Wednesday, March 27, 2019

What The Winston Cup Schedule "Should" Look Like

With all the inevitable squauking about the 2020 NASCAR schedule, a semi-idealized alternative is presented, including a few flights of fancy to illustrate a few historical tracks that objectively should still be here.   The 2020 calender is used as the template - most weekends would entail double or tripleheaders involving the Busch-Xfinity Series, Gander Truck series, or both, with ARCA Menards Series on some weekends as well


JANUARY 26
WINSTON WESTERN GRAND NATIONAL, RIVERSIDE INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - Once the shakedown season debut for the Cup tour, nowadays the speedway empires of International Speedway Corporation, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Speedway Motorsports Inc. would in some combination have "rescued" tracks like Riverside and kept them in the Cup tour.



FEBRUARY 16
DAYTONA 500 

FEBRUARY 23
PENNZOIL 450, LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY 




MARCH 1
TICKET GUARDIAN 500k, PHOENIX/ISM RACEWAY 


MARCH 8
MILLER HIGH LIFE/AUTO CLUB 500, ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY - As with Riverside the modern speedway empires ISC, IMS, and SMI would likely link together in some fashion to preserve OMS, the crown jewel of superspeedways, and thus nullified the need to construct the present Cal Speedway in Fontana


MARCH 15
FORD MIAMI 450, HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY 


MARCH 22
FOLDS OF HONOR ATLANTA 500, ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY


MARCH 29
INTERSTATE/O'REILLY 500, TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY




APRIL 5
FOOD CITY 500 , BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

APRIL 12 - OFF


APRIL 19
KANSAS 450, KANSAS SPEEDWAY

APRIL 26
STP VIRGINIA 500, MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY



MAY 3
WINSTON 500, TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

MAY 10 - OFF

MAY 17
MASON-DIXON 450, DOVER DOWNS INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

MAY 24
COCA COLA WORLD 600, CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

MAY 31
MAPLE LEAF GRAND NATIONAL, CANADIAN TIRE MOTORSPORTS PARK - much has been made of the Truck Series here; while not ideal for the series Mosport certainly has history and the Canadian market is served



JUNE 7
PUROLATOR 500, POCONO RACEWAY

JUNE 14
MILLER HIGH LIFE/FIREKEEPERS CASINO 500, MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

JUNE 21
GO BOWLING WATKINS GLEN GRAND NATIONAL

JUNE 28 

BASS PRO SHOPS 500, BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY 



JULY 5
PEPSI FIRECRACKER 450, DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

JULY 12
CAMPING WORLD 450, CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY

JULY 19
FOXWOODS CASINO 300, NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

JULY 26
CHAMPION SPARK PLUG/GANDER RV 500, POCONO RACEWAY



AUGUST 2 - OFF

AUGUST 9
BRICKYARD 450, INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

AUGUST 16
TOYOTA/SAVE MART GRAND NATIONAL, SEARS POINT RACEWAY

AUGUST 23
PEPSI 500, MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

AUGUST 30
QUAKER STATE 450, KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY



SEPTEMBER 6
SOUTHERN 500, DARLINGTON RACEWAY

SEPTEMBER 13
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 450, RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

SEPTEMBER 20
DELAWARE 450, DOVER DOWNS INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

SEPTEMBER 27
HILLYWOOD CASINO 450, KANSAS SPEEDWAY



OCTOBER 4

BANK OF AMERICA 500, CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

OCTOBER 11
COORS ALL-AMERICAN 450, NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS - reportage to the effect some element of NASCAR is seeking to refurbish the Fairgrounds in the context of holding the annual season-ending banquet in the city has led to speculation of returning some series here.


OCTOBER 18
DIEHARD 500, TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY


OCTOBER 25
ALAMO/AAA 500, TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY



NOVEMBER 1
COPPER WORLD 500k, PHOENIX/ISM RACEWAY

NOVEMBER 8
SOUTH POINT 450, LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

NOVEMBER 15
LA TIMES 500, ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY




No doubt sharp-eyed fans will notice what isn't there.   A few tracks in this schedule have lost their second Winston Cup dates.   The reason is simple; if people are serious about shaking up the schedule then at least two of the short tracks presently on the tour - three of the sport's weakest markets - would need to lose a date apiece; asking the bigger tracks to sacrifice dates for weaker markets (New Hampshire sacrificed one of its dates, but for the Vegas market) isn't smart business. 

