NASCAR Already Has Team-Order Racing, And Other Pre-600 Miscellanea
There has been considerable hand-wringing about Michael Schumacher’s tainted
Austrian GP win because his teammate literally gave it to him per Ferrari team
orders. Some have suggested such would not happen in NASCAR, others have
wondered if eventually it will.
Well, it already has.
I still get grief from people who say the roof spoiler and restrictor plate
package put Dale Earnhardt in a position for his fatal crash, but such people
know better than that. Earnhardt crashed because he was hogging the groove for
Michael Waltrip and Dale Junior – cars he owned. Senior gave himself team orders
to block for Mikey and for Junior, and he crashed for it.
And it was just the beginning. Jeff Gordon lost a lap at the subsequent
Atlanta 500, and Jerry Nadeau slammed on the brakes when another yellow flew and
let Gordon get his lap back. Two races later, at Bristol, John Andretti slammed
on his brakes to let Bill Elliott (a quasi-teammate as Petty Enterprises and Ray
Evernham worked together to develop the Dodges) and Buckshot Jones (in the #44
Petty Dodge) get their lap back – and in the process John let Tony Stewart get a
lap back.
Then came Firecracker 2001, and Junior’s push by Mikey into the win. Robin
Miller called DEI on the wrongness of Mikey’s move to give the race to Junior,
and Ty Norris responded with a silly press release talking about how NASCAR is a
family and other such nonsense. Mikey then proceeded to do it again twice in
2002 – at Daytona’s Grand National 300 and at the Die Hard 500 at Talladega.
The reality is that the F1 team order mentality is already thick in NASCAR,
the result of the multi-car explosion that NASCAR made no effort to stop.
Daytona Beach honchos have got to be horrified at the Sport’s Business
Journal’s report of a precipitous drop in the coveted 18-34 age group audience
watching Winston Cup.
Sometimes it is asked why marketing is so geared toward this age bracket.
There are several reasons, but the only one that really means anything is that
this is the age bracket on which a future audience can be built. Thus the horror
NASCAR officials must feel at the report that this part of the audience’s
viewership of NASCAR has dropped this season. General sports viewership in this
age bracket has apparently also dropped, but the reported drop for NASCAR
viewership, which had been among the fastest and highest growing, is
particularly worrisome.
A number of reasons why can be hazarded – over saturation and so forth – but
for NASCAR the obvious one is there yet again. You can’t maintain an audience if
the racing you offer lacks competition.
NASCAR got a bit lucky in 2001 that its viewership spiked upward; audience
levels in 1999 and 2000 had begun slipping, and the spike upward in 2001 was
welcome. But despite some exciting finishes (notably the Atlanta 500) two
outstandingly competitive 500 milers (Daytona and the October race at
Talladega), and a few other impressive events (Pocono in June and Richmond in
September come immediately to mind), the racing never got better – if anything,
it got worse – so it should have been a given that the audience would start
falling.
NASCAR briefly did something to boost the competitiveness of its racing – it
likely had a role persuading Goodyear to try higher-stagger tires in August
1999, a move that saw a dramatic increase in side by side combat for the lead at
Michigan and Dover; it instituted the roof spoiler package in October 2000, the
loss of which caused the deterioration of the competitiveness of restrictor
plate racing this year. Such moves by NASCAR were brief, but they worked.
Now NASCAR needs to move to boost the competitiveness of the racing again,
but with a greater permanence in the increase in competitive level. It may be
hoping that the coming bigger greenhouse will make the racing better, but it
isn’t likely that whatever extra drag comes from a bigger greenhouse will really
help that much – it may help, but it won’t be enough.
I don’t normally discuss race casts here, and the following is just
nitpickery on my part, but I was a little disturbed by MRN’s coverage of the
Jeff Purvis accident. The way they kept describing the crash gave the impression
that Purvis had been T-boned in the door by Greg Biffle. The video of course
showed that Biffle slammed side to side into Purvis – gravely serious enough,
but far more survivable than a T-bone impact. MRN should have tried to better
differentiate between the two, for the impression they gave likely made some
audience members think, "Purvis is not getting out of this one."
Bo Gunning had a pretty rough weekend. First he got way up in the air at
Stafford in the Jeff Malave crash on Friday – and got into Ted Christopher’s
face over it at the trailers afterward. Then in the Mod Tour feature at
Nazareth, Gunning crashed after 28 laps. Terrible Ted, meanwhile, was also
eliminated in a wreck with L.W. Miller.
When it was also over Nevin George had his first career Mod Tour win after 33
starts. How he got there was pretty amazing in itself, spinning at Lap 23 and
never pitting despite concern for flat spots on the tires. "We were a
little loose but ran the whole race without pitting," George said
afterward. With his car working very well – after all, loose IS fast – he didn’t
want to pit, and of course it worked out.
Mike Stefanik finished second, getting the spot from Tony Hirshman with two
to go. Todd Zsegedy, a Stafford grad, finished sixth behind Robbie Summers and
Steady Eddie Flemke. Ex-Roush Trucker Chuck Hossfeld bagged another top ten
(ninth) in the Bob Grabarino Dodge.
Rene Dupuis, in the ex-Gary Creety #25, had another less than successful
outing, finishing 31st.
John
Howell launches another soft-wall lecture by asking, "Will NASCAR Ever
Take The Lead?"
It should not take the lead in the way you’d like, Mr. Howell. Soft walls are
not the answer. The SAFER barrier at IMS has gotten a lot of positive hype, but
drivers are still getting hurt, and the "they’d have been killed without
the soft wall" mantra doesn’t wash.
Howell mentions the Humpy Bumper, of course leaving out that it failed in
testing. And his whole approach is wrong – the safety problem remains the
racecars, not the walls, the tracks, or aero rules. The track owners have no
responsibility in that area because the safety problems lie in the speed of the
cars. The SAFER walls are being overwhelmed by the top-end of the IRL cars and
will likewise be gravely stressed by the top-end and far lesser scrub
("when you lose a stock car, it stays lost," Richard Petty noted
decades ago) of Winston Cup cars come August.
NASCAR can and should restrict the speed of the cars at all the tracks – the
one thing that would REALLY improve safety, and more than the SAFER barrier or
anything else can do. John Howell and others ought to recognize this.
Darrell Waltrip stated during the ARCA telecast at Charlotte that the sport
needs a dominator.
In USAR’s Hooters Pro Cup split-league series, there are two – Brian Ross up
north, and Bobby Gill down south. Ross won at Salem recently, his third win in
that division, and Bobby Gill has won all five southern division races run so
far. If the dominator theory holds, then USAR, a nifty little series with some
good racing, will be getting some serious attention the way Bobby Gill and Brian
Ross are dominating.
Also making some waves in USAR is Forrest Urban Jr., a former South Boston
Speedway track champ. Urban led 13 laps at Salem but overheated after contact
with numerous lapped cars and finally blew up. Using the chrome horn became
necessary and it wound up shearing the nose off, damaging air vents, and finally
helped cause the motor to erupt.
It was particularly frustrating for Urban, whose team does its own motors and
needs sponsorship help. Running second in Pro Cup North points, his DNF dropped
him down. A sponsor could certainly benefit investing in a promising up and
comer like Forrest Urban Jr.