October 14, 2002

It’s the year 2022. You are driving in the Daytona 500 when suddenly you hear a soft female voice telling you to go high to avoid a pending obstacle on the track. Glancing in your helmet mounted monocle avoidance device (MAD) you confirm that information and make the slide move on Kurt Busch’s son whom considers dad to be a decrepit old has been.

Is this a far fetched idea by which only dreamers can justify its worth?

When I think about this sport I try to envision what the future could look like and I just don’t see a human spotter as being part of that scenario. Call me crazy but I think there will come a day in which a man standing on a grandstand roof will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Currently we see spotters looking over great distances with human eyes thus giving opinions of how to locate a charging car on a racetrack. Is this the best possible answer to the problem of cars in traffic? I think at this point in time human spotting may be the answer, in the future I see another possible solution that could make current spotting standards appear as ways of old.

Perhaps one day we will see a system that operates in a manner that locates all objects on the track and, by way of frequency will aid the driver in avoiding events that transpire in his or her pathway. I thought about an eye piece that the driver wears much like what we see in military helicopters that allow a full view around the car at the drivers command. I also think about a GPS type system hooked into a satellite that gives a voice command to the driver. The combination of the two ideas starts to form the basis of what the future could hold.

Do you think I’m way out there folks? Technology is a vehicle that can and will bring change to this sport and the world of human spotting is an area that can be served well with ideas such as these. I understand that these are just ideas and by no means do I have any basis of claim that these exact systems even exist.

Change is always hard to except and the cost of such an idea is another subject all together but, I truly believe that one day there will be no humans standing on the roof of the grandstands with radios calling themselves spotters. More likely will be a bank of electronic gear placed in a strategic location sending signals to your favorite driver.

I personally like the idea of the helicopter gunship type monocle worn on the helmet of the driver. By looking into the monocle the driver is able to see a full view around the car never turning his head. Both eyes open but yet glancing in the monocle with his right eye the driver sees it all. I just don’t think this idea is as far fetched as some may think. All this technology actually exists today.

Yes, what we currently have in the way of human spotter’s works but, what about the future? I am not writing this article to get spotters around the sport mad at me. I want you to open your mind and think about what things could be. When we fail to dream we fail to progress forward. Do you think in 1948 when the sport started they would have envisioned what we see now? It was progression and modernization coupled with technology that got us to this point.

There are certain aspects of this sport that were never intended to change. Products such as the car jack and the five wheel studs for example. Technology has progressed far beyond the car jack that we use but, is also part of what defines the sport. Spotters don’t define the sport by any means. It is my feeling that spotters were placed where they are until a better way comes along.

I hope perhaps I gave you something to ponder as you go about your day. I certainly have given it a lot of thought as you can see. Take my idea and grow it among thousands of others and maybe one day we will see change. Technology and progression can have positive results in this exciting sport we call NASCAR Winston Cup.

You can contact Joe at: Insider Racing News