Also not here is a return to the presently-shuttered Rockingham track, this despite reportage that the area government will spend money to refurbish it.   Rockingham had its chance when Andy Hillinberg reopened it; his effort deserves praise, but it proved futile in the end. 

And the two non-point races, the Busch Clash and All Star Race?  They really no longer serve a purpose for the sport.


Flight of fancy, yes, but also a more realistic assessment of what the NASCAR schedule needs to be.

The Unlamentable Mueller Report

Robert Mueller in the 1980s worked to abet the FBI's coverup of framing four men for the 1965 murder of minor Boston mobster Teddy Deegan. The framing was to protect two FBI snitches - Joe Barboza and Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi. So Mueller's integrity was already worth suspicion when he launched his investigation of Donald Trump.
"It followed the Soviet style: 'Show me the man and I'll show you the crime.'"

New Zealand Plays Denial On Islamic Terror


"New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed never to mention the name of the perpetrator of the massacre at two mosques. Calling the killer 'terrorist, criminal, extremist,' she has asserted, 'He will be, when I speak, nameless.' It is part of New Zealand's overall attempt to ban footage of the incidcent under the theory that any images or mention of the perpetrator will somehow glorify him."


The problem is this is a form of denial about it. There has never been any reduction in aggression because we deny the identity of the perpetrators.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

NASCAR Short Track Myopia And Schedule Puzzlement

NASCAR's first Winston Cup weekend hit Martinsville and soon after the 2020 schedule was released to great fanfare and a lot of wild speculation, some of which turned out to be true. 


First up is the Virginia 500 weekend.   Brad Keselowski annihilated the field for his second win of the season and Chase Elliott wound up second, the best finish so far for Chevrolet.   But two issues rose above everything else - first was the dismal effort by Jimmie Johnson, and more than a few analysts noticed how badly he ran, with the inevitable speculation about what's wrong.

The other big picture story was that the writers suddenly noticed that aero matters on short tracks.   The gripe was the bigger spoiler was somehow creating aeropush, but that's false.   Aeropush was always there and the bigger spoiler allowed the drivers to blast through the corners more strongly.  It wasn't harder to pass in this Martinsville than it was with low downforce; actually the opposite was the case - lower downforce made passing harder. 

That aero was suddenly noticed at Martinsville shows how ignorant of history a lot of people seem to be.   Bobby Hamilton in the 1990s was the first to articulate that aeropush was and is a short track issue.   And the aero rake on short track cars - especially dirt cars - long ago proved aero is more, not less, important on short tracks - pavement late models look more like superspeedway cars than modern superspeedway cars look. 

People need to give up this myth of "making the cars less dependent on aero."  Because that's all it's ever been - "less dependent on aero" is a myth, through and through. 


*****


The other story two days later was the unveiling of the 2020 Winston Cup schedule.   Social media had some ridiculous speculation that some tracks would lose dates in favor of unimpressive locales like Villenueve Circuit, Mosport, Iowa Speedway, even Indy Raceway Park.   That didn't happen as any sensible analysis could have predicted. Also not happening is elimination of the playoff format, the source of a pre-Martinsville rumor.

What did happen though led to expected puzzlement.   The most bizarre is Pocono Raceway has to stack both of its Winston Cup dates into just one weekend - late June.   Back to back 400 milers (they should be 500 milers) in two days compresses into too tight a window for teams with inevitable attrition, bringing back memory of the track's 1969 birth where it ran short track races on its now-defunct 3/4-mile interior oval and its ration of entries was always cut because of attrition at other tracks running the night before.   Plus it is just one weekend, a revenue-generation reduction by any measure.   No Steve O'Donnell (his presser transcript here), crushing two big races into one weekend isn't "terrific for the fans."

The bizarre move - the only such doubleheader - appears forced because NBC is airing the Summer Olympics in 2020 in July and August that year - which brings to mind the sport should not have constricted itself to two networks but instead should be getting four or five with CBS, TNT, etc. being brought in.   It also leaves one wondering if this is thus a one-off experiment, one the sport really doesn't need.


The other changes are moving the Brickyard 400 to July 4 and the Firecracker 400 at Daytona at the end of August.   One struggles to see what need ever arose for such changes, and Steve O'Donnell dressed Daytona's move in terms of NASCAR's misbegotten playoff format, since the Firecracker 400 is now the "regular season" finale and the Southern 500 kicks off the playoffs. 

