Go Back To Racing To The Yellow

NASCAR takes another credibility hit with the finish of the Daytona 500. The 2007 Daytona 500 spent most of the day as the worst 500 in years, and then erupted into some of the wildest racing in years, ultimately ending in the most exciting finish since 1993. But that wild finish has caused controversy because NASCAR did not wave the yellow as the field behind the top two crashed.

NASCAR ostensibly has a rule whereby the cars do not race to the flag. The field freezes when the yellow flies with positions determined by the most recent scoring loop around the racetrack. This rule was adapted in September 2003 after an incident at New Hampshire where Dale Jarrett crashed to a stop off Four and the leaders on the backstretch slowed down, except Michael Waltrip as he bullied through to put a car a lap down and nearly hit Jarrett coming to the stripe.

Before that, NASCAR's rule was to race to the yellow; positions were determined by the running order hitting the stripe. Racing to the flag became controversial in the early 1980s, notably in the 1981 World 600 when Neil Bonnett, trying to keep Cale Yarborough a lap down, drilled Bobby Wawak and both hit the wall. Race winner Bobby Allison called it "a 1914 rule. Racing back to the caqution has no place in today's racing, it's just too dangerous."

Controversy erupted again at Daytona in 1983 when Dale Earnhardt blew up. Race leader Dick Brooks was slowing down when Lake Speed swerved into his path getting a lap back; Brooks braked hard as Darrell Waltrip charged toward him, Waltrip spun sideways, then hammered off an earthen bank back onto the track in front of Cale Yarborough and Joe Ruttman.

Another such controversy erupted at Pocono in 1989 when Bobby Hillin Jr. crashed off Three; safety workers had gotten to his car but Geoff Bodine and the field, despite being alerted by spotters, raced toward the third turn anyway before belatedly slowing down; NASCAR gave a stern pep talk to crew chief Waddell Wilson immediately after that.

Controversy erupted again in 2003 at several races, as drivers began operating under an ostensible gentleman's agreement about racing to the yellow. At Texas Ford leaders backed off to let Ricky Rudd unlap himself but Jeff Gordon burst through to put him a lap down and got reprimanded by NASCAR for it.

The new rule from September 2003 onward carries a critical caveat; the first car not on the lead lap is arbitrarily awarded a lap back. This "Lucky Dog" rule has allowed hundreds of drivers to finish on the lead lap and even sent more than one to victory.

However, the unsoundness of freezing the field soon became apparent at Talladega in April 2004; in what turned out to be a race-ending yellow, NASCAR ruled that Jeff Gordon was leader in Turn Three, in a finish that earned a bombardment of debris from enraged fans cheated both out of a green-flag finish (following a similar albeit much smaller outburst at Pocono that June, NASCAR implemented its present Green-White-Checker finish rule) and also cheated because the winner was declared based on a scoring loop instead of at the stripe. In Talladega's Die Hard 500 in its four runnings since the Lucky Dog rule's implementation, the rule has played havoc with the outcome; in 2003 Ward Burton stormed from midpack into the lead with seven to go, but the pass was nullified by the yellow for Elliott Sadler's tumble into Three. The final lap of the  500's last three runnings has seen the yellow fly and nullify passes for position each time - Tony Stewart was robbed of a victory bid by a yellow in Turn Three in 2005, while Kasey Kahne was similarly robbed in 2006.

There has also been the damnable inconsistency of NASCAR in officiating the rule. In the 2004 Firecracker 250 Michael Waltrip swerved into the lead ahead of Jason Leffler on the final lap; Leffler slammed Waltrip into the inside wall, then Dale Junior rocketed from midpack to challenge Leffler, but Leffler swerved Junior into the wall in Four and Mike Wallace shot the gap into the win - all the while the green staying out. Now we have the 2006 Daytona 500, as Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin race to the flag as the field crashes behind them.

The balance sheet is that freezing the field is a failed rule. Racing to the caution remains the only credible way to sort out the running order under yellow. The safety argument against racing to the yellow is one that can be addressed differently with a rule proposed by Mike Joy back in 1990 - a "red light" rule where the red and yellow flags fly if a crash that can impede safely racing to the stripe occurs, with scoring reverting to the last completed lap for the running order.

