Monday Musings, 10/24/11

Ah, the good old days at Daytona. No tandems. (Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson)

Everyone went into this racing weekend with heavy hearts. We learned this week that, although the types of racing may be different, racers are all part of one big family. NASCAR and the V8 Supercar series had fitting tributes to Dan. It literally broke my heart today listening to Nicole Briscoe talk about Dan Wheldon during the prerace Sunday. Then what a moving memorial service to remember Dan Wheldon. Thanks to the Wheldon family for sharing that experience with the fans.

But racing did continue this week. Here are my thoughts on what I saw this weekend:

V8 Supercars - So have I mentioned how much I love V8 Supercars? The series picked up where they left off after the Bathurst 1000. It was tight, competitive racing to the very end. Congrats to Sebastian Bourdais, who won the inaugural Dan Wheldon trophy for top international driver.

As I learn more about the rules in V8 Supercars, I wonder how they would play in NASCAR. First, with four races left in the championship, the regular drivers must put their trust (and their championship hopes) in the hands of international drivers. What if the Sprint Cup drivers had to share their car with a driver from a non-NASCAR series? That could be pretty cool.

Also, drivers earn points only if they complete 75% of the laps. This is a great incentive for drivers to enter the race and be competitive, thus eliminating start and parks. Another interesting wrinkle -- all cars two or more laps down must go through pit lane on the restart so they don't impede the lead lap cars.

Sprint Cup - Do you miss the packs? Because I do. Denny Hamlin goes a lap down early because he literally was the odd man out. What kind of racing is that? It's kind of fun watching these guys find new partners when they lose their old one. It's a little like musical chairs. And regardless of whether it's tandems or packs, it's one car getting pushed over the start/finish line by one other car. But I'm still not sure I like it. This much I do know -- as a fan, I wouldn't necessarily be spending my money going to see a race at Talladega or Daytona at this point in time.

As far as the race goes, I was glad to see Clint Bowyer win, but I would have been happier to see Jeff Burton win. Looks like being patient and staying in the back didn't quite work out for Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. this time. And there's this talk of Trevor Bayne and team orders. But isn't that inevitable with tandem racing? Deals are made between spotters and crew chiefs, and the drivers abide by those agreements.

Truck Series - It's about time someone from the Wallace clan won a NASCAR race, although I'm not sure I thought it would have been Mike. This was Mike's first Truck Series win since 2000 and his first NASCAR win since 2004 (a Nationwide win in Daytona that my husband actually witnessed). Austin Dillon learned the same hard lesson that Marcos Ambrose learned at Infineon last year -- it's tricky playing the fuel mileage game and sometimes it can backfire on you.

That First Race (in the Eyes of Michelle Beadle)

Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson

Do you remember the first race you attended? As a long-time race fan, I always like to hear about a person's first experience at the track. So that's why it was so much fun to listen to Michelle Beadle's podcast this week. Michelle, who is the co-host of ESPN's SportsNation, was part of a NASCAR "emersion" program that allows ESPN on-air personalities and producers to learn more about NASCAR. As part of the program, she participated in the Richard Petty Driving Experience, got a personal tour of Hendrick Motorsports (and Rick Hendrick's private car collection), and was assigned to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team. That meant being in the pits, moving tires, and sitting on the pit box during Saturday night's Charlotte race. Oh, and she rode along with Junior and Kyle Busch during the pre-race activities.

Michelle admitted that she was "one of those people who made fun of NASCAR." But she said she was wrong and that she "had a blast." Beadle called it "one of the best experiences I've had in my sports career so far."

While watching the events transpire after Dan Wheldon's tragic accident on Sunday, Beadle said the experience "really just put everything into a perspective that I never would have had." She noted that "it's such a close-knit group," that "the fans are right on top of everything," and that "the access is unlike anything I've seen in my life." She said, "It really just brought home how scary, how exciting, how dangerous every race has the potential to be."

I've always believed that NASCAR is like hockey. You have to see it live to really appreciate it. So it looks like there might be another NASCAR fan in the world, and I hope Michelle goes to another race soon. And maybe one day we all can participate in the NASCAR "emersion" program.

When Did NASCAR Races Become Less Exciting?

When I first started writing this blog entry, I hesitated because I didn't want to say anything bad about NASCAR. I really do love NASCAR. It would be like badmouthing a really good friend.

But then I listened to Joe Castello's WFO Radio broadcast from Monday, in which he asked why NASCAR isn't covered like other sports. Why doesn't the media point out the negative (which in Joe's case was Tony Stewart missing his pit stall toward the end of the race)? I don't know that I have the answer to Joe's question, but he did give me courage to pose this question: when did NASCAR races become less exciting?

