My Two Cents Worth for 11/23/04 By Todd Berger, LGR Staff Correspondent
Well, this is the last My Two Cents for the 2004 racing season. Yes, I will be writing some off-season stuff, but it’s still a little sad. I would also hope that this would be one of my better columns, since it’s the one some folks are going to remember (or not) until spring, but I’m not making any promises.
That race was one of the most exciting races in recent memory. Why? Because there were at least five guys actively and aggressively racing to win and not just content to run second or fifth or eighth. NASCAR should learn more from this, but I know they won’t. Brian France is so busy patting himself on the back for his brainchild, “The Chase,” that he will never see what he did stumble upon. That is the fact that if there is a solid and valuable reason to race for a win, these drivers will do it. The risk is WORTH the reward if there’s something big on the line. That’s why my subtle points system change would work, even if incorporated with this Chase thing.
In case you’ve forgotten my suggested scoring system, here it is again (taken from a column written in August of 2003):
Here is how the points system would work:
1st - 280 pts 16th - 100 pts 2nd - 230 pts 17th - 90 pts 3rd - 210 pts 18th - 80 pts 4th - 190 pts 19th - 70 pts 5th - 170 pts 20th - 60 pts 6th - 150 pts 21st - 50 pts 7th - 145 pts 22nd - 45 pts 8th - 140 pts 23rd - 40 pts 9th - 135 pts 24th - 35 pts 10th - 130 pts 25th - 30 pts 11th – 125 pts 26th –25 pts 12th - 120 pts 27th – 20 pts 13th – 115 pts 28th – 15 pts 14th – 110 pts 29th – 10pts 15th – 105 pts 30th – 5 pts
Positions 31- 43 would all receive five championship points, eliminating the need for hopelessly slow or wounded cars to return to the track.
This way, there’s a distinct advantage to winning and finishing as high as possible. Right now, the difference between leading the most laps and winning and finishing 21st is 90 points. That’s a joke. The difference with my system would be 230 points. THAT’S how you make every race exciting.
I was in an uncomfortable place Sunday. My bias against Kurt Busch winning as a race fan almost clouded my vision and judgment as it related to Sunday’s events overall. Despite his team’s repeated efforts to de-rail his title hopes, Kurt kept racing to the front and eventually finished well enough that the results of the others were irrelevant. Kurt was fun to listen to the rest of the race after that wheel exploded. I also liked how Fennig hid the offending part in a towel under his foot. Good stuff.
And speaking of that, how lucky was Kurt on that? I mean, the wheel falls off and he missed totaling his car by about 1/16th of an inch? Heck, a foot to the right and he’s Matt Kenseth at Dover all over again. It just goes to show you how narrow the margin is from champion to also-ran.
If I were Greg Biffle, I’d be mad as hell. He dominated the event but because the race ran long and had too many cautions, we never saw Greg Biffle anywhere near victory lane. Too bad a guy’s third career win and the second of the season can go so unnoticed. He was astounding and his move around the outside on the final restart was the kind of move of which legends are made. I still like Greg, but feel bad that he’s the fourth banana (or worse) at Roush Racing.
What the hell was Joe Nemechek thinking Sunday anyway? Every other lapped car in the field knew that they needed to get out of the away and drop to the back of the field with 11 laps to go, yet Nemechek decided that HE needed to get his lap back and race the championship leaders? There’s a time and a place for everything, and that was NOT the time for that sort of thing. I hope someone had a word with Joe after the race about that. Imagine if he took out Kurt or Jeff or Jimmie in that situation? He’d have gotten it from the fans worse than Bill Buckner.
Whatever tire problem the 9 and 19 had must have been related to the same thing, because how many other teammates had identical tire failures on the same lap? I bet that’s all kinds of rare.
Kurt Busch sure whined and bitched a lot. If I were on his crew, it’d be tough to listen to that sarcasm and snottiness all the time. I know you’ll say it’s because I don’t like him, but his tone is so crappy most of the time that it’d be tough to be “a team of one” for 51 weeks a year like it takes to be successful. I’d say that’s a testament to Fennig’s ability to get the team focused and keep them focused.
I happened to flip over and listen to Junior on TV after Kvapil wrecked and Junior was asking if “that kid was okay, because he sure hit hard?” Nice to see that, despite a title slipping thru his fingers, he was still able to keep his priorities in order.
Speaking of the Budweiser team, what happens to them in the last 12 races of the season? They need some SERIOUS work on their flat track and semi-flat track program as well as their final third of the season effort if they want to have a chance for title next year and beyond.
