July 11, 2010
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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What is it about NASCAR that makes its fans so distrustful?
All week, instead of hearing what great racing we had last week in Daytona, and how much fans appreciated NASCAR’s perseverance to overcome the rain and get the races in as planned, it have heard complaints, doubts, and attempts to “fix the system”.
First, let’s start with the complaints.
“They let Junior win” has been a popular one almost since the moment he pulled into victory lane last weekend. It always amazes me when someone thinks there is a way to fix the end result of a race, especially a race at a restrictor plate track. Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced his hind-end off all night to bring home that trophy; NASCAR didn’t give it to him.
On the final restart -- a green-white-checkers, no-holds barred, dash to the finish line -- Junior was in the one place most drivers do NOT want to be: first. Nine times out of ten, that first place car is a sitting duck for everyone out there that wants to get around him, because he has to have someone willing to draft with him past everyone else and stay with him to the end.
How many times have we seen a driver pushed to Turn 4, only to be hung out to dry by the guy pushing him because HE has a run and can pass the leader and win the race? Junior had Kevin Harvick beside him and Joey Logano behind him. Harvick had won at Daytona before, and ended up winning the Cup race the next night. Logano had never won in Daytona, and was seeing the victory within his grasp.
Sitting in the media center last Friday night, the question was asked of both Joey Logano, who finished second “If you could have won, would you have passed Junior for the win?”
"I was trying to win it, and I was trying as hard as I could," explained Logano. "I probably gained a lot of fans -- by pushing the 3 to victory, but I'd much rather be in Victory Lane -- it's Daytona, and there's nothing cooler than winning at this track.''
No way was Junior “handed” the win last weekend.
Next, let’s move on to the doubts.
Unless there is a flaming piece of wrecked car sitting in the middle of the track, it seems that no debris caution is a “real” debris caution. Especially if that debris caution LEADS to pieces of wrecked car sitting in the middle of the track. Even some of the driver’s doubt the validity of some of the cautions. Remember Tony Stewart’s infamous comparison between the NASCAR and the WWE a few years ago? Now his former teammate is questioning the need for many of the cautions that are thrown during a race.
“Truthfully I don't think it matters to the fans who wins the race as long as it’s a good ‘show’. Even if it comes as the expense of competition,” tweeted Denny Hamlin Friday night after the Nationwide race. “Big difference in legit and not. I’m not saying don’t throw a caution when a guy is in the way -- I mean when a guy is in the wall of course people wanna see a caution. Not a fake one though.”
Hamlin added, “FYI, that debris caution caused over 500k in damage to 10 wrecked racecars at the end of that race. No big deal huh?”
There is even a person on Twitter who has taken on the name “Jacques Debris” who takes claim for all of the “questionable” cautions during a race.
Finally, I have yet to totally understand the great desire by a large part of the NASCAR fan base to “fix the system”. It appears that no matter what NASCAR does to try and make the racing the best it can be, there are fans who want to make it “better”. I spent four hours on Friday listening to fans call in to Sirius Speedway, explaining how they could make the “Chase” better, or how to make sure that Cup drivers who also compete in the Nationwide Series don’t take a Championship away from a full-time Nationwide team, even if that Cup driver is also a full time Nationwide driver.
Ideas for finding a way to ensure that the Nationwide Champion is actually a full-time Nationwide Series-only driver abound, but the final result is always the same: Would any fan be willing to have a Champion in a series that didn’t actually ‘earn’ that title?
Right now, the first driver without a full-time Cup ride is Justin Allgaier, who is running third behind Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards. Right behind Allgaier are Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard and Joey Logano, all full-time Cup drivers. The next Nationwide only driver is Steven Wallace, who is currently 8th in points. If you wanted a non-Cup ‘affiliated’ team to win the Championship, Wallace would be your potential Champion.
Is having the 8th place driver in a series take the Championship really an acceptable option?
Until you find a way to finance an entire field of Nationwide teams without the support of a Cup team or driver, and have them run in Championship form week in and week out, there will be little way to remove the Cup aspect of the series.
