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.

NASCAR's Lucky Logano

NASCAR rules handed Joey Logano the New Hampshire race. Don’t get me wrong. I like Joey Logano. I believe he will have a long and successful career in NASCAR. But, he was not worthy of his first win.

NASCAR’s “Lucky Dog” rule gave Joey his first win. He was the recipient of a free lap not once, but twice. Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, and others were far more deserving of getting the win. I have no quarrel with the fuel conservation strategy Joey and others used. That is part of racing. But, the gift of the “Lucky Dog” rule determined the race winner. It is such a bad rule.

Joey wasn’t even in contact with the leaders either time when he was awarded a lap back. This is called racing? This is a contrived show that NASCAR wants us to believe is a competition. It looks more and more like IROC.

For now on we must call Joey by the name “Lucky” Logano.

Double File Restarts at Infineon

NASCAR got away with the double file restarts at Pocono and Michigan with little comment from the drivers. For those two tracks was it very much different? Such wide tracks with a significant distance from the start/finish line to turn one made the double restart benign, regardless of the TNT crew gushing over them.

The next two races (Infineon and New Hampshire) may be a little more interesting. Late race restarts, when the drivers are thinking it is time to “go”, may produce a lot more beating and banging. The result of that may be some bruised drivers’ feelings. When someone up front gets turned as a result of these close restarts with only a few laps to go, expect some angry words.

This may be fun for the fans, unless your favorite is the one that lost out. I think that the double file restarts are a good thing until the race is past its half-way point. After that it needs to go single file. Fairness cannot be totally sacrificed for fan excitement.

NASCAR's "Wave Around" Gift

NASCAR’s new “wave around” policy seemed to go without problems at Pocono. TNT seemed to have a little trouble keeping up with everything that happened under caution and didn’t stress enough that these “wave around” cars were receiving a big gift. After all, they were over 2½ miles behind, then suddenly they were only 100 yards behind.

There appeared to be only a few cars that took advantage of the gift. I think that will change dramatically at a track like Bristol. At Bristol, where many cars go a lap down, we will see many cars take advantage of this racing oddity that NASCAR has invented.

I guess that NASCAR’s ultimate goal is to keep all cars on the lead lap. Is that racing? If that is what fans want then I have totally lost touch. Even if it becomes obvious that this change was a mistake NASCAR will never admit it. We are stuck with it.

NASCAR's Latest Manipulations

So, NASCAR went ahead and instituted double file restarts. This may be fun to watch. There will be unintended and very unfair consequences to this latest attempt to manipulate racing.

The most interesting thing to watch may be when lapped cars remaining on the track instead of pitting will be “waved around” the pace car to pick up a lap on the leader. Wow! Losing a lap now becomes insignificant. With so many cautions it will be easy to get a lap back.

I cannot grasp the reasoning for this change. True, those cars that did not pit started at the tail end of the lead lap ahead of the rest of the field and frequently caused fan confusion and difficulties for the race leaders. But, I can see instances where everyone a lap or more down will not pit so they can gain a lap back and hope another caution comes out quickly. Essentially, any car a lap down can become a “Lucky Dog”.

This is not racing. It’s a contrived show. Real race fans will not like it. Once, again NASCAR is showing that it cares nothing about its base fans. It’s really odd how NASCAR keeps going farther and farther away from the racing that made it a strong series. Their attempts to make things even do not ring well.