NASCAR needs more team owners...and less aerodynamics: Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards discuss some hot issues facing the sport...while former teammate Mark Martin steals the Friday night show by winning the 400 pole

Greg Biffle, with the Tooth Fairy at his side Friday at Richmond International Raceway, has been staying very busy marketing things as the NASCAR tour's points leader

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net


   RICHMOND, Va.

  Just be glad Mark Martin isn't 35, Carl Edwards joked Friday evening after watching his former Jack Roush teammate upstage him by winning the pole for Saturday night's Richmond 400.

   Martin has been a solid runner at this lightning-fast three-quarter-mile over his career...but his only Cup victory came more than 20 years ago, in that legendary 1990 February weekend, when a rules dispute between Roush, then his boss, and rival owner Richard Childress, wound up costing Martin one of his best-ever shots at that still elusive NASCAR championship.

   It was more than 30 years ago when Martin first showed up here, an unknown Midwestern racer sporting a brash attitude and feisty spirit, and hot iron -- he won the pole for that September's Winston Cup race and quickly earned a name for himself.

   Over the years since Martin has mellowed, and gone through many changes, most recently leaving Rick Hendrick's Chevy camp and moving to Michael Waltrip's Toyota camp, part of a highly successful revitalization by Waltrip and new competition director Scott Miller.

   Now Martin, at 53, and again running the Sprint Cup tour only part-time, is showing power and strength out on the track. He nearly won the Texas 500 two weeks ago, in his best showing yet.

   "Not many 53-year-old race car drivers are still living the dream," Martin said with a big grin. "I can't believe I'm getting to do this. Michael went out on a limb to put me in a car like this at this point in my career. I just want my team to be glad to have me in the organization.

   "I can tell you everything about that car back in 1981, everything I did to it -- moving the lead after qualifying from the left-rear to the right-front...the spring I changed just before qualifying. I remember everything about that car, my little old short-track car. But I couldn't tell you much at all about this car here today."

   And Martin laughed.

Mark Martin: "I'm feeling some of that magic again." (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  Now Martin and the rest of the field have their work cut out here in the 400 (7:30 p.m. ET start), because tour drivers have been under the gun from fans for less-than-thrilling action out on the track....relatively, of course. In the days since Denny Hamlin won the Kansas 400 the controversy has been fanned by fans throughout the spectrum, surprising some drivers, who seem stunned and defensive at the complaints.

   Bristol owner Bruton Smith is even going to the length of spending maybe $1 million to 'modify' that track, in response to fan complaints.
   Smith certainly has created quite a stir, and not just with his plans to 'modify' his Bristol Motor Speedway, after a relatively lackluster crowd at the 160,000-seat track in the Blue Ridge.
    First, Smith says he plans to talk with NASCAR about the relatively mediocre show drivers have been putting on this spring.

   Second, Smith says he's going to ask Goodyear to bring softer tires to that August race.
   Third, NASCAR, Smith says, needs more Sprint Cup team owners. "That would solve a lot of this sport's problems," Smith says.
    Greg Biffle agrees the sport needs more owners. "Drivers have been talking about just that issue," Biffle says. "What would this sport look like without Rick Hendrick, and Richard Childress, and Jack Roush, and Joe Gibbs?"
    And Roger Penske, the fifth top owner in the Cup world's Big Five.
    The demographics of those five is worth considering too: Penske is 75, Gibbs is 71, Roush is 70, Childress is 66, and Hendrick is 62.
    And there really isn't another generation of potentially top team owners in the wings.
    Would Biffle or other drivers be interested in trying to fill the looming void? What would it take to get men like Biffle interested…aside from the obvious point of making this sport cheaper to participate in?
    "I can hardly keep track of my three dogs, so keeping track of 120 employees would be relatively difficult for me," Biffle says.
   "But I agree with Bruton. I don't agree that there need to be 43 car owners but I agree that there needs to be more car owners.
    "That has been a discussion amongst some of the drivers.
     "We have talked about what this sport would look like without Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Jack Roush and Richard Childress today. That discussion has come up.
     "We all see opportunities there…or talk about the succession plans for those guys. I agree.
     "I don't know what the answer is, and I would have to think about it a while.
     "I agree to some point that there needs to be some more owners.
      "It was disappointing to see Red Bull go out. They were a good-funded team; they just needed to be organized differently."  

