Showing posts with label Talladega Superspeedway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Talladega Superspeedway. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Chaos Is Kez And Kligerman At Talladega
The 2017 Diehard 500 weekend at Talladega lived up to its reputation for attrition and exciting racing, yet no doubt no one will be happy from this one thanks to even more crashes than usual. When it was over Parker Kligerman lived up to the track's former reputation for darkhorse champs and Brad Keselowski kept building his Talladega win total.
The Freds 250 was bizarre in that everyone ran single file for the first two segments then suddenly figured out how to push-draft and thus began hammering for the lead. Parker Kligerman stormed into the fray, having won here in 2012 - his only other Truck Series win. The continuing idiocy of NASCAR's yellow line rule showed in Kligerman's late pass and the fact it was even debated as to whether there was any justification for a penalty. Kligerman fought off a last-lap challenge before Noah Gragson swerved into the top five and the result was the race-ending melee. The win was especially enjoyable given the Charlie Henderson #75 is one of the smaller teams, finally able to give the finger to the larger outfits. It was also enjoyable seeing Grant Enfinger in the Curb-backed #98 slugging it out.
The Diehard 500 showcased the downside to segment racing and the overall Chase concept - teams were more concerned with outstrategizing each other - and the scheduled segment yellows - as opposed to going for the lead. Brad Keselowski was able to steal Segment One and then stole the race win.
Cody Coughlin's crash.
Over 75% of the field crashed out of the Alabama 500 - yet no crash was inevitable; they were all caused by certain foolish moves by drivers; Chase Elliott won the Ernie Irvan Dimbulb Of The Race award and raised more questions about whether he's really capable of winning.
The race also showed anew the weakness of NASCAR's suppression of push-drafting at the Cup level, as passing the leader was almost impossible and the need for the push-draft was glaring all race.
Interesting as well is this weekend came after Tommy Joe Martins' interesting treatise on team economics in the context of NASCAR's TV deal. The issue of costs would be less burdensome by smarter team spending and application by the sanctioning body of TV deal money.
But the standout issue is how hard passing was - all the result of NASCAR's crackdown on push-drafting. It was far less an issue in the Trucks as the drivers finally started getting serious about it, and it showed why racing needs push-drafting, by far the strongest power to pass conceivable in motorsports.
With so many darkhorses in contention note is worth being given to Aric Almirola's fifth place, this despite struggling all race to where the #43 seemed not up to pulling up to anyone or pushing anyone; the melees were the proverbial Red Sea parting. His third top-five in a plate race this season is a needed balm for the Petty team preparing for 2018; it is worth noting presumptive 2018 driver Darrell Wallace ran stout in his one plate start in the #43 in July.
So ends the Talladega weekend and the sport's latest surge into Talladega's Twilight Zone.
The Freds 250 was bizarre in that everyone ran single file for the first two segments then suddenly figured out how to push-draft and thus began hammering for the lead. Parker Kligerman stormed into the fray, having won here in 2012 - his only other Truck Series win. The continuing idiocy of NASCAR's yellow line rule showed in Kligerman's late pass and the fact it was even debated as to whether there was any justification for a penalty. Kligerman fought off a last-lap challenge before Noah Gragson swerved into the top five and the result was the race-ending melee. The win was especially enjoyable given the Charlie Henderson #75 is one of the smaller teams, finally able to give the finger to the larger outfits. It was also enjoyable seeing Grant Enfinger in the Curb-backed #98 slugging it out.
The Diehard 500 showcased the downside to segment racing and the overall Chase concept - teams were more concerned with outstrategizing each other - and the scheduled segment yellows - as opposed to going for the lead. Brad Keselowski was able to steal Segment One and then stole the race win.
Cody Coughlin's crash.
Over 75% of the field crashed out of the Alabama 500 - yet no crash was inevitable; they were all caused by certain foolish moves by drivers; Chase Elliott won the Ernie Irvan Dimbulb Of The Race award and raised more questions about whether he's really capable of winning.
The race also showed anew the weakness of NASCAR's suppression of push-drafting at the Cup level, as passing the leader was almost impossible and the need for the push-draft was glaring all race.
Interesting as well is this weekend came after Tommy Joe Martins' interesting treatise on team economics in the context of NASCAR's TV deal. The issue of costs would be less burdensome by smarter team spending and application by the sanctioning body of TV deal money.
But the standout issue is how hard passing was - all the result of NASCAR's crackdown on push-drafting. It was far less an issue in the Trucks as the drivers finally started getting serious about it, and it showed why racing needs push-drafting, by far the strongest power to pass conceivable in motorsports.
With so many darkhorses in contention note is worth being given to Aric Almirola's fifth place, this despite struggling all race to where the #43 seemed not up to pulling up to anyone or pushing anyone; the melees were the proverbial Red Sea parting. His third top-five in a plate race this season is a needed balm for the Petty team preparing for 2018; it is worth noting presumptive 2018 driver Darrell Wallace ran stout in his one plate start in the #43 in July.
So ends the Talladega weekend and the sport's latest surge into Talladega's Twilight Zone.
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Talladega Legacy And Future
The 2017 Winston 500 weekend at Talladega opened with a surprising burden of legacy and ended with the arrival of an aspect of the future - a confluence that made for an interesting weekend.
The Busch/Xfinity Series opened things up with an exciting shootout in the Sparks 300 and Aric Almirola matched his Firecracker 250 win from last July by bagging this one.
The burden of legacy for Talladega was two-fold - Part I was this marked the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Winston 500 and the breakthrough victory of Davey Allison and the Ranier Racing team. The second-generation Allison began one of the sport's most celebrated careers with that breakthrough victory as a rookie, ultimately winning nineteen races - but the championship he wanted escaped him in the famous crash with Ernie Irvan during the 1992 Dixie 500, and a frustrating 1993 season ended in tragedy in the helicopter crash in Talladega's infield.
The second part of Talladega's burden of legacy was unexpected - the retirement after 2017 of Dale Earnhardt Jr., a six-time Talladega winner and the Most Popular Driver for some sixteen years running. There was a great deal of expectation when Dale Junior timed onto the front row for the Winston 500 - but it would be the pole-sitter who stole all the thunder.
Ricky Stenhouse won two Xfinity Series titles in Roush Fords, posting eight wins and thirty-two other top-fives in that process, but that left no one impressed as Stenhouse blundered his way through the Winston Cup wars from his rookie season in 2013 with just twenty-two top-10s in 158 starts to date - more damning is Stenhouse has led a paltry 58 laps for his Cup career to date. Making him seem even more of a joke is his well-known romance with Danica Patrick.
Yet Stenhouse wound up serving up the future in the 2017 Winston 500, and like Davey Allison, Phil Parsons, and Brad Keselowski made this race the breakthrough for his Cup career. It marked the first Roush victory at the Winston Cup level in 101 starts and it also marks the seventh-straight plate race won by a brand other than Chevrolet, which so dominated restrictor plate racing from 1990-2015 it wasn't funny - adding insult to injury Chevrolet led a whopping eleven laps in this 500 and Dale Junior finished an inglorious 22nd. Jamie McMurray salvaged some pride for Chevy by finishing second and Kasey Kahne showed up the rest of Hendrick Motorsports by finishing fifth.
It also marks the third Ford team to win in the 2017 Cup season, an important breakthrough for the competitive depth of the renewed Ford effort that began with the acquisition of Stewart-Haas Racing from Chevrolet; SHR, Penske, and now Roush have won, with Richard Petty's team and Wood Brothers Racing no longer just also-rans but legitimate contenders for a win or two.
