February 4, 2009
By Larry Van Zandt
That title is probably a bit offensive to some of you out there, who, like me, think the truck series occasionally offers the best racing in NASCAR at times. However, the truck body formula isn’t working out, and sponsors, along with the manufacturers, are bailing from that series, with maybe 15 teams somewhat-committed to running the entire 2009 season.
This is unfortunate, as I really enjoy watching that series, what little I get to see of it, with the races competing with my already busy schedule of insulting old ladies, trying to look upwards fast enough to see my own forehead, and strenuous training to become a Ninja.
And with the new plans, introduced this last Thursday, to limit the amount of engines, crew members, and to increase the amount of pit stops, along with other changes to reduce the $$$ hemorrhaging? It’s going to be about as effective as shooting a squirt gun at the Hindenburg. I think that there are too many NASCAR series at the somewhat-professional level, and something may have to go to ensure NASCAR’s survival…
I think truck series driver Stacy Compton’s idea of a one-day race, where qualifying, practice and the race are all held on the same day, is a great idea for truck-only events, and it could be carried over to the Nationwide and Sprint Cup venues, when either of the other series are running by themselves.
However, if two, or all three series are racing at the same venue during a particular race weekend, then the races could be held, all on the same day, with practice and qualifying taking place on the Friday or Saturday (depending on whether or not the event is a day or night race) before the race, as some Sprint Cup teams have suggested, as the two-day event would reduce costs for Sprint Cup and Nationwide teams, also. It would be an organizational feat worthy of Atlas, squeezing practice and qualifying all on the same day, should all three series run at the same track on a weekend, but the teams could possibly shave off at least one day of hotels and other associated costs.
But of course, while it might work out really well for the fans and teams, in that the fans get a racing extravaganza, and the teams are only at the track two days, tops……it could be a rather spectacular day of racing with possibly all three series running on one day, or as one fan suggested to me (thanks, Douglas), on the two road course tracks in the Sprint Cup schedule, running all three series on the track at one time, just like the Grand American series that just gave us the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona….that would be something to watch, with each series best and brightest all on the track at the same time, driving their particular series race car….trucks, Nationwide, and Sprint Cup, all on the track at the same time….heck, a race might even break out.
Of course, it might also be absolute mayhem with that many cars on the track at Sears Point/Infineon Raceway or Watkins Glen, or even the road course at Daytona….
....However, that idea of course doesn’t look good on paper for NASCAR itself, or local hotels/restaurants/petting zoos/shooting ranges for the blind, as the service industry that supports a NASCAR event would not like only squeezing one day out of the fans, and two for the teams, never mind that these same industries are going to be struggling to squeeze even that one day out of anyone, if they’re not careful.
To that end, I hope that the truck series manages to find some new blood over the 2009 season…but I don’t see it happening. If it gets bad enough, I think it’s time the truck series died….or tried something completely different, if nothing else works, as I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs or livelihoods in that series…
To that end, I have an idea.
“What is it?”, you might ask?
Follow me as I stroll down ‘what if?’ lane, and take a look at the possibilities of starting up a vintage NASCAR circuit.
Yep, an earlier suggestion of mine, which would have turned some of the short-track, non-aero races into ‘vintage night’, during the regular NASCAR Sprint Cup season, instead is redone to replace the ailing truck series. Pull the truck bodies off, redo the cage to allow fitment of shorter-greenhouse cars, and install a replica car body from anywhere during the first 25 years of NASCAR, topping out with the 1973 season, like some of the other vintage racing series do. Want to see a 1970 Superbird banging sheet metal with a 1964 Galaxie? How about a Hudson Hornet up against a 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II?
Yes, there is obviously more to it than just dropping a body onto an existing truck chassis, and I’m sure there are probably a lot of holes in my logic, but it is something to think about. The bodies have to be shaped just like the original cars they were modeled from (the ‘Yellow Banana’ Galaxie and Smokey Yunick 7/8th’s Chevelle need not apply). Switch to a crate engine with a 6500-rpm rev limit, only allow H-pipe exhaust crossovers (so it sounds like the old days, and not the high-pitch scream of the modern X-pipe exhaust assemblies), reuse everything that would fit from the original truck series equipment, blindfold the drivers, place the charioteers on the track, and let them get their horses up to top speed, with them running in the opposite direction on the track….and let the mayhem begin….oh wait, sorry, scratch those last two ideas…
I think this would be a fun opportunity for NASCAR to embrace its roots just a wee bit (maybe even have stuntmen dressed up as NASCAR drivers, and have them randomly brawl in the grass right after a race ends), replacing a dying ‘modern’ series with a ‘vintage’ set of events. And if you go with modern crate engines in the 400-500 HP range, from Ford, Chevy, or Dodge (well, I won’t hold my breath with Dodge), with modern ignition systems…gee, you might actually see all of the cars finish a race, which didn’t happen in that original era…
Yes, there are a several issues to address with a plan this psychotic. But if NASCAR is promoting it, maybe even running it on the same day as the Nationwide and Sprint cup events…that would be one heck of a show. An official, NASCAR-sanctioned vintage series, accompanying the modern iron, doing 50-100-lap races, before the main event….Wow.
The manufacturers are all but gone anyway, the sponsors are not far behind them…why not give the older fans something they desperately miss in NASCAR racing, and introduce the newer fans to a bygone era that produced some of the greatest heroes of the sport? Of course, I’m the proverbial plumber with a pipe dream here…
By the way, I need to mention Savas Tuning Systems and their Ebay store in Milwaukie, Oregon. I recently had a set of injectors cleaned there. And after a problem popped up with the injectors I sent in, Paul Savas (the owner) pulled all the stops to ensure I was properly taken care of…which I wasn’t surprised, as I have been recommending customers to his shop for the last 10 years for fuel injection tune-up/repair and carburetor rebuilding services…Paul does excellent work….and of course, since February is National ’Pray To God My Car Doesn’t Break Down In This Three Feet Of Global Warming That’s On The Road’ Month, this leads me to my (insert sponsor here) ‘Boring Auto Repair Tip Of The Week!’….
Get your fuel injectors PROFESSIONALLY cleaned every 50,000 miles! Those ‘wonder’ chemicals in a bottle, you know, the bottles of ‘Injector Cleaner’ that you buy at a store? You ‘wonder’ why you buy them, because they never seem to work? When I ran my own small auto repair shop, I would insist on customers getting injectors professionally cleaned first, whenever drivability problems popped up, because you can get away with driving around with old ignition components for quite some time before they fail….but fuel injectors?
Once they get plugged up…the engine immediately begins losing power… and the junk on the shelf at your local stores, nor the stuff at the local quickie-lube won’t knock the crud loose.
I have seen people throw hundreds of dollars of parts at cars in order to try to attempt to fix drivability problems, and a lot of times, it was simply varnish-plugged injectors…most good shops charge anywhere between $150-$300 (depending on location), and can do it with the injectors still on the engine, which also cleans the combustion chambers…..or for extra cost, they actually remove the injectors from the vehicle, and clean them either via’ the ‘chemical’ cleaning method (I feel this works best), or sonic-clean them (they play Culture Club at around 277 decibels, and put the injectors next to the speakers, their hit song, ‘Do you really want to hurt me?’, works best to knock varnish loose)….also, don’t forget that you get better gas mileage with clean injectors…
See you next week.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
You can contact Larry Van Zandt at