Charlotte RacinDeals

SAFETY FIRST?: NASCAR took a giant
step backwards Friday night when they let the cars qualify in the dark. There’s
no excuse for that. They knew the power company was working on getting the power
back on, and should have suspended qualifying until then. They did this last
year at Talladega when qualifying went long and it got dark on them.

Putting aside the safety issue, the
drivers who went towards the end were at a big disadvantage because they just
couldn’t see where they were going.

Another big question is, why aren’t there
any emergency lights in turn one? Can you imagine what would happen if the power
went off during a race?

SAFETY SECOND?: I haven’t seen the
tape I made of the Winston (primarily because the race started about the time my
recorder hit the end of the tape). But I understand that they started the race
knowing that it was raining, and that resulted in a crash by at least four
drivers.

For the life of me, I can’t see how they
could do that in good conscious. But you have to hand it to those drivers. When
they’re told to go, they go, even knowing that they’re gonna wreck. That’s
either bravery or foolishness, I’m not sure which.

[Later] They reran the race on Monday on
FoxSports Net, and I did get to see the start. I have to say that it looked to
me like it was one of those deals where it literally started raining when they
hit turn four and by the time they got the green flag, turn one was wet. 

MAKING IT RIGHT: OK, so we throw
the green flag on a wet track and the inevitable happens: cars wreck in turn
one. So, NASCAR takes a page out of the Formula 1 (can I say that without paying
a royalty?) book and they let several drivers go to a backup car,
because the race hadn’t started yet. And the reason it hadn’t started was that
no green flag laps had been completed. All week long you hear that The Winston
is run under Saturday night rules. Well, that’s one of the rules. 

If there’s a wreck that brings out the
caution before the first lap is completed, they do a complete restart. But since
they also put out the red flag for the rain, NASCAR let the teams go to the
backup cars. You hear about big penalties for working on your car during the red
flag, but if NASCAR says you can, then you can.

I’m not sure why NASCAR is getting all the
heat for this. They did the right thing. 

CREDENTIALS NOT NEEDED: Seems that
RPM2nite is scoring big in the ratings this year. Conventional wisdom would say
that because they’re not able to get into the tracks for their own coverage that
the quality of the reporting would go down. They’ve done a good job reporting
from outside the tracks this year.

But I think the main reason that their
ratings are up is that they don’t have as much NASCAR stuff anymore, so they
have to cover other series that last year would have gotten short shrift. I
think that’s opened up their audience quite a bit, and the ratings are showing
it.

THIS WINDSHIELD FOR SALE: Some
company has come up with one of the most harebrained ideas I’ve heard: putting
some kind of decal on the glass (or clear) areas of the car for sponsor logos.
Supposedly it’s like one-way glass in that you can see through it from one side
but from the other side it’s a "high contrast" commercial.

How many times have you seen a race where
the commentators are explaining what the drivers are doing and show a slow
motion replay where they illustrate the point by highlighting the driver’s hands
on the wheel? You can kiss that good bye if this device is adopted. Drivers are
supposedly experimenting with it and I seriously hope they leave it off the
cars.

[Later] Looks like we got to see the
technology at work during the driver intros for The Winston. It was very
disconcerting seeing a truck with the Winston Cup Series logo on the windshield.
If they want to put this on cars, then maybe go for the right side window, but
otherwise, I hope they stay away from it.

WHIMPER FI: Ah, Team Marines. They
fired Chad Chaffin earlier this year, and went with David Donohue. I see by the
Nazareth results that they still have a lack of "performance" despite
the driver change.

Sometimes it’s not the driver; it’s the
team.

SON OF A…: I can’t believe all
the whining I’m seeing on the web about FX’s commercial for "Son of the
Beach." "What do I say to my kid who asks me what a golden shower
is?" You tell the kid the same thing you tell her when she asks why Rusty
Wallace or Mark Martin showed his middle finger to Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon:
"It’s just a silly adult thing."

MYTH MAKING: Let’s see… Casey
Atwood had 17 or so wins
at Nashville Speedway before he turned 18, and now Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is in the
first car he’s ever driven that wasn’t owned by his dad.

Maybe it’s old age, and I’m inventing
memories. But I could have sworn that he drove a Busch race or two in the #7
car. Can’t remember the owner, but it wasn’t DEI. I specifically remember him
running at Bristol, and running pretty good for a while.

Ah well. I guess PR people have to write
something.

ODDS MAN OUT: Some web sites are
making a big deal on Jeff Gordon being cast as the favorite to win the 600 mile
race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (memo to sponsors: naming rights for sale on
this site).

Two things wrong with that: They’re
reporting it as "news" which it isn’t (what’s newsworthy about Las
Vegas odds?) Secondly, it’s not like the oddsmakers are predicting that Gordon
will win. Those odds are based on the betting action. I believe the way it works
is that the more people who bet on a particular driver, the lower his odds (or
maybe it’s the higher his odds; I don’t gamble). Either way, it’s not a
prediction.

THE OFFICIAL TOENAIL POLISH OF NASCAR:
This is getting ridiculous. NASCAR should be a sanctioning body, not a marketing
body. Now we have the official vitamin store of NASCAR. All that means is that
some company has paid big bucks to NASCAR for the right to use that phrase in
their marketing. And it also means that NASCAR has taking a potential sponsor
away from a car owner. I don’t know how much "official" status costs a
company, but that money would probably be enough for an associate sponsorship
(or a primary sponsorship if I’m underestimating the amount) on a car…. like
the #27 for example. Or it might be enough to fund a Busch Grand National team
or a Truck team. (Yeah, I realize they’re already on a car, but how long will
that last?)