My Two Cents Worth for 10/04/04

By Todd Berger, LGR Staff Correspondent

Before I get into my brilliant and thought-provoking assessment of this week’s race, I’d like to send out wishes for a speedy recovery to NBC’s Allen Bestwick.  Last week, Bestwick broke his leg in two places playing hockey and had surgery to repair it.  He is looking to return to the booth this Sunday at Kansas. 

I know that like in most things NASCAR-related, opinions are split on Bestwick.  I happen to like him, his style, and appreciate what he does.  Like him or not, you see in his replacement how hard the job is, and I respect (sometimes grudgingly) those that do it.  Allen has been announcing races since the late 60’s and early 70’s at a track owned by his father.  He did race broadcasts for PRN on the radio from 1986 to 2000, and is a consummate professional. 

Now, on to this week’s e-mail generator…otherwise known as my column.

I’d like to preface this week’s column by saying that I hate restrictor plate racing.  I hate the idea of “restricted” racing. I hate the idea that the sanctioning body overlooks the two least safe tracks and their forms of racing, solely because ISC (NASCAR’s sister company) owns them.  I hate the concept of 10 or so guys just riding at the back f the field asleep, waiting until about 40 laps to go, and then they’ll start trying.  For what tickets cost, I prefer the competitors be trying close to their hardest most all of the time.

With all of that said, the EA Sports 500 from Talladega was the best race of the season. 

Yep.  I said it.  This was the best race of the season.  There were 20 leaders with 47 lead changes at the line, and many more lead changes on the track.  There was passing everywhere with guys dicing and blocking and putting cars in places they ought not have been. 

Do I say this to somehow let NASCAR / ISC off the hook about these tracks and this type of racing?  Of course not.  But we can talk about the race without talking, in the same breath, about the tracks and restrictor plate racing.  Besides, I’ll throw a paragraph or two in at the end about plate racing anyway.  (You all knew I would…right?)

I think the call of the day award has to go to the Eurys (Junior and Senior) and their decision to take two tires late in the race when everyone else took gas only.  They knew that everyone that didn’t pit when the yellow flew would pit a lap later and be behind them.  They decided that, with help from others and effort from their driver, the Bud car and its driver could make up any track position lost in the time it took to add right side rubber.

The race went green with five laps to go, and Dale Junior reminded us all of his late father.  Dale the younger passed ten cars in just three laps with the help of Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Rudd and held on to win his fifth Talladega race of his career.  A clutch performance resulted in Junior taking the point lead from Jeff Gordon and giving him a 13 point lead with seven races to go.

Elliott Sadler had yet another eventful day in Alabama.  Last year he went for a rough and tumble ride with just seven laps to go while running in the top five.  This time, he had struggled all day with battery and alternator problems, overheating issues, but he had fought on and was looking for a decent finish.  He got clipped by Ward Burton approaching the start-finish line and, in true Stroker Ace form, took the checkered flag on his roof.  Sadler was unhurt but is now 166 points out of the lead and in danger of being the next also ran on the way to Homestead. 

A little note here from your author.  The TV folks always show the cars going by at speed from the flag stand, and it always looks fast.  But did anyone else notice how fast Sadler’s car looked once it got upside down and was heading toward the flagman’s nest?  I nearly ducked, and I was at home.  It reminds you not to discount how dangerous this sport is for the participants and its officials.

Three weeks ago, I was complimenting Jeremy Mayfield for getting into “the Chase” in impressive fashion.  Today, I am saying thanks for coming.  Try not to finish lower in points than the 11th place driver does.  Jeremy had his second horrid run in three weeks, leaving him 280 points out with seven races to go. 

Nevertheless, it’s been an impressive year for the Owensboro native and I suspect that he and teammate Kasey Kahne may both be on the stage next year when it’s banquet time in New York City.

After two decent finishes and one terrible one, Jimmie Johnson sees himself on the edge of being out of contention altogether as well.  He is 172 points out of first place but, more importantly, he is in ninth place.  The chances of him finishing far enough ahead of eight guys for seven straight weeks to make a big difference is unlikely.  He certainly sounded defeated in his post-race interview yesterday.

I have to take my hat off to Brendan Gaughan.  Last week, there were rumors swirling about him being replaced in the 77 car, and Penske South went as far as to have another driver test Brendan’s car instead of Brendan himself.  Regardless of whether it was luck, strategy, or otherwise, Gaughan led the race and garnered his first career top-five finish.  The bottom line is that when the chips are down, all a driver can really do is race.

I have spent the last several weeks beating down Richard Childress Racing and their equipment, strategy and over lack of preparedness.  Their cars have been slow, there’s been controversy on the team, and there appear to be sponsor problems going forward as well.  However, Childress’ cars looked great yesterday, working together, running up front, for a while in the top three spots on the inside line.  Finishing with three cars in the top 13 is about as good of a day as RC has had all year. 

That doesn’t mean their problems are gone, however.  I suspect that quite the opposite is true.  My guess is that we’ll see a return to the same old slow cars when the haulers get to Kansas this week.

Here’s one of the biggest issues of the week, which makes it a joke in and of itself.  In the midst of his post-race interview, Dale Junior said “hell” twice and uttered the dreaded “S” word.  You know…the one that cost Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday ten grand 25 points earlier this year.

Now, if NASCAR wants to hold on to a thread of the credibility they think they have left, they have to fine Earnhardt and penalize him accordingly points-wise. 