The other striking aspect from the manufacturer standpoint is Toyotas led 95 laps and had just one top-ten finisher to show for it, furthering the concern about Toyota's true strength as 2017 proceeds. It also raises the issue of whether Toyota's approach where it is basically just one organization - Joe Gibbs Racing, with Barney Visser's two-car outfit (both crunched in the backstretch mess) just an extension of JGR - is sufficient; clearly there seems need for Toyota to add two more organizations to its Winston Cup fleet - especially as the Honda and Dodge rumor for NASCAR still exists, albeit has stayed underground.
People gripe about the crashes at Talladega - well there were plenty of them yet again.
The racing was good, though it seemed passing the leader in the 500 was too much of a chore compared to Daytona, which struck me as surprising, especially with the bonus points awarded for segment finishes which have created more incentive to lead and sparked manifestly greater intensity for Speedweeks.
In all it shook out as a memorable Talladega weekend with the promise of October to come as well and with the rest of the NASCAR season beckoning.
Monday, October 24, 2016
At Talladega They Were Saying GREAT SCOTT
Talladega arrived and it saw memorable racing yet again.
The Chase orientation of NASCAR means Brian Scott's stunning finish at Talladega will be largely overlooked because of Joey Logano's win (overcoming - of all things - dragging his jack around the track) and the engine failures of Martin Truex and Brad Keselowski. But that's become one of the signature annoyances regarding NASCAR, its obsession with the Chase format as opposed to winning or even contending for the win.
Scott's spectacular second is not a win. It is, however, a needed eye-opener, this in a season that ended a 70-plus race run without a first-time winner in August. It was also a reminder of the sport's history - Richard Petty's team fighting for the win has been NASCAR's largest single force almost since the sanctioning body's beginning, and it's no sleight to David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, the Allisons, Harry Hyde, etc. to say Petty personifies the growth of stock car racing.
Of course the ultimate rivalry in NASCAR's history was Petty and David Pearson, and the Wood Brothers Ford acquitted itself with aplomb under Ryan Blaney, leading three laps and finishing a respectable eleventh at a track the #21 won five times at.
The win by Logano and the runner-up by Scott went with Aric Almirola's eighth place and a stout (albiet quiet) fifth place by Ricky Stenhouse, his first top-10 since the Volunteer 500 in August and his seventh of the year (and the upshot is his girlfriend has yet to finish higher than 11th - with just four finishes 15th or better - this year). It showcased needed strong depth by Ford in the final days before Stewart-Haas' team joins them.
Though Ford may wonder if it wants Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, both top-ten finishers at Talladega yet both at it again after the race. Oddly the long-running Rumor Control Central claim that Chevrolet was working a package to get Harvick out of a Ford and into Hendrick Motorsports hasn't resurfaced.
The Chase format has eliminated the front-row starters at Talladega, Keselowski and Truex, both four-race winners (though the Chase's non-race winners have by now been eliminated) and both out with engine failures. No one else going forward has more than four wins, and the most curious sight of the day was the decision by JGR to basically stroke it - Kyle Busch, Kenseth, and Carl Edwards made zero effort to compete, more scared of losing points than of losing, period.
*****
The decision by JGR outside of Denny Hamlin to jake it was criticized and correctly so. NASCAR says JGR didn't violate the sanctioning body's "100% rule," made in the wake of Michael Waltrip's fake caution at Richmond. Kyle Busch's retort -
- only reinforces the frustrations with a race weekend that was good but which hasn't lived up to its competitive value for several years. Once again it was - artificially - too hard to pass and too hard to push; the racing was good, it should manifestly have been more competitive, and it's the old story that is is NASCAR's fault between the smaller spoiler, crackdown on push-drafting, and of course the absurd yellow-line rule - all this apart from the overemphasis on points racing in the sport as evidenced by the JGR fiasco.
So it goes to Martinsville for the Winston Cup cars and the Truck Series; the Trucks saw a surprise winner in first-timer Grant Enfinger. The most competitive division in NASCAR at present, the Trucks have outsparkled the Cup Series overall, so Martinsville will likely see a surprise or two.
The Chase orientation of NASCAR means Brian Scott's stunning finish at Talladega will be largely overlooked because of Joey Logano's win (overcoming - of all things - dragging his jack around the track) and the engine failures of Martin Truex and Brad Keselowski. But that's become one of the signature annoyances regarding NASCAR, its obsession with the Chase format as opposed to winning or even contending for the win.
Scott's spectacular second is not a win. It is, however, a needed eye-opener, this in a season that ended a 70-plus race run without a first-time winner in August. It was also a reminder of the sport's history - Richard Petty's team fighting for the win has been NASCAR's largest single force almost since the sanctioning body's beginning, and it's no sleight to David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, the Allisons, Harry Hyde, etc. to say Petty personifies the growth of stock car racing.
Of course the ultimate rivalry in NASCAR's history was Petty and David Pearson, and the Wood Brothers Ford acquitted itself with aplomb under Ryan Blaney, leading three laps and finishing a respectable eleventh at a track the #21 won five times at.
The win by Logano and the runner-up by Scott went with Aric Almirola's eighth place and a stout (albiet quiet) fifth place by Ricky Stenhouse, his first top-10 since the Volunteer 500 in August and his seventh of the year (and the upshot is his girlfriend has yet to finish higher than 11th - with just four finishes 15th or better - this year). It showcased needed strong depth by Ford in the final days before Stewart-Haas' team joins them.
Though Ford may wonder if it wants Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, both top-ten finishers at Talladega yet both at it again after the race. Oddly the long-running Rumor Control Central claim that Chevrolet was working a package to get Harvick out of a Ford and into Hendrick Motorsports hasn't resurfaced.
The Chase format has eliminated the front-row starters at Talladega, Keselowski and Truex, both four-race winners (though the Chase's non-race winners have by now been eliminated) and both out with engine failures. No one else going forward has more than four wins, and the most curious sight of the day was the decision by JGR to basically stroke it - Kyle Busch, Kenseth, and Carl Edwards made zero effort to compete, more scared of losing points than of losing, period.
*****
The decision by JGR outside of Denny Hamlin to jake it was criticized and correctly so. NASCAR says JGR didn't violate the sanctioning body's "100% rule," made in the wake of Michael Waltrip's fake caution at Richmond. Kyle Busch's retort -
"Don't hate the player - hate the game
- only reinforces the frustrations with a race weekend that was good but which hasn't lived up to its competitive value for several years. Once again it was - artificially - too hard to pass and too hard to push; the racing was good, it should manifestly have been more competitive, and it's the old story that is is NASCAR's fault between the smaller spoiler, crackdown on push-drafting, and of course the absurd yellow-line rule - all this apart from the overemphasis on points racing in the sport as evidenced by the JGR fiasco.
So it goes to Martinsville for the Winston Cup cars and the Truck Series; the Trucks saw a surprise winner in first-timer Grant Enfinger. The most competitive division in NASCAR at present, the Trucks have outsparkled the Cup Series overall, so Martinsville will likely see a surprise or two.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Stockcar!
The rare documentary feature on the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National series as of the 1976 season, the season whose stunning competition ignited national interest in the Grand National series.
Monday, May 02, 2016
Why Should NASCAR Have A Yellow Line Rule?
NASCAR's yellow line rule for Daytona and Talladega - where passing below the line is ruled illegal - has been in place since the Winston 500 of 2001, when NASCAR implemented it following the Busch Series 300 and a loud protest by Jimmy Spencer.
At least that's the "official" version; the more underground explanation is it was a bone tossed to drivers amid a rumored mass park-out in the 500 to protest NASCAR's roof blade aero package; said parkout never happened.
But the question remains - is it really wise to have a yellow-line rule?