Tony Stewart’s penalty on the restart drew his ire, but every driver I heard talk about it said that they knew he was going to draw a penalty. Not only was he not keeping up with the pace car, he was still scrubbing his tires at the restart line. This has been a no-no in Cup for about a decade or so. Be as mad as you want Tony, but the fact is you were wrong. And, Tony didn’t honor the black flag within the three laps by my count. He waited one extra lap, caught a caution, and saved his day…sort of.
I think it was nice that Brendan Gaughan was once again the highest finishing rookie in the field. It’s clear he’s out at Penske, and that's a shame. Gaughan and his team have only been running their own cars since about July, and they have finally gotten testing and return trips to tracks under their belts, and the results are vastly improved. I’m glad he’s leaving Penske because Brendan’s a good guy and he deserves better treatment and better effort from Penske South.
Robby Gordon had a busy week, running the first 700+ miles of the Baja 1000 on Thursday afternoon/night, the Busch race Saturday and the Cup race Sunday. He left the truck after 700ish miles with a lead of over half an hour. His co-driver then took over as Robby had to get to Homestead. The truck suffered a part failure and went from a lead and sure win to 3rd in trophy trucks after waiting hours for the chase vehicles to find them. There are sure to be several announcements in the near future regarding Robby’s 2005 effort, and I for one cannot wait to see what they are.
It was good to see Rick Hendrick back at the track. As I’ve said, I’m not a fan of Rick or HMS, but he has done a ton for the sport and it’s good to see him starting to venture out and try to get his life started again. I really am sorry that Jimmie couldn’t win the title for him, as that would have made for a big step in the healing process.
While this season had some good races, some great races and an exciting (albeit manufactured) finish, overall I would say that this year was more a down year than not for NASCAR. I think next year’s rule changes regarding spoilers and tires are going to change things dramatically, and I hope it’s for the better. Look for more on this as the winter goes on.
One other note here. The ESPN movie “3” will be airing on December 11th at 9pm. All of the reviews I’ve read have been favorable or better, and it’s being reported that Barry Pepper did a great job as Dale Senior. I for one am looking forward to seeing the film.
That week, there will be a “Three Days of Dale” thing on ESPN Classic that you should make a note to catch. You may not want to watch all of the races, but some of them are just classics and will show you what NASCAR needs to work to get back to if we hope to see better side by side racing in the future.
Here is the schedule of events for that week starting with:
December 9th
IROC XIV (1990) Talladega, AL USA7:00 am to 7:30 am North Wilkesboro, NC USA8:00 am to
10:00 am Daytona Beach, FL USA10:00 am to 10:30
am Hampton, GA USA 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Daytona Beach, FL USA 12:30 pm to 1:00
pm Daytona Beach, FL USA1:00 pm to 1:30 pm
North Wilkesboro, NC USA1:30 pm to 3:30
pm Talladega, AL USA 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm Sonoma, CA USA 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Hampton, GA USA 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Daytona Beach, FL USA 9:00 pm to 10:00
pm Talladega, AL USA 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm Brooklyn, MI USA 12:00 am to 1:00 am Daytona Beach, FL USA 1:00 am to 2:00
am Hampton, GA USA2:00 am to 4:00 am North Wilkesboro, NC USA 4:00 am to
6:00am Dover, de USA7:00 am to 9:00 am Dover, de USA9:00 am to 11:00 am Talladega, AL USA 11:00 am to 11:30 am Daytona Beach, FL USA 2:00 pm to 2:30
pm Hampton, GA USA 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm Daytona Beach, FL USA 4:30 pm to 5:00
pm Daytona Beach, FL USA 5:00 pm to 5:30
pm North Wilkesboro, NC USA 5:30 pm to
7:30 pm Talladega, AL USA 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm Presented By The United States Marine
Corps Daytona Beach, FL USA 10:00 pm to 11:00
pm Presented By The United States Marine
Corps Sonoma, CA USA 12:00 am to 2:00 am1995
Napa 500 Hampton, GA USA 2:00 am to 4:00 am
1996 Purolator 500 Hampton, GA USA 4:00 am to 6:00 am Talladega, AL USA 7:00 am to 8:00 am Brooklyn, MI USA 8:00 am to 9:00 am Hampton, GA USA 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Dover, de USA 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm Martinsville, VA USA 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Bristol, TN USA 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Hampton, GA USA 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
I wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I will be writing some stuff during the off-season, so stay tuned for the winter of my discontent… Article copyright Todd Berger 2004 and the sole property and opinion of Todd Berger. Published by Lets-Go-Racing.com with permission. Contact Todd at nascarnews@charter.net. |