The extra angle to freezing the field of course is the Lucky Dog angle, and this is a rule that has to go as well, as no one deserves to arbitrarily get a lap back - this is especially pertinent after the embarassment of Watkins Glen where Kyle Busch lost five laps and got all of them back on Lucky Dog yellows.

Go back to racing to the yellow, because the start-finish line is the only area that can determine the running order, not scoring loops elsewhere around the speedway.

Sizing Up The 500 Field

Looking at the Daytona 500 field -

#38 David Gilliland
#88 Ricky Rudd

Both Robert Yates Fords have been fast in practice but the similarities end there. Gilliland has been mixing it up in race trim while Ricky Rudd has shown no particular courage in traffic.

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#20 Tony Stewart
#2 Kurt Busch

The clear favorite for the 500 is the JGR Chevy of Stewart, but Roger Penske's Dodge of Kurt Busch has been quietly displaying a lot of strength all Speedweeks.

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#8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
#40 David Stremme

Junior has been a little inconsistent this Speedweeks, lacking some of the raw muscle he'd shown in the recent past, while David Stremme's Ganassi/SABCO Dodge has quietly snuck into the mix.

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#31 Jeff Burton
#5 Kyle Busch

RCR versus Hendrick Motorsports in this row, and of the two Busch has considerably more power this Speedweeks.

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#11 Denny Hamlin
#17 Matt Kenseth

JGR's super-rookie of 2006 has been quietly good all week while Matt Kenseth got into the noisiest cheating scandal in recent NASCAR history. He nonetheless has shown enough muscle to be a genuine threat as the race's first Ford outside of the front row.

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#07 Clint Bowyer
#18 J.J. Yeley

RCR vs. JGR. Bowyer's career looks like it is stalling out, as he hasn't advanced to any next level yet. Yeley in contrast has begun showing dramatic improvement from his rough rookie year.

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#1 Martin Truex Jr.
#99 Carl Edwards

DEI hasn't been the plate monster it was through 2004 and it shows in Truex, a talented driver in danger of stalling out his still-young career - the fate that has right now befallen 2005's super-rookie Carl Edwards.

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#55 Michael Waltrip
#12 Ryan Newman

That Waltrip's Toyota - the highest qualified of the Camrys - is even in the race is astonishing enough; cheating scandal or not Mikey has been rather slow. Ryan Newman's Dodge debuts its new crew chief and Newman has to start fighting here to get his career reignited.

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#25 Casey Mears
#13 Joe Nemechek

Casey Mears is the latest pigeon to take over the Hendrick #25, while Joe Nemechek needed his Robert Ginn teammate Sterling Marlin to fall out of the lead group to get into the 500.

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#21 Ken Schrader
#96 Tony Raines

The Wood Brothers Ford and Aikman-Staubach Chevrolet haven't been impressively fast this week, yet they aren't slow, either.

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#48 Jimmie Johnson
#09 Mike Wallace

Hendrick's newest champion has been pretty mediocre all week while Mike Wallace has been up and down the rankings every race he's run this week and can play spoiler in the 500.

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#60 Boris Said
#26 Jamie McMurray

An all-Roush Ford row. That Boris Said made the 500 is amazing; that Jamie McMurray hasn't won anything since his lone victory in 2002 is also amazing. Said has been rather lucky this week; expect that luck to run out.

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#16 Greg Biffle
#01 Mark Martin

Neither the Roush Ford nor Ginn Chevy have shown a whole lot this week. Biffle can be counted on to make some noise while Martin will take it smooth.

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#43 Bobby Labonte
#9 Kasey Kahne

Petty Enterprises has been a disappointment this week after a mediocre 150 and some mediocre practices, though Labonte and crew chief Paul Andrews clicked quickly in their late-2006 run-through period and began to show some spark in late practices. Kahne has struggled all week long and got socked in the week's cheating scandal.

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#45 Kyle Petty
#19 Elliott Sadler

Same story one row back, though Petty, beginning what looks like a transition season out of the car, has more pressure on him because he needs to fight much harder than he's done all decade to get anywhere.

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#66 Jeff Green
#10 Scott Riggs

The third Evernham Dodge has been consistently the weakest, while Gene Haas' flagship Chevy has surprisingly struggled this week.

