SCALPING (AGAIN), AND DARLINGTON
GETTING SCALPED: Of all the stuff I wrote about in my August 31
column, I figured the most
"controversial" item was the testing of soft walls. Boy, was I wrong.
Seems people feel pretty strongly about scalping and doing something about it (e.g.. making it illegal).
Most people seemed to think that the
reason I "support" scalping is that I scalp tickets, or have tickets
to Bristol and sell them above face value. Nothing could be further from the
truth. I’ve only been to Bristol twice, both times as a credentialed member of
the media.
In one of my email replies I used this analogy: if you had a classic Corvette, how would you feel if GM got a law passed that said you couldn’t sell it for more than it cost originally? You’d think GM had way too much political clout, wouldn’t you? You’d say it was none of GM’s business what you did with your property, wouldn’t you?
That’s what I’m saying with Bristol or any company who can go to a local government and get a law passed that applies to only that company. It’s just not right.
In New York city, not only is scalping
illegal, but it’s illegal to sell tickets within a 1000 feet of a venue, even if
you’re selling your own tickets at face value or less. Talk about a stupid law.
I said originally that "I’d be
willing to bet that the real reason behind it is that they’re upset that they’re
not getting the extra profit from the ticket." What’s probably closer to
the truth is that the Bristol city government is upset that they’re not getting
taxes on a $50 ticket that sells for $100. They’d much rather have Bristol raise
ticket prices so that the government could get the extra revenue.
If scalping is something that the race venues want to eliminate, then find a solution that doesn’t involve government. Research some type of ticketless system. I’d guess that the person who came up with a way to do that wouldn’t have to worry about working anymore.
WHAT HAPPENED?: I missed the first part of the Darlington race. When I
tuned in, they were under the first red flag. I had to run out and do some
errands and when I got back, they were over 130 laps into the race. (The radio
station I normally listen to races on, WWTN, for some stupid reason ran a
football-scores show instead of the
race).
My question is, why were two Richard
Childress crewmembers changing tires on a Jack Roush car? I know something
happened to Mike Skinner before the first red flag, but why in the world would
Richard Childress help Jack Roush’s team finish in front of Dale Earnhardt?
That’s exactly what happened on the pit stop that determined the finish order of
the "race."
SPEAKING OF PIT STOPS: I’ve said
this before, and I guess I’ll say it again: I don’t watch races to see who has
the fastest pit crew. The end of Sunday’s race was a farce.
If NASCAR is going to call a yellow flag
for rain, then they need to keep the pits closed. If the track dries enough to
go back to green flag racing, then they can either open the pits or go back to
the green.
It’s bad enough that the rain interfered
with the race; nothing can be done about that. But race procedures can and
should be changed to keep this from happening again.
I know I’m gonna get a lot of flack from
people who say "the pit crew is part of the team too!" I know that.
They have a job to do just like the driver. But the reality is, the pit
crews don’t attract the fans to the track. They’re not the reason 100,000 people
go to a race. Fans deserve to see racing on the track, which is what the whole
sport is about.
THAT’S GONNA LEAVE A MARCIS:
Darrell Waltrip has gotten a LOT of heat this year for running at the back of
the pack. "He’s too old," they say, or "He should have retired
before now." He may be in a piece of junk car, but at least he gets
out of the way when the leaders come up on him.
REVIEW THE RACE: Be sure to put
your two cents in by rating the Darlington race. The poll is always on the menu
bar at the left and is updated after each race.
DAYNOTES: There’s an interesting
class of web sites on the net that are comprised of daynotes. Daynotes are
basically like diaries, and the owners update them, well, daily (usually).
The first daynote site I discovered was
science fiction writer Jerry
Pournelle’s. From there I was led to two others: Richard
Thompson and Steve
Tucker.
So, what’s all this got to do with racing?
Turns out that Steve Tucker works for Sports Marketing Enterprises and RJ
Reynolds. He’s involved in a lot of the promotional activities for NASCAR. While
he doesn’t talk exclusively about racing, he does have a unique insight to the
sport. His site is definitely worth checking out.