2002’s Racing Resolutions
So we enter the two thousand second (or
third, depending on how you tabulate it) year Anno Domini. And with the flow
from 2001 come the usual annual resolutions for the new year. Entering a new
year always brings hope for improvement. For 2002 that hope needs to become
reality.
What should some of the resolutions for
racing be?
FOR NASCAR TO STOP BABYING THE PRIMA
DONNAS – The prima donnas aren’t just certain drivers; this group includes
some drivers, some members of the press, and so forth. They whined about the
length of the schedule and the intensity of some of the racing. They should have
been told to shut up and race. NASCAR castrated its best racing for the sake of
a purely notional improvement in safety. Once Daytona testing shows the folly of
this move, NASCAR should restore the situation back to what it was last year and
stay with it.
Lee Spencer writes, "Fix the
schedule." She and the others are wrong. 38 weekends isn’t too many. The
sport can handle 40 point races plus two all-star events. She writes, "39
weeks on the road…are too many." Like so many others she ignores that
teams ran that many weeks on the road and more back in the ’70s and ’80s when
counting races and testing, and this was when teams only had 16-20 crewmen total
as opposed to the hundreds of today. The resignation of key crew chiefs after
2001 was inevitable in those particular situations; they don’t indicate a need
to do anything.
"Don’t be surprised if the early
races at Rockingham and Darlington aren’t included in the 2003 schedule."
They should be included. ALL the present tracks and dates should be included.
"This isn’t the PGA; drivers can’t pick and choose….to run for the Cup
title, it’s all or nothing." That’s the way it should be.
FOR THE PRIMA DONNAS TO START ACTING
LIKE MEN – Real men recognize risk and accept it. The overall risk in racing
is no different from in the 1970s and ’80s. The drivers of today increasingly
act like scared kids rather than men. They need to learn to put fear out of
their minds and race, and by this I mean RACE – don’t hesitate to go for the
lead, regardless of what lap it is or how many cars are on the lead lap or how
packed together they are. Racing is supposed to be the most intense competition
in sports, and drivers are supposed to shine in such, not whine about it.
Restart the fire. These drivers should be
determined to race all out for the win, not going on CNN/SI lecturing fans about
"what constitutes a good pass and how hard we work for it." There is
no such thing as a bad pass.
FOR THE SPORT TO FIX THE RACECARS –
Aero-push this week, aero-push that week, lousy tires, inability to draft,
inability to pass, cars are so aero-sensitive, so tire-sensitive…..The excuses
for lack of passing are tiresome. FIX the problem for a change. Get the cars
where they are NOT aero or tire sensitive, where they can suck up to any other
car on the track and pass anywhere, where a simple change like adding air to the
right rear, rather than the present need to all but tear up the chassis and
rebuild it, will solve handling problems. 49 lead changes at Daytona is supposed
to be racing’s norm, not its exception. CART sees 73 lead changes at Fontana and
61 at Michigan; the IRL sees 33 in 300 miles at Texas – these are all numbers
NASCAR is supposed to have for all its divisions.
FOR THE SPORT TO ACCEPT THAT SAFETY CAN
NEVER BE ALL-CONSUMING – I am still amazed that people think the sport is
safer now that drivers wear head restraints and so forth. We all know deep down
that eventually drivers will die of basilar skull fractures while wearing the
HANS or similar device. Eventually it will be the same as it was the past few
years. When roof flaps came out we thought they would solve the problem of
airborne tumbles; we now know, or ought to be man enough to admit, that they’ve
made zero difference. So we need to admit that the risk is the same regardless,
and that drivers will die regardless of what is done in safety. The sport is
remarkably safe, but it can never be complete. Dale Earnhardt’s death was
unpreventable. Adam Petty’s death was unpreventable. Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper,
and Blaise Alexander – we have to accept that nothing could have saved them.
FOR THE SPORT NOT TO BE DOMINATED BY
ONE PERSON OR TEAM – The sport supposedly has no clear-cut leader or
dominant star. It is important that it never get one. "We’ll never do
another show with one person again, because you put too much on one
person," is how a producer summed up the enormous physical toll absorbed by
David Janssen in the 1960s series The Fugitive. Such is the same in sports. The
NBA made an enormous mistake with Michael Jordan – he is presently the one star
they need, and the lack of anyone else (other than maybe Shaquille O’Neal) in a
starring role is an enormous weakness the league needs to correct.
NASCAR must not make that mistake. There
were nineteen different winners, a bright spot in an otherwise poor competitive
year. This must be maintained. The sport needs some forms of handicapping – such
as letting mid-pack to bottom teams test more than the hotdogs and thus close
the performance gap.
Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt Junior are
supposedly the two drivers the sport can’t afford to lose. It should not be that
way. Competition, not star power, is what racing is supposed to have.
FOR THE SPONSORS TO BACK OFF AND JUST
SPONSOR THE CARS – A lot of the stresses the drivers go through can be dealt
with if the sponsors would just back off for a change. Sponsoring the cars
should suffice for exposure; all the rest is PR garbage.
FOR THE RACING MEDIA TO BECOME MORE
IDEOLOGICALLY DIVERSE – There remains too much of a pack mentality in the
press corps. The sport needs more voices that don’t go along with whatever is
fashionable in the sport.
FOR THE SPORT TO KILL OFF THE
COOKIE-CUTTER QUALITY OF RACETRACKS – There is no need for 1.5 mile
quad-ovals. Build or rebuild something different – a 2.5 mile rectangle, a
2.5-mile triangle, a 2.5 mile super oval, a 1.5 mile true oval – something other
than a stupid quad-oval.
2002 can be a great year.