Tony Stewart passes several cars below the yellow line at the start of the final lap
After getting drafted back to about 13th in the 1996 Daytona 500 we see Dale Earnhardt passing in what would be today declared below the yellow line
When Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan battle side by side for the lead Terry Labonte blows past them both by diving below what today is the yellow line
The wild finish to the 1999 Daytona 500 saw plenty of passing below what is today the yellow line
Then there is the most famous example - Junior passing on the apron of Turn Three in 2003
As seen in these examples and also by such dubious yellow-line penalties as Tony Stewart in 2001 (Firecracker 400) and Regan Smith in the 2008 Diehard 500, one has to dispute the sagacity of having a yellow line rule - one is hard pressed to see where it serves any purpose.
At least that's the "official" version; the more underground explanation is it was a bone tossed to drivers amid a rumored mass park-out in the 500 to protest NASCAR's roof blade aero package; said parkout never happened.
But the question remains - is it really wise to have a yellow-line rule?
Tony Stewart passes several cars below the yellow line at the start of the final lap
After getting drafted back to about 13th in the 1996 Daytona 500 we see Dale Earnhardt passing in what would be today declared below the yellow line
When Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan battle side by side for the lead Terry Labonte blows past them both by diving below what today is the yellow line
The wild finish to the 1999 Daytona 500 saw plenty of passing below what is today the yellow line
Then there is the most famous example - Junior passing on the apron of Turn Three in 2003
As seen in these examples and also by such dubious yellow-line penalties as Tony Stewart in 2001 (Firecracker 400) and Regan Smith in the 2008 Diehard 500, one has to dispute the sagacity of having a yellow line rule - one is hard pressed to see where it serves any purpose.
Talladega Criticism Remains Wrongheaded
Matt Kenseth's melee has helped set off more criticism of Talladega racing
By now we've all seen them.
Chris Buescher gets tumbled
Kevin Harvick's day ended on his side as Brad Keselowski seized his fourth win in the last sixteen Talladega races
The criticism of Talladega racing has renewed with these three melees, yet the criticism remains wrongheaded. We've seen pieces from Tom Jensen of FOX Sports and an especially moralistic phillipic from Dustin Long at the NBC Sports NASCAR page. "The clock is ticking on the human toll," Long sanctimoniously writes. "When is enough enough with this type of racing?"
Never, Dustin Long.
For one, Landon Cassill put Kevin Harvick in his place responding to Harvick blaming Cassill for the last-lap melee. "His reputation is pretty thin-skinned," Cassill said. And he's not only right, he's right about a lot of other "star" drivers. The level of sanctimony and thin-skinned cowardice masquerading as attitude has long been an underreported problem with drivers like Harvick, the Busch brothers, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, etc.
The criticism of Talladega and restrictor plate/pack racing has lasted a long time and has always been grossly flawed because its premise is wrong. Daytona and Talladega are NOT the tracks to be scared of - it's the OTHER tracks that are ostensibly "less" dangerous but which have been the ones with the worst wrecks. People like to cite Dale Earnhardt's death as spurring a safety revolution - ignoring that Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, and Blaise Alexander were also killed in that ugly 2000-2001 period and were killed on NON-pack race tracks.
People also forget serious injuries to Sterling Marlin, who suffered a very serious neck injury at Kansas in 2002, or Jerry Nadeau, badly injured in 2003 at Richmond. The incidence of bad wrecks on non-plate tracks more than makes nonsense of the criticism of Daytona/Talladega racing and other pack/superdraft racing such as in Indycars.
When people cite that 33 to 35 cars in the 40-car field at Talladega were involved in crashes, they ignore that 21 of them not only finished on the lead lap but were in shooting distance of the win. Indeed the funniest image of the weekend is the banged-up Austin Dillon Chevy that finished third all taped up, which begs the question of why spend so much money on aero when the draft is the ultimate equalizer.
Not that there shouldn't be changes - NASCAR needs to change these Generation Six racecars so the "beachball" aero impediment effect noted by Jamie McMurray and others during the weekend is eliminated and the drivers can push-draft more effectively and more often - perhaps with a larger spoiler; it also needs to take away the no-push-drafting rule in the Xfinity and Truck Series (and so does ARCA); the Aric Almirola-Brendan Gaughn penalty Saturday showed anew the futility of NASCAR's animus against push-drafting; NASCAR's yellow-line out-of-bounds rule has served no purpose and needs to change - being able to pass below the yellow line can only make it safer as opposed to sardine-canning the field with artificial limits on room to race; NASCAR also needs to start talking to drivers about holding their line better.
The ARCA drivers at Talladega put on a terrific battle for the lead and showed noticeably more lane discipline than the NASCAR guys
The image that stands out from the weekend is the twin image of the ARCA General Tire 200 and also Joey Logano swerving Elliott Sadler and thus getting blasted on the final half-mile of the Sparks 300. Blocking has become more of an issue in recent years with passing so much harder now than several years ago. That the ARCA drivers showed more discipline than the NASCAR guys should say something.
NASCAR achieved a strikingly perfect balance of tandem-drafting and conventional pack-racing in 2012's Daytona Shootout and it showed how sidedrafting became really effective again. It was the kind of balance that makes great racing
NASCAR and drivers also need to address a completely overlooked angle - the fact they're breaking 200 MPH in these races again. People wonder why the roof flaps didn't work in this Talladega race - that they're at or over 200 when 194 was long ago established as the cut-off point for the roof flaps to work - and perhaps 191 is the more true cut-off point there. Stock cars simply don't need 200 MPH speeds and we're seeing that again the last couple of seasons.
With Kansas coming up, the hypocrisy of the Talladega criticism warrants one more look. If Kansas sees racing akin to what happened at Talladega - and in the Truck races in 2013 and 2014 the racing was such that Dave Moody compared it to Talladega racing - I suspect a lot of people would be awed by it - as they should be if the racing does increase in competitiveness to Talladega level.
And remember when Bristol was a demolition derby, and now people criticize it because now there's actual room to race?
Talladega is racing at its most competitive - period.
Sunday, May 01, 2016
2016 ARCA General Tire 200 Talladega
Talladega kicked off its 2016 season with perhaps the race of the weekend.
Talladega Postscript
Matt Kenseth's melee was just one of three melees in a very frustrating Talladega race.
The Geico 500 has left a few people happy and seemingly everyone else anything but. Talladega being what it is one expects the competition level to be a lot higher than other tracks and one also has seen, not just this weekend but in the past, how much circumstances natural and otherwise plague racers.
It was the most competitive Talladega Cup race since 2014, the overall racing was at times very good, and yet it left a lot to be desired, with Jamie McMurray for one noting it's even harder to pass now with this Generation Six car - anything but a good thing for the sport - and further noting the "beach ball" effect (Dale Junior's description) it generates that is hurting passing.
Some postrace observations -
* This looks more and more like a lost year for Matt Kenseth - Yes, we still have six and a half months of racing to go but by now one would think some momentum would go Kenseth's way. Leading 347 laps so far this year one would think would be a sign of changing momentum - and all Kenseth has to show for it is two seventh-place finishes.
* The Fords storm back against the Toyotas - Brad Keselowski pretty much had the lead to himself when it counted and both Penske cars, which had been somewhat quiet in recent races, asserting themselves. The wildcard, though, was Trevor Bayne, making his first bid for a victory in a long time and the first bid for a Roush car since Carl Edwards left. It was doubly amazing given Trevor didn't get any drafting help from the other Roush cars who wound up crunched up again at the end. Bayne also all but doubled his career total for Cup laps led in this one race.
* Even with that the JGR Toyotas remain atop the Hendrick Chevrolets - Dale Junior's season took a decided turn for the worse with a mediocre run at Talladega - his best track - and a crash. After five top-eight finishes in a seven-race span Junior has struggled the last two weeks - and still has not led a lap since Phoenix - and he wasn't alone as Chase Elliott ran good but his teammates weren't around to see it.
