistency. That’s a nice idea, but wasn’t the Chase instituted after Matt Kenseth put us to sleep with his consistency in 2003 when he won the championship? Fans will love it when teams gamble and go for a win rather than being content with a top ten finish.

Richmond

I attended the Nationwide race at Richmond and was a bit surprised by what I saw.

I have attended 9 of the last 10 Nationwide (or Busch) Friday night September races there. Attendance is off at least 20% from what it used to be as recently as 2 years ago. There are fewer vendors on the “midway” and even the Chevrolet pavilion has lost something.

I still had a great time. The race was excellent. The areas accessible to spectators are well maintained. Food prices seem to generally be steady.

Saturday night I watched the Cup race on television. It was painfully obvious that, not only is the race no longer a sell-out, but it appeared that 10% of the seats were not filled. It was only a couple of years ago that it was difficult to get a ticket for that race. No more.

So, what is the problem? I don’t believe that it is all about the recession. That is what NASCAR and the media want you to believe. It seems we have crested the hill in fan interest and have started on the downhill side. True, ESPN has managed to hold or even slightly improve their ratings over last year. But, not enough to make up what they lost previously.

There must be something going away either in the product or its presentation, or both. In most companies when this happens a change in management is used to get things going again. I suggest that is what NASCAR needs to do. Mike Helton, John Darby, and others may need to be pushed into other positions and be replaced by some fresh thinking new people. I hate to see the product continue to go downhill.

Watkins Glen on Monday

I attended the race at Watkins Glen on Monday and, while I enjoyed the race, a couple of comments are necessary.

The race should not have had to been held on Monday. In the good old days (before NASCAR’s gazillion dollar television contracts) ESPN came on the air for this race at 1:00 PM and engines were started at 1:06 PM. Remember that? If that was done this year the race would have reached around half way before the rain started. Since it stopped raining so that the race could have been restarted at 6:00 PM, the entire race could easily have been run on Sunday.

The ratings just came out for the Monday race and, as expected, they are abysmal. I don’t have a clue how the television contracts are worded. There must be a ratings factor in it. Does the network benefit from a long pre-race show? Does anybody watch it? I keep wondering how much the ratings have to go down before big changes are made. NASCAR and ESPN – please feel free to offer me a job to help you out in this area. I can make things better. Just leave a phone number in the COMMENTS.

I have attended 20 of the last 22 races at Watkins Glen. At most, 60% of the fans attended the race on Monday that were there on Sunday. That’s sad. Fans remember those things. After what happened at Richmond last September you can bet I’ll never buy an advanced sale ticket again. NASCAR needs to work with the networks to have a better chance of getting a race in without carrying over to the next day. Granted, a 1:00 PM start will not work all the time, but this is an example of when it can.

At most, only 25% of the food vendors were there and operating on Monday. I guess contracts for getting food to the track end on Sunday?? Whatever the reason, I felt overly gouged for a $6 slice of pizza and a $4 bottle of soda. Maybe those were the prices on Sunday. Whether they were or not, I was held captive to their prices if I wanted to eat.

Pocono Problems

The Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono brought to light three huge NASCAR problems:

1 – Rained out qualifying. There was no time on Saturday to run qualifying? True, all teams present got into the race, but it seems that the process of putting on qualifying is not high on NASCAR’s agenda.

2 – Rained out race. The attempt to dry the track looked pathetic. Four jet dryers are not going to dry a 2.5 mile track very quickly. Put a gazillion vehicles of all sorts out there and see how fast it gets dry. Having been in that situation I feel very sorry for all the fans that could not come back on Monday. ESPN was very careful to not show a good crowd shot, it appeared the seats were only about half full. I’d love to see the count.

3 – Lucky Dog. Jimmy Johnson only raced 490 miles! He was given 10 miles - 4 laps. For 2 of those laps he was more than a lap down. This is racing? Does NASCAR ever consider that nonsense like this is why the old, hard core fans are losing interest? Do other sports do anything like this?

I'm not taking away the incredible job Johnson's pit crew did to fix their engine problem. But that does not earn them 10 miles! The gushing of the on air television personalities was sickening! Any positive comment they made about Johnson finishing 13th should have been accompanied with a great big "BUT"!

Jeremy Mayfield

I don't know what to think about the Jeremy Mayfield saga. I find it very confusing that he continues to deny ever using ANY illegal drug while the results of NASCAR’s testing shows otherwise. Since O. J. Simpson denied murdering his ex-wife and her boyfriend we have not seen this kind of public denial that has gone on and on.

I alternate between believing him and not believing him. If he is lying he will eventually look so incredibly stupid that, not only will his career be over (it already is), but he’ll never hold a job or have a means of supporting himself. Why is he spending all his money on legal help if he is lying? Doesn’t it make more sense to just take his punishment and get on with his life with some money in the bank?

If he is telling the truth, then a large number of questions arise. First and foremost is the question as to the viability of the entire NASCAR testing process. Is there a chemistry reason for the results that shows a false positive as Mayfield contends? Why has NASCAR been so secretive about what is on the list of drugs being tested for? The France family and NASCAR have never been open as to their decision making and methods. That may work when it comes directly to managing the cars and the race, but it doesn’t work for off-track issues like this.

It’s unfortunate for the sport that this has happened. The media, justifiably, cannot leave it alone. It may just fade away, but I don’t think so. It seems too late for Mayfield to confess. NASCAR will never admit they did something wrong, even if they did. It looks to be heading for a protracted length of time in the courts. That is not good for Jeremy Mayfield, NASCAR, the fans, or the sport.