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#41 Reed Sorenson
#29 Kevin Harvick

How's this for a switch? Last year Sorenson was showing improvement in the Ganassi/SABCO Dodge organization as the weeks went on while Stremme was slow; this week it's been a different story. Harvick's RCR Chevy debuts new sponsorship after breaking in his 150, then coming back and winning a hard-fought BGN 300.

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#6 David Ragan
#42 Juan Montoya

A rookie mismatch. Drivers have to avoid racing with Ragan at all cost because this kid sucks. Juan Montoya, in contrast, is for real.

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#22 Dave Blaney
#14 Stewrling Marlin

Blaney, the only BDR Toyota to make the field, surprisingly struggled on Thursday but began to get better as the week ended. Marlin has been largely lost in the shuffle in his Ginn Chevy.

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#7 Robby Gordon
#00 David Reutimann

Robby Gordon can be counted on to pass people. Reutimann, the second Michael Waltrip Toyota, looks a lot less courageous in that department.

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#70 Johnny Sauter
#24 Jeff Gordon

Sauter has run fast but is erratic. Jeff Gordon won his 150 but got hit hard in postrace for being too low. This may be the biggest single threat to upend Tony Stewart.

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#44 Dale Jarrett

Forget it.



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With cool temperatures expected and some strong winds, the 500 may be less predictable than usual, especially if the track has enough grip - not a sure thing as it slickened up pretty badly in the BGN 300 - and the draft kicks in. If this happens, all bets may be off for Daytona.

Cheating Deliberate In NASCAR

One reason NASCAR is still held in some contempt in professional sports was on display in the sanctioning body's weak-kneed punishments for varied cheating incidents during Speedweeks, notably in the only incident where a truly hard punishment came down, on Michael Waltrip for running an additive in his fuel. There was also Jeff Gordon failing postrace inspection after winning his 150 on Thursday.

Both, however, will race in the Daytona 500.

NASCAR has long said it will weed out and punish cheating, but whenever it gets the chance to make good on such boasts, it falters. The blunt truth is that disqualification is the only way to handle cheating, but NASCAR lacks the courage to go the right route, and has lacked that courage for decades; when Dave Marcis, A.J. Foyt, and Darrell Waltrip had qualifying times disallowed in 1976, it came after NASCAR consulted their legal advisor, who advised to avoid use of the term disqualification. The sport, however, has long needed to outgrow this approach to cheating.

There is also the insulting soap-opera performance in Waltrip's "contrition" regarding the incident. Making it worse is that several drivers stepped up to side with Waltrip and defend him by using the "wrong place at the wrong time" argument. One can debate whether Michael Waltrip knew of the use of this additive - apparantly propylene oxide, a substance commonly used in short track racing, giving extra power for shortish periods and which disappears into thin air after use; one crew chief stated that traces of the stuff would have disappeared from Waltrip's manifold within two hours of being added, and thus would not be found by NASCAR at its R&D shop in North Carolina - beforehand, but we need to stop pretending that such incidents are "accidental." Waltrip got caught, period. I'm not buying that Gordon's postrace infraction was accidental, either, because rigging a car to drop low as happened to Gordon isn't uncommon. There's also the suspicious inconsistency with regard to NASCAR penalties.

Cheating is always deliberate in NASCAR. There is no such thing as accidentally pregnant, so there is no such thing as accidental cheating, and the sport needs to disqualify cheaters as the first and only option.

Dueling State Of The Sport Addresses

NASCAR's Brian France offered his state of the sport address, and David Poole offered this interesting take on the state of the sport. Wishing to join this duel, I throw my Mike Nesmith-influenced woolhat into the ring - I'd throw in a cowboy hat but I think Richard Petty has it trademarked -

NASCAR is a sanctioning body approaching its sixtieth season, and in that time it has become one of the most dramatic success stories in pro sports. Now, however, it faces serious issues of costs, competitive depth, and overall big picture, issues that have not been adequately addressed.

The issue of integrity has been brought up and the integrity of punishment for cheating is a legitimate source of discussion, for punishment of cheating has frankly not been adequate. There has long been the need for disqualification of not just drivers, but racecars and crews, caught in cheating. Incremental fines and loss of points have proven as inadequate as incremental escalation of bombing of Communist military power in Indochina periodically interrupted by cease-fires - they have displayed a lack of serious intent on the part of the sanctioning body against cheating. David Poole's idea to hire independent race officials is also worth consideration.

