Dover RacinDeals

FIRST WIN… NOT: Seems
those Richard Childress drivers have a thing for drivers with a
last name of Hamilton. A few years ago Dale Earnhardt cost Bobby
Hamilton, Sr. a victory by bulldozing him out of the way. Not to
be outdone, Mike Skinner did the same thing to Bobby Jr. Saturday
at the Busch race.

It’s one thing to get a car loose (getting
a car loose doesn’t mean wrecking it) on the last lap and then go
under it to get the win. But there’s no excuse for what Skinner
did. It doesn’t take much talent to run over someone and wreck
them. Skinner did the exact same thing here in Nashville at a
truck race a few years ago, except then he was two laps down.
Harry Gant was the leader at the time, and had the truck to beat.
But since Skinner didn’t have the truck (or talent?) to do it,
all he could do was wreck Gant.

THAT’S NOT RACIN’: I can’t
believe that there are people who actually think what we saw at
Dover Downs Sunday was racing. Compared to what I saw Saturday
night at the ASA race… well, to be kind there was no comparison.
The ASA race had real lead changes, whereas the Cup race only had
lead changes when Gordon pitted.

It just boggles my mind that people could
look at Talladega and say that’s not racing, but look at Dover
and be all excited about the "competition." I don’t
know what you’d call it, but that wasn’t competition.

AFFECTING THE OUTCOME:
Could Johnny Benson have beaten Jeff Gordon? What about Steve
Park? We’ll never know. Why not? Because NASCAR made a decision
that had an affect on at least those two teams.

I’m talking about the "caution"
they threw around lap 50 or so, ostensibly so the teams could
check tire wear. OK, given that the teams needed to check the
tires for safety reasons, I can live with throwing a caution and
letting them come in and check the tires. But when NASCAR throws
a "safety" caution like that, then the teams should not
be allowed to change positions. But, since NASCAR treats this as
a normal caution, the pit stops are normal as well. A team could
only choose to change right side tires, stay out, make chassis
adjustments, take four tires, or whatever. Since this is a normal
pit stop, the teams are trying to make it as fast as possible so
their driver can get out first.

And because it’s a normal pit stop,
mistakes are made. Steve Park’s pit crew was unable to control a
tire and it went across the pit road. Several cars missed it, but
Johnny Benson didn’t. It dinged up the right front side of
Benson’s car and Park had to go to the end of the longest line
because of the infraction.

Benson ultimately retired from the race due
to other problems, but Park didn’t. As it turned out, Park was
really the only other car able to come close to challenging
Gordon for the lead. Perhaps if Park hadn’t had to run through
all the traffic, the race might have been closer at the end and
more exciting.

There’s no doubt that NASCAR’s ruling
changed the outcome of the race. If NASCAR deems a tire-safety
caution is in order because of limited track time, then NASCAR
should require all the teams to come in, and only change four
tires. No chassis adjustments, no fuel, no staying out, no right-sides
only. Everyone has to change four tires. And once they’re
finished, they go back out in the order they were running in when
the yellow came out.

Anything else is just unfair… to the
competitors and to the fans.

NOTE TO GORDON FANS: I
shouldn’t have to explain this to anyone, but I will: The two
deals above are not about Jeff Gordon. All I’m saying is that the
racing was dull and that NASCAR messed up. I’d say the same thing
if Michael Waltrip won.

NEW CAMERAS FOR NBC?: NBC
plans to debut new cameras during its broadcast of the NBA finals.
A company called Be Here has developed a camera that is "powered by a proprietary wide-angle lens whose 360-degree
view is fed into a computer that irons out distortions and lets
an engineer zoom in and out of any part of the view."

Imagine a camera on the roof of a car that
has a 360 degree view. If the technology works well in the NBA
broadcasts, they shouldn’t think twice about using it for their
upcoming NASCAR broadcasts. I’m sure the Be Here folks could find
a way to mount the camera on the car somewhere…

WHAT?: According to Mike Mulhern, Fox is
looking at the new Nashville speedway (I assume he’s talking
about the new superspeedway east of here) for a
Wednesday night prime time race next year I guess. He says it’s
not clear if it’s a Winston Cup or a Busch race.

Mike, here’s a clue: It’s not, and will
never, be a Winston Cup race. Well, I guess you should never say
never. But NASCAR has all but said "never" when asked
if the new track would get a Winston Cup date. One does wonder
what would happen though if one of the broadcast networks told
NASCAR that they wanted a race in a region with a lot of races
already. If Fox said "we want a Winston Cup race in
Nashville" would NASCAR comply? After all, what does it
matter where a race is (marketing wise) when it’s on TV?

And putting the race on Wednesday night
would almost guarantee another Busch race at the new track with
not quite 100% attendance. Attendance estimates for the inaugural
race at the new track range from 30,000 to 40,000, well short of
the 50,000 capacity. If they want to have it at night, run it on
Friday night so as not to interfere with the local races around
the country.

FEDEWA FORGETS: Tim Fedewa
is the latest driver in the Busch Grand National Series to lose
his ride. He’s been replaced by (drum roll) Geoffrey
Bodine. Interestingly enough, of the three cars on that team,
Fedewa has two top fives this year, Hank Parker, Jr’s win was his
only top five (or top ten for that matter), and David Green only
has two top tens.

I guess Tim Fedewa just plumb forgot how to
drive all of a sudden.

THE GRASSY KNOLL, CONTINUED:
Bulletin: NASCAR conducted a reenactment of Dale Earnhardt’s
crash but has released no details.

This is news? How many times does NASCAR
have to say that they’re not going to release any info until
their investigation is over? And what does it matter if one
paramedic is there or not? Are they recreating the crash or the
crash scene? Everything I’ve read says they recreated the crash.

SLOWING THE TRUCKS: The
Craftsman Truck Series returns to Texas Motor Speedway this
weekend. NASCAR has announced that the trucks will have to use a
smaller carburetor for the race.

Could this be due to Tony Roper’s death
last year at this track?

And of course, the Roush organization is
complaining. "I think it will make them run more tightly
packed like a restrictor plate," says Max Jones, Roush’s
Truck series general manager. Hmm, let’s see, what’s more
dangerous to the driver, a pack of cars (or trucks) running
together and crashing, or a bunch of strung out cars (or trucks)
with only one hitting the wall? I think all the fatalities in the
past year have involved one or two car wrecks, which doesn’t
scrub off the speed as much as a multi-car wreck (e.g. compare
Tony Stewart’s wreck in the Daytona 500 and Dale Earnhardt’s
wreck in the same race).

Looks like Jones just doesn’t want to deal
with a smaller carburetor, and is coming up with any lame excuse
he can find.