There Is Real Short-Track Racing – Then There Is Bristol
First off, a memo to writers like Don Hamm – the crossover gate fiasco was
the speedway’s fault, not NASCAR’s.
And bad crashes are hardly the sole fault of unlocked crossover gates, as
Mike Christopher found out at Stafford Speedway the night of the Volunteer 250
at Bristol. The Featherlite Modified Series ran 150 laps and early on a huge
crash wiped out Mike Christopher’s car in the first turn; John Blewitt and
another car collided, slid to the wall, then cars scattered and Mike Christopher
got smashed open by another car. The red flag flew and Christopher, L.W. Miller,
Mike Molleur, Joey Carracia, and Donny Lia were eliminated.
Once that was cleaned up Chuck Hossfeld and Eddie Flemke swapped the lead
several times while Mike Stefanik’s #21 shut off and he lost 80 laps with
repeated stops to fix the ignition. Ted Christopher clawed his way forward as
the lead became a Talladega-style battle of racecar columns for several laps,
then sorted out.
It had been a rather bad night for Terrible Ted – in the SK Modified feature
he’d worked into contention behind Brad Hietala, Jeff Baral, and others, then
got tagged and collided with Jimmy Williams into the front stretch infield,
while Hietala bagged the win, surprisingly his first SK win since 1983.
In the Tour race, though, Ted got tires under a Lap 106 caution, and that was
the key as he won going away, his fourth straight Mod Tour win at Stafford and
tenth Tour win of his career. The win stopped Eddie Flemke’s recent surge of
victories on the Tour, but Steady Eddie is still a mere 18 points out of Jerry
Marquis’ lead (Marquis third in the 150), while Ted is 161 out.
The big draw this night was the Berghman family – Dave Berghman finished an
inglorious 18th in the 150, while his dad, Carl Berghman – aka Bugsy Stevens –
was signing autographs and promoting his recently-published biography. Stevens
was among New England’s winningest short trackers, and at Stafford he held a
record 72 victories – a record Terrible Ted broke that night.
Several thousand miles to the south and west, Bristol Int’l Raceway kicked
off the main portion of its NASCAR week with the Volunteer 250. By Lap 100
nearly 30 cars had been involved in three crashes, and Jimmy Spencer led over
130 laps and put a straightaway lead on Scott Wimmer, but that disappeared with
two to go when Tim Sauter got tagged two seconds ahead and Spencer was nearly
rammed by Wimmer in Turn Three.
That was as close as the race offered to any real suspense. And it shows how
dismal the quality of NASCAR racing has become. The Volunteer 500 the next night
was somewhat better, but not much. The only real highlight was the sparkling run
of Mike Wallace in A.J. Foyt’s #14, the first top ten for the Foyt team since
Ron Hornaday’s sixth at Atlanta.
Much ink will be spilled on how Jeff Gordon ended his career-longest winless
streak, as if 31 races between wins amounts to much. If they want to write about
real winless streaks, then write about those of drivers like Terry Labonte
(three years), or Jimmy Spencer (eight years), or Kyle Petty (seven years), or
Brett Bodine (twelve years) – or the many others far more deserving of a win
than Gordon.
Ward Burton got Earnhardted at Bristol, and will be fined for throwing his
gloves at Jun-yer in response. NASCAR’s fines for such actions have become
silly, because the actions that led to such outbursts are far more serious than
throwing things at a driver’s windshield. NASCAR needs to stop fining drivers
who throw things at other drivers and start fining drivers for cheap-shotting
other drivers.
It may also need to start fining drivers for whining. Jeff Gordon whined that
Kyle Petty hogged the bottom groove – uh Jeff, that is what you do to stay on
the lead lap. It does, though, illustrate a need for NASCAR to completely change
its restart rule – line up the lapped cars behind the leaders and double up the
leaders.
Say what you will about the show at Bristol – and it is a heck of a show –
but it is not real short track racing. Stafford saw that – passing, re-passing,
lead changes, door to door combat. Bristol used to be a real racetrack when it
was asphalt; it can become one again starting with converting its useless
concrete surface back to asphalt.
Valvoline Racing’s I.N. Sider piece recently discussed banning wind tunnel
testing, allowing tire pressure sensors, and allowing teams to rebuilt cars
during red flags1.
None of these ideas is sensible.
Banning wind tunnel testing means banning a team’s ability to improve itself.
"NASCAR already limits the number of test dates at Cup tracks," never
mind that this rule is the one rule that has eliminated single-car teams.
Banning wind tunnel testing can only make it harder for teams other than the
established big guns to improve their cars.
I.N. Sider also discusses that NASCAR gives manufacturers concessions rather
than take away from other manufacturers – and along the way betrays the
fundamental misunderstanding that permeates the down force debate. "It’s
time to take away. If this moves Winston Cup cars in the direction of the
entertaining Craftsman Trucks aerodynamically….." Moves Winston Cup cars
toward the Trucks aerodynamically? The Craftsman Trucks push open more air than
the cars do – they have far more DRAG to them than the cars. And even their
racing has generally proven to be to be no better than Winston Cup – it’s
actually a lot less competitive, with the near-total abandonment of the
factories making for a dismally small number of competitive teams.
It is the lack of DRAG that is the problem. Down force is not the problem –
there is no such thing as too much down force. It is that the cars do not punch
open any air, and even the Trucks, with more drag, are not terribly racy in the
draft outside of Daytona because the air they displace isn’t strong enough.
A recent episode of Car & Track on SPEED illustrates this point. The race
shown was the 1974 World 600, a race where the draft took effect and helped the
cars pass. There is no draft anywhere anymore – without the roof spoilers that
went away at Daytona and Talladega as well. The draft has always been the best
equalizer in racing and is by far the best way to kill the aero push.
The Valvoline piece also discusses tire pressure sensors, which are touted as
a way of allowing drivers to learn of a deflating tire before it blows. But
earlier the piece approvingly cites Jeff Gordon’s self-important and bemoaning
comment about how down force and hard tires "make up for lack of
experience." And just how have tire pressure sensors made for better racing
in CART and F1? The truth is they don’t.
Finally, the piece recommends letting teams fix damaged cars during red
flags. This ignores that by doing so it aggravates a problem we see week after
week – lapped cars that constantly get in the way of the leaders. "Going to
the garage means you should be done for the day," Jake Elder said in 1978.
It is true. What NASCAR SHOULD do is park any car that must go to the garage,
period.