I hate to say it but Benny Parsons is
\ncompletely off-base with his comments that the door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper
\nracing we saw on Sunday is exactly what the race fans want. At least from my
\nperspective. I don’t care to sit and watch 500 miles of "racing" where
\none single hiccup from one driver can take out half the field. I thank God that
\neveryone was able to climb from their cars and walk away. Well, almost everyone.
\nRicky Craven wasn’t too steady on his feet but, I hear that he’s okay so that is
\na great thing to hear. It was another one of those moments that I dread when I
\nsee major wrecks that look like someone may get hurt. I literally hold my breath
\nuntil I see ALL drivers moving around and getting out of their cars. Yes, even
\nJeff Gordon.<\/p>\n
I don’t know how many times a driver has
\nto say "this ain’t racin’" before NASCAR is going to pull their heads
\nout of the sand and listen. Right now it appears that NASCAR is taking the old
\nBill France approach of "you’ll race when and how we tell you to and if you
\ndon’t like, hit the road." I’m sorry but this has become completely
\nunacceptable. And from what I hear, a large number of drivers, owners and crew
\nchiefs visited the big red trailer last Sunday afternoon and told NASCAR just
\nthat. We’re hearing that NASCAR has decided to listen and do something about it
\nbut, I’m not going to hold my breath.<\/p>\n
I heard it a few times from the drivers on
\nSunday. "The fans got their money’s worth." Not this fan. I am
\ndefinitely on the side of the drivers on this one. Something needs to be done
\nand it needs to be done before the next race at Daytona. There have been many
\nsuggestions and I have made some of my own. Removing the plates and letting the
\ncars go 225+ mph is not really an option. Seeing a car fly into the stands is
\nsomething I’m not wanting to see anytime soon. Taller greenhouses and standing
\nthe windshields up would definitely be a move in the right direction.<\/p>\n
The most obvious choices would be change
\nthe tracks and go to smaller engines. Back when the cars ran a top speed of 200
\nmph and averaged 180 mph around the tracks, five story high banking was okay and
\nuseful. However, back then the cars weren’t nearly as stable as they are now and
\na driver had to lift off the gas or he would be into the parking lot. It’s time
\nto bring those days back. Knock the banking down to about 18 to 20 degrees and
\nbring handling and driver skill back into the mix. How much skill does it take
\nto hold a gas pedal flat on the floor? Oh, and hold your breath and pray for 500
\nmiles? None. All it takes is a voice in the back of y our head saying that this
\nis your job and it’s what you do and a blind faith (hope) that you’ll be one of
\nthe lucky few to come out of the other side of the smoke unscathed.<\/p>\n
Go to smaller engines. I don’t care if the
\ncars are going 210 mph or 180 mph. Makes no difference to me. I tune in to watch
\nthe races because I am a race fan. I’m sure if you were to ask any driver out
\nthere which he would prefer, a three hour race in a pack of 40 cars or a three
\nand half hour race with cars strung out, they would ask to have their workday
\nlengthened. The drivers love to race. They wouldn’t do this if they didn’t.<\/p>\n
I’m hearing rumors that Mark Martin may
\ndecide he’s had enough and may retire. If this is the case and it’s because of
\nthe plates races, then I think NASCAR should be taken out in the town square and
\nplaced in the stocks and left there until they, not only promise to do something
\nbut, actually move forward and make changes. And mandating head and neck
\nrestraints is just another one of NASCAR’s idiotic ideas, thinking that it shows
\nthey are doing something when in fact, they aren’t doing a damn thing. But this
\nstory is for another column. One to be written when I am a little less fired up.<\/p>\n
Many times NASCAR has said that they will
\nlook into the problems that are cropping up in the sport and many times they
\nhave said they will do something about them. And many times they have sat back
\nand done absolutely no thing while the carnage continues. It appears that NASCAR
\nis feeding off the "need" for The Big One at each and every plate
\nrace. They usually have the video up on the website immediately, showing all the
\ndetails and this weekend is no exception. You could find the video there under
\nthe heading "The "big one" claims 16 cars on the last lap".
\nI’m sure NASCAR was heartbroken after the spring race at Dega when there was no
\ncrash highlights to post.<\/p>\n
I hear over and over again about how we
\nhad Big Ones at Daytona and Dega before the restrictor plates were implemented
\nand Professor Benny is one of those that keeps bringing this up. Yes, we did
\nhave big crashes during these races. A few of them. But now we’re having 3 or 4
\na year. Now, every single time the drivers climb into their cars at the plate
\ntracks they’re not saying they think they have a car that can win. They’re
\nsaying they hope they can position themselves in the right place at the rig ht
\ntime to miss the Big One. None of them is saying they hope they can get through
\nthe day without having the Big One. They already know it’s going to happen and
\nthey’re praying they won’t be in it. And NASCAR doesn’t seem to care. I guess it
\nsells tickets. I guess all the "new" fans NASCAR has attracted want to
\nsee the crashes and NASCAR is determined to give them what they want. At least
\nthis is what one driver said. "They wanted this to happen."<\/p>\n
My kids used to think that crashes were
\ncool and looked forward to seeing them during the races. They race high speed go
\nkarts in the club here in Vegas and I decided it was time to enlighten them. So
\na couple of years ago I pulled a video of a crash at Laguna Seca and had them
\nwatch it. No blood. No guts. Not even much in the way of smoke or dust. Just a
\nsimple crash of a CART Indy car slamming a wall head-on and flipping over the
\nwall. As usual they thought it was cool. Until I told them that they had just
\nwatched Gonzalo Rodriquez lose his life in that crash. I could see from the
\nlooks on their faces that a switch had just been turned on. The y no longer
\nthink crashes are cool. They no longer laugh when they see one. It’s not an
\nenjoyable thing to see innocence lost but, sometimes preserving it would be the
\ngreater sin.<\/p>\n
It’s time for NASCAR to pull their heads
\nout of whatever smelly place they have them stuck in and open their eyes. The
\nfans, the "real" fans do not enjoy the wrecks and do not enjoy seeing
\ntheir driver heroes falling to the ground after climbing out of their cars or
\nseeing them assisted very slowly into the back of the ambulance. Benny, it’s
\ntime to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s time for Mike Helton to take the
\nchallenge from one of the drivers, one that I voiced back in May and strap his
\nbig butt into a seat next to Rusty Wallace and go for a ride with him. Not for
\none or two laps around the track either. Strap in for the whole 500 miles and
\nget an up close and personal look at the world from a driver’s perspective. Then
\nmaybe things would change. Oh, and Rusty, if for some ungodly reason this were
\nto occur, I’d suggest some 200 mph tape over Mike’s mouth. I don’t think you
\ncould handle the screaming and whining for 500 miles. Of course, your first
\npitstop would be over two minutes long after you decided to throw him out.<\/p>\n
Oh, one quick side note (question) before
\nI sign off here. How come the Silly Sticks (TM) made their appearance one week
\nafter Dale Jr won a race and then were done away with the very next time he won
\na race? Hmmmmmm? Curiouser and curiouser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hate to say it but Benny Parsons is completely off-base with his comments that the door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper racing we saw on Sunday is exactly what the race fans want. At least from my perspective. I don’t care to sit and watch 500 miles of "racing" where one single hiccup from one driver can take […]<\/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-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","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=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}