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That Tuesday Meeting, NASCAR and team owners: What suggestions?
Bobby Allison, in his prime, 1982 after winning Dover: NASCAR, he says, needs to get back to basics (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
CONCORD, N.C.
It is at times like these that the sport of stock car racing really misses Bill France Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Common sense is sometimes such a rare commodity in the upper echelons of this sport.
So NASCAR execs have an all-Tuesday marathon session of one-on-ones with Sprint Cup teams, to discuss 'the state of the sport.'
But what really can come out of those meetings that could change some of this sport's dynamics?
Try double-file restarts, with all the leaders up front, side-by-side, rather than stretched in a single-file line, to the outside of a line of lapped cars.
That's a quick and easy and cheap way to liven things up. Do it now, starting next Sunday at Dover.
Bobby Allison says he's got two suggestions for NASCAR: get the car chassis back up on the shocks and springs, instead of running bump stops to the ground, and put some 'Detroit personality' back in these cars, by dumping the 'common template' body rules and letting Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota put some distinctive cars on the track, race cars that fans and the man-on-the-street can identify with.
The common template concept is outdated, if it were ever even a good idea to begin with.
Let Detroit be Detroit. Let Ford guys scream about Chevrolet, let Dodge guys yell about Toyota…put some Detroit back in the NASCAR mix.
Now how quickly anything like that could be implemented is problematic.
Consider: the stock car tour is about to kick off its annual summer cross-country run – Dover, Del.; Pocono, Pa.; Detroit; San Francisco; New Hampshire; Daytona; and Chicago, before getting a one-week break in late July, before the second half of the season gets going at Indianapolis – where Goodyear is still struggling to find a durable long-distance stock car tire.
Now you want to wedge in a few nifty rules changes somewhere along the line in that run?
Not hardly.
If NASCAR really wanted to consider some significant technical changes, say to the car-of-tomorrow, it's had since, well, this point last season, when the sport's bosses told teams essentially to shut up and drive, and stop complaining.
Think NASCAR would have told Dale Earnhardt Sr. (L) to shut up and drive? Wonder what Earnhardt would have to say to NASCAR execs at Tuesday's meeting on 'the state of the sport' (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Or NASCAR could have followed up the Talladega crash with a big PR campaign encompassing a range of things that should be addressed – for example, 200 mph speeds at Darlington, an absurdity to the max, as drivers showed with a record-breaking number of crashes.
Or NASCAR could have followed up last summer's fiasco at Indianapolis by listening to Goodyear engineers and tour crew chiefs about the physics of this COT and making some logical changes, in chassis and aero. But at this point, nearly half-way through the season, car owners aren't going to be interested in any major car changes; it's too late in the season.
About the only changes NASCAR could implement quickly would be:
-- Taking 100 pounds or 200 pounds out of these cars, and rebalance them with a lower center of gravity, to improve right-side tire wear.
-- Putting restrictor plates on engines for some tracks, to slow speeds and change the racing itself. These cars are entering the corners at speeds that are way too high for good racing or good tire durability.
--- Changing some aerodynamics.
Of course what NASCAR might really be doing is simply responding to private criticism from TV executives who are not pleased with NASCAR's slumping ratings. NASCAR officials might have to at least look like they're making moves in some direction…particularly if the Indy 500 pulls better TV ratings than the Coke 600.
Souvenir sales are way down too, and drivers are feeling the pinch (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
But then NASCAR officials just got stuck in some more heavy-duty legal problems, with this Jeremy Mayfield thing, and they just gave themselves a black eye with this Carl Long penalty…and NASCAR has yet to provide any answers to the Talladega flying car issue, or the Indy tire problems, despite concerns voiced by some of its stars.
Logically NASCAR could set out a timetable for some more significant engineering changes -- like fuel injection rather than the ancient carburetion system the sport continues to use; like more front-end chassis 'travel' to give drivers a better feel in the corners; like aerodynamic tweaks, such as Jeff Gordon has suggested; like smaller cubic inch engines, as Kyle Petty has suggested.
