Bemused, Bewildered, Confused, Or To Put It Another Way... I Don't Get It...

The 2013 Daytona 500 was... odd...

Old school drafting a la Earnhardt was back, and this is not a good thing in my opinion.

As I have documented in the past I am of the opinion that the two things the much unloved COT did well were keep drivers safe, and draft at Daytona and Talladega. In fact the cars drafted too well, and the bumpers lined up so perfectly that tandem drafting was born. We all know that NASCAR spent many hours trying to eliminate the tandem draft and to much success.

The first proper race of 2013 would show us what type of restrictor plate racing we would get with the Gen 6. The answer was the one I hoped I would not get... 90's pack racing. Drivers apparently unable to overtake without help, a lot of help. Drivers running round playing follow the leader until the very end. To be fair the early wreck didn't help, but that's not the answer to the fairly processional 500. That's not the answer, but what is the question?

Here is what is bothering me...

During and after the race Danica said she was only using part throttle while running in the draft. This alone is not surprising, in fact this is how it should be. What is surprising is the lack of overtaking by drivers with the loud pedal buried on the floor. The end of the race showed that the drivers and the Gen 6 could overtake, they just didn't. Why didn't more drivers "play" early in the race, find out what happened when they did pull out of the draft. Why didn't a few drivers get together to see what would happen? This was the Daytona 500 after all and no one looked like they wanted to win it, but they all looked scared stiff of losing it. If the drivers had that much accelerator to play with, why didn't they?

The questions are obviously... How does NASCAR make the racing better? Does NASCAR need to change anything?

The Gen 6 car is supposed to do two things, bring back manufacturer identity, and improve the racing. The first it does very well, a Ford now looks like a Ford, a Chevy looks like a Chevy, a Toyota...

The jury is still out on the second and to be fair will be for the first half of this year. Every time the cars race NASCAR, the teams and drivers, and Goodyear will learn a little bit more and by the time the Cup Series starts going back to tracks again we will see what this car can really do.

I do wonder if NASCAR will do something to the 'plate package to increase the closing rates and make it easier to overtake, but lets give NASCAR the chance to get this car right before we talk the sport we love out of business. I am not convinced much needs to change, just a few tweeks and am sure the powers that be will get the show right in the end.

While I think about it I get the feeling there are going to be two attitudes towards Danica Patrick, love or hate. Some will love her and see her as the new Earnhardt Jr, the fan favourite and darling of the sport. Others who hate her will see her as the new Earnhardt Jr, all talk and no action, a driver living off of a "gimmick", Dales is his name, Danicas her gender. I am not sure where I sit yet, I just know this, I would take pole, running up front all day, leading a lap and a top 10 finish in the first race of my rookie year thank you very much, especially when that race was the Daytona 500! The media circus around her might get a bit much at times, but as Keselowski said, she's just another racing driver so lets rate her on her performances in her rookie year, and so far shes done all right.

On a slightly different topic I do wish a speedy recovery to the fans injured at the end of the Nationwide race. Racing is dangerous, but no one want to see fans hurt supporting the sport they love!

2012 NASCAR Chase Finally Gets... Lively!

Lets face it, the 2012 edition of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has not produced the most exciting racing in the sports history. In fact it is fair to say the racing has, on the whole, been dull.

To be honest the racing last year was pretty tedious too, but the season was saved by a dramatic change of form by one driver and an especially close points race. The two protagonists rarely raced side by side against each other before the final race of the year.

For me this years Chase for the Sprint Cup has lacked the on paper drama of last year and was devoid of any real on track action... Until last week.

The charge towards the top of the table by the 48 team has taken an already pedestrian year into the realms of inevitability... Until... Brad put up a fight at Charlotte. OK he lost the battle but the fight meant everything. Here was a young driver who was not going to roll over and let the all conquering giant push him around. On that day Brad Keselowski said if you want it you'll have to go through me first. The fight was tough but the line was never crossed.

Suddenly the Chase gained an edge and this time the talking point was not an on paper battle but an on track one. Now I was interested, I was excited, this is what stock car racing should be all about, not fuel mileage, not strategy, and certainly not track position. One-on-one, two wide, rubbing fenders at nearly 200mph!

Fast forward a week and battle resumed only this time it was two different drivers putting up a "fight". The racing was once again lacklustre until the very end when it is fair to say all hell broke loose. The 2 vs. 48 points battle swung in favour of the youngster in the Blue Deuce as the 48 had a bad day at exactly the wrong time, so a good day for the on paper battle. At the same a different rivalry reared its head, Gordon vs. Bowyer.

