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.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, October 5, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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"!
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"!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