Darlington, Richmond, Bristol, Vegas, Talladega, Charlotte's stupid roval, Kansas, Texas, the Old Dominion 500 in November instead of September, and then Phoenix are the playoff races.   This even though the playoff concept has never worked - indeed the fact of a rumor circulating to the effect of ending the experiment indicates there is understanding in the racing industry the playoff format has not worked despite NASCAR's stubborn insistence on shoving it down our throats. 


In all the new schedule is "fixing" what had no need for a makeover.   If NASCAR thinks this will spur renewed interest they're kidding themselves. 

Thursday, March 21, 2019

NASCAR 2019: Better Racing, Continued Controversy, And Coop-etition

NASCAR's 2019 season has now run five races and the racing has noticeably gotten more competitive with the phase-in of the new draft duct package, the use of tapered engine spacers producing some 550 HP, and concurrent larger spoiler.  And the TV ratings have improved noticeably each week, a good sign of momentum that needs to be maintained for the sport.

But as is common in racing there is a confluence of different yet at times related issues worth a look.


*****


The race that stood out aside from the Daytona 500 - competitive but poorly driven amid multiple crashes and a strikingly low number of finishers - was Las Vegas, where the full draft duct package kicked off after a promising January test. The result was not what anyone expected - there was no two-abreast battle of drafting packs and the draft appeared schizophrenic.

There was though a striking battle for the lead - scoring indicated there were some 47 lead changes, official and otherwise, by any measure an eye-popping number and an indication the draft duct package is indeed working.

The race looked at in some circles as a big test was Fontana, and it proved less than expected.   Kyle Busch won it after a late yellow and subsequent showdown with Atlanta 500 winner Brad Keselowski and Vegas champ Joey Logano, but the general consensus was it wasn't a particularly competitive race despite a few spots of intense dicing.


Pieces quickly came out critical of the draft duct package from Jeff Gluck and Matt Weaver - Weaver as has been his wont oozed condescension in criticizing the draft duct package and shoehorning advocacy of more short tracks even though short tracks are inferior competition models for major league racing.






Both completely ignore the worn out asphalt at Fontana (and also Atlanta and Chicagoland) and how teams were chasing the racetrack, trying to manage tires - do everything except go for the lead.   What would Fontana have looked like had it been repaved by now?  Like this.







....and also like this.   


A sharp observation from one social media observer is that Fontana needs to be repaved.....but also rebanked, higher, up to 28 degrees.   In the past I was not an advocate of rebanking tracks because the racecars were the issue, but with successful up-bankings at some tracks over the last two decades I'm not necessarily opposed to the practice.   If anything Fontana, Pocono, Michigan, and perhaps Chicagoland and Kentucky can benefit from some up-banking (as well as where needed new pavement).   The shuttered Nashville Superspeedway would benefit greatly from up-banking and also conversion to asphalt. 


****



There is clearly a divide in motorsports in fans, sanctioning bodies, etc.   As one social media observer has noted, a lot of fans want pack racing and NASCAR has been listening to them.   Of course given the superior level of competition fans should want pack-type racing.   The core criticism I hear of pack-type racing is that somehow "anyone can do it."  Following the Vegas race Kyle Busch - now of 200 wins between Winston Cup, Busch-Xfinity, and the Truck Series - mouthed off as he'd done in the January test that the package has taken "skill" out of the drivers' hands.   Ryan Newman - another who has spoken out of turn over and over - claimed fans in the grandstands can now drive these cars with this package.

It brought a needed rebuke from MRN's Dave Moody.   It's worth reminder of talented drivers who never won or haven't to date won a draft-pack aka restrictor plate race -


Rusty Wallace
Ricky Rudd
Geoff Bodine
Martin Truex
Kyle Larson
Carl Edwards
Kasey Kahne
Alan Kulwicki
Juan Montoya
Marcus Ambrose
Kyle Petty
Ricky Craven
Steve Park
Jerry Nadeau
Johnny Benson
Jeremy Mayfield
Joe Nemechek
AJ Allmeindinger
Lake Speed
Elliott Sadler



The claim "anyone can run these races" simply isn't true.   NOT anyone can do what they're doing out on these racetracks. And it absolutely takes legitimate skill to compete in draft pack racing.   Moody for one notes the drivers "have traditionally been poor spokespersons for their sport." 

It shows again when the issue of "putting on a show" comes up.   Pete Pistone of MRN has had conversation to this effect recently.   The opinion has circulated from the driver fraternity that "their focus is on succeeding and dominating, not on creating a good 'show' or an entertaining race."   Which is true, but misses the point.   The sanctioning body is supposed to set the competition parameter and the drivers compete within it.   When the parameter is set where drivers are slicing and dicing for the front on a regular basis then it is "putting on a show" because it is competition in its purest form - combat for the win. 

