David Poole authors five ideas to help NASCAR reestablish its credibility. While some of them have an interesting angle, the issue of the sanctioning body's credibility goes beyond what are comparative window-dressing offered by Poole.
His ideas - publish the NASCAR rulebook so fans can read it; paint lines on racetracks delineating scoring loops; show pit-road and other such pertinent telemetry on TV so fans can see whether a car is speeding on pti road, etc.; wave cars trapped on the tail-end of the lead lap because of the timing of a yellow past the leader and to the rear of the field: and "develop a thick skin" when it comes to inept officiating.
The problem here is that the ideas are window-dressing, for the sanctioning body's core credibility issues go beyond whether or not the rulebook is available for fans to read. Painting scoring-loop stripes on the track and showing pit-speed telemetry on TV amount to endorsement of rules whose sagacity warrants debate.
The sanctioning body's credibility has been challenged more and more lately and with legitimate reason, and it is an issue going to the core of the sport's competition. The issues involved with the credibility of NASCAR require a mixture of specific actions and desired results -
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THE SPORT MUST TAKE SOME CONTROL OF THE RACING AWAY FROM THE OFFICIATING TOWER - The amount of control the officiating tower has over the racing is now at an absurd level, and a lot of rules put into place over the years have helped bring that level of power to its present state. Pit-road closure upon the flying of a yellow, pit-speed limits, freezing the field and the use of scoring loops, the Lucky Dog rule, the out-of-bounds line - all have been implemented and thus increased the power the officiating tower has over the racing.
None of these rules should even been there to begin with. Pit-closure is responsible for the pit crowding that has led to numerous accidents over the years, and pit speed limits serve only to give the officials more opportunity to hit a driver with a penalty. The rule should be that pit road remains open at all times short of catastrophic pit blockage; no speed limit entering or exiting the pits; crews must not go over the wall until their specific car has come to a complete, straight stop in their pit box. There was no running issue of pit crowding before the pit-closure rule.
Dressing bad rules in a tophat and tails won't make them good rules. Freezing the field has got to go; the only credible gauge of the running order is the start-finish line, so race to the caution - the only time NASCAR should "freeze" the field is when blockage threatens cars racing to the yellow, and in that circumstance NASCAR should wave the red and yellow flags and revert to the last completed lap in scoring. Cars should thus race to the stripe to make up a lap; no lucky dog passes.
There is never supposed to be an out-of-bounds area other than pit road - if it's paved, it's supposed to be fair game. Out-of-bounds lanes have taken away a legitimate passing area and allowed officials to hit some drivers but not others with penalties. That has to stop - cars that pass other cars below the yellow line should be left alone.
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THE SPORT MUST STOP TURNING TRACKS AND SPONSORS AGAINST EACH OTHER - NASCAR should have told Bruton Smith in 1996, "We're racing at Texas and we're staying at North Wilkesboro, too." It should also have kept Rockingham at two dates and added two dates to Kentucky. The sanctioning body also needs to stop writing exclusivity contracts into sponsor deals - Sprint and AT&T/Cingular should be fighting nose to nose in motorsports marketing, not having NASCAR stiffarm AT&T; Goodyear should not have any monopoly, it should be battling Firestoine and Hoosier on the racetrack. NASCAR needs to treat all sponsors as partners, and it needs to treat all its tracks as partners and work with them as well as with other racing organizations like IRL.
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THE FAVORITES MUST GET HIT HARD ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE - When Gary Nelson took over as NASCAR Competition Director in 1992 he had to work to prove his credibility to the field. His rigorous inspections helped there, but an unsung area where his credibility was established was that with his new inspections, the sport's top dog - Dale Earnhardt - fell on his face and was manifestly seen falling on his face on the racetrack. Rusty Wallace also fell on his face in 1992.
NASCAR needs an identical result here. Just as Baseball's steroid policy has no credibility until Barry Bonds is removed from the game, so NASCAR won't rebuild its credibility as a sanctioning body until its biggest organization, Hendrick Motorsports, falters - especially in situations where officating controversies go against the Hendrick fleet as opposed to the smaller teams that otherwise always get the shaft in officiating controversies.
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THE TIGHTNESS OF THE SPORT'S RACECAR BOX MUST BE LOOSENED TO SOME EXTENT - Having a tight "box" within which the racecars operate is not a bad thing - it's a big part of what made NASCAR the most competitive racing in the world - but that box needs to be opened up somewhat because in the era of Aero-Matching (2003 onward) only nine organizations have won races and a tenth (PPI Motorsports) dried up and died out. In contrast, the previous two seasons (2001-2) saw 26 winning drivers among 14 teams. Of course the tire package of that period helped enormously, but a looser box for the racecars played a role as well.
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THE DEAD-LANE ERA MUST END - In this decade the sport learned what aero and engine package makes the most exciting racing. The sport must now work to end the Dead-Lane Era that has permeated the sport since 1985. From that period only four tracks broke the 40-lead-change barrier and three of them did it a combined four times; the other (Talladega) has done it eleven times from 1985 onward. Scrapping the Car Of Tomorrow will help greatly.
The sanctioning body indeed has some serious credibility problems and they need to be addressed, and in a big-picture way.
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