NASCAR Classics - 1982 Dixie 500

The Atlanta Falcons 500

NASCAR's annual foray to Atlanta wound up resembling the Atlanta Falcons' 2016 playoff run - Kevin Harvick monopolized the first two rounds and monopolized the championship round before the entire enterprise disintegrated.   And when the final few laps arrived it was Brad Keselowski grabbing the win and Harvick left to stew with only a ninth place finish after leading a whopping 292 laps.    The race left some tidbits to munch on heading to Vegas -

Repave Atlanta - Before the weekend Marcus Smith of SMI said the track will be repaved for 2018, but drivers said and wrote on social media insisting the track should stay as it is because drivers like the feel of the track and like tire falloff.    This 2017 running by any sober reading ended any justification for putting off repaving any longer.   Tire wear was more of an issue than usual with several failures due to excessive wear, and passing was more limited than usual - almost a rumor, due not just to the unraceability of the asphalt but also to NASCAR's latest downforce reduction.  

In its history as a quad-oval Atlanta's most competitive races - such as the two on display above - came when the asphalt was still fresh and teams didn't have to use ten sets of tires to run 500 miles.    



The Aaron Rodgers Mister Irrelevant Award -  Kevin Harvick has made something of a habit in recent seasons of leading a lot and not cashing in the win.   In his last 110 starts spanning 2014 onward he has led the most laps a stunning twenty times without a win to show for it.    So far in 2017 he's reached one such Mister Irrelevant race to go with 342 total laps led.     "I didn't follow what I preach," he said afterward about botching his last stop.


Upshots come in stages - Yet for Harvick leading all these laps is doing him a world of good - his average finish is 15th compared to 4th for Kurt Busch - yet Harvick leads the points race thanks to winning NASCAR's new stages, with the bonus points awarded therein.    This validates the basic premise of the stages - incentivizing going for the lead.   

The only nit to pick there is NASCAR no longer awards bonus points for leading or most laps led - keeping that would further incentivize going for the lead.



It's a Stewart-Haas Racing World -  And right now we in NASCAR are just dwelling in it.   Harvick and Busch are 1-2 in points and SHR is easily the deepest team in the garage area - to where even the inept Danica Patrick hasn't been the total embarrassment she's been in the past.   No one else can come close despite Penske Racing's Atlanta win by Brad Keselowski to go with his third in points and Joey Logano's fifth, and respectable depth being shown by Ganassi's team, now building its own chassis and showing noticeably more muscle.  



The harder they fall - Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing so far look like walking wounded - Chase Elliott is fourth in points and Kasey Kahne is eighth, while Hendrick's Name drivers Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are 32nd and 33rd in points with the Daytona crash so far serving as the nadir; Atlanta didn't exactly spark any kind of rally.   JGR isn't in any better shape as Kyle Busch's Daytona stage win and Matt Kenseth's surprising third at Atlanta have highlighted an otherwise terrible start to the season; and so far the less said about Daniel Suarez's efforts the better. 



Is this the beginning of a Roush Renaissance?  -   At Atlanta the Roush-Fenway Fords were not the minor embarrassment they've been for the last four seasons as Ricky Stenhouse actually showed some respectable form while Trevor Bayne finished tenth.   Sustaining competitive form has been a problem with this gang the last four seasons, so promise still needs to be replicated before we can see the Roush guys as a legitimate force again.  



If it looked too good to be true...... - .....then it must be RCR.   A promising Speedweeks and a promising Atlanta Sunday netted very little, and I was surprised by some of the vehemence against Austin Dillon on some forums following this Atlanta 500.   Even with that Dillon's career has been nothing to feel encouraged about and there hasn't been reason to believe there's any potential there.   Ryan Newman likewise provided a big tease in the Atlanta 500 but in the end posted another mediocre result.  As for Paul Menard, he is what he is - lower-level talent.  



So it goes, with Vegas now on the docket; it should be a better test of NASCAR's new segments format et al as the wildcard of having to change tires every 40 laps shouldn't play out.

Atlanta 500 Winners And Losers

So the 2016 Atlanta 500 has been run.   A look at the race's winners and losers -


WINNERS -


Hendrick Motorsports - After taking it on the chin at Daytona by JGR's Toyotas, Hendrick's honchos roared back to finish 1-2 and also eighth thanks to a nice rebound by Chase Elliott.   Kasey Kahnre remains the black sheep of the Hendrick fleet.

Half of Stewart-Haas Racing - Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick combined to lead 193 laps and finish fourth and sixth.   Harvick's gag on the final restart was the killer of the race.

Young guns - The young guns had zero ammo at Daytona.  At Atlanta Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse, and Austin Dillon made a respectable effort and result.

