Sssh! Once again, the best kept secret in Daytona this year
\nhas nothing to do with Ray Everham\u2019s sandbagging, or Hendrick Motorsports
\nbending the rules, or Robby Gordon thanking his lucky stars his name isn\u2019t
\nPruett, or Greg Biffle\u2019s impending cakewalk through the Busch Series, or the
\nfact that the DEI drivers are focused on telegenics or the fact that Dale
\nJarrett\u2019s car IS coyote ugly. Once again, THE BIG SECRET is that the fastest
\ncar in Daytona is a Truck.<\/p>\n
Between NASCAR\u2019s less than industrious efforts to market
\ntheir best and most competitive series, and the popular racing press continuing
\nto blow taps over the Tough Trucks, is it any wonder that by the time the flag
\ndrops on the Big Show, the buzz will be about the great race that almost nobody
\nwatched? The race that had slingshot passing, fender banging, and lead changes
\nthat most will see only in highlight reels. We will see those highlight reels
\nprovided the collective networks can agree on reciprocity of race footage. The
\nproblem is, those evil Trucks find home on a CABLE network, again. The Trucks
\ngot left out of the network deal, and one must wonder if this was by design.<\/p>\n
The inception of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was a
\nthing called Winter Heat almost seven years ago now. It was novel, it was cute,
\nbut it wasn\u2019t anything to get excited about, right? Is that why Roush, DEI,
\nHendrick, and Childress were there at the beginning? Only Roush and Hendrick
\nstill see it for what it really is, and continue to use it as a developmental
\nprogram for both technology and talent. DEI and Childress extracted their
\ncombined three championships out of that series and moved on.<\/p>\n
The Truck Series has also moved on. It has moved from the
\nnovelty series with halftime breaks on bullring tracks desperate for any race,
\nto the real deal with hot pit stops at races at major venues. It is good racing,
\ncut and dried, as evidenced by the fact that graduates of that series move into
\nthe top levels and hit the ground running. Note to Ray Everham: The all Dodge
\nfront row at the Big Show is indeed a showing of your hard work, but remember
\nthat the return of Dodge to NASCAR really happened in the Truck Series FIRST at
\nthe hands of Bob Kesowloski and Richard Petty. If not for those efforts, you
\nmight still be nursemaiding what\u2019s left of the Rainbow Warriors following the
\ndefections to Yates Racing. So how about it Ray? How about a Truck team next
\nyear? You can afford it.<\/p>\n
For all that the Trucks have brought to the other series,
\nwhat thanks do they get from NASCAR? NASCAR gave them Daytona, thinking maybe
\nthose rolling bricks couldn\u2019t do much on the superspeedways. Hedging that bet,
\nthey took one of the best shows, Bristol, off the Truck schedule. The Tough Ones
\nresponded by putting on THE show at Daytona in 2000, a show that the popular
\npress could only define in terms of Geoffrey Bodine\u2019s spectacular wreck.
\nBeyond that, the Trucks gave us everything the Cup cars promised, and more\u2026at
\n10AM Friday morning when nobody was watching. That must have scared the hell out
\nof NASCAR as it made the boy wonders in Cup and the yawner of a race they
\ndisplayed the following Sunday, look timid. The Trucks will have to settle for
\nVegas, Texas, and California for now as the thought of the Trucks at the High
\nBanks of Dega would be just too embarrassing. You see, the Truckers race for the
\nright reasons. They are hungry. They are classic mix of cagey veterans like
\nRuttman, Hamilton, and Cope, the establishment, now in the guise of Jack
\nSprague, Dennis Setzer, and Rick Carelli with the graduation of Biffle, Wallace,
\nand Houston to Cup, and a host of yet to be recognized talent, as was Kurt Busch
\nin 2000, poised to make their marks in a Tough Truck. Look out for Carlos
\nContreras in 2001, the best kept secret at Petty Enterprises.<\/p>\n
The evidence continues to roll in that it is the intent of
\nNASCAR to set up the Truck Series to lose. The network television deal renders
\nthis series as cable also rans. Why not change these Thursday and Friday dates
\nto daily doubles? Why not run the Trucks the same day behind the Busch cars at
\nDaytona? Certainly the major racing venues can handle this logistically, but
\nthat might find the golden boys of Cup inconvenienced in some way? And what\u2019s
\nwith this Thursday\/Friday thing, Trucks\/Busch, at IRP. Give them the Brickyard!
\nTony George won\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s review here. NASCAR left the Trucks out of the
\nnetwork television deal, continues to schedule dates on Thursdays and Fridays,
\nno longer has partner events with the ASA, partners the Trucks with IRL dates,
\nand in 2001, has exactly one partner date with the Busch cars at the Milwaukee
\nMile. Are these the actions of a sanctioning body that is supporting a racing
\nseries? Why stop there, NASCAR? Let\u2019s just run the Trucks on Mondays against
\nMonday Night Football and Raw is War. That will boost both ticket sales and
\ntelevision ratings, now won\u2019t it? It just doesn\u2019t make sense. Craftsman, the
\nseries sponsor, has signed on for the future, but it begs the question, by their
\nvery actions, if NASCAR has signed on for the future of NCTS. It doesn\u2019t look
\nthat way, does it?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s really going on here? One might speculate egos
\nrunning NASCAR. Perhaps the Cup Establishment, (need we mention names here?), is
\nfeeling threatened? Feeling they might lose part of the limelight to the Tough
\nTrucks? It\u2019s not like the Busch Series where the Randy LaJoies and the Jeff
\nGreens know their place. We only get a few of them (Busch grads), a year, and by
\nand large, they take a long time to get here, and they go away when they fail.