Short version, in Jeff Gordons eyes Clint Bowyer has been pushing him around all year and the contact between the two at Phoenix was the final straw... To Bowyer, the 24 just blew his chance at the Championship... Mayhem ensued... On track... And off...

With both cars in the wall and out of the race, a mass brawl in the paddock, and Bowyer sprinting towards Gordons hauler looking for a piece of the action, or at least a piece of Gordon, if nothing else it must have made for a good news story that evening and has certainly proved the drivers are passionate about the sport and the Championship, even if the racing has not always reflected this enthusiasm.

So all of this drama brings NASCARs "have at it" policy back into the limelight. How physical can drivers be, can drivers take the "law" into their own hands, how far will NASCAR let them go, and will the drivers care? How much "it" is too much?

Gordon did not hide from the fact that he took Bowyer out, in fact he told his team that was what he was doing before he did it. In a country where scripted wrestling is entertainment, and where hockey players are allowed to kick the living whatsits out of each other, why can't stock car drivers suffer from road rage at times. Don't tell me you haven't wished you could do the same to the guy driving in front of you on your way to work... Or... Did Jeff Gordon cross the line by retaliating?

For me the fact that one of the drivers involved was racing for the Championship is irelevant. Just because Bowyer was third in points does not make him untouchable. If anything he should race with the understanding that he has more to loose than others if anything happens.

So should Gordon have retaliated? Yes... Er... No... But at the same time definitely... But maybe not...

Let me try this again - Anything that puts a driver at risk is a bad idea and lets face it, even with safer cars and SAFER barriers, hitting a wall in a stock car is always a risky business.

However this is NASCAR, not F1. If you want purist racing with emotionless corporate machines as drivers, watch you average GP. If you want hard hitting, physical racing with real, emotional human beings behind the wheel watch touring cars in Europe or stock cars in the States. In the case of NASCAR this sort of incident is what the sport is based on. The cars have bumpers, and the drivers know how to use them. When the time is right you can substitute the word "cars" for "drivers" and the word "bumpers" for "fists" in the last sentence, and point still stands. If you don't like it go race Indycars!

Of course NASCAR have to be seen to clamp down on this sort of thing. This is a family sport and the idea of driving your rival off the track and then fighting about it afterwards is not what NASCAR wants to be known for in 2012, so fines and probationary periods are handed out to the relevant parties. However NASCAR is a "show" and the sport needs action and rivalries, so this is in fact exactly what the sport needs. You can imagine the sports top suits saying to Gordon, Bowyer and co. "We can't let this happen on out race tracks!" and as soon they have left the room, "Well that was good wasn't it!".

I think the sport needs more action, more side by side racing, less strategy and less importance on track position. The sport needs, and has always needed rivalries between drivers and a bad guy. If temperatures boil over every now and then, good! After all, this is not F1!

I still consider "Have at it" to be the right principle for NASCAR to be run by. Hopefully the new for 2013 cars will make the racing better and then we will have a sport worthy of the news reels.. With or without the fights!

Dodge, Road Racing BS, and AJ

Get the Hell Outta Dodge… Actually… Please Don’t

I am saddened by the news that Dodge is pulling out of NASCAR racing at the end of this season. Ever since Ray Evernham brought the third of Detroit’s big three manufacturers back into the sport I have enjoyed watching the Chevy Vs. Ford Vs. Dodge battles.

As a Mopar fan I may be biased, I drive a Chrysler PTCuiser and also have a Chrysler Voyager (Dodge Caravan in the US) in the family, but the 2012 Nationwide Series Challenger and the 2013 Cup Series Charger are two good looking race cars! The new 2013 Cup Series bodies suited the Charger so well, allowing Dodge to finally race a car that looked like the bold road car. Next years grid will be worse off without the Dodge in the field.

 

AJ – What a Waste

 

I was also saddened to hear what has happened to AJ Allmendinger. I think he was one of the next “stars” of the sport, and was impressed by his performances in some average machinery over the past few years. Remember he qualified for every race while driving for Richard Petty, at a time when the team had no provisionals to fall back on! Regardless of whether what happened was an innocent mistake or something else I am sorry to see such a talented young driver jeopardise his racing career in this way. NASCAR are right to do what they have done, I just hope AJ can sort himself out and do what is necessary to get behind the wheel of a Cup car again.