Not that JGR had much of a better day - Kenseth, Edwards, and Hamlin weren't around either, yet the JGR organization looks stronger still compared to the Hendrick fleet.
Stewart-Haas grabs a good day - Ty Dillon brought Tony Stewart's #14 home in the top ten to go with Kurt Busch's wildcard win bid. It salved some of the damage of Harvick's near-tumble and yet another Danica melee.
* Some good paydays for smaller teams - Brad Daugherty, Bob Jenkins, Barney Vissar, and Jay Robinson all had solid finishes for their cars while HScott Motorsports entered the race amid mild controversy over harsh radio charter from Clint Bowyer about their cars in this, an interregnum season before he takes over Tony Stewart's car; the weekend ended with a solid finish for Bowyer.
* RCR Enterprises has a back-to-the-future moment - Austin Dillon has frankly been uninspiring so far in his Cup career; in Talladega he raced to finish third, while Paul Menard actually challenged for a win.
* Maybe people need to start questioning Chris Buescher - Buescher tumbled down the backstretch, what became the first of three off-the-ground wrecks, and looking back over the last few seasons, wrecking looks like a pattern with him.
* When it's not your day.... - Aric Almirola looked like an unsung hero as he rallied from a spin, from dodging the Turn One melee, and drafting into the top-ten - then the hole slammed shut in the Kenseth melee.
* ....it's not your day - Matt DiBenedetto didn't have much to write home about with engine failure.
With Talladega idle until October, the Cup guys head to Kansas City for a Mother's Day eve spectatcular.
At Talladega And Elsewhere When Will NASCAR Figure It Out?
NASCAR declared Elliott Sadler the winner - even though objectively he isn't
And therein lay one of the fundamental problems NASCAR has that it seems incapable of addressing. In the Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Elliott Sadler was declared winner because the yellow flew for Joey Logano's wreck and NASCAR determined through scoring loops that somehow he was the leader. Why the yellow even flew at that circumstance is a question without much of an answer - saying it was for safety ignores that the leaders crashed anyway.
Moreover, has NASCAR ever given a credible reason for freezing the field when the caution comes out? They implemented that rule because two or three cars at New Hampshire in 2003 sped up to put someone a lap down with Dale Jarrett crashed down the frontstretch - rather than hold those specific drivers accountable for a questionable decision, NASCAR decided to change the rule.
The issue of letting cars race to the line has been a longstanding one where NASCAR has demonstrated the safety rationale for freezing the field is a fraud in such finishes as the 2004 Daytona 250 and the 2007 500. The entire concept has done nothing for safety; it's put the wrong winner into victory lane on several occasions.
Even when the right winner was seen, such as in the ARCA General Tire 200 the day before, there was no safety reason for not racing to the line.
The rule needs to go, period. Mike Joy in 1990 in Stock Car Racing Magazine proffered a sensible alternative - a red light rule when track conditions make racing to the line dubious - basically throw the red and yellow flags and lights on to make the cars slow down without racing in such a circumstance and revert to the last completed lap for the running order.
It created needless controversy over what had been a competitive 300-miler for the Xfinity cars at Talladega. NASCAR's absurd no-superdrafting rule bit Aric Almirola and Brendan Gaughn early on with a pass-through penalty and also once again needlessly stifled passing - best illustrated by the futile sidedraft battle by Joey Logano, Ryan Reid, et al that never got above fourth in tahe race'smiddle stages before Reid's crash set up the frantic final 25 or so laps. The entire fiasco also ruined a superb effort by Brennan Poole, who took the flag first despite hitting the wall at the stripe with another car.
It of course started with Logano and swerving with Sadler that sent him into the wall and a vicious semi-T-bone hit, and if you remember such controversies as Irwindale in 2009 that have followed Logano through his career one can feel a bit of poetic justice at work.
The controversy also puts a damper on Sadler, the official winner for the first time in some two years. Always a classy type, Sadler shouldn't have to defend himself for winning at Talladega; he wasn't the issue here, NASCAR's judgement is the issue.
*****
A delicious subplot to this Winston 500 weekend developed with Robbie Allison. The son of Davey Allison and grandson of Bobby, Robbie won at Anderson Speedway, his first race win. It's too premature for him to hit the superovals, but that career path looks certain down the road.
Monday, April 25, 2016
From Richmond And Stafford To Talladega
Talladega is the most competitive track in racing - as shown here
The superspeedway swing of NASCAR resumes this weekend as the Winston 500 weekend beckons, this coming off Richmond's most competitive race since 2007 and an eye-opening finish. A look at some issues -
*****
The issue of lugnut rule enforcement (or lack thereof) by NASCAR was finally acknowledged when NASCAR sent a post-Richmond memo to teams in essence requiring them to tighten all five lugnuts per tire. The brouhaha led to a pair of interesting points made amid prerace chatter at Stafford. One is that part of NASCAR's motive for allowing teams not to tighten all five lugnuts may have been a desire to lessen the workload - and thus lessen the need - for its at-track officials. Forgotten amid the controversy over aero-matching etc. in the recent past is that this indeed was a factor in NASCAR decision-making - get the rules to where it can lessen the workload for the officials. There is nonetheless reason for some skepticism with regard to lugnuts, since the lugnut change was so self-evidently wrongheaded.
The other point made is that NASCAR may have expected teams to police themselves about it. If that was considered it's intriguing on the one had - Boys Have At It becoming more of an ingrained philosophy by NASCAR. But the drawback is that it reflects poorly on teams that they seem not to have been policing it for drivers to be so publicly complaining about it.
*****
Mind-blowing stat of the day - Joe Gibbs Racing won just two Cup races in 2014. Entering this Winston 500 JGR has now won nineteen of the last forty Cup races. Talk about paradigm sifts - it used to be all Hendrick all the time, now it's touchdowns galore for the old Redskins coach. Five of those wins came from Matt Kenseth yet curiously he has fallen off the map, with only two top-ten finishes.
*****
Dale Earnhardt Jr. did something surprisingly unnoticed yet encouraging - after he won the Busch/Xfintiy 250 at Richmond he didn't do a burnout. He cited Mark Martin's dislike of the celebratory antic plus he reasoned he needs the engine to last more.
Junior has it right - burnouts have worn out their welcome; drivers need to act like they've been there before - because almost all of them have.
*****
Talladega comes after the photo-finish Daytona 500, a race that was disappointingly lethargic until that electrifying last lap. Kevin Harvick famously gave Denny Hamlin a hard shot that pushed him into the win, and Harvick said afterward he thought the drivers would start push-drafting more and earlier than occurred.
That they didn't was stupid on the drivers' part - the push-draft is by far the strongest power to pass ever seen, and they need to start using it from Lap One onward.
*****
Talladega is usually a tossup as far as prerace picks - looking back at the Daytona 500 the obvious picks are the JGR Toyotas, the Hendrick Chevrolets, and the Penske Fords. Dale Junior won this Talladega race with frankly absurd ease last season but hasn't been as strong this year (he has five top-tens including two seconds but hasn't led a lap since Phoenix and was oddly off the pace at Richmond despite the Xfinity win). Hendrick Teammate Jimmie Johnson has been a little more consistent, and so has Chase Elliott, though he's led only five laps so far.
Joey Logano won the Diehard 500 and also this year has been oddly quiet even with six top-tens so far this year. Penske teammate Brad Keselowski in contrast has not only been quiet, he's been disturbingly mediocre since the surprise Vegas win (just two top-tens since then; Richmond was also the first race he'd led since Vegas).
It's a longshot for anyone else to upset the Big Three. Stewart-Haas Racing has Kevin Harvick and his Phoenix win and overall solid outings, it also has good efforts from Kurt Busch, but that's pretty much it as far as contribution goes. That Tony Stewart is driving at Talladega this weekend is a little surprising given he hasn't done much to speak of there since getting upside down there.
