Dueling State Of The Sport Addresses

NASCAR's Brian France offered his state of the sport address, and David Poole offered this interesting take on the state of the sport. Wishing to join this duel, I throw my Mike Nesmith-influenced woolhat into the ring - I'd throw in a cowboy hat but I think Richard Petty has it trademarked -

NASCAR is a sanctioning body approaching its sixtieth season, and in that time it has become one of the most dramatic success stories in pro sports. Now, however, it faces serious issues of costs, competitive depth, and overall big picture, issues that have not been adequately addressed.

The issue of integrity has been brought up and the integrity of punishment for cheating is a legitimate source of discussion, for punishment of cheating has frankly not been adequate. There has long been the need for disqualification of not just drivers, but racecars and crews, caught in cheating. Incremental fines and loss of points have proven as inadequate as incremental escalation of bombing of Communist military power in Indochina periodically interrupted by cease-fires - they have displayed a lack of serious intent on the part of the sanctioning body against cheating. David Poole's idea to hire independent race officials is also worth consideration.

Poole brings up the boilerplate about a traveling medical team. This, though, is not what the sport needs, because the on-site medical teams at the varied tracks have long proven capable of the job involved. Complaints by drivers about lack of familiarity with local track teams can be addressed by requiring drivers to allow medical people into the garage area to meet with them and exchange pertinent information during the race weekend.

Poole notes a crisis of competition, and indeed the sport enters 2007 almost certain to face the 23rd season of its Dead Lane Era. The need to reduce speeds by some 25 MPH remains high, the need to improve the ferocity of the racing remains high, but the issue is not how to achieve these two goals; rather the issue remains the sport's curious reluctance to crack down in that regard. The restrictor plate-roof spoiler-wickered spoiler combination used by Winston Cup cars at Daytona and Talladega in 2001 and presently used in BGN at those same tracks has consistently proven to be the strongest package for creating competitive racing, but there are other areas where competition can be improved, notably in the points structure, where the absurd Chase format has proven a failure and is in need of abandonment; replacing it must be a point structure with massive point bonuses for race wins and laps led, to where the only possibility for the championship is to win the most races and lead the most laps.

Returning to the issue of officiating, another area to improve competition is abandonment of varied rules pertaining to on-track tactics and occurances. NASCAR has taken it upon itself to police the practice of push-drafting; what business NASCAR has in such remains puzzling. NASCAR banned teams from heavily reinforcing front bumpers in April 2006 precisely for this practice, but this ban should be rescinded. Push-drafting should not only be allowed, but encouraged.

NASCAR has a yellow-line rule forbidding passing in designated areas of some racetracks; the sagacity of such a rule has never been adequately offered and frankly makes no sense. Areas below yellow lines on straightaways must never be considered anything but fair game for passing.

There is also the criteria for cars to make up a lap. NASCAR abandoned racing to the caution after an incident at New Hampshire in 2003 where Dale Jarrett crashed and the leaders slowed down, except for Michael Waltrip as he foolishly insisted on putting a car a lap down despite warnings by his spotter. The rule that resulted freezes the field and sets the running order based on electronic scoring loops around the racetrack; this has proven again and again to be an embarassment as race winners have been declared by a scoring loops in Turn Three on several occassions, notably Michigan in 2004 and Talladega in October 2005 and October 2006.

The rule should be to race to the line; if there is impediment to safely doing so then red and yellow flags will be waved to freeze the field and revert to last completed lap for scoring. Cars also must race to make up a lap - the rule arbitrarily awarding the first lapped car a lap is to be abandoned.

Also in need of addressing is lack of tire competition. The arguments justifying Toyota entry into Winston Cup apply in their own way also to Firestone and Hoosier versus Goodyear directly on the speedway. Now one can make a superb case for the hard tire combination Goodyear employed early in the 2000 decade - 19 winners among 13 teams in 2001 alone is graphic vindication of this package - but given the need for greater competition, allowing Goodyear a monopoly seems imprudent; certainly tire competition has also created serious increases in number of winning drivers and teams in the sport's history.

NASCAR's answer to all of this has been a committee-built contraption called The Car Of Tomorrow. Universally derided for its abysmal styling, unsound design, inadequacy in racing conditions, and cost, the COT must be cancelled forthwith.

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There is also the integrity of the sport in terms of how it portrays itself. First off there is the sport's absurd switch in marketing emphasis. Instead of marketing the product, the sport is now marketing the brand, and given the decade's erosion of track attendence and TV ratings, it should be clear that this approach is not workiing.

Then there is the blunt truth that the sport is trying to be something it simply is not. It tries to portray itself as a hip, happening cacophony of cool that can appeal to the wealthy chic-sters of Hollywood, but the fact is that it is an audience as fraudulent as the "stock" quality of a racecar's sheetmetal. The sport's true audience remains the "redneck" population Brian France treats with all-too-evident distaste, apparantly based on too many viewings of redneck-baiting cliches in movies such as Deliverence or Easy Rider. That the so-called "Bubbas" are in fact intelligent, ordinary people without the arrogant whiff of superiority to be found through the hipster population is something the marketing types surrounding Brian France don't seem to grasp.

This applies as well to some of the markets the sport is trying to reach. It has invested heavily in trying to push speedways into New York City and Kitsap, Washington, this despite heavy local opposition in both areas and a lack of compelling argument for either region to host NASCAR competition. In contrast, Kentucky hosts a well-built intermediate superspeedway that has long proven itself capable of handling big-league racing and which draws from the sport's true demographic.

The myopic marketing of the brand instead of addressing the competitive product needs to stop.

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The crisis in competition extends into the size of raceteams involved. Simply put, too few racing organizations control too many racecars and sponsorships. The sport needs to force the breakup of massive multicar organizations like Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing sooner instead of later; it also needs to work with teams to redress the engine-building monopolies that presently exist - fewer and fewer teams build their own engines, even as the number of teams winning races with engine lease programs from other teams remains all but nonexistent.

These are some of the bigger areas in need of action. Thewre are others, to be certain, and they too must get attention as the sanctioning body approaches its sixtieth season in competition.