Martin Truex - He led 34 laps and it's obvious that team fits better with Toyota than it did with Chevrolet.


The list of winners is pretty slim; the list of losers isn't -

LOSERS -


The short field - Striking was the high incidence of reportage critical of NASCAR for the shortness of the field, with blame given the new Charter system.   For a media that has been easily the most lapdog of all the sports medias, the NASCAR media's shots at NASCAR's Charter system was surprising - and very refreshing.   Lower car counts is never a good thing; it is a sign of declining value.   It's certainly not irreversible - but NASCAR needs to work to reverse this trend.


NASCAR's Retro 5&5 Rule  -  Drivers after the race kept saying "it was fun, it was fun."   But the most fun rules package remains the one where they can blast into the lead and they can fight back and retake it when someone else blasts into the lead - the more lead changes, the better for everyone.   This Atlanta 500 had a couple of spots of dicing up front, notably the two-lap dice between Harvick and Martin Truex, but other than that there wasn't much - certainly nothing like the apex of the track's history as a 1.54-mile quad-oval - 1999-2002 with four of its most competitive races, notably the 2001-2 Atlanta 500s contested with high downforce and a much-harder tire than used today.  

With this low-downforce package we also saw a return of the dirtiest words in racing, the condition from which nothing good can ever arrive - aero tight.   The biggest surprise was the lack of yellows in the 500, doubly surprising given the tire mini-fiascos endured in the Xfinity-Truck doubleheader on Saturday.  

People oversold low downforce at Kentucky and Darlington last year and it showed again it's not the way to go, no matter how much fun drivers professed to have with it.


Matt Kenseth - The pit penalty after leading 47 laps left him 19th at the end.  

Ganassi Racing - Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson were on milk cartons the whole race long.

Penske Racing - Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano did salvage productive finishes - ninth for Brad and twelfth for Logano - but they're hardly the power they were last season so far.

RCR and Roush-Fenway - Six cars, one top-ten in this race between them.   Even with that Roush's bunch did show some notable improvement.

Is NASCAR's Charter System Already Starting To Fail?

The Atlanta 500 saw just 39 entries for a 40-car field, and the short field has suddenly caused some of the lapdog NASCAR media to begin questioning the value of the sport's new Charter system.

NASCAR Gets Curiouser And Curiouser Entering Atlanta 500

The Daytona 500 has passed and now NASCAR's touring classes enter Atlanta, where the weekend is forecast to be sunny, and looks to be better than 2015's race weekend.   It enters with Daytona 500 TV ratings down from 2015, but it also enters with some blockbuster news.

Stewart-Haas Racing announced it will switch to Ford for 2017.   Not since Toyota arrived in 2007 and then lured Joe Gibbs Racing into its fold for 2008 has a manufacturer switch generated the news this does given SHR's 30 Cup wins and the two driver titles - Tony Stewart's in 2011 and Kevin Harvick's in 2014.   The change is a shocker since Chevrolet in essence built the team out of Gene Haas' small outfit and gave Tony Stewart co-ownership of the team to lure him out of Joe Gibbs Racing's Toyota fleet, where he'd won at Talladega in 2008.   It is also a weakening of Chevrolet's power with Hendrick Motorsports still potent but no one else in the Chevy fleet having any muscle - RCR Enterprises remains a shell of itself while Chip Ganaasi's team remains in the RCR engine fold - we'll see how long that lasts.

The defection to Ford is also a surprising reassertion of the moribund Ford fleet, which has had Penske Racing and gotten nothing else out of its small force other that Richard Petty's Daytona and Watkins Glen wins in 2014; the Roush-Fenway group has been essentially a dead team since Matt Kenseth and later Carl Edwards went to JGR, this amid scuttlebutt that engine man Doug Yates will assume some form of ownership control of the team down the road, perhaps sooner rather than later.  

Some other scuttlebutt in the sport has it that hope exists in Daytona that such manufacturer moves may compel other brands - Honda and Dodge notably - to want to enter.   NASCAR certainly has not done well keeping manufacturers happy and that needs to change.   Dodge's withdrawal has meant a weakening of all NASCAR's series.  One certainly should want Dodge to return - I suspect in his heart Richard Petty wants to run Dodges rather than Fords and that program would still fit him better, while Honda's racing efforts have recently been personified in Indycars and taking on rival Toyota makes sense in NASCAR. 