As for the Cup Series and its Championship debate, Sirius Speedway host Dave Moody described the whole Chase debate as a “two headed monster” with the “left head wanting wins to be rewarded more and the right head wanting consistency to be rewarded more.” It is impossible to satisfy both heads, yet that doesn’t stop fans from trying. If you look at the history of the Chase, you can see it isn’t for lack of trying. When the Chase first began six years ago, it was because in 2003 Matt Kenseth won the final Winston Cup Championship with only one race win under his belt –- the actual Championship was due to season-long consistency on the part of the 17 team. NASCAR heard the fans complaints about a Champion with only one win, and implemented the Chase. The top ten drivers at the end of the first 26 races were selected to participate in the race to the Championship, and they were separated by only five points each in the order in which they finished the “regular” season. That year was the closest run for the Championship we have had since the Chase began, with it coming down to the final laps in Homestead to determine who would win the first Nextel Cup Championship. Fans complained that there weren’t enough drivers in the Chase, so it was expanded to include 12 drivers. Tony Stewart won that second Chase Championship.
And then Jimmie Johnson won his first title. By the time he won his second, fans were clamoring for more ways to “fix” the Chase. More weight was given to drivers who won races over the course of the season, with each win earning the driver an extra ten points going in to the final ten races.
Last year, Tony Stewart was 237 points ahead of second place Jeff Gordon and 290 ahead of third place Jimmie Johnson going into the end of the ‘regular season’. In the first race of the Chase he fell back to second because he only had three wins while Mark Martin, who was in tenth going into the Chase, 568 points behind Stewart, and Kyle Busch, 654 points back, each had four. But, because Kyle had been so inconsistent, even with his four wins, he failed to make the Chase, which led to that “left head” of the monster clamoring for wins to count for even more. However, the “right head” of the monster was also heard when Tony ended up finishing the season sixth after having such a large lead going in to the Chase.
This year, Kevin Harvick is facing a similar dilemma as he has led the points and is 212 points ahead of Jeff Gordon and 225 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson. However, Harvick has only two wins, Gordon has NO wins, and Johnson has five. Hamlin, who also has five wins, is currently running in 5th place. Unless Harvick earns at least three more wins over the next ten races, he will drop behind Johnson and Hamlin after Richmond in September, and Gordon will fall to 6th.
All of this said, every driver goes into the season knowing the rules, and understanding that wins, not consistency, pay off at the end of the regular season. They all know that you can be consistent all you want, but if you don’t win, and win a lot, it really won’t matter come race 27.
So if the drivers know this and are willing to work within the rules, why do fans feel the need to “fix” it? If we had a different champion each year of the Chase’s existence, instead of only three – including a four-time Champ—would anyone be looking to change the Chase? Or is it primarily because the No. 48 team and Jimmie Johnson have found a way to make the system work for them, and have made that knowledge pay off in spades these last four years?
Most people come up with ideas to fix the season as it pertains to what is happening THIS year, but don’t take the big picture into consideration. They need to look at the history of the Chase as a whole if they want to come up with a “fix”, and see if what they have in mind would have worked in years past as well, or if it only would stave off what many fear will happen at the end of this season: Johnson will win an unprecedented five titles in a row. You can’t just set a change that will potentially bring an end to the “streak” this year, and then find out it
actually helps the No. 48 team win next year.
Fans can, and have, spent entire seasons debating ways to make racing in NASCAR better, yet no one has come up with an effective and practical way to make everyone happy. If they had, they would be knocking on Brian France’s door to explain it in full detail. Fans might complain that France is ruining the sport with the changes that are made to NASCAR, yet it seems that the management at NASCAR has done a lot to listen to the fans and make changes in small ways to try and meet the fans desires.
There is no way to make the sport appealing to every single fan. If you appease the “right head” of the monster, you tick off the “left head”, and vice versa. Fixing the sport just to prevent one driver from winning yet another title won’t fix the overall sport. And if you fix it to hinder a driver you don’t like this year, it might end up hurting your driver next year.
No sport is perfect. If it were, there would be no point in competing in it. There will always be questionable calls, better financed teams or franchises, and one group that hits on just the right thing to take them to the lead of the pack and dominate. Eventually the tides turn, and the next big thing comes along, and then after they dominate for a while, they become the target for the “fixes”.
Sometimes, it is your team that is the leader, and sometimes your team is the chaser. Just remember to be careful for what you wish for, because when your team becomes the former instead of the latter, there will be fans out there wanting to ensure that your guy is the one to pay the price for his successes just as you wanted their guy to suffer for his successes when he was on top.
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