Tony Stewart's 2012 Talladega melee
Talladega once had the reputation for darkhorse winners -
The sport can use that again this year. There certainly are plenty of candidates starting with Martin Truex, who has fallen off the map since the Daytona loss; Richmond was only his second top-ten since Atlanta. To belabor the number of worthwhile darkhorse candidates would be pointless - they're there.
So it goes entering Talladega.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Classic NASCAR - 1978 Talladega 500
Remembering Lennie Pond upon his passing - the 1978 Talladega 500 and Lennie Pond's greatest race.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
At Talladega NASCAR Gets Worse
And it gets worse for NASCAR. TV ratings for the Chase in 2015 have been dismal and the moving of the Diehard 500 at Talladega to NBC Sports Network instead of airing it on NBC (which aired the USGP for F1) was not a good sign for the Cup Series; adding insult to that injury, the Truck 250 was aired on FOX's over the air network.
But what transpired at Talladega is bound to anger even more people. Not only was the racing once again enormously under-competitive due to NASCAR's ridiculous diktat against push-drafting, the finish was the biggest insult to competitive integrity in years, certainly since the absurd Regan Smith yellow line penalty that cost him a last-lap win in the 2008 Diehard 500. NASCAR dictated only one green-white checker finish for this Diehard 500, apparently thinking having the normal three would produce more crashes; what they got instead was two, the first coming on what NASCAR disingenuously claimed was not an attempt - the green light came on as the cars hit the gas, but a crash occurred in the trioval and NASCAR waved the yellow, claiming it was not an attempt, this even though the radio chatter from drivers indicated it was an attempt.
NASCAR tried again and as Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr took off Logano got the lead but another wreck, involving among others the eminently-forgettable Denny Hamlin after a bad day where he had to get a roof hatch repaired, erupted and NASCAR wasted several minutes trying to determine who was leading at what scoring loop even though it was obvious Logano was the leader and thus, under NASCAR's field-freeze rule, the winner.
The wreck happened because Kevin Harvick - who took out Denny Hamlin at Daytona and thus launched Austin Dillon into spearing the fencing - swerved into Trevor Bayne. But of course Harvick refuses to be accountable for it - and NASCAR as usual will not hold the responsible driver accountable for it.
It combined the worst of everything for NASCAR.
Without push-drafting the cars basically are stuck sidedrafting with the leader basically immune from challenge; for most of the race the top five hogged the bottom line without any challenge, where the racing should have been about rocket-surges from midfield into the lead by lock-bumper two-car superdrafts, the lead thus changing at a spectacular rate, and the field able to keep up and sort out without being stuck in place.
Then there is the chronic problem that NASCAR gives the officiating tower the power it has to determine the outcome instead of the racers, That the restart was declared not a restart by NASCAR was doubletalk; that it was important is also absurd both for the aborted start and for the one that was stopped after the leaders hit Turn One; because NASCAR ostensibly doesn't allow racing to the line, instead freezing the field when the caution comes out - this even after numerous examples (such as the 2004 Firecracker 250, the 2007 Daytona 500, the 2008 Talladega Truck 250, and the 2011 Firecracker 400) where NASCAR left the green out amid a crash and let the field race to the line. The result all these times was that racing to the line is not the safety problem NASCAR seems to pretend it to be.
What transpired was Joey Logano was declared the winner, based not on the start-finish line but by the officiating tower reading a scoring loop. No matter how it is sliced it is not a legitimate win; Logano didn't race to the line to earn the win. Such rule-induced fraudulence has been a depressingly frequent occurrence, most infamously illustrated in the 2004 Winston 500 and 2004 Pocono 500.
The tower wasn't supposed to make the call - it was supposed to be determined by racing to the stripe. That it was officiated like this shows anew NASCAR's credibility problem.
At Talladega such problems are easily fixable - let the cars (and Trucks) push-draft again; it's the strongest power to pass ever seen, and what matters is passing, period; give the racing at Talladega and Daytona back the 60-plus lead change average it had just a few years ago. Reduce the officiating tower's role and give some control of the racing back to the racers - let them race to the stripe and thus legitimately determine the outcome. And stop pretending a restart is not a restart.
NASCAR's credibility issues of course extend far beyond Talladega. The Chase concept has no legitimacy and the disintegration of TV ratings shows it; drop the Chase, go back to the Latford Point System, and increase the points bonuses for the win and for most laps led - incentivize going for the win above everything else. The issue of costs and team spending need to be addressed by NASCAR and the new Race Team Alliance - the low number of winners in 2015 (just eleven with the Talladega outcome) is indicative of a disturbing lack of competitive depth for the sport.
*****
It was a lousy race even for the winner, and it certainly stunk for the rest of the field. Joe Gibbs Racing was dismal even though it led some laps; Stewart-Haas Racing was basically MIA; so were any Fords outside of Penske Racing; Ganassi-Earnhardt had a forgettable day. That racing always produces more widespread disappointment than cheer is true enough; that even the winners couldn't honestly feel good about how it all transpired merely shows how dismal a day it was for a track where it should always be so much better.
But what transpired at Talladega is bound to anger even more people. Not only was the racing once again enormously under-competitive due to NASCAR's ridiculous diktat against push-drafting, the finish was the biggest insult to competitive integrity in years, certainly since the absurd Regan Smith yellow line penalty that cost him a last-lap win in the 2008 Diehard 500. NASCAR dictated only one green-white checker finish for this Diehard 500, apparently thinking having the normal three would produce more crashes; what they got instead was two, the first coming on what NASCAR disingenuously claimed was not an attempt - the green light came on as the cars hit the gas, but a crash occurred in the trioval and NASCAR waved the yellow, claiming it was not an attempt, this even though the radio chatter from drivers indicated it was an attempt.
NASCAR tried again and as Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr took off Logano got the lead but another wreck, involving among others the eminently-forgettable Denny Hamlin after a bad day where he had to get a roof hatch repaired, erupted and NASCAR wasted several minutes trying to determine who was leading at what scoring loop even though it was obvious Logano was the leader and thus, under NASCAR's field-freeze rule, the winner.
The wreck happened because Kevin Harvick - who took out Denny Hamlin at Daytona and thus launched Austin Dillon into spearing the fencing - swerved into Trevor Bayne. But of course Harvick refuses to be accountable for it - and NASCAR as usual will not hold the responsible driver accountable for it.
It combined the worst of everything for NASCAR.
Without push-drafting the cars basically are stuck sidedrafting with the leader basically immune from challenge; for most of the race the top five hogged the bottom line without any challenge, where the racing should have been about rocket-surges from midfield into the lead by lock-bumper two-car superdrafts, the lead thus changing at a spectacular rate, and the field able to keep up and sort out without being stuck in place.
Then there is the chronic problem that NASCAR gives the officiating tower the power it has to determine the outcome instead of the racers, That the restart was declared not a restart by NASCAR was doubletalk; that it was important is also absurd both for the aborted start and for the one that was stopped after the leaders hit Turn One; because NASCAR ostensibly doesn't allow racing to the line, instead freezing the field when the caution comes out - this even after numerous examples (such as the 2004 Firecracker 250, the 2007 Daytona 500, the 2008 Talladega Truck 250, and the 2011 Firecracker 400) where NASCAR left the green out amid a crash and let the field race to the line. The result all these times was that racing to the line is not the safety problem NASCAR seems to pretend it to be.
What transpired was Joey Logano was declared the winner, based not on the start-finish line but by the officiating tower reading a scoring loop. No matter how it is sliced it is not a legitimate win; Logano didn't race to the line to earn the win. Such rule-induced fraudulence has been a depressingly frequent occurrence, most infamously illustrated in the 2004 Winston 500 and 2004 Pocono 500.
