Candidates for The Winston, Plus Martinsville
It may or may not be – as of yet there is nothing in the way of confirmation
on the subject – that NASCAR and RJR are indeed serious about switching The
Winston from Charlotte Motor Speedway back the rotating venues initially
envisioned when the event was created. It is somewhat surprising, since the
event has been at Charlotte so long that few remember that it was supposed to
run at varied tracks over its life. Only once has it been run somewhere else, at
Atlanta in 1986.
So should The Winston run at a different track next year, there are plenty of
candidates for the new rotation of tracks being belatedly considered –
TALLADEGA – unquestionably the home of the Winston 500 for so long
ought to be the first choice for the 2003 Winston. Talladega offers by far the
best venue for The Winston and The Winston Open – they can race five wide all
the way around, we see honest-to-goodness passing (a rarity in The Winston at
Charlotte over the years), and the track has the largest seating capacity of the
series other than Indianapolis.
I know what some of you will say, so you’d better look at the Daytona
Shootout, an event that has not seen one caution in its last four runnings.
POCONO – A perennially under-appreciated track, Pocono has plenty of
room to race and its three different turns make for quite a bit of tough passing
as well as making an optimum setup impossible. The prettiest sight in the sport
comes when the cars race seven-abreast down the mammoth frontstraight.
Complaints about the track’s viewing lines are exaggerated.
WATKINS GLEN – A friend of mine made a pretty radical
suggestion – run The Winston on a road course. While I’m not a big fan of road
racing my pal makes a good case – he notes that in such an event, the event
would see the most eclectic entry list ever seen. You’d see some Winston Cup
teams run road racing specialists like Ron Fellows, Brian Simo, Paul Gentilozzi,
and others. An added bonus would be a scenario where the winner of the 24 Hours
of Daytona were slotted in an entry for The Open.
RICHMOND – A popular choice mentioned has been Bristol, but Richmond
is a superior track, having more room to race as well as being already a home
for a Winston Five event.
MICHIGAN – Located in the heart of the Motor State, Michigan is extra
wide with sweeping turns, thus providing ample room to race as well as vast
seating.
NEW HAMPSHIRE – Located north of Boston, such would make a good
market to show off the sport’s all stars, on a track that combined room to race
with the nasty close quarters of short tracks.
INDIANAPOLIS – The Holy Shrine of motorsports, what bigger venue
exists for an all star race? It would of course have to be run in August,
perhaps on the Thursday before the 400.
FONTANA – Similar to Michigan but with less banking, and its location
near Hollywood gives a natural venue for ultra-hype.
Should The Winston be moved, two prerequisites are in order –
1 – Get away from the cookie cutter tracks.
2 – Don’t ever again run it on Saturday night, because Saturday night belongs
to the short tracks, NOT Winston Cup. The damage done to short tracks by Cup’s
Saturday night races remains the ignored scandal of the sport.
Speaking of short tracks, it used to be that sustained side by side racing
through the turns took place at Bristol more than Martinsville. Today the
opposite is the case. The Virginia 500 was one of the better shootouts in recent
Martinsville history and was the breakthrough short track triumph for Bobby
Labonte.
The whole short track program for Joe Gibbs has been a remarkable turnaround.
Until 1999 JGR almost always struggled on bullrings. Then when Tony Stewart
arrived the team’s bullring program exploded forward – Stewart’s Richmond
breakthrough in 1999 was JGR’s first ever bullring win in the team’s eighth
season in competition and the organization now has five such wins, four of them
by Stewart.
That Bobby Labonte had not won a short track race until now likely fed into
controversy over justification for short tracks – Labonte had won the
championship without a short track win, and Gordon in 2001 won the title without
a short track win, so the thinking went that short tracks were no longer vital
to the sport; as long as the champion had at least one short track win in his
title run then short tracks had some justification, but if they were winning the
title without wins on the bullrings…..
This line of thinking may last even if the 2002 champion winds up with a
short track win or two.
To those protesting that Kevin Harvick’s suspension was unfair to fans, his
team, whoever – was it fair of him to Earnhardt Coy Gibbs at Martinsville or the
others he took out in races from last year on?
And comparisons with Earnhardt have resumed: "He can’t drive like
Earnhardt…that kid couldn’t fill Earnhardt’s shoes," Tommy Baldwin said –
never mind that Harvick’s driving tactics are exactly the same as Earnhardt’s.
Thus is there what looks, smells, and feels like a double standard among comparisons
with Earnhardt – when Harvick cheapshots someone it is reprehensible; when
Earnhardt cheap shot someone late in his career a la Ward Burton getting put
head-on into Homestead’s wall and then into traffic, it is remembered almost
fondly within the sport.
NASCAR did the right thing in parking Har-vey at Martinsville; they may keep
him out until Charlotte. They should have done the same with Gordon after
Rockingham.
"NASCAR is punishing GM Goodwrench, who has been nothing but loyal to
RCR and the sport for many years." Such are the words of Richard Childress
– Richard, the sport can do without Goodwrench’s loyalty and without
Goodwrench’s drivers.