Will they?  Honestly, I don’t know.  I am leaning towards no. 

The problem is that I believe this is NBC’s problem in particular and television’s problem in general.  After all of the hooplah surrounding this year’s Superbowl and “boobie-gate,” the networks said that events would be shown using a delay of between five and seven seconds.  Had they been using the delay, we wouldn’t have had a problem.  They stuck a live mic in front of a guy and asked him about winning and his late father and being the points leader.  They got what they got. 

Also, NASCAR still takes a little criticism about the 1990 decision to penalize Mark Martin 46 points for an illegal carburetor spacer that was bolted on instead of welded on, which would have been legal.  Martin ultimately lost the title to Dale Sr. by 26 points, a margin smaller than his point penalty.  That penalty still enrages Roush Racing fans and Mark Martin fans to this day.  If they were to do that today, especially to Junior, and he ended up losing the title in similar fashion, well, I don’t think you could even guess what would happen, but it would be bad…and ugly.

I hear a lot of talk about Junior on message boards.  “He gets bigger plates at Daytona and Dega,” or “NASCAR lets DEI cheat” or “they let him win races.” The fact that conspiracy theorists out there take the time to say that tells you how big Junior is. 

The problem now for NASCAR is that they helped make Junior the mythical figure and fan favorite he is today.  He’s big because of NASCAR and NASCAR is more popular now in no small part due to him.  Will the sanctioning body have to stones to make a stand now, late in the season, in the middle of their phony Chase? 

Time will tell…

Was this one of the most frantic finishes NASCAR has seen in some time?  Absolutely.  Was it good for ratings and potentially bringing viewers for next week, next month and next year?  Maybe.  Did it go against everything NASCAR has blathered on about this year about safety?  Absolutely.

Let’s have a refresher.  In the spring Talladega race, there was a spin behind the leaders that didn’t even collect any cars.  In the “interest of safety,” NASCAR threw a caution and arbitrarily decided the winner based on car location in proximity to a scoring loop under the track at the time a flag waved or the call was made to push a button or when the call was made to wave the flag or when the lights came on or something like that.  No one was in any danger, yet NASCAR stopped a race short of it’s advertised distance, announced a winner, then got mad when the fans threw stuff in protest. 

Fast forward to yesterday.  On the last lap, there is a violent accident involving Greg Biffle and other cars, but Biffle’s was the primary concern.  There was certainly debris on the track just out of turn two, as well as several damaged cars including Biffle’s steaming heap. 

Now, since NASCAR is interested in “the safety of their drivers” first, they threw the caution to freeze the field…right? 

Nope.  They let the cars race on in a pack of 30 at nearly 200 mph.  Even if the drivers lifted entering turn one, without real aggressive breaking, they were still hitting over 100mph exiting turn two, where emergency personnel were on the track and track apron cleaning up and attending to Greg Biffle.  I could not believe that cars were rolling thru the accident scene with safety workers running not only on the track, but also TO the accident scene. 

So where does this leave us?  NASCAR claims to be a safety-first shop, but yesterday that veil fell off and blew out the window.  NASCAR is for safety when it’s convenient for them.  Yesterday was a perfect example of when a caution was necessary, yet NASCAR didn’t dare throw one and risk criticism from fans and the broadcasting network, regardless of the health and well-being of a driver whose condition was not yet known.  Also, NASCAR is sending the message that we care about your safety if you crash and are in danger on any of the first 187 (or whatever) laps of the race.  If, however, you crash on the last lap, you’re basically on your own.  And good luck with that.

Shame on NASCAR. 

And now, my small piece about restrictor plate racing in particular and competitive racing in general.

First and foremost, racing is about speed.  However, there is a point of diminishing returns.  As stock cars have gotten faster, the product has invariably suffered.  Why?  They’re going too fast.  More speed means the straight-aways are shorter and the drivable lines in the corners are narrower, both of which allow less time and space for passing.  Imagine if everyone was going 55 mph at Darlington.  They could run three wide all the way around the track.  At the ridiculous speeds they run there now, cars can barely run around that track one-wide. (Work with me here).

The problem is balancing the thrill of speed with the quality of the show.  If all of the cars ran 10% slower at every track, the shows themselves would be far better.  I am pulling that number (10%) out of my…um, calculator, but you get my point.

I can’t pretend to know as much about cars as someone like Matt McLaughlin or other writers who have called for similar changes to slow the fields at all tracks, not just the plate tracks.  When Matt writes about changing gear ratios and engine compressions to slow cars, he knows what he is talking about.  I only know what I read and see. 

This is a problem that only NASCAR can fix.  NASCAR could mandate crate motors that can’t be touched or modified in any way.  They can hand out actual carburetors made to certain specifications that would slow the cars while leaving throttle response at the foot of the driver.

And then there is the safety issue.  When it’s more likely than not that twenty cars are going to wreck at 195 mph, you have a real safety concern. 

NASCAR says safety is their core concern.  What amazes me is that NASCAR saw a problem in 2000 and 2001 regarding particular injuries, so the moved to mandate head and neck restraints soon thereafter.  They saw a problem with stuck throttles in 2000, and mandated steering wheel-mounted kill switches immediately.  However, hundreds of racecars have been destroyed and dozens of drivers injured severely and several have been killed at the plate tracks since restrictor plate racing was implemented in 1988, yet NASCAR refuses to do anything about it to make the racing safer and more palatable for the fans. 

Someone has to say enough is enough.  I’m saying it now.