The tower wasn't supposed to make the call - it was supposed to be determined by racing to the stripe. That it was officiated like this shows anew NASCAR's credibility problem.
At Talladega such problems are easily fixable - let the cars (and Trucks) push-draft again; it's the strongest power to pass ever seen, and what matters is passing, period; give the racing at Talladega and Daytona back the 60-plus lead change average it had just a few years ago. Reduce the officiating tower's role and give some control of the racing back to the racers - let them race to the stripe and thus legitimately determine the outcome. And stop pretending a restart is not a restart.
NASCAR's credibility issues of course extend far beyond Talladega. The Chase concept has no legitimacy and the disintegration of TV ratings shows it; drop the Chase, go back to the Latford Point System, and increase the points bonuses for the win and for most laps led - incentivize going for the win above everything else. The issue of costs and team spending need to be addressed by NASCAR and the new Race Team Alliance - the low number of winners in 2015 (just eleven with the Talladega outcome) is indicative of a disturbing lack of competitive depth for the sport.
*****
It was a lousy race even for the winner, and it certainly stunk for the rest of the field. Joe Gibbs Racing was dismal even though it led some laps; Stewart-Haas Racing was basically MIA; so were any Fords outside of Penske Racing; Ganassi-Earnhardt had a forgettable day. That racing always produces more widespread disappointment than cheer is true enough; that even the winners couldn't honestly feel good about how it all transpired merely shows how dismal a day it was for a track where it should always be so much better.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Sunday, May 03, 2015
2015 Winston 500 Shakeups, Winners, And Losers
The Winston 500 - this year debuting Geico sponsorship after thirteen seasons under the aegis of the Aarons lease-to-own retailer store chain - opened with the promise of some of the best racing of the 2015 season. It ended with a popular win by Dale Earnhardt Jr., but it also ended with some oblique criticism of NASCAR's rules package - as old a story as one can find, yet one that remains relevant given that it seemingly doesn't end.
The weekend began with two off-track stories - the announcement that the GoDaddy internet registrar company will withdraw its longtime sponsorship of Danica Patrick, another disturbing sign that NASCAR sponsorship's expense and return are not working to the sport's benefit (and also a subtle indictment of Patrick's value as a sponsor symbol), and then comments from Kevin Harvick advocating a shakeup of the NASCAR schedule - basically yet another forum to advocate adding the Iowa Speedway to the Winston Cup schedule.
That NASCAR has been in need of shaking things up has been true for a long time, and it showed again in the Winston 500. The schedule, though, is the least in need of shaking things up - the only changes that are needed for the schedule are dropping the All Star Race (with Atlanta's 500 being moved into its stead in mid-May), going back to 500-mile distances because they remain fundamentally superior tests of racers and cars, putting start times back to just after 12 PM Eastern/area time instead of 1:30 PM - late start times are a myth pushed by TV networks, mostly ESPN, claiming later start times mean larger audiences; on the contrary what experience has proven is later start times have hurt attendances - and dropping night races, which have accomplished nothing.
Real shaking up for the sport lays in competition areas. For the larger issue of NASCAR, the most immediate change that remains needed is to drop the exclusivity deal with Goodyear and allow Firestone and Hoosier to supply raceteams with tires and engineering help. The objection that "tire wars" are unsafe ignores the lack of improved safety with Goodyear's monopoly and oversells the risk factor when tire competition occurred; the real legacy of tire wars has been upsurges in new and different winning drivers and teams.
*****
There are of course other issues long debated, such as the Chase format and a points system that obstinately refuses to reward what warrant the largest reward - winning and most laps led. They relate to Talladega as well, where the immediate shakeup in need remains tackling the rules myopia of the sanctioning body. Rusty Wallace's oblique on-air criticism of the rules package for the plate tracks to discourage push-drafting rang screamingly true in the weakest Talladega race in ten-plus years, and even rang true in the Xfinity Series Winn Dixie 300 on Saturday; there was noticeable tandem drafting at the end - something noted after July 2014's Firecracker 250 at Daytona - and it produced excellent racing highlighted by the Logano-Almirola-Sadler-Yeley-Dillion push-draft showdown over the race's final quarter, even amid the frequent spoiling of momentum due to numerous yellows - and yet there simply wasn't enough push-drafting. The contrast with the 500 was too graphic to ignore, and it showcased anew that NASCAR really has no business policing against push-drafting, the strongest power to pass that racing can ever see.
For a race just four years removed from blasting past 80 official lead changes to be stuck at 27, and no one able to make any move at the end because the draft simply wasn't going to work, remains an indictment of NASCAR's rules myopia.
*****
The 500's winners were limited to just one team - Hendrick Motorsports. The Junior/Johnson Chevrolets finished 1-2 and Dale Junior thus grabbed his sixth Talladega win and first since 2004, this after Hendrick's cars led nearly 170 laps. It was so one-sided that even excellent finishes by Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers, Martin Truex, Sam Hornish Jr., and the completely unnoticed top-ten of Josh Wise and the Curb Motorsports team registered nothing.
The losers were aplenty, led by Ford. While Sam Hornish finished good, his Richard Petty teammate Aric Almirola had to settle for fifteenth despite a good rally from the early Turn Two melee; it nonetheless was a huge improvement for the #43 after a totally forgettable Speedweeks. That Petty, the Woods, and Curb all had respectable finishes made the dismal finishes of Penske Racing all the more surprising, and made the abysmal runs of the Roush bunch all the worse.
The Toyotas didn't acquit themselves much better. Denny Hamlin led five laps and finished ninth, and his JGR teammates were almost in Witness Protection during the day other than a brief run to the top five by Matt Kenseth and a surprising effort by Carl Edwards that got thrown away at the finish and has produced just one top ten for the #19; one has to wonder again whether signing on Carl Edwards was a good idea to begin with.
RCR, despite two cars in the top ten, didn't have much to write home about with several engine failures, with a pit fire for Ryan Newman tossed in for good measure.
It all added up to the most disappointing weekend of the season so far, coming at the place that's supposed to be better than that.
The weekend began with two off-track stories - the announcement that the GoDaddy internet registrar company will withdraw its longtime sponsorship of Danica Patrick, another disturbing sign that NASCAR sponsorship's expense and return are not working to the sport's benefit (and also a subtle indictment of Patrick's value as a sponsor symbol), and then comments from Kevin Harvick advocating a shakeup of the NASCAR schedule - basically yet another forum to advocate adding the Iowa Speedway to the Winston Cup schedule.
That NASCAR has been in need of shaking things up has been true for a long time, and it showed again in the Winston 500. The schedule, though, is the least in need of shaking things up - the only changes that are needed for the schedule are dropping the All Star Race (with Atlanta's 500 being moved into its stead in mid-May), going back to 500-mile distances because they remain fundamentally superior tests of racers and cars, putting start times back to just after 12 PM Eastern/area time instead of 1:30 PM - late start times are a myth pushed by TV networks, mostly ESPN, claiming later start times mean larger audiences; on the contrary what experience has proven is later start times have hurt attendances - and dropping night races, which have accomplished nothing.
Real shaking up for the sport lays in competition areas. For the larger issue of NASCAR, the most immediate change that remains needed is to drop the exclusivity deal with Goodyear and allow Firestone and Hoosier to supply raceteams with tires and engineering help. The objection that "tire wars" are unsafe ignores the lack of improved safety with Goodyear's monopoly and oversells the risk factor when tire competition occurred; the real legacy of tire wars has been upsurges in new and different winning drivers and teams.
