NASCAR now takes the winter off until testing begins at Daytona in January –
\nalthough the term taking the winter off is relative. GM teams have tested at
\nHomestead and some Talladega testing may come soon for Ford and Dodge teams;
\nKentucky Motor Speedway will also see extensive testing by Winston Cup efforts,
\nprimarily by Ford teams.<\/p>\n
While NASCAR teams test and retool for 2003, many of their members have been The hit did not draw any flag, but the unfortunate outcome prompted The criticisms come amid a continuing controversy that has been fanned over Football is of course a rough game, and there has also been an issue over The roughness of football is an undeniable area of its appeal, and that will Which leads to the NHL, which has suffered in television ratings in recent While fighting is admittedly excessive in hockey, at the same time a The NHL, though, might be wise to ease up on some of this effort. The mild The issue of toughness is not alien to racing. NASCAR has seen its ratings Yet as this has happened, the sport has also seen a noticeable decline in its The other egregious example is the continued lobbying for lower down force. One piece said that "perhaps the most promising (package tested) was a That this retrograde route is even alive is a sign of weakness on the part of The decline in toughness in racing is by no means an issue exclusive to the It is also relevant to one of the more bitter debates among fans – the debate Richard Petty won seven Winston Cup titles and 200 races. Dale Earnhardt tied It needs to be noted that Petty and Earnhardt themselves had this kind of The toughness of the circumstances in which the two men won their titles is There is, though, a lot more to it. It has often been said that Petty had the As for competition, the most striking comparison lies in the overall Petty did this amid the most trying circumstances of his career – having to Petty also did not have quite the equipment edge often claimed of him in the Ken Squier once said, "Lead changes tell the story of why this kind of Petty also overcame serious health issues – serious injury in 1969 and 1970, Earnhardt, in contrast, was remarkably injury-free in his career – he It has often been said that Dale Earnhardt could handle a loose racecar Earnhardt was sometimes called The Dominator, but in comparisons with Petty, Earnhardt certainly did not have anything particularly easy – overcoming Certainly Earnhardt made moves in traffic that were stunning. Petty also made But perhaps the ultimate difference between the two was in personality. One needs to better look back at the sport’s history to see bigger pictures NASCAR now takes the winter off until testing begins at Daytona in January – although the term taking the winter off is relative. GM teams have tested at Homestead and some Talladega testing may come soon for Ford and Dodge teams; Kentucky Motor Speedway will also see extensive testing by Winston Cup efforts, primarily by […]<\/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-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","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=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwatching and\/or listening to NFL games on Sundays, and no doubt some will be
\ndebating the merits of the recent controversy over Warren Sapp. The burly
\ndefensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers laid down Green Bay Packers
\noffensive tackle Chad Clifton in the Bucs’ 21-7 defeat of the Packers, but the
\nstory of the game was the severity of injury suffered by Clifton, who had to be
\ntaken off the field on a stretcher, and the post game confrontation between Sapp
\nand Packers head coach Mike Sherman – "I just went up to Warren and told
\nhim I didn’t appreciate the lick he put on Clifton and the joviality that
\nexisted afterward when a guy’s laying on the ground with numbness in his legs
\nand fingers, I just thought that wasn’t appropriate for any NFL player,"
\nSherman said1<\/sup><\/a> – a confrontation now famous for Sapp’s livid demand for Sherman
\nto don pads and helmet and take him on directly.<\/p>\n
\nconsiderable criticism of Sapp – notably livid criticisms on some sports radio
\nshows. The controversy became such that the NFL’s subsequent announcement that
\nthere would be no fine of Sapp nor of Sherman became bigger news than most such
\nincidents usually become.<\/p>\n
\nthe years by such commentators as Keith Olbermann, who in 2000 devoted a large
\nsegment of one episode of his short-lived solo sports show to discussing the
\nissue of QB safety – just how dangerous is football becoming? Warren Sapp has
\nbeen singled out most notably because of the ferocity in his play, and also for trash talk
\nto opponents he’s just tackled.<\/p>\n
\nfines for uniform infractions being greater than fines for vicious
