Concrete Crunch, More Rules Changes, And The BS Meter
From one hellhole to another.
Now the term "hellhole" is not meant as derogatory, for Darlington
Raceway has certainly had an enormous amount of history and dramatic
competition, and Bristol also has lots of history and excitement to it. But
these two tracks are so tough – on cars, drivers, etc. – that no blunter term
comes to mind in description.
While a blunter description doesn’t offhand come to mind, a very funny
description of the two tracks was delivered by Kyle Petty in 1995, first at
Darlington after running in the top ten then getting bitten by the Lady In Black
– "I think they ought to fill this place up with water, to the outside
retaining wall, dump bass in it and have pro bass tournaments and they can sit
in the grandstands and watch them fish all day long. But I’ll tell you this – as
bad as this place is, you can stock it with a million fish and nobody’d catch
one." Reminded of such at Bristol after crashing out of the top seven at
Bristol, Kyle added, "This place (Bristol) isn’t good enough for bass, they
ought to put carp in this place."
The two tracks’ toughness likely exceeds all the others. Darlington’s
nastiness appeared with a vengeance this past weekend; at Bristol, even today
with drivers in such tremendous physical shape, necks wear out before cars do –
that is if the cars don’t get crunched first. The latter tends to be the case
with an average of half the field per race.
It began even before qualifying this time around as Jimmie Johnson, Kurt
Busch, Buckshot Jones, and others spun out or hit the wall during pre-qualifying
practice. So you know what tough is.
And yet once upon a time Bristol ran races with little or no trouble. In the
1970s it wasn’t so rare for a Bristol race to see only a few yellows.
And yet for all its spectacle, Bristol since August 1992 has left something
to be desired as a race. Compare, for instance, races at Bristol since then with
events such as the spring Southeastern 500 in 1989, 1990, and 1991. 1989 and ’91
were melee-laden affairs won by Rusty Wallace that saw roughly a combined 80
lead changes; 1990 officially saw nine changes, but unofficially numerous more
as the battle for the lead was quite heated most of that day and ended in one of
the wildest finishes ever won by Davey Allison.
In August 1992 Bristol’s surface was changed to concrete, and it had never
proven that good a racing surface. There has been little sustained side by side
racing on the concrete, certainly far less than on asphalt, though passing has
been pretty frequent. As the surface has aged it has begun to get better but
overall has proven unsuitable for racing.
It nonetheless has certainly seen spectacular events since the switch to
concrete – such as Rusty Wallace’s Kulwicki Memorial win in 1993, one of the
most crash-torn events of all; Terry Labonte’s smashing win in 1995 over
Earnhardt and Earnhardt’s return trip in 1999; Jeff Gordon’s last-lap win over
Wallace in 1997, an event highlighted by Geoff Bodine’s tirade against Jimmy
Spencer; and Elliott Sadler’s breakthrough in 2001.
Bristol sees the debut of NASCAR’s no-provisional-burn rule – in fields with
only 43 or fewer entrants, provisional starters won’t be charged with provisionals,
hardly a controversial call given the fact of a field with only 43 entrants.
More potentially controversial is the break provided Chevrolet in the
inspection station – Chevy’s inspection line is to be moved from 99 inches to
100.25, thus allowing Chevys to lengthen the nose by 1.25 inches. Dodge and Ford
are measured at 100.25 while Pontiac is measured at 100.5.
Come Texas, the change will likely help Chevrolet at a track it has not done
quite so well at – and should that happen the controversy will get going again,
for sure.
You know Winston Cup is hurting for cars for its starting fields when Randy
LaJoie is now talking of running some Winston Cup events. LaJoie is famous
for comments over the years about how he prefers to race Grand National
Saturdays so he can spend his Sundays with his family.
Whenever I read such a quote the BS meter pegs. LaJoie of course has two GN
titles and well over a dozen race wins, but he never really cut it in Winston
Cup. His best foray was with Rick Hendrick’s #50 in 1998, with a spectacular
finish at Martinsville, two other top tens, but little else to crow about. Maybe
his low point was his bizarre rambling interview after crashing at the ’98 World
600 where he kept talking about how the #16 of Ted Musgrave was behind him, as
if that somehow contributed to his wreck – it is worth noting that Musgrave was
over a second behind in that incident.
Also going Winston Cup racing is Chad Little and Bill Baumgardner, a tandem
that has done pretty well in Grand National – nearly winning at Indy Raceway
Park last year – without sponsorship, but which has zero chance in Winston Cup.
Are we seeing a return to Winston Cup of field filler?
Patrick
Zier is right about Winston Cup’s point system and its drawbacks, but he’s
right for the wrong reasons.
He notes how Steve Park and Tony Stewart both led at Darlington but because
of crashes finished well behind others who got substantially more points than
they did even though most of those who finished ahead never led. "(The
point system) gave 34 drivers in the (Darlington) race more points than
Stewart."
"You could lead 100 laps of the Daytona 500, blow an engine, be the
first car out, and 39 drivers would get more points than you."
Zier’s point is correct – the drivers who race for the win should have that
factored more into their point totals – but finishing the race still ought to
count for something. Increasing the number of bonus points for laps led would
certainly help.