*****
There are of course other issues long debated, such as the Chase format and a points system that obstinately refuses to reward what warrant the largest reward - winning and most laps led. They relate to Talladega as well, where the immediate shakeup in need remains tackling the rules myopia of the sanctioning body. Rusty Wallace's oblique on-air criticism of the rules package for the plate tracks to discourage push-drafting rang screamingly true in the weakest Talladega race in ten-plus years, and even rang true in the Xfinity Series Winn Dixie 300 on Saturday; there was noticeable tandem drafting at the end - something noted after July 2014's Firecracker 250 at Daytona - and it produced excellent racing highlighted by the Logano-Almirola-Sadler-Yeley-Dillion push-draft showdown over the race's final quarter, even amid the frequent spoiling of momentum due to numerous yellows - and yet there simply wasn't enough push-drafting. The contrast with the 500 was too graphic to ignore, and it showcased anew that NASCAR really has no business policing against push-drafting, the strongest power to pass that racing can ever see.
For a race just four years removed from blasting past 80 official lead changes to be stuck at 27, and no one able to make any move at the end because the draft simply wasn't going to work, remains an indictment of NASCAR's rules myopia.
*****
The 500's winners were limited to just one team - Hendrick Motorsports. The Junior/Johnson Chevrolets finished 1-2 and Dale Junior thus grabbed his sixth Talladega win and first since 2004, this after Hendrick's cars led nearly 170 laps. It was so one-sided that even excellent finishes by Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers, Martin Truex, Sam Hornish Jr., and the completely unnoticed top-ten of Josh Wise and the Curb Motorsports team registered nothing.
The losers were aplenty, led by Ford. While Sam Hornish finished good, his Richard Petty teammate Aric Almirola had to settle for fifteenth despite a good rally from the early Turn Two melee; it nonetheless was a huge improvement for the #43 after a totally forgettable Speedweeks. That Petty, the Woods, and Curb all had respectable finishes made the dismal finishes of Penske Racing all the more surprising, and made the abysmal runs of the Roush bunch all the worse.
The Toyotas didn't acquit themselves much better. Denny Hamlin led five laps and finished ninth, and his JGR teammates were almost in Witness Protection during the day other than a brief run to the top five by Matt Kenseth and a surprising effort by Carl Edwards that got thrown away at the finish and has produced just one top ten for the #19; one has to wonder again whether signing on Carl Edwards was a good idea to begin with.
RCR, despite two cars in the top ten, didn't have much to write home about with several engine failures, with a pit fire for Ryan Newman tossed in for good measure.
It all added up to the most disappointing weekend of the season so far, coming at the place that's supposed to be better than that.
Saturday, May 02, 2015
Sunday, March 08, 2015
1973 Talladega 500
MRN's archive of the 1973 Talladega 500, one of the wildest races in racing history as Dick Brooks took a year-old Plymouth to an amazing fight for the win with Buddy Baker and David Pearson.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Talladega As Libertarian Metaphor
The GEICO 500 spared us footage of the lizard speaking in Cockney accent by British actor Jake Wood, and we saw some excellent racing, perhaps the best since the Firecracker 400 - hardly shocking given the two plate tracks produce the best racing in NASCAR. But the Talladega weekend also showcased yet again the absurdity of the rules packages designed specifically for those tracks, and in so doing showcased anew the Libertarian metaphor.
Government meddling is the arch-enemy in the Libertarian analysis, and certainly the history of the world and mythologies constructed in favor of such failures as the New Deal consistently prove correct the mistrust of government that has made the Libertarian movement more popular. What is witnessed year after year at Talladega and its sister track Daytona in the special rules packages NASCAR has imposed over the last decade and a half merely showcase the Libertarian metaphor at work in a racing context.
Push-drafting is an old custom in NASCAR, and Richard Petty in the 1970s Dodge Charger days was the art's master. It went away when the cars changed to "all that plastic" after running chrome bumpers, then NASCAR witnessed the return of push-drafting in the 2000-8 period, then saw the rise of outright two-car superdrafting in 2009 and 2010 - cars now pushed each other literally all the way around, and were passing entire fields of cars in one lap. It then escalated to an entirely new level in 2011. Brian France took a personal hatred of the pattern that year, especially after the finish of the 500-miler that October, and his subsequent rules packages were designed to quash it. That it looked bizarre at first was obvious to all; that there were aspects of it to dislike was also true - specifically that the second-place car would push the leader out into the clear and just stay there instead of pass the leader - but the net result of quashing it cannot by any stretch be considered a better alternative to it. For the big strength of the superdrafts remains it is the strongest power to pass racing has ever seen.
Watching the 2014 running of the Diehard 500 and the 250-miler for the Trucks merely illustrated again how the racing at Talladega is very good but where meddling from up top has needlessly suppressed what makes the racing better. Joe Nemechek and Matt Crafton got blackflagged for push-drafting in the Talladega Truck 250, this after NASCAR got egg on its face over not policing push-drafting in the Busch Series 250 at Daytona in July. Nemechek salvaged a tenth place in that race and between the penalty and the grossly uneven level of passing in both races, it all showcased the fundamental pitfalls of NASCAR's ideology.
NASCAR for the last two-plus decades has added to its rulebook and the emphasis has had one overriding theme - giving the officiating tower or the inspection station (sometimes both) more control of the racing. Having tight regulations that make sense is not a negative, the problem is more and more of these regulations don't make sense. If NASCAR allowed push-drafting then the 38 lead changes in the Diehard 500 would have perhaps doubled, and allowed more drivers to storm back to the lead instead of be trapped out back; incentivizing going for the lead is the ultimate good in sports and the meddlesome nature of the sanctioning body needlessly suppresses that virtue.
Would Brad Keselowski have still won the Diehard 500 even if push-drafting was not policed? Perhaps - Keselowski's 2014 season has been strikingly uneven but his competitive fight is legitimate. The racing as it was was very exciting - yet it should have been substantially more competitive.
*****
Another striking blow to the race's competitive ferocity was the points-racing strategy used by several drivers, notably Jeff Gordon, who never contended and finished 26th. While Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kasey Kahne needed to win and overall raced like it, Keselowski was the only other contender who did so. Talladega being Talladega the points racing ethos was not as prevalent as it is at other tracks, but it existed nonetheless and shows that NASCAR's Chase format, regardless of changes made to ostensibly make winning more important, still cannot work - a points format that artificially eliminates drivers and does not provide the incentive to win that is advertised is a points format that fundamentally doesn't work.
NASCAR's next elimination round begins at Martinsville next week. Racing being racing, it is competitively enjoyable, yet still needs a lesson in Libertarianism for NASCAR so that it can be a lot better.
Government meddling is the arch-enemy in the Libertarian analysis, and certainly the history of the world and mythologies constructed in favor of such failures as the New Deal consistently prove correct the mistrust of government that has made the Libertarian movement more popular. What is witnessed year after year at Talladega and its sister track Daytona in the special rules packages NASCAR has imposed over the last decade and a half merely showcase the Libertarian metaphor at work in a racing context.
Push-drafting is an old custom in NASCAR, and Richard Petty in the 1970s Dodge Charger days was the art's master. It went away when the cars changed to "all that plastic" after running chrome bumpers, then NASCAR witnessed the return of push-drafting in the 2000-8 period, then saw the rise of outright two-car superdrafting in 2009 and 2010 - cars now pushed each other literally all the way around, and were passing entire fields of cars in one lap. It then escalated to an entirely new level in 2011. Brian France took a personal hatred of the pattern that year, especially after the finish of the 500-miler that October, and his subsequent rules packages were designed to quash it. That it looked bizarre at first was obvious to all; that there were aspects of it to dislike was also true - specifically that the second-place car would push the leader out into the clear and just stay there instead of pass the leader - but the net result of quashing it cannot by any stretch be considered a better alternative to it. For the big strength of the superdrafts remains it is the strongest power to pass racing has ever seen.