Poole brings up the boilerplate about a traveling medical team. This, though, is not what the sport needs, because the on-site medical teams at the varied tracks have long proven capable of the job involved. Complaints by drivers about lack of familiarity with local track teams can be addressed by requiring drivers to allow medical people into the garage area to meet with them and exchange pertinent information during the race weekend.

Poole notes a crisis of competition, and indeed the sport enters 2007 almost certain to face the 23rd season of its Dead Lane Era. The need to reduce speeds by some 25 MPH remains high, the need to improve the ferocity of the racing remains high, but the issue is not how to achieve these two goals; rather the issue remains the sport's curious reluctance to crack down in that regard. The restrictor plate-roof spoiler-wickered spoiler combination used by Winston Cup cars at Daytona and Talladega in 2001 and presently used in BGN at those same tracks has consistently proven to be the strongest package for creating competitive racing, but there are other areas where competition can be improved, notably in the points structure, where the absurd Chase format has proven a failure and is in need of abandonment; replacing it must be a point structure with massive point bonuses for race wins and laps led, to where the only possibility for the championship is to win the most races and lead the most laps.

Returning to the issue of officiating, another area to improve competition is abandonment of varied rules pertaining to on-track tactics and occurances. NASCAR has taken it upon itself to police the practice of push-drafting; what business NASCAR has in such remains puzzling. NASCAR banned teams from heavily reinforcing front bumpers in April 2006 precisely for this practice, but this ban should be rescinded. Push-drafting should not only be allowed, but encouraged.

NASCAR has a yellow-line rule forbidding passing in designated areas of some racetracks; the sagacity of such a rule has never been adequately offered and frankly makes no sense. Areas below yellow lines on straightaways must never be considered anything but fair game for passing.

There is also the criteria for cars to make up a lap. NASCAR abandoned racing to the caution after an incident at New Hampshire in 2003 where Dale Jarrett crashed and the leaders slowed down, except for Michael Waltrip as he foolishly insisted on putting a car a lap down despite warnings by his spotter. The rule that resulted freezes the field and sets the running order based on electronic scoring loops around the racetrack; this has proven again and again to be an embarassment as race winners have been declared by a scoring loops in Turn Three on several occassions, notably Michigan in 2004 and Talladega in October 2005 and October 2006.

The rule should be to race to the line; if there is impediment to safely doing so then red and yellow flags will be waved to freeze the field and revert to last completed lap for scoring. Cars also must race to make up a lap - the rule arbitrarily awarding the first lapped car a lap is to be abandoned.

Also in need of addressing is lack of tire competition. The arguments justifying Toyota entry into Winston Cup apply in their own way also to Firestone and Hoosier versus Goodyear directly on the speedway. Now one can make a superb case for the hard tire combination Goodyear employed early in the 2000 decade - 19 winners among 13 teams in 2001 alone is graphic vindication of this package - but given the need for greater competition, allowing Goodyear a monopoly seems imprudent; certainly tire competition has also created serious increases in number of winning drivers and teams in the sport's history.

NASCAR's answer to all of this has been a committee-built contraption called The Car Of Tomorrow. Universally derided for its abysmal styling, unsound design, inadequacy in racing conditions, and cost, the COT must be cancelled forthwith.

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There is also the integrity of the sport in terms of how it portrays itself. First off there is the sport's absurd switch in marketing emphasis. Instead of marketing the product, the sport is now marketing the brand, and given the decade's erosion of track attendence and TV ratings, it should be clear that this approach is not workiing.

Then there is the blunt truth that the sport is trying to be something it simply is not. It tries to portray itself as a hip, happening cacophony of cool that can appeal to the wealthy chic-sters of Hollywood, but the fact is that it is an audience as fraudulent as the "stock" quality of a racecar's sheetmetal. The sport's true audience remains the "redneck" population Brian France treats with all-too-evident distaste, apparantly based on too many viewings of redneck-baiting cliches in movies such as Deliverence or Easy Rider. That the so-called "Bubbas" are in fact intelligent, ordinary people without the arrogant whiff of superiority to be found through the hipster population is something the marketing types surrounding Brian France don't seem to grasp.

