NASCAR Gets Dirty At Eldora

Compilation of wrecks in the 2018 Eldora Dirt Derby

Chase Briscoe surprised everyone with a fender-length win


NASCAR's annual Eldora Dirt Derby 150 for the Truck Series saw a spirited finish and a lot of chatter instigated by promoter Tony Stewart when he called on NASCAR fans to demand NASCAR give him a Winston Cup date.   The idea will of course get pushed by a lot of people, but a more objective look is needed here amid what was admittedly an impressive finish.

I say admittedly because for most of the race it was a pretty typical dirt race - the Trucks fighting for the cushion, the bottom lanes never really getting hooked up, passing never developing as much as drivers want, the vehicles involved looking like Triceratops on roller skates more than racing vehicles.

Dirt racing is what it is - but it's also grossly overhyped and overrated.   For local racing it's fine, for major league motorsports it may be fun but it's not that good.   And being overhyped and overrated some myths have been pushed about dirt racing -


Myth - the cars don't need aero or big-time engineering for dirt races 

Aero matters - a lot - on dirt.   Fendered dirt cars make superspeedway stockers look like the old "taxicab" cliche used against NASCAR in the 1960s - they even make modern Late Models look like old-school superspeedway cars.

The wings of outlaw sprint cars likewise put the myth to claims aero doesn't matter on dirt


There is also the reality that NASCAR teams are now beating NASCAR's new Optical Scanner, and also Truck teams have started to build special dirt vehicles for Eldora.  Local racers without the budgets or technology of Winston Cup teams may not have figured it out, but the longer NASCAR runs major-league series on dirt the more money they will spend, between the Optical Scanner, shaker machines, and the like, on engineering better dirt cars - and do not ever believe they won't succeed, having long ago made regular short tracks as much an engineering exercise as superspeedways.



Myth - dirt makes the racing more a driver skill exercise

The 150 was monopolized by Kyle Busch Motorsports and ThorSport.   Between polesitter Ben Rhodes and rookie Logan Seavey, like so many modern NASCAR guys a California native and also Toyota Development driver who has competed in the World of Outlaws - ironically driving for race winner Chase Briscoe - KBM led 97 laps while Briscoe led 54.   So the big teams of the Truck Series as usual took over.

No one else led.   Much was made of longtime veteran Norm Benning racing his way into the feature - and Noah Gragson got some heat after the race because Benning passed him - and largely lost is Benning never really got anything going and crashed out of the race.   The biggest surprise of the night wasn't even Briscoe's win - it was the fact Austin Wayne Self, perennial nobody, ran as high as third for a lengthy stretch of the race - and a bigger indictment of Self is rookie Max McLaughin (his dad is Northeast racing hall of famer Mike McLaughin) out-finished him in a second Al Niece Chevrolet. 

The blunt reality is dirt is not the equalizer it's being hyped as being.



Tony Stewart's call for Winston Cup at Eldora is yet another example in the ridiculous debate that has pitted speedways against each other, an exercise in fratricide that has never benefitted anyone.   To illustrate the rank hypocrisy involved, consider this idea -

We hear fans call for tracks like Charlotte, Texas, Pocono, Michigan, and Kansas to give up their second dates to allow more short tracks in Cup - so how about instead Bristol, Richmond, and Martinsville give up their second dates for other short tracks?

No doubt we will get pushback from fans to the idea that Bristol, Richmond, and Martinsville be forced to give up dates for other tracks - and of course the justifications for keeping two dates at those places will further display fan hypocrisy on the issue.   We've already seen plenty of speedway fratricide over the last twenty-two seasons - when, fans, does enough become enough?


The big draw Tony has in mind is simple - Cup is where some ninty percent the TV money goes; he gets little to no TV money from the Truck race.   The solution there should be clear - take perhaps twenty-five to thirty percent of Cup TV money and switch it into the Xfinity, Truck, Modified, K&N, and Weekly Racing Series; work to get a third and fourth TV network - CBS immediately comes to mind - to invest in NASCAR, perhaps even start allowing individual tracks to negotiate separate TV deals.   Make it worth Iowa Speedway's while, for one, to settle for the Xfinity and Truck series instead of Winston Cup. 

NASCAR needs to stop pitting speedways against each other and Tony Stewart needs to work better with NASCAR and everyone else for the betterment of his track and of racing.

The Eldora Dirt Derby got a lot of praise and it has shown itself - it is what it is, the sport needs to leave it at that.