Short-Tracking, Judge Dread, and Miscellanea
ARE YOU READY FOR
SHORT-TRACK-IIIINNNNNNNNNN?
Okay, I’m a fan of The Monkees and Michael
Nesmith, so I can sing them better than I can do Hank Williams Jr. But the
rainout at Martinsville forced a late-morning/afternoon Monday lead-in to Monday
Night Football, a situation not entirely disagreeable, as previous Monday NASCAR
events have proven quite memorable. At Martinsville there was a span of two
straight Monday "Nite" NASCARs – the 1997 Old Dominion 500 and the ’98
Virginia 500. The ’97 event was dominated by Rusty Wallace but he jumped a late
restart and got black flagged, leaving the lead to a furious Jeff Burton-Bobby
Hamilton battle won by Burton. The next April Hamilton changed from Petty
Enterprises to Morgan-McClure, and John Andretti, in the Petty #43, fought
Hamilton in several bouts of terrific door to door combat before Bobby took the
win.
Rockingham was a rainout in February, and
it became a heart warmer as Steve Park held of Bobby Labonte to give DEI its
second straight win. Park has been the subject of some frustratingly vague
speculation about his health – some scuttlebutt has him unable to recover enough
to return to racing next year. I suspect, though, he’ll be back just fine at
Speedweeks 2002.
With the rainout, Martinsville’s Monday
race ended with a stunning finish. Left for dead career-wise in 2000 Ricky
Craven held off Dale Jarrett after Kevin Harvick drilled Bobby Hamilton. The win
was also the second in big-league oval racing for Cal Wells – the first was
Cristiano da Matta’s CART win in 2000. Craven thus became the first Grand
National North champion – GN North was formed in 1987 – to win in Winston Cup.
So with Martinsville rained out, NBC
showed the rain-delayed Memphis 250 Grand National race, and it provided some
great fireworks. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Green should keep each other jazzed up
as teammates next year at RCR the way they fight each other right now in Grand
National, shown again with a stirring door to door shootout for the lead in the
event’s second half. But the big fireworks erupted when Jay Sauter was side slammed
out of the win by Jeff Green. The bad part was not Green’s tactics – debatable
either way – but that Sauter, looking for his first Grand National win, was cost
it.
With Martinsville done teams head to
Talladega – the return of the dread as one writer puts it in the inevitable
plate-bash piece.
When the author calls the two Talladega
races suicide runs, you know we’re in trouble. There isn’t anything remotely
suicidal about these races. The author exaggerates "the specter of death
and maiming" at these races even as he concedes that it is tracks other
than Talladega and its Florida sister that have been the deadly areas in racing
of recent. He also dredges up the idiotic "it isn’t real racing"
argument because racing is about battling for the win. The author euphemises
that racing, "in simplest logic (means) outdoing another racer with
superior skill in the corners and superior horsepower in the straights." Oh
no it isn’t – racing is about out dueling the other racers and getting the
checkered flag first. All that nonsense about "superior skill in the
corners" ignores that in such circumstances they are in fact hostage to
their setup and track position. At Talladega, the only tangibles are to outfight
the opposition, and that is what racing is supposed to be about.
The author also dredges up the cost
argument, because teams spend enormous sums on these races, never mind that they
spend more than they really have to for them. They keep trying for three extra
horsepower and a few hundredths on the watch when they need to do little more
than just build their cars to go to the front in dirty air and lead – the three
extra HP etc. are not that necessary.
The 2000 Winston 500 "was the most
fantastic thing I’ve ever seen….(but) I don’t need to see it more than
once." Oh yes you do. Racing used to see that kind of racing a lot – it
needs to get that kind of racing back.
"NASCAR……bears the responsibility
of raising the savagery of motorsport to at least the base level of
civilization." What is he talking about? Competition is supposed to be
about nonstop side by side combat for the win – there is nothing "base
level of civilization" involved.
Tony Stewart has become more of a whiner
than he is a racer. On Martinsville’s pole day Greg Zippideli wanted NASCAR to
check the track surface before Stewart went out, even though it was clearly dry
enough to run on. NASCAR told Stewart to go out, and the team felt it cost them
a shot at the pole. Big deal – they could see the track could be run on.
Stewart then compared NASCAR to the mafia
because of their heavy-handed approach: "Their approach is ‘Our way or the
highway.’ I might be driving down the highway pretty soon." If you do, shut
the door on your way out.
Goodyear said that tire failures to Mike
Skinner and Jeremy Mayfield were due to mistaken chassis setups by their teams.
Goodyear is also lobbying NASCAR to force teams to run recommended pressures.
That they are not running recommended pressures because the tires are unraceable
at those pressures is, of course, the actual case, but Goodyear apparently will
not try to fix the problem. This is why NASCAR needs another tire war.
Surprisingly, Michael Waltrip officially
is still slotted in DEI’s #15 in 2002 – I say surprisingly because it has become
an open story that his crew has lost respect for him after a year of
mistreatment. The organization was scouting for drivers at Charlotte and
reportedly was close to signing Johnny Benson, but the deal collapsed as Benson
insisted on bringing James Ince with him.
I doubt, though, that Mikey will last in
2002, and once he is canned, his Cup career will be over.