September 25, 2009
By Rebecca Gladden
A few months ago, I wrote an article about the current state of NASCAR titled, "When the Expectation Exceeds the Excitement". In it, I argued that the biggest problem facing the sport today is that the level of racing excitement and drama, particularly in the Cup Series, fails to live up to the marketing hype.
This is true for regular season races, but even more so in the Chase, when anticipation is raised to new levels.
So I'm sure it was disconcerting to NASCAR officials Sunday when one driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, came out of the chute so strong at Loudon in the first race of the Chase for the Championship. Montoya started on the pole and led 105 laps, the only lap leader in the triple digits. Mark Martin was the next closest challenger, running 68 laps out front.
With just 25 laps to go in the 300-lap event, Martin found himself in the lead and appeared headed for a likely victory. But on lap 276, NASCAR did something which some would argue has become a frequent occurrence in the closing laps of races:
They threw a caution for debris on the racetrack.
As noted in the lap-by-lap feature on NASCAR.com, the caution "tightened the field up for the final 20 laps."
The knock against these late-race debris cautions has been that sometimes there isn't any actual debris - at least, none worrisome enough to justify the yellow flag. The allegation is that NASCAR uses the sometimes-invisible debris to do just what NASCAR.com said it did: bring the competitors back together in a tight formation to make the final laps of the race more exciting.
NASCAR has received accolades this season for its decision to institute double-file restarts, which also serve to generate more drama. But one could argue that, in order to get to a double-file restart, there first has to be a caution.
And if one doesn't occur naturally - maybe, just maybe - NASCAR creates a caution with the convenient explanation of debris on the racetrack.
These rumors about cautions for nonexistent debris late in the race have circulated for a long time. But there has never been any real proof of their existence …
Until now.
On Monday, I tuned in to SPEED TV's "This Week in NASCAR" program as I do every week. Like show panelist Greg Biffle, I'm particular fond of the "RadioActive" segment in which viewers listen to highlights from the radio conversations between drivers and team members during the race.
One of the exchanges played on Monday's program was between Mark Martin and crew chief Alan Gustafson and occurred during that final debris caution. Remember, Martin was leading the race at the time and a caution would have worked to his detriment by bunching up the field.
"Probably a show caution?" Martin asks.
Gustafson concurred with the assessment.
Now, there can be little doubt about what Mark Martin meant when he referred to a "show caution": a contrived caution intended to up the thrill level in the final laps of the 'show.'
Whether Martin and Gustafson were correct in their assumption about that particular debris caution is unclear.
It's also irrelevant.
The fact that the phrase "show caution" exists - and is bandied about by one of NASCAR's top teams in the midst of a high-stakes race - is proof enough that phantom debris cautions are a reality.
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