\nhelmet-to-chest hits. The Warren Sapp controversy, though, has been overblown,
\nbecause the hit in question was a clean hit that had an unfortunate outcome. It
\nis reminiscent of the hit the following Monday Night that broke Philadelphia Eagles’ QB Koy Detmer’s elbow – it was a clean hit,
\nalbeit Detmer got hit in the
\nlegs and broke his elbow bracing for hitting the ground.<\/p>\n
\nnot change. While a proper balance is needed to avoid excessive injuries, the
\nSapp controversy is a case of overkill.<\/p>\n
\nyears as the league has cracked down harder on hits under Gary Bettman, a
\nprocess that many feel is robbing the league "of its color and
\npersonality."2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nsubstantial amount of toughness is being weeded out of the game. Checking has
\nbecome more penalty-prone and has also declined of recent, though part of this
\nhas to do with having to relearn the "art" of body checking. Certainly
\nthis body-to-body contact aspect is an essential aspect of player toughness,
\n"the raw edge this contact sport requires," as Damien Cox puts it.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nwussification of the league has been a factor in declining ratings, and
\ntoughness should never be drained out of the sport; players with very high
\nthresholds of pain should always be held in good esteem, "as prototypical
\nNHLers."4<\/sup><\/a> When one contrasts many NHL games with many AHL games, one often
\nsees in the minors a greater threshold of toughness (and higher scoring) that
\nmakes hockey truly great.<\/p>\n
\n
\nskyrocket in the two years of the FOX-NBC television package, and has seen more
\ndifferent winners in the past two seasons than ever before.<\/p>\n
\nthreshold of toughness, exacerbated by the zeal for safety since Dale
\nEarnhardt’s death. Driver bravery is noticeably weaker today than in the past,
\ndriver toughness has also declined, and tactics that are legitimate are now seen
\nby excessive sensitivity as wrong – the yellow line rule at Daytona and
\nTalladega being one egregious example.<\/p>\n
\nNow you might think lower down force would make for greater driver bravery, but
\nexperience has shown that the opposite is the case. NASCAR has halted planned
\nfollow-up testing at Daytona of lower-down force cars due to a combination of
\ntime and resource constraints.5<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\ncar with a raised front valence and reduced rear blade. The package reduced
\ntotal down force and forced the drivers to work the throttle on a motor with a
\nlarger restrictor plate."6<\/sup><\/a> This was written, though this same source
\nacknowledged at the time that this package in fact made the cars "out of
\ncontrol" and that such testing had to renege on reducing down force to
\nimprove stability.7<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nmany. Certainly the rules ought to be bringing the cars closer together, not
\nmaking them unraceable.<\/p>\n
\n
\nlast two seasons. Like so many other areas, it has been a long-building issue
\nspanning decades.<\/p>\n
\nover who was the better among the sport’s only seven-time champions. It is an
\nissue reignited in the responses received for my years-best-and-worst piece of
\nrecent, and warrants examination.<\/p>\n
\nPetty with seven titles, and had 76 wins. The debate over the relative merits of
\nthis record began almost as soon as Earnhardt had won his seventh title in 1994,
\nand have been exacerbated over remarks Petty made after Earnhardt’s death.<\/p>\n
\ndebate over the years, so the debate itself isn’t exactly alien to the sides
\ninvolved.<\/p>\n
\nthe primary issue determining who is the worthier holder of the crown of greatest,
\nand often cited in Earnhardt’s favor is the level of competition he faced.<\/p>\n
\nbest racecars, the best funding, etc. and raced for the championship against
\nonly one or two teams that could run the full schedule. While it is true that
\nPetty in the 1960s raced against fields where factory cars often did not run the
\nfull schedule, it was by no means because of greater resources. On the contrary,
\nPetty’s team was less well-endowed than the stereotype portrays. Petty’s fights
\nwith Chrysler over paucity of assistance throughout the 1960s are now well-known
\n(little appreciated is that Mopar cut its backing in half for the 1967 season),
\nand tire testing for Goodyear and Firestone was often the only way the Petty
\nteam could earn enough money to race.<\/p>\n
\ntoughness of Petty’s rivals versus those of Earnhardt. Petty faced as many
\nHall-of-Fame drivers as one can imagine, and was able to beat the all and finish
\nsecond in Grand National points three times in his first five years, once to Rex
\nWhite, twice to Joe Weatherly, before beating Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, and