The points race has been very exciting this season.  But what about each individual race that makes up the season and the Chase itself? If a non-race fan was tuning in to see what NASCAR is all about, would these races make a good case for the sport? There was a time that you couldn't walk away from the television because you never knew what was going to happen. Now I can take a quick half hour nap and I won't have missed a thing.

Here are five things I've noticed:

Fuel mileage is not that exciting. Non-race fans always say, "But it's just a bunch of cars going around in a circle." And my response is always that there is more to it and that there is a lot of strategy going on too. But that strategy is only so exciting. At the end of a race, I would much rather see two cars in a close battle for the lead, rather than one car completely checked out on the field trying to save gas.

No one crashes. Have the drivers gotten better? Is it the new car? Whatever it is, the number of crashes have declined significantly. I'm not advocating for torn-up cars, but no crashes mean fewer cautions. Fewer cautions mean longer green-flag runs. Longer green-flag runs mean more z's. It's bad when fans are praying for a debris caution.

There are no real rivalries. Seems like there are no real rivalries in NASCAR. There was the Edwards-Keselowski feud for a while (and rightfully so), but that seems to have died down for the most part (except for a little issue about restarts at Kansas this week). We had Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch for a new weeks this summer, but they kissed and made up by Chicagoland. Multi-car teams deter rivalries because it wouldn't look so good to have a public dispute with your "teammate." Also, does no one want to be the bad guy anymore?

There are too many 1.5-mile tracks. When NASCAR really started to grow in the 1990s and 2000s, the trend was to build 1.5 mile tracks. Brad Daugherty pointed out on the Kansas broadcast that one-third of all NASCAR races are on 1.5 mile tracks. Im my mind, it's the superspeedways, short tracks, and road courses that bring the most excitement.

Technology really does change everything. Technology created safer cars, protecting the drivers from injury. Technology has also created more reliable cars, so there are fewer failures. Jeff Gordon's engine failure this past weekend was the first one I can remember in a long time. Better brakes means fewer worries at short tracks.

So what's the solution? It's yet to be seen what effect, if any, the new fuel injection will have. Maybe shorter races are the answer. Or 50-lap dashes and the Twin 275 format that Indy used at Texas. We could learn a lot from the All-Star Race, the Daytona Duels, and the Bud Shootout.

All I know is that sometimes you need to pull a good friend aside to clue them in when things aren't going quite right.

Monday Musings, 10/10/11

I've won the championship this many times!
(Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson)

This weekend had one championship clinched and two championships heating up. And I found a new racing series.

F1 - Was there really any doubt that Sebastian Vettel would win the driver's championship this weekend? There was absolutely no doubt in my mind after he won the pole 0.009 second over Jenson Button and then avoided a penalty for his aggressive move against Button at the start of the race. McLaren did manage to spoil the moment a bit with Button winning the race. And on a side note, I expect debris cautions in NASCAR, not in F1. And how awesome was it that Button used his $15,000 steering wheel to stop his car from rolling?

V8 Supercars - It was awesome. But I've already gushed about it.

Nationwide Series - There was a time when the Nationwide Series races were more exciting than the Sprint Cup races. But that's not the case anymore. Cup regular Brad K. (as the commentators insist on calling him) dominated the race, but the points battle between the Nationwide regulars is getting a little tighter. Of course, part of the reason for that is the off-track drama this week when Turner Motorsports released Reed Sorenson, who was third in points. Elliot Sadler is now within 20 points of Ricky Stenhouse. Let's hope for a close points race down to the finish.

Sprint Cup - The points race is still close, with Carl Edwards ahead of Kevin Harvick by one point, Jimmie Johnson lurking four points off the lead, and the top eight drivers within 20 points. But while the overall points race may be exciting, the race today wasn't. And why don't I ever remember any races from Kansas? More on that this week. Also, I know the media has officially changed Jimmie Johnson's name to Five Time, but I don't think Six Time rolls off the tongue quite as well.

Monday Musings, 10/3/2011



Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson

 It was a busy weekend with championship chases heating up, a national record being set, a first-time winner, and another series closing out its season. I'm only slightly in denial about the fact that the end of the racing season is coming. I'll just ignore that for now. On to this past weekend's racing.

Nationwide Series


It's kind of become sport in our house for my husband and I to review the grand marshal's command to start engines. We're always looking for passion and excitement. And Mary McDowell, President and CEO of OneMain Financial, was one of the best in a long time. Sometimes CEOs and representatives from the title sponsors can be wet blankets when starting the race. But Mary blew the doors off the joint (you could even hear one of the drivers comment on her command on the radio during the ESPN broadcast).