\nBut these Truck guys, sheesh! They\u2019re out there racing around on a Cup chassis
\nand a Cup motor skinned as a Truck! And they use their bumpers! They don\u2019t
\ncare about aero packages, they just want to win. As Jeremy Mayfield found out
\nlast year at Pocono, we have that unwritten rule in Cup that says you don\u2019t go
\naround an oval making the Establishment uncomfortable. Mr. Mayfield found that
\nhe was No. 1 in Mr. Earnhardt Sr.\u2019s book. And a bleak future for Kurt Busch,
\nNCTS runner up in 2000, who jumps to the #97 unsponsored Cup effort in 2001. In
\nhis limited run in 2000, he made it known early on that he is aggressive,
\nhungry, and has no intent on putting his talent on hold while on bended knee to
\nthe Establishment. No doubt, he will be back in a Truck by the time the green
\nflag falls on the Pepsi 400.<\/p>\n
If we look at the three series now sanctioned by NASCAR, they
\nhave very distinct personalities. The Cup boys have evolved into the Beverly
\nHills 90210 racing series. What? Me work? How many times do we have to hear
\nabout how much Mark Martin hates restrictor plate racing? It\u2019s part of your
\njob, Mark. If you don\u2019t like the movie\u2026? Tony Stewart and his lack of
\naffinity for the racing press? You work for a former Super Bowl winner, teamed
\nwith a Winston Cup champion, and have a billion dollar sponsor on your car. What
\npart of visible don\u2019t you understand? One has to wonder how long Dale Jarrett
\nwould last working for anyone other than Robert Yates. If it\u2019s not the car, it\u2019s
\nthe track, or the pit stops, or the other drivers. It\u2019s never about you. Just
\nwho promised you that rose garden? It wasn\u2019t Joe Gibbs. And lastly, Junior
\nEarnhardt. You aren\u2019t the King. Richard Petty is.<\/p>\n
So what we have here is what\u2019s growing into the Prima Donna
\nRacing Series that deserves Mary Kay, and not Winston as a sponsor. For the most
\npart. It seems to be getting worse every time a Stacy Compton or a driver of his
\nthirst comes in from the Trucks Series and makes an actual effort.<\/p>\n
The Busch Series is perhaps another well kept secret. It is a
\nmix of \u201cbeen there, done that, hated it\u201d castoffs from Cup, and new blood
\nfrom all over the racing community who want to dip their toes into the major
\nleagues. It\u2019s the Club Med of NASCAR: Good equipment, good money, national
\nexposure, major venues, and Sundays off.<\/p>\n
And then we have the working class, the Truckers. Over the
\nyears, NASCAR has used them to do the dirty jobs. They blaze the trails of the
\nunknown for the Cuppers by running debut events at tracks like Gateway and
\nChicago. One has to wonder what nefarious scheme NASCAR has in mind for the
\nrunning of the Trucks at the Lady in Black in 2001. The past three years has
\nshown that nothing they do for the Truck Series comes without a price or a heavy
\nulterior motive. The season gets shorter and exposure ebbs. If NASCAR is
\ncommitted to the Tough Ones, they don\u2019t show it. And the Tough Ones don\u2019t
\nmuch care. These guys like to race. It\u2019s what they do. They are the closest
\nthing to Saturday Night Thunder we have seen in many years. Where else in NASCAR
\ncan a guy put it in the wall in two, apply a dose of sledgehammer bodywork, and
\nfinish in the top five? You\u2019ll never hear a Trucker whine about the weenie
\nwrapper that blew his qualifying effort, but then, these guys aren\u2019t whining
\nweenies.<\/p>\n
A member of the racing press has gone public with the
\nprediction that the NCTS will not be in existence in 2002 as the economy takes a
\ntailspin. Wrong on both counts. The only economic threat of any significance is
\na tax cut that might reduce the amount of gravy for those feeding at the public
\ntrough, many as they are. The NCTS will be back in 2002, and hopefully not under
\nthe banner of NASCAR. There is too much talent and investment for the
\nparticipants to walk away just like that. Most importantly, there IS a fan base
\nno matter how much NASCAR and the popular press try to ignore it, for whatever
\nagenda they wish to push forward, that loves this brand of racing. That fan base
\nmay look to the American Speed Association as a savior for the Trucks.<\/p>\n
The ASA, a racing series that has given rise to no names like
\nKulwicki, Martin, Wallace, and Benson, has gone to great lengths to keep that
\nseries affordable on both sides of the track. They may, with AC Delco, embrace
\nthe Truckers in the guise of the AC Delco Challenge Truck Series in 2002. True,
\ntracks such as Hawkeye Downs and Minnesota aren\u2019t Daytona and Bristol, and
\nthere is no doubt that NASCAR would go to great lengths to keep AC Delco Trucks
\noff of staples of the NASCAR circuit should the Trucks choose not to die
\ngracefully. It wouldn\u2019t matter if NASCAR did black ball them. The Tough Trucks
\nare about RACING, and these guys will, and do, put on a good show whether its
\n100,000 watching at Daytona, or 25,000 at Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Funny how the one series in NASCAR that is the embodiment of
\nits very roots in terms of the type of racing that is employed is also its
\nbastard son. We get mixed signals from NASCAR about the Tough Trucks, and it\u2019s
\ntime for NASCAR to make a commitment, at least more of a commitment than that
\nGod awful chunk of HTML they call a web site. Then again, if they \u201credesign\u201d
\nNCTS the way they did the web site\u2026the race is over\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sssh! Once again, the best kept secret in Daytona this year has nothing to do with Ray Everham\u2019s sandbagging, or Hendrick Motorsports bending the rules, or Robby Gordon thanking his lucky stars his name isn\u2019t Pruett, or Greg Biffle\u2019s impending cakewalk through the Busch Series, or the fact that the DEI drivers are focused on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}