Paul Menard, pensive after his throttle stuck in Friday practice, leading to a crash that forced him to a backup (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

     Carl Edwards insists he's been surprised to hear the vigorous debate by fans over the relative lack of action on the tracks this season.
    "I was surprised at how big a debate this is, and how many people are discussing this," Edwards says.
    "I am more of a fan of what goes on on the track. Cautions and wrecks don't do it for me personally, or add a bunch to the competition.
     "I guess if a large number of fans say that is what they want to see, then NASCAR and all of us have to decide what we are going to do about it.
     "Are we going to let the races play out naturally? I think that is the best thing.
     "Or are we going to address each person's complaint and try to fit the sport to people? That is another way to go.
      "My opinion is that not every race has to be an exciting, dramatic, crazy bumper-to-bumper finish.
      "If you just let them play out naturally, you will get those really great moments.
     "We have only run eight races. Who knows what is going to happen.
      "When we left Daytona, we weren't complaining about a lack of wrecks.
      "I think it will be just fine."

Carl Edwards: too flat this season? Gives his team only a C-plus (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

      However Edwards then goes a step further, pointing to the long-standing issue of aerodynamics and 'clean air.'
     "NASCAR hates it when I say this, but I firmly believe we should not be racing with downforce, sideforce, and all these aerodynamic devices," Edwards says. "We do not need 'splitters' on the cars and giant spoilers.
     "If all the cars are very similar and all the drivers are really good, we are all within a tenth of a second of each other but relying on this 'clean air' and downforce to make the cars go that speed…then by definition if the guy in front of you is disturbing the air, your car is not going to go as fast as it could in clean air.
     "So why don't we get rid of these aerodynamic devices, and race cars on tracks with tires that are softer -- because we don't have as much force on them, tires that would 'give up' quicker.
     "I don't know if that will make more exciting races, but it sure as hell will make a guy go up through the field if he has a fast race car."

 Tony Stewart may be wondering just what's gone wrong the last two weeks, after his hot start. But then Stewart showed Carl Edwards last fall that NASCAR's first 26 races don't mean much at all when it comes to winning the Sprint Cup championship. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    But Edwards then pointed to another major issue in this debate – that the championship playoffs, and the fight to make the playoffs, has all but overwhelmed the rest of the 26-race regular season, which runs seven months.
    Edwards, like Jeff Gordon, is in a hole in the points, and both say that is making them race conservatively.
   "I give our season a C-plus, because we have made a couple mistakes," Edwards says.
   "We learned firsthand last year -- getting beat by a guy that was hardly in the picture until the last 10 races. So we are gearing up to be the best we can at the end of the year.
   "We have strength in our team right now, and don't have a giant weak point. We just have to start putting together better races, and making better calls, and qualifying a little better.
    "I think we will get there. Don't count us out.
    "Put yourself in my position -- We are ninth in points and don't have a win. We have to be very cautious with our points.
    "And we don't have the fastest car on the track every week. Under the old points system we would say 'Damn, let's just go for it. Let's do some crazy stuff and get a win or two and have some fun.'
    "But we can't do that now, because we have to make the top-10. We cannot give up any points.
    "What we are banking on is that in 10 races we are good enough to shoot for the championship.
    "If you were in my position, you would never forgive yourself if you were ninth in points here in Richmond and they drop the green flag on the last restart here and you have a great race car and you go for some banzai run and wreck the thing and don't make the chase.
     "I would be a moron to give it up right here at Richmond.
     "I don't know if that is right or wrong, but that is why it ends up this way -- guys start to think 'Okay, make the chase, and then go get 'em.'
    "That wasn't intended by NASCAR (when the chase playoff format was first established in 2004) I am sure; but that is the way we feel."

 Drivers want softer tires, and tires that give up speed over a gas run. Maybe they should just stop complaining and start racing harder (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)