Concrete Carl dominated the day, although that back flip was a little dicey looking. I was happy because Carl Edwards is my driver, but my husband was disappointed because Kyle Busch was not in the race at all. Maybe I missed something, but is Kyle concentrating more on the Sprint Cup Chase? I'm guessing running in the Nationwide series is not nearly as important when you can earn points in only one series.

Truck Series


Congrats to Ty Dillon on his first start in the Truck Series and a national NASCAR event. Ty has been tearing it up in ARCA with seven victories so far this year.

One driver Ty can learn from is winningest Truck driver Ron Hornaday, who won his 50th Truck Series event Saturday night.

American LeMans Series


The Audis and Peugeots returned to the track in ALMS. I tried keeping up with race on Saturday on ESPN3 and Twitter. But are you like me and wish that this race was not on tape delay (or all the ALS races for that matter)? If nothing else, ESPN and its family of networks should figure out a way to broadcast the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Petit LeMans live on television. In my heart, I know college football will win out every time. (And don't even get me started on the fact that ABC ran the Baltimore ALMS race on tape delay up against the live broadcast of the Baltimore IndyCar race.)

Sprint Cup


First and foremost, who knew that Jan from The Office could sing?!? Nice job with the National Anthem, Melora Hardin!

But having attended the Dover races several times, I'm disappointed by the number of empty seats at the track. My husband always says that everyone is out buying souvenirs, but I think that's just wishful thinking. Dover is a great place for fans because you can see the whole track from almost every seat in the house. And the banking is crazy -- we found that out a few years ago when we did the fan walk there.

Smoke loses the point lead to Harvick and Edwards (although Harvick technically has the lead because of a tiebreaker), and there's movement up and down the leaderboard. The top 9 are separated by only 19 points. This is getting good. The new points values might just work.

IndyCar

Maybe there's always this much drama, but it seems there was a lot going on off the track in IndyCar. First, Sam Schmidt Motorsports announced that Dan Wheldon would replace Alex Tagliani in the 77 car in Kentucky in order to prepare for the $5 million run in Vegas. Then Helio Castroneves was fined $30,000 for his tweets criticizing the officiating in Japan. Then Al Unser, Jr. was suspended indefinitely following his DUI arrest this week.

But thankfully, there was a switch to the on-track drama this weekend, focusing on the points battle between Will Power and Dario Franchitti. Franchitti regained the point lead, making the race in Vegas very interesting. But my congrats go to Ed Carpenter, who pulled off his first first IndyCar win by a nose (literally). Maybe baby Zoe is a good luck charm for Sarah Fisher Racing!

NHRA


The good news? Antron Brown got a national record in Top Fuel, running a 3.766. The bad news? Rain postpones the finish of eliminations to Monday. (Guess it's a good thing I didn't talk my husband into going to Maple Grove this weekend.)

NASCAR v. Mother Nature

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NASCAR may need to renegotiate its deal with Mother Nature because she certainly hasn't been playing along these days. Rain has delayed three of the last six Sprint Cup races. And things are looking iffy for New Hampshire this weekend.

Unfortunately, the last two NASCAR races I've been to have been rainouts at Watkins Glen (pure coincidence -- I'm sure it has nothing to do with me). We traveled a couple hundred miles to see the races and had planned to travel home on Monday. So we could stick around to see the race. But for many of the fans, sticking around or coming to the track the next day just wasn't an option.

Here's the frustrating thing. Walking through the pits, we could see stacks and stacks of Goodyear rain tires. Rolex and Nationwide were fully prepared to run in the rain, but it was nothing but blue skies for those races. On Sunday, the rain started just as the National Anthem was ending, but for whatever reason the Sprint Cup cars would not be running in the rain. It's almost like carrying an umbrella with you and it never rains, but it pours when you don't have one.

While at the Glen race, I went to Q&A sessions with Matt Kenseth and Brett Bodine, who now is the Director of Competition for Research and Development for NASCAR (and the pace car driver). I asked them both whether we ever would see a Sprint Cup car running in the rain at Watkins Glen. Neither gave a definitive yes, but neither really gave a definitive no either.

The question of whether Sprint Cup cars should run on rain tires really only applies to the road courses, and there are only two of those on the schedule every year. But maybe rain tires are something that Sprint Cup should really start thinking about for the road races. At the very least, it's two races where NASCAR wouldn't have to worry about a rainout (as much).

Until then, I'll see what I can do about working something out with Mother Nature.