From Chaos To Cuckoo At Charlotte
He did what?
No one thought much of Jamie McMurray with Ganassi/SABCO Racing. Here was a
driver with just two seasons in Grand National, some starts in Craftsman Trucks,
and only a handful of top fives to show for it. At Talladega he was timid in
traffic and gagged on pit road, losing a lap.
So what did he do? He won the National 500 in just his second Winston Cup
start. While it helped that he was in Ganassi/SABCO’s A1 car – the same team
that monopolized last year’s National 500, though not necessarily the same
racecar – and it also helped that he never really had to race traffic that much,
he did have some spells in traffic, including a mid-race battle with Bobby
Labonte for the lead that (too) briefly resembled an IRL race, and he never put
a wheel wrong all night.
There might be a less-pleasant side effect, though – we can already hear the
howls, "Why can’t you win with umpteen dozen starts and a kid in his second
start can win?" That McMurray got some breaks most drivers don’t get
doesn’t detract from his accomplishment under difficult circumstances –
certainly being thrown cold into a top-notch Cup ride to finish out a season for
an injured veteran a la Tom Brady of the New England Patriots is anything but a
good circumstance to race in – but it does obscure that other drivers who have
the talent don’t always get that kind of break.
Plus, McMurray shone in one race – what will he do in the grind of a full
season? I remember a young driver who jumped in a satellite car of a big
multi-car team on a short track, took the lead, and showed winning form in his
first Winston Cup start. Everyone expected him to just tear it up and win off
the bat – the next big superstar of stock car racing, he was all but pronounced.
The rookie was Kenny Irwin, the race was the 1997 Capital City 400, and the
team was Robert Yates Racing, which seated him in David Blair’s #27 for that
race and several others that season. Well, Irwin’s next race after that Richmond
event was Martinsville, and he wrecked. Then he took on Winston Cup in Yates’
#28 in 1998 – and didn’t accomplish much, never reclaiming that form of the 1997
Richmond night race.
So don’t start calling the engravers to mark "Jamie McMurray, Winston
Cup Champion" just yet. One win in his second race is a sensational start –
the grind of a season is something else.
Charlotte’s National 500 weekend has wrapped, and with it the title chases of
both Winston Cup and Grand National have become clearer – the late-season
runaway has started. Greg Biffle only has to worry about getting smashed or
blowing up in the last few races; he certainly has little to worry about from
Jason Keller, who desperately needs DNFs from Biffle to have any shot at the
title.
Tony Stewart isn’t quite so high in points, but he certainly doesn’t have to
race anyone for a title; he has to worry about blowing up or wrecking.
Comparisons to 1992 ignore that DNFs by Stewart are the only way anyone else has
any shot at the championship.
And with his win Jamie McMurray can still get Ganassi/SABCO the car owners
title. Unfortunately for Dodge, it also weakens their case for a rules
concession, as NASCAR tends not to look at field depth but instead at the
winner. The Dodge fleet as a group struggled again.
Despite all the certainty of previous rumors, it is still a surprise that
Roger Penske is going to Dodge – and that Ford didn’t put up any fight to keep
him. The Ford angle is the biggest surprise – they fought to keep Ricky Rudd;
why didn’t they fight to keep Penske? Penske’s Dodge deal is for three years,
but should Toyota come in as expected, it won’t last longer than that.
The National 500 was also a much-needed boost for Bobby Labonte. Top tens
have been a rarity since the Virginia 500 win, and to finish second is an added
bonus. Labonte ran down McMurray at the end, but the aero push hurt again.
Having a lot less of a good day were quite a few other drivers. The big wreck
everyone expected at Talladega instead erupted at Charlotte – and such isn’t
uncommon at Charlotte; what is uncommon is that it happened on the front stretch.
People will of course blame Todd Bodine for the wreck.
Before winning in embarrassingly easy fashion in the National 300, Jeff
Burton ran off on more safety changes he wants for the sport in the wake of Eric
Martin’s death, and as usual he’s wrong.1
Burton wants more and larger lights in the turns of tracks and on-board
warning lights similar to what the IRL runs, as if such really would help, and
as if the drivers are incapable of seeing the lights presently being used.
Burton also gripes about drivers who pass for position while racing back to
the yellow. "NASCAR needs to say ‘enough is enough,’" and Burton wants
drivers who pass for position before taking a yellow penalized five laps.
Is there ANY sensible position Jeff Burton ever takes on an issue? Penalize a
driver five laps because he PASSED you before taking the yellow? Just what is he
thinking?
It brings to mind that there are seemingly no motorsports writers who bother
to push drivers on stands they take that ought to be disputed. We saw that again
on NBC’s pre-race show and the piece on multipurpose racetracks that was little
more than a sales pitch for Richmond and Bristol. Drivers blamed the racetracks
like Kansas and Chicagoland for the aero push, and Michael Waltrip had the
temerity to criticize racetracks that REPAVE to get rid of bumps in the surface.
This is what is wrong with motorsports journalism – the lack of interviewers
who will challenge drivers on such positions and actually take them to task for
holding positions that they do. Why didn’t anyone point out to drivers that
their racecars are what are causing the aero push, not the tracks? It was said
that on these multipurpose tracks Winston Cup outdoes all other racing in
attendance – but there the IRL is starting to catch up fast, with racing where
there isn’t any aero push. Why shouldn’t they have the same right to such
racetracks as NASCAR does? If it’s feasible to race on, it shouldn’t be
exclusive to one series. By saying that NASCAR outdraws all other racing events
on Winston Cup tracks, what is being said is that NASCAR has the right to race
there and no one else does, and this is wrong.
TV in particular desperately needs REAL diversity – a diversity of
ideologies; NASCAR coverage can use some reporters who, instead of accepting the
driver’s word, challenge the driver’s opinion and takes him to task, and thus
makes that driver have to offer a credible defense of his stand.
At seventeen is not just a memorable Janis Ian song from 1975 – it is also
where Winston Cup now stands with five races to go. 2002 is now two drivers
short of the all-time mark for seasonal winners. Thus is the contrast with F1
most striking – Michael Schumacher won in Japan, for the 11th time this year,
having locked up the title so long ago that one needs H.G. Wells to tell you
when anyone else had any shot at it.
We still get debates over whether having so many different winners and no
domination by anyone is really good for the sport. How can it be bad? Say John
Andretti, Jery Nadeau, Steve Park, Jeff Burton, and Tony Stewart or some other
combo of five different drivers won the next five races – it would leave the
sport with the fewest number of wins by the biggest winner since perhaps 1949.
Is that a bad thing?
The "domination breeds more attention" argument still ignores that
the boost in interest brought by domination is short-term only. Attendance at
the USGP fell to a dismal level this year – would it have dropped if F1 had no
dominator but instead had different winners almost every week?
Next up is the final short track race of the year. Martinsville should be a
competitive race and may shuffle the point race. Tony Stewart has won here
before, though I doubt he will this time. Rusty Wallace is still looking for a
win this year, but the muscle he once had isn’t quite there. Jimmie Johnson has
been sporadic on short tracks, and Ryan Newman won at NHIS, so Newman would seem
a more likely pick.
The Modifieds also race at Martinsville and have a point race a lot hotter
than Winston Cup’s. So it should be an exciting weekend.