*****


As for Stewart-Haas Racing the defection to Ford   comes by "a desire for more autonomy," which also reflects the shafting of customer cars that has been the pattern for Hendrick Motorsports.   SHR has been a Hendrick satellite fleet from Day One, and Hendrick's history with customer teams has been a pattern - Bob Whitcomb's team won twice in 1990 with Hendrick engines and was then cut off because it outwon Hendrick's entire fleet; Darrell Waltrip then bought out Hendrick's #17 team, won five times with Hendrick engines 1991-2, and was cut off; Joe Gibbs began as a Hendrick customer team and won the 1993 Daytona 500, then finished a solid fourth in points, only to see a huge drop in horsepower in 1994; the team changed drivers to Bobby Labonte and got Chevy's controversial Monte Carlos of 1995, and won three times - when Hendrick's designated champion Jeff Gordon complained after a head-to-head loss to Labonte at Michigan JGR saw the writing on the wall and began building an in-house engine shop that debuted in 1996.

That SHR won as much as it has as long as it has indicates Chevrolet made it a priority - and also indicates something wrong in Chevy's leadership that the team is going to Ford, this as JGR's Toyotas have won fifteen of the last thirty-two races entering the 2016 Atlanta 500, a sure sign the NASCAR manufacturer paradigm has shifted.  


*****


The Atlanta 500 weekend is the first with NASCAR's renewal of the 5&5 Rule low-downforce package - a cutting of downforce NASCAR implemented starting with this race last season.   They want this to be the package for the entire season but the failure of these low downforce packages in the past augurs poorly for that happening.   Jimmie Johnson won this race last year but the Hendrick fleet came out of Daytona looking noticeably weaker.   The other top-tier team in Cup, Penske Racing, had a curiously subpar Speedweeks as well. 

Judging a potential darkhorse team for the Atlanta 500 is tricky given the lower depth of the field, and one needs a few races to shake out before one can make any kind of gauge of who is going where as the season rolls.    Basically it's Joe Gibbs Racing and if they don't win it's a tossup.


*****


The other story to watch is the Truck Series Georgia 200.   NASCAR's caution clock debuted at Daytona and appeared to have more effect on the intensity of the racing than expected; now though we have a non-plate race on an intermediate superspeedway, where the Trucks have put on some spirited races the last five seasons.   The effect of the caution clock on this race is the first key to watch.  

That's part one of what to watch with the Trucks at Atlanta.   Part two is the Maury Gallagher Chevrolets of Daytona winner Johnny Sauter and Daytona polesitter Grant Enfinger, to see if they can follow up Daytona with a strong effort at Atlanta.   The Curb and Thorson Toyotas, the Fords of Brad Keselowski, and the Shigeaki Hattori Toyota all showed fire at Daytona and will want to keep that momentum, while some teams that didn't make the Daytona race - like Jennifer Jo Cobb - also look for a rebound.


So it goes entering the Atlanta 500.

The Issue Of Atlanta International Raceway

MRN racecaster Dave Moody has a good piece about Atlanta Motor Speedway and the conundrum NASCAR has faced with regard to where it belongs on its schedule.   The piece has drawn the usual responses one would expect of race fans who wish to blame something other than fan neglect for the track's present issues.

The issue warrants examination because it illustrates the problem that exists where race fans need to accept some level of accountability.

Atlanta International Raceway has been a NASCAR staple since it opened in 1960, yet it has been inconsistent as far as attendances over the years.  Initially built as a pure oval - two half-mile turns bracketing two quarter-mile straights - with relatively small seating capacity, its capacity had grown rather quickly in the 1960s - the inaugural race drew 25,000; the 1964 Dixie 400 won by Ned Jarrett drew 40,000, the 1967 Atlanta 500 hit 70,000 - before dropping (45,000 for the 1974 Atlanta 500), to where backstretch grandstands were torn down by the mid-1970s only to be reinstated by 1981.   The track underwent several ownership changes; LG DeWitt, who won the 1973 Cup title as Benny Parsons' tram owner, purchased the speedway to go with his ownership of North Carolina Motor Speedway; when he passed away in 1990 Bruton Smith purchased the speedway, radically expanded the seating, and reconfigured it to quad-oval status.

Yet it draws only 75% capacity now, even with the backstretch grandstands long gone (replaced by a nice-looking RV area) and even as it sees some of the better non-restrictor plate racing on the tour; the Truck Series in particular has put on some spirited battles up front in recent races there. 

The Atlanta sports market has long been among the weakest in the nation; twice now Atlanta NHL teams - the Flames (now in Calgary) and later the Thrashers (now the new version of the Winnipeg Jets) - did not successfully take root; the Falcons have regularly needed gameday walk-up ticket sales to sell out their home games; the Falcons famously lied on the pregame injury report for their 2005 game against the Patriots to entice ticket buyers to think Michael Vick would play that day when there was never any chance of it; the Braves and Hawks are spotty in attendances.   The speedway overall drew well before the capacity was overexpanded after 1990, and contrary to the myth perpetuated in some fan circles the weather for its dates didn't stop anyone from going in the past - late March and early-November dates worked, even with snow delays in 1991 and 1993 for the Atlanta 500.