This applies as well to some of the markets the sport is trying to reach. It has invested heavily in trying to push speedways into New York City and Kitsap, Washington, this despite heavy local opposition in both areas and a lack of compelling argument for either region to host NASCAR competition. In contrast, Kentucky hosts a well-built intermediate superspeedway that has long proven itself capable of handling big-league racing and which draws from the sport's true demographic.

The myopic marketing of the brand instead of addressing the competitive product needs to stop.

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The crisis in competition extends into the size of raceteams involved. Simply put, too few racing organizations control too many racecars and sponsorships. The sport needs to force the breakup of massive multicar organizations like Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing sooner instead of later; it also needs to work with teams to redress the engine-building monopolies that presently exist - fewer and fewer teams build their own engines, even as the number of teams winning races with engine lease programs from other teams remains all but nonexistent.

These are some of the bigger areas in need of action. Thewre are others, to be certain, and they too must get attention as the sanctioning body approaches its sixtieth season in competition.

More On The COT

Check this look at the COT as its debut is a month away.

Daytona: Preliminary Second-Guessing

So 2007 Daytona 500 qualifying wrapped up and we got some surprises, some disappointments, and another chapter to add to Tom Jensen's book Cheating, or as Bill Gazaway would put it, Fudging, or as Richard Petty once put it, Just Tryin' To Get An Edge. First up was Michael Waltrip's manifold swallowing oil, which got the manifold impounded, though that wasn't all as the whole #55 Toyota got seized as well. Next up was unapproved aerodynamic work on Matt Kenseth's Ford and Kasey Kahne's Dodge, which got their times disallowed and which puts Ray Evernham in the dubious position of being "this week's ass" again.

And when it was all said and done, Robert Yates had the Daytona 500 front row. In the recent past that would be cause for snoring as Yates' cars haven't run consistently well the last couple of years aside from Dale Jarrett's stunning Talladega triumph in 2005. Indeed, the last few times Yates Fords won poles at plate tracks they impressed the field with their slowness in race trim. But after David Gilliland's strong effort to second in the Shootout you may want to get a row of stamps and mail in that recent boilerplate.

Looking at some other teams after they time-trialed:

GANASSI/SABCO DODGES - The surprise is not Juan Montoya, it's David Stremme, who showed no killer instinct worthy of the name last year or any year for that matter but who timed third on pole day. Montoya we all know about, with his technology savvy boosting the Ganassi team's Texaco racecar twenty years after the company debuted as a NASCAR sponsor. Decidedly underwhelming was Reed Sorenson.

ROUSH FORDS - David Ragan and Boris Said lead this fleet on pole day but are of dubious moxie in race trim, especially Ragan after getting an earful about his driving late last year. Matt Kenseth will have to race hard to gain back what he lost in postrace, while Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle had decidedly mediocre times and Carl Edwards is looking more and more like a one-season wonder.

HENDRICK CHEVROLETS - The prohibitive favorites for the 500 all timed in the top thirteen - that's all you need to know right now.

ROBERT GINN CHEVROLETS - Hendrick's satellite effort put Sterling Marlin into the field with a superb time trial. Other than that it wasn't much to jump for joy over, as Mark Martin was decidedly slow and Joe Nemechek was almost a zip code behind.

GENE HAAS CHEVROLETS - Johnny Sauter debuted Gene Haas' second car with a sensational time trial, but we've seen Robert Barker cars do this before and then disappear in race trim. Jeff Green wasn't inspiring in qualifying but has picked up in race trim on the plate tracks lately.

JOE GIBBS CHEVROLETS - Tony Stewart did what mattered - he got fast in race trim en route to the Shootout win. It didn't hurt, though, that all three JGR cars made the top-19 on pole day.

MICHAEL WALTRIP TOYOTAS - David Reutimann made some noise by timing 15th but that was the highlight of a frustrating effort by Mikey's bunch. Mikey timed 25th and waits to see whether any axe will fall after his inspection hassles. Dale Jarrett, meanwhile, looks like he was chose for his champion's provisional and nothing else, as he's spent the first weekend of Speedweeks sleepwalking on the speedway en route to an embarassingly poor showing in both the Shootout and pole day.

BILL DAVIS TOYOTAS - Bill Davis is the prohibitive favorite for at least best in class for the Toyota fleet, as Jeremy Mayfield and Mike Skinner timed in the top-18, a respectable effort but a contrast to Dave Blaney's meidocre time in BDR's flagship #22.