Road Racing… With An Edge

I am from England, where the average racetrack turns left and right, and an oval is a small, less than quarter mile long short track (Rockingham excepted), and the racing on the ovals is not exactly mainstream. NASCAR however does not race in England. In America a race track is oval shaped and a road course is a track with right hand turns.  

Twice a year, however, NASCAR turn right and at Watkins Glen we got one hell of a finish! Should NSCAR have thrown a caution and cleaned up the oil that was being dropped on the track? The English race fan in me says yes. The oil was dangerous and NASCAR should have put out the yellow, cleaned up the track and then finished with a G-W-C. Had this scenario taken place on an oval, this is what would have happened. Thankfully this did not happen last weekend.

NASCAR let the race finish under green and in doing so gave us one of the seasons most dramatic finishes. Road racing with an edge. Car slipping and sliding, slithering and spinning, on track and off, dust flying, and a last lap lead change. What’s not to like!

Close, hard racing without the “BS” as Keselowski put it!

Well said Brad, and well done Marcos!

 

Plato Vs. Neal… Again…

 

At Watkins Glen we saw racing with no, well you know, from Keselowski and Ambrose, in the BTCC, at Snetterton, we got our fair share of, you know, from Jason Plato and Matt Neal.

Jason Plato in his MG6 was obviously holding up the following cars, including Matt Neals Honda Civic, but he was also teaching a defensive driving master class, until Neal changed the game.

With a couple of laps to go Neal went for a “gap” that was never there and pushed Plato sideways. Plato, giving another master class, this time in front wheel drive car control, gathered it all up and followed Neal to the next, the last, corner. Nobody was surprised by what happened next. Plato used Neal as a brake and shoved the both the Civic and his own MG off the track.

 

 

I must admit I did not blame Plato for retaliating. Neal’s move was stupid and uncalled for; Plato’s was payback! NASCAR would have called it “have at it” and America would have loved it! The BTCC officials may not have loved it, but they did leave it alone. They both gave and they both got, so that makes them even.

On a different note, I was pleased to see the new Motorbase NGTC Ford Focus driven by Matt Jackson doing so well on its debut! Bring on more NGTC cars and the racing can only get better. The challenge for Alan Gow and his staff is to keep the technical specs of the cars close, and to keep costs down! I wish them well!

Racin' The Way It Ought'a Be??

Bristol Motor Speedway...

Half-a-mile long...

24° to 30° of variable banking in the turns...

Two, wide, evenly matched racing grooves...

160,000 seats...

NASCAR short track racing at its most intense...

So why are the stands empty?

And why isn't the racing considered "good enough"?

Lets face it fans loved the old Bristol. For years the track boasted of an unbroken "sold out" streak.

Not any more...

Since the track was repaved and the banking was changed to its current variable configuration fans have turned off and that unbroken run of sold out ticket sales has been well and truly broken. On paper the "new" Bristol should be perfect for modern NASCAR racing. Multiple racing grooves giving the drivers loads of room to race two wide over 500 laps. However somethings not working.

The "old" Bristol was a physical track, physically hard on drivers as well as emotionally and mentally hard. The drivers also got physical with each other, what became known as the "bump'n'run".

A packed house might have booed Dale Earnhardt in the 1999 Bristol night race when he "just meant to rattle" Terry Labontes cage but don't tell me those fans didn't pay their money to see exactly that happen.

However since the track was reconfigured the contact, some might say the "edge" has been lost. In one way this was the reason for repaving the track. The old track had one racing groove and to overtake drivers had to use their front bumper to move the other car out of the way. Now with the variable banking the drivers have two complete racing grooves to work with, negating the need for the "bump'n'run". However I did say "in one way" this was the point of the variable banking.

I fully expected, after the track was reconfigured, the controversial last lap "bump'n'runs" to be replaced by two wide, thousands-of-an-inch close, finishes using the new variable banking to great effect. This was surely the other purpose of the reconfiguration, widen the racing groove. The banking does create this style of racing as the battle between Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth in the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup race proved.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Fans may look back at the "old" Bristol races and remember them as close, good old fashioned short track racing and look at the races on the new surface and consider the racing not good enough. Not enough cars on the lead lap, no dramatic last lap battles, however not every lap of every Bristol race was filled with "bump'n'run" drama. The other 1999 Bristol race only had 13 cars on the lead lap with 222 laps still to go. The one groove nature of the track meant that the races were wars of attrition, patience and stamina, waiting games for 400 laps and full on for the last 100 laps. Remember, 500 laps of any NASCAR race, let alone Bristol, is a long time.