Atlanta's issue is compounded because Bruton Smith wants a second date at Las Vegas - itself a questionable sports market despite good attendances at the Vegas speedway - and NASCAR has not admitted that it should cancel its two non-points races (especially the All-Star Race at Bruton's Charlotte track, a race that stopped being all that worthwhile years ago) and thus free up dates for two extra points-paying races such as a second Vegas date.

The demise and brief revival of North Carolina Motor Speedway illustrates Atlanta's issue.   When Bruton and NASCAR settled on a second Texas Motor Speedway date, Rockingham was shut down.  In 2007 Andy Hillinberg purchased the speedway, tore down over half the seating, and secured races for ARCA and the Trucks as well as local hobby stocks, and the dates were favorable weather-wise - yet despite some good crowds the track couldn't sell out its races, and its future is now in doubt again.

The reality is while fan apathy is not the only issue, it nonetheless warrants admission.   Fans should go to Atlanta races and support the track, just as they should support local tracks and their local sports teams.

Atlanta 500 Observations

The Atlanta 500 has run and it turned into a curious event.   Jimmie Johnson's win was his 71st and  the 500-miler, briefly delayed by rain and also dragged to some four hours in duration by several late crashes, saw an interesting final rundown.   Some observations -



* Running the week after the Daytona 500, Atlanta's sole Winston Cup date has become a source of contention in some fan circles.   The reality that Atlanta is not a good sports market - shown by the Falcons' practice of selling out their home games via gameday walk-up sales - remains a reality for the speedway, and the fact it didn't draw a capacity crowd won't help with the track's future, though it seems illogical a better date, some time in May or early June or even September, could not be worked out (the same is true of Martinsville's Old Dominion 500, pushed to early November in recent years when it should be early October)

The big issue for the speedway aside from attendance figures remains the dismal quality of the racing surface - rough and tire-eating.  

*   The Atlanta 500 saw a curious number of darkhorse contenders having quality runs.   While Martin Truex is not a true darkhorse he nonetheless is not a regular frontrunner, so his strong hustle to the top ten remains something fresh and unusual.   Truex's recent consistency may auger well for down the road, as did Aric Almirola's commendable rebound from a dismal Speedweeks.   Also collecting a respectable finish was Paul Menard, a driver whose record has lacked much to write home about.  

The biggest darkhorse, though, was Brett Moffett, driving Michael Waltrip's car subbing for returning starter Brian Vickers.   Moffett is a rookie, and his poise was something to behold as he picked his way to the top ten.  

Super subs Regan Smith and David Ragan (in Kyle Busch's #18) had decent finishes; Smith showed noticeable improvement from Speedweeks.


* This was the first race with NASCAR's new tapered spacer cutting some 100-plus horsepower and a spoiler two inches shorter than in 2014.   The net result wasn't different from last year, except in one regard - the mini-epic of late-race crashes.   At least one - the Greg Biffle set-to with Joe Nemechek - appeared to have been an air-off-the-spoiler crash, the kind of crash disturbingly common in the 1990s but which had largely disappeared by the end of that decade.    Given the tire-eating nature of the Atlanta surface, this was not the best venue for testing this new package; nonetheless it was not quite the promise some may have hoped to get from it.


* The issue of SAFER barriers became a controversy with Kyle Busch's crash into an inside wall - some 200 feet from the racing surface - at Daytona; Atlanta added more SAFER barriers for this race, yet Jeff Gordon managed to nail an inside wall entering Three where the SAFER ended.   Naturally Gordon was asking why the SAFER ended there - with no one seeming to have thought to ask the question before a crash happened in an area where crashes previously had not happened.   This is the hypocrisy involved, the self-serving hindsight that pops up where no one bothers to remember that no one else thought about it until this particular crash, be it Kyle Busch's or now Gordon's.   That there are certain areas of racetracks where crashes simply don't happen never seems to be considered, even though it explains why "they didn't have a SAFER there."

Instead of blaming the tracks, perhaps some more thought should be put into it first.


* Suddenly seeing his stock beginning to erode is Kyle Larson, who appears to be hitting a sophomore slump.   His Speedweeks wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be and Atlanta didn't do him any favors either.    It's obvious the sport has considerable hope for Larson, especially with so little young talent making that much progress at the Cup level in recent years.



So it goes as the series heads to Vegas.