RAY EVERNHAM DODGES - Elliott Sadler right now is the class of this field, as he ran strong in the Shootout and timed okay on pole day. It's been a forgettable Speedweeks so far, though, after Kasey Kahne got zapped in the inspection line, Scott Riggs laid a big egg on pole day, and Erin Crocker continued to prove herself an embarassment to racing in the ARCA 200.

DEI CHEVROLETS - Martin Truex and Dale Junior timed together on pole day while Paul Menard was less impressive. It nonetheless prepares them for what may be a pivotal season in the history of this team.

PETTY ENTERPRISES DODGES - Nothing to get excited about here, as Bobby Labonte timed okay while Kyle Petty was disappointing in his time.

PENSKE RACING DODGES - Yes that was Kurt Busch looking like one of the best cars in the draft in the Shootout; he'll need that drafting prowess after a mediocre time. Ryan Newman meanwhile keeps sliding downward and downward after breaking in the Shootout and posting a very mediocre time.

RCR CHEVROLETS - They better hope that one-season performance bounce they got from hiring Cosworth engine men hasn't run out, but right now RCR is a puzzle with a dismal qualifying effort and some shaky performance in the Shootout by Harvick and Jeff Burton.

MORGAN-McCLURE CHEVROLET - Hopelessly behind in all areas, this team right now looks like it just wants to survive. Ward Burton may wind up wishing he'd stayed retired.

AIKMAN-STAUBACH CHEVROLET - A high-priced also-ran last year and right now it doesn't look any better.

ROBBY GORDON FORD - They switched to Ford to move up in the engineering totem pole. Guess what - they went nowhere on that front.

RED BULL RACING TOYOTAS - Two sure DNQs here, unless Brian Vickers can come up with a lot of drafting speed and fast.

WOOD BROTHERS FORD - When will the Ken Schrader experiment mercifully end?


With pole day wrapped up the next practice sessions beckon before the 150s, while Trucks and BGN also tackle the worn-out surface for their qualifying and practices before their races. And so Speedweeks speeds on.

Sick Humor That's Sickeningly Funny

You have to laugh at this profanely funny mocking of John Edwards and Amanda Marcotte over Edwards' attempt for President in 2008.

Elie Wiesel Assaulted

Man, you've got to be kidding me - someone actually had the gall to assault Elie Wiesel. It happened in San Francisco, which isn't exactly surprising given its history of grotesque residents and ideologies. Wonder what Nancy "gimme the damned airplane" Pelosi had to say about it.

The Absurdity Of Speedway Fratricide

International Speedway Corporation has pledged two "major race weekends" if Washington State's legislature passes a financial proposal for a speedway near Kitsap. The state's Lt. Governor, Brad Owen, favors the proposal, and ISC's Grant Lynch has stated that moving a Winston Cup race to Kitsap from another track is an expectation, with all three of NASCAR's big league touring series, IRL, and Grand National West slated for events at the new track, to be roughly 1.2 miles long.

Why NASCAR has to do this remains puzzling, for the area has never proven to be worthy of a big league racing venue and taking a date away from an existing track never makes sense. Presumably Martinsville or Richmond would lose a date; Darlington was supposed to have died out by now, however, and fans there refuse to let it go. If either of those two short tracks get threatened, the area's fanbase is likely to make sure they stay where they are on the schedule.

It all illustrates the absurdity of the campaign of speedway fratricide that has gone on for the last ten years. The sport doesn't particularly need a track in Kitsap, WA and should not be taking dates away from existing tracks to subsidise other tracks.

The Iraq War's Confused Pessimism

That there is widespread pessisism about Iraq is true enough; that it is based in large part on bogus reading of the Vietnam War is also true. But what is even more true is that this pessimism is based not on legitimate concern about the course of US effort to stop outside (and inside) sedition against Iraq's newborn democracy, but by a general desire that the US not succeed; that Democratic critics of the war simply don't was us to succeed is shown by the confusing and frequently contradictory nature of their criticisms. Supposedly we're an international pariah and have somehow been ruined by liberating Iraq; how this squares with reality is never explained.

