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!

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!

Not Just A Stretch of Tarmac!

Race tracks have characters, personalities, they are individual.

Martinsville is the flat short track with the paperclip turns. Bristol the high speed, high banked short track. Richmond, another short track, is totally different from the rest.

Even the road race circuits are individual from each other. Infineon a hilly hard hitting rollercoaster ride, Watkins Glen a more delicate, fast flowing example of right and left turns.

Some tracks on the NASCAR “circuit” are a bit too similar for their own good; Texas, Charlotte and Atlanta for example. Daytona and Talladega are very similar on paper but each has it's own personality. In this case that’s a good thing as one 'plate track would not be enough, and three probably too many.

Phoenix is a track all on its own, unlike any other. A strange combination of fairly flat banking, flowing turns and a tight kink on the back straightaway. Phoenix works. A handling track, sure. Not much grip, sure. Good for two wide racing, sure. Individual, definitely!

Unfortunately after last Sundays Sprint Cup race the track is due to be not only resurfaced, but also redesigned. New variable banking, wider turns and a less dramatic kink out back will be covered in new sticky tarmac.

The combination of a tight, tricky, slick but very racy 1 mile race track and a 312 miles short race made for a good race last Sunday. Another “storyline” to start the season... Jeff Gordon breaks his winless streak!

At a time when NASCAR are attempting to put the “character” back into the sport I hope the changes to Phoenix won’t rob the sport of one of its most characterful pieces of tarmac!