And while drivers seek to dominate, objective reality is the accomplishment is inherently diminished when it is domination.   Kyle Busch's much-celebrated 200 wins across the Winston Cup, Busch-Xfinity, and Truck Series saw a disproportionate percentage of uncompetitive affairs, and even his Fontana win wasn't the accomplishment a hard-fought affair would have been. 

To put Busch and Newman's opinion on its head - anyone can outrun the field; it takes a true racer to outright it


*****


Also getting a lot of ink has been Tony Stewart's interview with the Virginian Pilot, his now-famous "rich kids" interview.  First he pushes that NASCAR needs more drivers with "personality," though what this actually looks like remains nebulous, and if anything the sport has choked on personality the last two decades.

He espouses one of the hoarist gripes in motorsports - one Richard Petty made in his 1986 biography with William Neely - the claim "kids with rich fathers and deep pockets that put them in racecars.....because they're eighteen years old, they think they deserve to be in a Cup car. I have a hard time with that."

Stewart of course doesn't name names, even though his argument would be more credible if he did - name who should be removed from Winston Cup rides and which of these "hundreds of thousands of racecar drivers across the country that have clawed and scratched their way at Saturday night short tracks and worked on their cars all their life to get where they are" should take those rides over. 

Should NASCAR remove Austin Dillon and Paul Menard from their rides?   How about your own driver Daniel Suarez, Tony?  Suarez is a Drive For Diversity poster boy - diversity initiatives are another form of favoritism - who has had quality rides with JGR and now Stewart-Haas, and even won three Busch-Xfinity races and won at Phoenix in the Truck series - all in 2016 - and who since then has just ten top-five finishes in a combined 93 Winston Cup/Busch-Xfinity races - and just 87 career to date laps led in Winston Cup.   Less with more.   He would seem the kind of driver who should be yanked from his ride and replaced. 

And the bigger question - is it possible the reason these hundreds of thousands of short trackers don't get Winston Cup rides because their fundamental skill set isn't compatible with Cup anymore?   This is in essence why open wheel short trackers stopped getting Indycar rides even when the IRL went out of its way to put sprint car and midget car drivers into Indycars, only to find in test after test what National Speed Sport News quoted one team owner saying in 2002 - "We could never get them to stop lifting for the corners."

Stewart's general sentiment is sympathetic, but practicality and sympathy aren't the same thing.


Stewart also renews his idiotic advocacy for dirt tracks for Winston Cup.   It bears reminder that the reason he wants Winston Cup at Eldora - despite the weak competition level there and inability to hold more than 13,000, never mind no particular evidence of sponsor interest for major league racing there - is TV money; the Trucks get nothing for TV money.

It's the same for the Busch-Xfinity Series and the other tours of NASCAR - and the real answer goes ignored.   NASCAR needs to completely revamp its TV deal and get more networks involved into more series.   CBS, TNT, TBS, and MAVTV - and even ABC despite the gross qualitative regression of ESPN - need to be involved with FOX and NBC to provide more TV money at lest cost to each network, with genuine TV money going to the other tours of NASCAR.   Make the Truck Race at Eldora worth the financial while of the track so it doesn't need Cup.  Get more TV money so Iowa, a track not capable of a Cup date despite sanctioning body ownership, is worth its while not having a Cup date. 


*****


There's a Darrell Waltrip-ism that fits with this scenario - coop-etition, a mixture of cooperation between sides that aids their own competition endeavors.   It's a term he coined to describe push-drafting by rival cars at Daytona and Talladega; cooperation that directly benefitted the competitive effort of the two cars involved. 

Coop-etition fits to try and turn around the disaster that is Chevrolet's Winston Cup effort.    It is known, as Andy Petree stated in 2018, that there is no inter-team cooperation within Chevrolet's Winston Cup program, and the signs point to that Chevy seriously cut its NASCAR budget.   So the lack of inter-team engineering exchanges is baffling and harmful to the effort.   If Hendrick, RCR, Ganassi, Petty, and the Brad Daugherty team opened up their engineering information to each other - a la the old Childress-Earnhardt-Petree alliance and the pioneering Pontiac inter-team alliance involving Petty, Sabates' team pre-Ganassi involvement, Joe Gibbs Racing when it ran Pontiacs, Bill Davis Racing, and Chuck Rider's team - they would far more effectively find and solve engineering, setup etc. issues with their cars - and be able to fight the Fords and Toyotas for wins.

Coop-etition.