Kansas, Ben Blake, and Stafford – Crashes, Bashes, and A Victory Tie
Deliberate bad pun warning –
Kansas Speedway made its big NASCAR debut
and it was a smash hit. Yes sir, Casey Atwood, Ricky Craven, John Andretti,
Buckshot Jones, Ward Burton, Dale Jarrett, Stacy Compton, Dale Junior, and
others made a smashing debut at the new track. They crashed the party, smashed
records, and were all tired out at the end.
POW! SMACK! CRUNCH! Okay, okay! I’ll stop
the awful puns!!!!
But seriously, Kansas’ debut was literally
a smashing success – it was a success with a packed house both race days and
there were about as many yellows as a typical Bristol race. And Goodyear’s tires
came under fire again, despite the Vincent Price-inspired pendulum axe swinging
over drivers’ heads; the pendulum that will cut off a driver’s tire deal if he
gets too impudent in his commentaries – regardless, of course, of how accurate
such criticisms are – as it is Tony Stewart may
see Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the handful of teams that get free tires, lose
their deal.
The big controversy centered on Rusty
Wallace’s pit speed penalty. Many drivers attack
NASCAR’s refusal to implement transponder technology to read pit speeds –
ignoring the rash of scoring breakdowns and other telemetry failures that have
plagued the sport the last two years and which necessitate the use of manual
scoring and timing. The other disingenuous aspect is that Rusty is among the
more notorious of pit-speed flaunters.
There was a rather interesting discussion
during the NBC telecast about the cookie-cutter nature of the racetrack and
about how dependent modern racecars are on air to handle. What is always galling
about such discussions is that, while alternative track designs were mentioned –
they kept hyping building another Richmond or Bristol, even though the racing
generally there isn’t any better than at Kansas or the other similar tracks –
there again was no discussion of what the sport should do so the cars are not
impeded by dirty air – i.e. how can changes to the cars kill the aero-push?
"We’ve got way too much down force on
the cars," Mark
Martin said after the race. This, though, is a bit of a backwards analysis –
down force isn’t the problem as much as lack of drag and its by-product, the
lack of an effective draft, and over dependence on air to create down force. If
NASCAR’s cars drafted as well as the IRL and Indy Lights cars did at the track
in July, the racing would be a lot different.
From the "Some Guys Just Don’t Get
It" file –
Ben
Blake of Speedvision writes approvingly of criticism of running New
Hampshire the day after Thanksgiving. After Mike Helton declared that the
November date is set in stone, Blake writes that the price of Eddie Gossage’s
famous "Shut Up And Race" T-shirts went up.
I’ll have to log on to E-Bay and see if I
can purchase one of those shirts, for it sends the message these
"Sharecroppers with fat wallets" (Blake’s derisive term) ought to heed
once in awhile.
"There is a long list of grievances
NASCAR has done little or nothing about," and typifying the myopic quality
of press coverage of such issues, it never occurs to Blake that there are valid
reasons why NASCAR "has done little or nothing about these issues."
– "Aside from….crash tests, NASCAR
has done little or nothing about the construction of the cars…..Too-stiff
chassis, lack for adequate crush, and the position of the driver compartment are
exactly the way they were in February." What the year since Earnhardt’s
death has shown is that such objections as Blake raises are nowhere close to the
clear-cut failings he (and the rest of the media) have portrayed them to be.
The lack of depth in safety thought in
media coverage shows in that Blake has a golden opportunity to comment on the
speeds of the racecars, and does not even raise the subject – nor, for that
matter, does Bill Simpson in his endless self-indulgent rants about chassis
stiffness. It is the speed of the racecars at virtually all of these tracks that
is the REAL issue – I doubt Blake believes that these cars REALLY need to run
above 135 at Dover, 150 at Kansas or Chicagoland, or 160 at Texas, Michigan, or
Atlanta, and certainly if these cars were running such circa-1976 speeds a lot
of safety issues would become non-stories.
– "NASCAR has done nothing to change
its suicidal aero rules for the race at (Talladega) in October…..The roof dam
and the spoiler lip remain." Mr. Blake, what is your problem? The aero
rules for Talladega are NOT suicidal. That "show test" in September
demonstrated how much racier the cars are with the roof dam and spoiler lip than
they possibly can be without it. There is NO REASON to change the aero rules at
Talladega – on the contrary, those rules, with additions such as similar aero
dams on the nose and forward doorposts, need to be phased into the cars at more
tracks – they sure would have made a difference at Kansas.
– "NASCAR continues with no idea of
employing a dedicated, professional rescue/medical team. This is beyond
absurd." No, Mr. Blake, it is not. NASCAR already has dedicated
professional rescue and medical teams – at the individual tracks. There is no
need for a traveling squad as so tiresomely advocated by yourself and others.
– "The brutal 38-week schedule, which
concludes with 20 consecutive race weekends, will be almost exactly the same
next year……(and) isn’t likely to change." Again, there is no need for
change – though adding second dates at Fontana and Texas (if for no other reason
than to shut up Bruton) has been bandied about and wouldn’t hurt.