\nBilly Wade for his first title in 1964. Petty won more races than almost all
\nfive drivers combined in those five seasons.<\/p>\n
\nown the race team, build cars, build the shop, and race after Lee Petty’s
\ngrievous 1961 injury. While his rivals were mostly drivers (some, like Rex
\nWhite, also owned their cars), Richard and Maurice Petty were "100%
\neverything," as Petty once put it.<\/p>\n
\n1970s. The decade was a nightmare for Chrysler racing, as parts supply dried up
\nalmost as soon as the factory pulled out. Most teams went to Chevrolets, where
\nparts could be acquired at good prices from local dealers; Petty and Harry Hyde,
\nNASCAR’s other Mopar stalwart of the ’70s, were scouring junkyards by 1976 for
\nparts, and in fact this junkyard search began even before 1976. Far from being
\nat an advantage in resources, Petty was quite handicapped, running Mopars that
\nwere harder to maintain than Chevrolets, and when he did switch to Chevy in
\nlatter 1978, he had to learn cars his competition had already mastered over
\nnumerous seasons.<\/p>\n
\nracing provides the ultimate in competition." In this area Petty had vastly
\ntougher competition on a more consistent basis than Earnhardt. 60 lead changes
\nin a race was a common number in Petty’s 1970s heyday, and for the first six
\nseasons of Earnhardt’s career were not that uncommon, but lead changes declined
\nsteadily and quite sharply during the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\nT-bone wrecks at Bristol in 1974 and again in ’76, then again in 1977, severe
\nstomach illness throughout the 1970s, leading to 1976 surgery and removal of 40%
\nof his stomach in 1978, neck breakage in 1980, foot breakage in 1982, and
\ninjuries through the second half of the 1980s, such as his severe crash at
\nDaytona in 1986.<\/p>\n
\nsuffered serious injuries at Pocono in 1979 and again in 1982, but it wasn’t
\nuntil 1996 at Talladega that Earnhardt suffered the first injuries that really
\nhobbled his driving. He then had his still-mysterious blackout spell at
\nDarlington in 1997, but aside from this he remained remarkably injury-free until
\nhis death.<\/p>\n
\nbetter than anyone, but watching Petty race, the #43 was for years substantially
\nlooser than anything Earnhardt ever raced (Petty’s Dodges were often called The
\nPetty Alligator Tail because the tail snapped so prominently), and Petty fought
\nfor the lead with such racecars and won with them. One of the best available
\nexamples was the National 500 at Charlotte in 1974, where Petty fought for the
\nlead all day despite skating through the corners virtually every lap.<\/p>\n
\nsome stats stand out – Petty won ten times at Daytona versus Earnhardt’s three
\nwins (Earnhardt acolytes will count #3’s Shootout, 125, IROC, and Grand National
\n300 wins in his Daytona total), eleven times at Rockingham versus three for
\nEarnhardt, 15 apiece at North Wilkesboro and Martinsville, and so forth.
\nEarnhardt outranks Petty in wins at Atlanta (nine to six), Talladega (ten to
\ntwo), and Charlotte (five to four). But in seasons, Petty holds a big edge –
\nPetty won the most races in a season seven times – Earnhardt did that trick only
\ntwice, and he dominated 1990 with nine wins, yet needed Mark Martin’s penalty to
\nwin the championship – ironically, the only other time a points penalty decided
\nthe Winston Cup title was 1950, when Lee Petty was DQed in mid-season for
\nrunning an unsanctioned race.<\/p>\n
\npoverty to become NASCAR’s top rookie in 1979, he did so with a team, Rod
\nOsterlund Motor Ventures, that was financed out of the team owner’s own pocket.
\nEven when he joined Richard Childress for good in 1984, Childress, though by
\nthen vastly stronger an organization from Earnhardt’s 11 races with the #3 in
\n1981, was working out of "an old (garbage) shop," as engine builder at
\nthe time Lou Larosa put it, until moving to their present locale in 1986.<\/p>\n
\nsuch moves, and very often.<\/p>\n
\nPetty’s legacy encompasses several areas, but one of the biggest was in
\ninterplay with fans. Petty’s fan interaction was so famous that sponsors
\nbasically require drivers to behave like Petty did with fans. Years of fan
\nletters in racing papers showed a more mixed record for Earnhardt in that
\nregard, and that he never won Most Popular Driver until Bill Elliott took
\nhimself out of the running in 2001 should say something. Having lived through
\nthe decades where booing Earnhardt was almost a prerequisite for racing, one may
\nbe struck to see fans cheering for him in later years.<\/p>\n
\nthan one might see. Certainly Earnhardt vs. Petty shows a need to see more and
\nmore of the past, and properly, to find the proper answers to questions one
\nmight ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"