Phoenix International Raceway's first Nextel Cup weekend of the season went off with the usual short-oval rough stuff and with quite a few stories in the background, such as Jeff Gordon griping about not being chosen for Goodyear tire tests.
None, though, was more bizarre than the story from Peter DeLorenzo's website that one of the sport's participating manufacturers was preparing to quit the sport with Toyota coming in. The story had no byline, as is common at the site, and didn't name the manufacturer supposedly preparing to quit. While Jayski vouched for DeLorenzo's credibility, it was also noted that DeLorenzo is controversial and has a history of being anti-NASCAR.
That's putting it mildly, for the site's NASCAR-bashing and IRL-bashing is continuous and for the most part illogical. The site is in love with road racing and with high-technology vehicles, yet never can proffer a particularly believable argument for either in contrast to NASCAR and IRL's more retro-tech approach - has there ever been a road race or a high-tech racecar series that saw better racing than IRL on most intermediate superspeedways or NASCAR at the restrictor plate tracks, or even NASCAR Modifieds at New Hampshire?
One theme of the manufacturer story is railing against NASCAR's tightness on car specs and what kind of technologies can be raced; the site regularly rails against NASCAR's aero-matching rules, yet has never explained how car shapes would have been different without aero-matching, nor has it bothered to wonder if technology has really benefitted racing - as Brock Yates wrote in 1986, costs and absurd performance levels have forced the banning of multitudes of technological items such as Wankel engines from many racing series. That there is a limit to technology's usefulness in racing is something DeLorenzo's site never bothers to consider.
The story asserts that the manufacturers have seen a continuing decrease in sales as their NASCAR involvements have increased, clearly trying to draw a connection that the manufacturers have wasted enormous sums of money on a pointless racing series. That declining car sales have more to do with influences outside of their NASCAR involvement is of course ignored by the site.
There is, though, one galling truth in the story - NASCAR has done a poor job the last number of years helping all of racing. Nowhere is this more graphically shown than in its feeder divisions, whose neglect is hardly a secret in NASCAR circles. It also shows in the escalation of costs at the Nextel Cup level, which NASCAR has not reigned in.
Certainly there is need for NASCAR to start spending serious money on its feeder divisions, far more than it presently is, and also to start cracking down hard on how much money teams can spend at the Nextel Cup level; with the effectivenes of revenue sharing in other sports, that avenue needs to be explored as well.
The reality is that manufacturer involvement benefits all involved, not just NASCAR, and that there are limits to what should be brought into the sport. This is something the site needs to come to grips with.
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The Busch Series is the most publicized example of NASCAR neglect of its feeder divisions, as Buschwackers continue to monopolize things. Jason Leffler's stellar run nearly ended the Buschwacker run but came acropper in a series of late-race melees, ultimately leaving Kevin Harvick the winner, the beginning of a weekend sweep.
The Busch brothers, meanwhile, continue to make waves. Kyle Busch made more waves in the Arizona 500k for the wrong reasons, while Kurt Busch and teammate Ryan Newman once again struggled at the end of a rough race. The steady decline of Penske Racing stands in contrast to the surge of Kasey Kahne and rejuvination of Bobby Labonte and the Petty team. Their surge gives hope that the rest of their programs will likewise begin clawing forward, though one still has questions to ask of Evernham Motorsports' Jeremy Mayfield.
It all added up to a pretty memorable weekend at Phoenix, and left fans eagerly awaiting November's second round, an eagerness that helps explain why tracks get two dates a year. It also showed how flat short ovals, often maligned for inferior racing, can be pretty competitive as well.
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