SAFETY AND AERO MATCHING

DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT’S WRONG:
I’ve seen a lot of commentary in the last few days regarding the tragic death of
Kenny Irwin at New Hampshire International Speedway. People are outraged by
everything from the seeming lack of compassion from NASCAR to the track owner’s
statement of "the track is fine."

The common theme among all of this is that
"something needs to be done, and it needs to be done now."

"Put up Styrofoam walls" people
say. "Use those new honey-combed soft walls" they suggest. Some other
suggestions I’ve seen or heard of include installing kill switches in the cars,
putting toe loops on the gas pedal, reconfiguring the track, cancel the
September race, remove the track from the schedule, and putting airbags in the
cars.

There are advantages and disadvantages to
each of these suggestions that have to be analyzed. For example, with the
"soft walls" you need to make sure that the car doesn’t rebound back
into traffic. I’m not sure airbags could even be made to operate correctly in a
race situation (imagine Earnhardt getting a face full of airbag after Jeremy
Mayfield’s tap at Pocono a few weeks ago).

NASCAR has a pretty good track record when
it comes to making changes with regard to safety after a tragedy like this. Pit
road speed limits and having only lead lap cars pitting came about after a
crewman was killed on pit road a few years ago.

Roof flaps have all but eliminated cars
getting airborne. While it still happens in rare circumstances, it’s no where
near the problem it was.

These innovations came about after careful
analysis. While something may need to be done to prevent a tragedy like this
from happening again, doing the wrong thing quickly could be worse than doing
nothing at all.

MATCH MAKER: It looks like NASCAR
is moving forward with their common template idea. In case you’ve been on a
tropical island (and weren’t voted off) and have no idea what a common template
is, it’s NASCAR’s idea to take away aero advantages that one body style might
have over another.

That way, you take away the
"whine" factor when one make of car finishes in, say, the top five
spots, or one make only has 3 cars in the top 25 in qualifying (didn’t that just
happen at Daytona again?).

Dale Earnhardt says his job is to sell
Chevrolets, and that GM won’t let him run a Chevy engine in a "NASCAR
car." He just wants to "race."

Speaking as a fan, I’d LOVE to see them
"just race." I don’t watch a race to see who has the fastest pit crew
or who decides to take two tires instead of four to get a win. I don’t watch a
race to see top name drivers hamstrung by aerodynamics. I don’t watch a race to
see which car gets better gas mileage.

I watch a race to see which driver can out drive
the others.

It seems that this year the actual racing
on the track has been more boring than it should be. My contention all along is
that race fans deserve exciting (and safe!) races, because after all, we’re the
ones paying for it (even if you never have ever attended a race in person,
you’re still paying for it; corporations who put $10 million a year in a team
get their money from somewhere).

I value my free time. Even though it’s
"free" time, it’s still worth something. When I invest my time in
something, I expect to get a return on that investment. That return could be
money, or it could be entertainment. As far as racing is concerned, if it’s not
entertaining, then I cut my losses and find something else.

If the racing gets too boring, you’ll see
a drop in television ratings and attendance at tracks (hmm, isn’t that already
happening?). Earnhardt wonders why NASCAR is pushing so hard for common
templates. Entertainment. They have to have a product that’s entertaining.

It cracks me up to hear people talk about
how they’re a "Chevy" fan or a "Ford" fan or a
"Pontiac" fan or a "Dodge" fan. I just don’t get that
mentality.

As I said above, I watch a race for the
drivers. I don’t care what they’re driving. One of the best races I’ve ever seen
on TV (if not THE best race) was the IRL race at Texas a few weeks ago.

All those "Indy" cars look alike
to me, and I couldn’t tell you what engine or chassis any of them are running.
That’s about as not important as you can get. The drivers raced side by side,
jockeying for position (not just for 20th place, but for the lead) lap after lap
after lap after lap. That’s racing; that’s entertainment.

The "I’m a (make) fan" fans are
usually the ones who say "let the car manufacturers produce the car, and
make all the race cars fit a production template." Talk about a recipe for
disaster.

In that scenario, you might have Ford
producing a great body and winning all the races one year, then GM counters with
a great body the next year, winning all those races. If your make is on the off
year, you might as well hang it up.

If NASCAR does go ahead with the common
templates next year or in the future, then I can’t see how that can hurt the
racing. Sure, those fans who root for a make of car instead of the person
driving the car might go away, but they’re not race fans to begin with; they’re
"make" fans.

Put on a show week after week like the IRL
did in Texas, and I think the popularity of NASCAR will shoot through the roof.