This has not changed with the "new" track. If anything the variable banking has done its job and opened the track up to "real" racing. What I do not understand is why the race finishes have not been that close.

The drivers seem able to race two wide for lap after lap in the middle of the race, however the track is yet to produce the aforementioned two wide, thousands-of-an-inch close finish, using the new variable banking to great effect. To me this is why fans are not buying tickets and are complaining about the new Bristol. It is said the most important parts of a film, stage production, book or TV show are the start and end, as the viewer always remembers these more than the bit in the middle and I wonder if the same can be said of a motor race.

Fans remember with great fondness the "old" Bristol races and say they want the "old" Bristol back. What I think they really want are good "new" Bristol starts and great "new" Bristol finishes. The 300 laps in between are always going to be forgotten.

I just wish I understood why this hasn't happened yet, as I for one quite like the "new" Bristol!

Progress A Fresh Fit At Phoenix

A progressively banked Phoenix gave us a NASCAR Sprint Cup race that got progressively better as it progressed.

Phoenix was a race as much of failures as successes. A brake failure for Casey Mears brought out one of seven cautions. An electronic failure of sorts for a fuel saving Tony Stewart ended his day, while a fuel strategy failure for Kevin Harvick denied him the chance to really go for it at the end. These were offset by some good racing and the early season success of new partners driver Denny Hamlin and crew chief Darian Grubb, the partnership proving to be a "fresh fit"!

Another success of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 was the 312 mile race length. Strange I know, but the race was held over 500 kilometres, therefore 312 miles and laps. Quite what a distinctly European kilometre has to with a distinctly American race series is beyond me, but I have long been an advocate of shortening certain Cup Series races so the principle worked for me. Now use the same thinking at other tracks, Pocono perhaps, but call the race the "Whatever 312" next time and make a feature of the shorter race distance.

The most exciting moments of the race came when Mr Twitter, Brad Keselowski in the, still a Penske Dodge, 2 car battled with the 48 Chevy of, a determined to earn some points this week, Jimmie Johnson and, the always aggressive, Kyle Busch in the 18 Toyota, and when the Rowdy vs Harvick feud reared it's head. These battles proved the still new progressive banking can produce good side by side racing once the grip comes in. I am still not sure about the "short cut" though! The other exciting moments were the closing stages, the "will they make it, won't they make it" laps.

The most bizarre moment of the race came not on the track but in the garage, with the news that to investigate what went wrong with the 14 car, Tony Stewarts crew would have to "plug the car in".

Welcome to the modern world NASCAR. Computers in stock car racing...

That's what they call progress!

Nightona 500

Ten post Daytona 500 thoughts...

1 - Rain rain go away... nuf said.

2 - Wow Here it Comes, Here Comes the Night... The first Daytona 500 under the lights, and on a school night! Well done to NASCAR for getting the race done!

3 - If Jimmy Spencer was Mr Excitment, Elliot Sadler has to be Mr Impatient... Lap 2? Really?

4 - Oh look its a girl in a race suit... the new "face of NASCAR" was stuffed in the wall, hard, in her Duel race, taken out by her team mate in the Nationwide race, and her 500 effectively ended courtesy of Mr Sadler. Pity! Only time will tell if she can win races in either series.

5 - Pack is back... Much credit to NASCAR for delivering the style of racing the fans wanted while also giving the drivers the ability to race for themselves and slingshot for the win.

6 - Juan for the delay, Two car for the show, Three delays to get ready, now go cat go, but don't you, wreck my new tarmac... or something like that... Who would have thought the "big one" would be between one race car and a jet drier? Que a Twitter and Facebook world full of "Juan less jet drier", or Days of Thunder, "hit the pace car" gags. While it looked like something on the 42 car broke, JPM needs to start looking like the world class race car driver again, and not, frankly, a waste of space!




7 - Two car for the show? It can only be Brad Keselowski... posting on twitter... in the middle of the race... brilliant!!

8 -  More NASCAR love... Half way payout worked perfectly, as did fuel injection!

9 - Umbrella, ella, ella... This years Daytona 500 proved once and for all that in racing... just when you think you have seen it all...

10 - Ford rules... Well done to Matt Kenseth, 2012 Daytona 500 winner!!



Now the regular season starts... roll on Phoenix!!