Watching the 2014 running of the Diehard 500 and the 250-miler for the Trucks merely illustrated again how the racing at Talladega is very good but where meddling from up top has needlessly suppressed what makes the racing better. Joe Nemechek and Matt Crafton got blackflagged for push-drafting in the Talladega Truck 250, this after NASCAR got egg on its face over not policing push-drafting in the Busch Series 250 at Daytona in July. Nemechek salvaged a tenth place in that race and between the penalty and the grossly uneven level of passing in both races, it all showcased the fundamental pitfalls of NASCAR's ideology.
NASCAR for the last two-plus decades has added to its rulebook and the emphasis has had one overriding theme - giving the officiating tower or the inspection station (sometimes both) more control of the racing. Having tight regulations that make sense is not a negative, the problem is more and more of these regulations don't make sense. If NASCAR allowed push-drafting then the 38 lead changes in the Diehard 500 would have perhaps doubled, and allowed more drivers to storm back to the lead instead of be trapped out back; incentivizing going for the lead is the ultimate good in sports and the meddlesome nature of the sanctioning body needlessly suppresses that virtue.
Would Brad Keselowski have still won the Diehard 500 even if push-drafting was not policed? Perhaps - Keselowski's 2014 season has been strikingly uneven but his competitive fight is legitimate. The racing as it was was very exciting - yet it should have been substantially more competitive.
*****
Another striking blow to the race's competitive ferocity was the points-racing strategy used by several drivers, notably Jeff Gordon, who never contended and finished 26th. While Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kasey Kahne needed to win and overall raced like it, Keselowski was the only other contender who did so. Talladega being Talladega the points racing ethos was not as prevalent as it is at other tracks, but it existed nonetheless and shows that NASCAR's Chase format, regardless of changes made to ostensibly make winning more important, still cannot work - a points format that artificially eliminates drivers and does not provide the incentive to win that is advertised is a points format that fundamentally doesn't work.
NASCAR's next elimination round begins at Martinsville next week. Racing being racing, it is competitively enjoyable, yet still needs a lesson in Libertarianism for NASCAR so that it can be a lot better.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Looking To The Diehard 500
NASCAR's Chase enters Talladega weekend and the prospect of better racing than what we've seen is a very good one. There is also however the issue of what went down in the garage area after the National 500 between the Keselowski-Hamlin crash and subsequent brouhaha in the garage area. There has already been quite the reaction to these incidents and Darrell Waltrip for one has expressed the hope that NASCAR doesn't fine any of the participants involved because it ostensibly brings some positive attention to the sport; Kevin Harvick said afterward that NASCAR "loves it."
I don't. And I'm not sure that many others do.
Keselowski has become a loose cannon this season, and the Winston 500 incident - downright Ernie Irvan-esque - merely hangs over his head entering the Diehard 500. The others involved hardly qualify as professionals either, especially Denny Hamlin, a longstanding punk both on and off the track.
It was just continuation of a long-standing and underappreciated problem in NASCAR - the fact so many of its stars are unprofessional. Some weeks back the NY Times did a piece attacking NASCAR with one of the writers calling Tony Stewart "the sport's resident hothead." More recently Good Morning America did a derisive and pathetically misleading account of the postrace brouhaha. That the piece made the incident out to be worse than it actually was is typical of Good Morning America and of ex-SportsCenter washout Robin Roberts, among the dumbest broadcasters the networks have seen in years. Attacking Keselowski and company for acting in completely unprofessional manner is nonetheless legitimate.
Unprofessionalism isn't exactly new in NASCAR - one need recall 1991 and the plethora of idiocy for much of that season between Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, and others, notably at the Southeastern 500 at Bristol, the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, the Winston 500 at Talladega, and the Summer 500 at Pocono. The shame of it is that season saw two outstanding races - the Michigan 400 won by Davey Allison and the Diehard 500 won by Earnhardt - that were for the most part cleanly contested.
The best result for NASCAR from the Diehard 500 - apart from an enormous number of lead changes, an expectation despite the sanctioning body's long-standing over-officiating of restrictor plate races - is a darkhorse stealing the win, especially if it's a driver who was in the Chase but already knocked out.
*****
A stunning graphic says it all about what the Chase format has done -
Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, and Denny Hamlin only have to finish between 15th and 24th to advance to NASCAR's next Chase round.
Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano are unlikely to do much because they already advanced to the next elimination round, and it shows that NASCAR has merely created a new form of points racing instead of leaving drivers no alternative but to go for the win. For all the hype that the Chase format's pressure is somehow reflected in the Charlotte mess, the reality is the opposite, and it shows anew the unworkability of a playoff format for racing.
*****
The Truck Series returns as well and the over-officiating by NASCAR hurt the racing at Daytona, though it turned out exciting in any event; chances are it will lead to a lot of frustration at Talladega as well, as 2013's running was a truly amazing battle with nonstop push-drafting, something sorely missed in all the series right now.
The Curb Motorsports and Thorson Toyotas appear to be the hot shoes for the Talladega 250, though Kyle Busch's machines are certainly proven products. One does wonder why Milka "Milk Dud" Duno is entered, though.
I don't. And I'm not sure that many others do.
Keselowski has become a loose cannon this season, and the Winston 500 incident - downright Ernie Irvan-esque - merely hangs over his head entering the Diehard 500. The others involved hardly qualify as professionals either, especially Denny Hamlin, a longstanding punk both on and off the track.
It was just continuation of a long-standing and underappreciated problem in NASCAR - the fact so many of its stars are unprofessional. Some weeks back the NY Times did a piece attacking NASCAR with one of the writers calling Tony Stewart "the sport's resident hothead." More recently Good Morning America did a derisive and pathetically misleading account of the postrace brouhaha. That the piece made the incident out to be worse than it actually was is typical of Good Morning America and of ex-SportsCenter washout Robin Roberts, among the dumbest broadcasters the networks have seen in years. Attacking Keselowski and company for acting in completely unprofessional manner is nonetheless legitimate.
Unprofessionalism isn't exactly new in NASCAR - one need recall 1991 and the plethora of idiocy for much of that season between Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, and others, notably at the Southeastern 500 at Bristol, the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, the Winston 500 at Talladega, and the Summer 500 at Pocono. The shame of it is that season saw two outstanding races - the Michigan 400 won by Davey Allison and the Diehard 500 won by Earnhardt - that were for the most part cleanly contested.
The best result for NASCAR from the Diehard 500 - apart from an enormous number of lead changes, an expectation despite the sanctioning body's long-standing over-officiating of restrictor plate races - is a darkhorse stealing the win, especially if it's a driver who was in the Chase but already knocked out.
*****
A stunning graphic says it all about what the Chase format has done -
Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, and Denny Hamlin only have to finish between 15th and 24th to advance to NASCAR's next Chase round.
Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano are unlikely to do much because they already advanced to the next elimination round, and it shows that NASCAR has merely created a new form of points racing instead of leaving drivers no alternative but to go for the win. For all the hype that the Chase format's pressure is somehow reflected in the Charlotte mess, the reality is the opposite, and it shows anew the unworkability of a playoff format for racing.
*****
The Truck Series returns as well and the over-officiating by NASCAR hurt the racing at Daytona, though it turned out exciting in any event; chances are it will lead to a lot of frustration at Talladega as well, as 2013's running was a truly amazing battle with nonstop push-drafting, something sorely missed in all the series right now.
The Curb Motorsports and Thorson Toyotas appear to be the hot shoes for the Talladega 250, though Kyle Busch's machines are certainly proven products. One does wonder why Milka "Milk Dud" Duno is entered, though.
Monday, June 09, 2014
1986 Talladega 500
NASCAR's most bizarre race as Richard Petty, Tim Richmond, and seemingly everyone else led before a dark horse who stopped being relevant after this race stole the win.
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