Which brings Blake to the New Hampshire
decision. He claims there are many reasons not to run New Hampshire the day
after Thanksgiving. The primary one appears to be driver whining about missing
the holiday. "The thought of leaving my family on Thanksgiving, is one I
don’t like," Dale Jarrett says. "That’s at the top of the list."
Well, since NASCAR would not run the race
(and the supporting GN North and Modified events) the Monday after the scheduled
mid-September Sunday, everyone knew that the only available make-up date was in November,
and since pushing back the entire schedule by a week was unfeasible, Jarrett and
everyone else had more reason to realize that Thanksgiving weekend was the
earliest possible date. The Friday after the holiday was chosen to give two
"snow" dates, though the likelihood of snow at that time has been
somewhat oversold.
"Is anyone going to go out of
business based on losing this event?" Not necessarily out of business, but
not getting it in will cost the area’s economy as well as deny teams revenue
from the race – GN North and the Modifieds could certainly have used revenue
from their cancelled NHIS event.
One other objection concerns tire grip on
the cold surface, but a good comeback comes in Mike Snow’s September 28 issue of
Speedway Scene – "One NASCAR operative indicated….that Goodyear told them
they expected no traction problems and that the drivers were using it as an
excuse because ‘they don’t want to work.’" Ain’t that the broader truth –
with all the money these drivers and teams make, lack of incentive has been an
issue for over a decade. These drivers ought to be just accepting that they have
to race the day after Thanksgiving and not whining
about it.
"A season which began with the death
of Earnhardt should not end with a dreary snowplow run the day after
Thanksgiving." Too bad, because that’s the way it has to be. There’s a term
for all this whining, Mr. Blake, and unlike the term you want to use in your
piece but can’t print, the term I have in mind can be – pure garbage.
Showing the New Hampshire objections to be
pure garbage was the Fall Final at Stafford Motor Speedway. The weather was
overcast and cold, colder than usual for latter September in the area. Four
classes of cars ran features stretching nearly five hours of competition, and
there was plenty of excitement all around.
Ted Christopher was entered in three
events – the SK Modifieds, the Mod Series, and Grand National North. His first
round was in GN North, and just as he took the lead from Dale Shaw he was
Earnhardted by Shaw. From there Terrible Ted had to pass half the field under
green before the first yellow at Lap 80. Brad Leighton gunned past Shaw with 51
to go for the win, with Christopher surprisingly mired in the pack and Mike
Olsen emerging as GN North champ.
Next up was the SK Modifieds, and Teddy
held a 32-point edge over Chuck Docherty, an edge that for a heart-stopping
second disintegrated. The opening six laps saw the entire field two abreast
battling for the lead. Curt Brainerd held the lead by inches each lap before
getting in the clear, but on Lap 11 he was Earnhardted by Donny Travelgin. On
the ensuing restart a huge mess ensued in Turn Three and Ted was seemingly
finished for the day and the title – this after winning nine races during the
year. But Docherty pitted before the restart with damage and lost a lap, enough
for Ted to win the SK title by 26 points, while Kerry Malone held off Lloyd Agor
for the feature win.
Now 0-for-2 for the day, Ted was also
0-for-Mod Tour career at Stafford; perhaps the bitterest loss was his debut at
Stafford in Gary Cretty’s #25 Dodge in August 2000 – he dominated the race but
collided with another car on a restart, spun, and was T-boned in Turn Two.
This time, though, Ted would not be
denied. He dominated as he has many an SK event, and Rick Fuller could do
nothing but finish a distant second. It was his fifth career Mod Tour win and
first ever at Stafford.
But by far the wildest event was the Late
Model feature. After three crashes in the opening ten laps, Woody Pitkat grabbed
the lead from Scott Garrity; several times in the final 15 laps Garrity got a
fender alongside Pitkat, and Garrity apparently has a deal with DEI, for
"Wilson" was in his Chevrolet. Garrity finally got under Pitkat with
two to go and had the lead, but off Four of the last lap Chuck Zentarski dove
underneath and they hit the stripe – at an exact instant.
Nobody could believe it. A dead heat for a
race win. It was so stunning that Jim Peterson’s first Late Model title was
forgotten amid the disbelief.
There have been dead heats for top
positions – in the 1974 Firecracker 400 Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough tied for
third, and in IROC 1992 at Daytona Ricky Rudd and Harry Gant tied for second in
a three-wide photo finish. This, though, was the first dead heat for a win in Stafford
history and I offhand can’t remember any other such circumstance in racing
before.
It sure deserved top story honors on local
Connecticut television news in their sports sections.
John Andretti nicely summed it up after
Kansas – "I told Kyle (Petty), ‘why can’t something good happen to this
team?’" It’s a question that applies not only to the Petty team but to so
many others – certainly NASCAR needs the Pettys, the McClures, Andy Petree (even
though Bobby Hamilton won Talladega), and others to win races a lot more than it
needs another Jeff Gordon win.