NASCAR also has to start looking 'greener,' though racing purists will insist this sport is entertainment not some ecological project.
NASCAR's image needs a little sprucing up, now that Washington is running General Motors and Chrysler.
The man to watch coming out of Tuesday's meetings is Ryan Newman, who has pointed to things he feels NASCAR needs to address. Newman, who has one of the tour's fastest cars right now, is an engineer and a very thoughtful driver whose advice should be sought.
So what Newman says, coming out of these meetings, could be key to deciding if this is merely a PR ploy or a real effort to make something happen in this sport.
Hard-driving Dale Earnhardt (2), here in his 1979 rookie season, could always be counted on to give NASCAR's Bill France Jr. the right advice. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
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NASCAR should had invited
NASCAR should had invited some of the older fans to be part of Tuesday meetings.
Maybe they would suggested to shorten races, raise ticket prices to higher prices every year, pay for next year's races last year.
Also race cars that are similar to the old IROC series cars would been an great idea.
Yes we also like hour and half pre race shows before the actual racing.
The Gentleman's agreement not to race back to the caution if you were on the lead lap. Lucky Dog rule. Digger, where are you tonight?
Waiting half of the night to decide to run an shorten race of less than 400 Laps.
By the way I was at a Ball Game in Atlanta where numerous rain delays and 15 Innings caused the game to end around 4 AM in the morning on an 4th of July back in the mid 80's.
I also have left Charlotte after midnight after they shortened the race.
I have an good Idea what DALE SR would had said about some of this.
Like the time at Charlotte when his wheel came off of the Car at the far end of Pit Road and he ask his crew to bring an tire and jack down there and put a new tire on the Car. His crew responded NASCAR won't let us.
SR said **** NASCAR and bring the tire down there and they did it for the Man.
Now those was the Days.
The Wine and Cheese crowd has become spoiled.
By the way what time will the race start tonight and how many Laps?
Doug from good old Virginia
I hear over and over about
I hear over and over about Dale Earnhardt and "would NASCAR have told Earnhardt to shut up and drive?" Yet I can't recall one instance where Earnhardt got into a policy battle with NASCAR and won - I can't think of one rule or procedure that NASCAR changed or implemented because Earnhardt said, "This isn't right, you need to do it this way."
When Doug from Virginia mentions the 1990 National 500 and how the RCR crew changed tires for Earnhardt in Turn One in violation of NASCAR rules, he's confusing policy battles with officiating and rules enforcement, on which NASCAR has notoriously had a poor record when it comes to the sport's stars (see Mulhern's piece on Kyle Petty elsewhere on this blog).
Where France Jr. was so much better than present NASCAR leadership (and Earnhardt) is he generally refused to hesitate to change something that wasn't working and had a better understanding of what made the racing competitive - remember all those spoiler increases that people used to gripe about? They usually worked, especially with getting drafting back to being effective on a lot of tracks. There was also the windtunnel testing in 1995-6 after the manufacturers began lobbying him with aero numbers he didn't understand and which convinced him the manufacturers had been lying to him; those led to changes that helped boost the racing in 1995-6, such as in the 1995 600 where the lead bounced back and forth like at Talladega and at Pocono in 1995 and '96 with lap after lap of slice-and-dice lead changes up to three times a lap.
As far as suggestions go, the restrictor plates on more tracks, if implemented, will address two issues - bettering the racing by slowing the speeds and allowing the cars to corner better via open throttle (they've been flirting with open throttle for nearly two decades anyway) and also addressing flying racecars into fencing - I still think there will be a smaller plate at Daytona in July to address what happened at Talladega.
The fear I have is that this will be a repeat of the meeting they had with drivers at the end of October 2001 over the roof spoiler package on the plate tracks - NASCAR knuckled under and took the blades off, and it hurt the ability to pass on the plate tracks to where Sterling Marlin, the leader of that lobbying effort, was calling for the blades to come back in September 2003. Basically I don't trust drivers to look at the big picture all that accurately because there's too much myopia in the sport.
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