But then it's always been that way - Democrats opposed US effort to stop Soviet-backed sedition in Vietnam and in Central America; they succeeding in sabotaging victory in Indochina but were notably unsuccessful in Central America. When Democrats will finally get it that they ought to support US victory remains a mystery.

When Speed Is Too Fast

Kenny Bruce authored this quick look at the speeds at Las Vegas' Winston Cup test and asks if those speeds are too fast. It's an issue worth greater examination.

"The cars are going too fast at Las Vegas. At least that's the opinion of a few drivers who took part in NASCAR's test session there January 29-30." Bruce asserts that "No one complained at (Atlanta, Texas, and Charlotte) when the speeds edged up around 190." This, though, is untrue - there were complaints enough that NASCAR tested restrictor plates at Atlanta and Charlotte at a few points during the 1990s; they used the wrong plates in those tests, plates larger than what are used at Talladega, so the result was not much of a speed reduction.

Bruce notes that speeds at Kansas and Chicago are "in the 175-180 MPH range," though he neglects to mention the pertinent fact that those tracks feature flatter banking than Vegas, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Texas.

He then asks "How do you sell (that speeds don't always mean good racing) to the growing number of engineers, crew chiefs, and others" who work to make racecars faster. That NASCAR or any sanctioning body should be overly concerned about the opinion of engineers or crew chiefs over the speeds involved at racetracks is a puzzle, since the sport has more than enough history to know that most of these tracks are indeed too fast.

For stock cars, banked intermediates like Charlotte are not suited to handle speeds above 170 MPH; flatter intermediates like Chicago are likewise not suited to handling above 160. Their histories have long shown this. "Balancing speed and competition is a delicate matter and slowing the cars down isn't always the answer," writes Bruce. It is astonishing to read someone assert that slowing the cars down isn't always the answer.

Where has slowing the cars down ever hurt the competition? Daytona and especially Talladega have been much better races at speeds 30 MPH below what the cars are capable of, and to think other tracks likewise won't see improved racing with substantially slower speeds is preposterous.

Racing is not about speed. It is about lead changes - competition. Charlotte won't suffer with 35-second laps; Pocono won't suffer with 59-second laps; Vegas won't suffer with 35-second laps.

Turner Broadcasting's Publicity Bomb

What was Turner Broadcasting thinking? It planted devices that resembled bombs near bridges and the New England Medical Center to promote a lame cartoon on the Adult Swim package on Cartoon Network, and the result was a swarm of bomb scares and the inevitable intervention of local and federal law enforcement authorities, not to mention nightmarish traffic jams on the late-afternoon commute from Boston. And apparantly nine other cities including New York and San Francisco were similarly "targeted" for this bizarre and offensive ad campaign.

Why Turner pulled such a tasteless stunt is presently beyond comprehension, unless it reflects how much contempt broadcast media types harbor for ordinary people. It obviously never occurred to anyone at Turner that people would become scared of objects under bridges and so forth that resembled bombs; certainly any sane members of a broadcast network pondering new publicity ads would take into account such a matter as whether an ad campaign will bring federal law enforcement officials after you.

I'm baffled at this one.

Pre-Speedweeks Miscellenia

Some miscelleneous thoughts as Speedweeks approaches -

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Leave it to Bruton Smith to say something that has the RSM salivating but which on second thought isn't too swift. Smith doesn't want NASCAR to fine drivers for swearing or postrace scuffling. "Look at what built this sport, don't sanitize it too much. I remember when AJ Foyt would win a race and still crawl out of the car to whip your butt. We've got to stop being so quick to fine people. Stop it already. These drivers should not have to walm that thin line. Don't penalize them. When they crawl out of that car, let them say what they want."

Wait a minute. Since when did "saying what they want" really do that much good? I regularly hear fans talk about how good it is when a driver like Kevin Harvick "speaks his mind." It seems no one ever asks if a driver is right when he speaks his mind, because speaking your mind doesn't give you a right to be wrong on something. And as for "sanitizing" the sport, this sport doesn't need spectacles like the postgame brouhaha between the New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers; if anything, the sport needs to crack down more and stop the postrace burnouts and improper postrace laps that drivers engage in for showoff purposes - racing doesn't need Deion Sanders, it needs Barry Sanders. No taunting, just win the race, drive a simple dignified victory lap, and go to victory lane.

Bruton is wrong here.

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Juan Montoya got his 2007 season off to a good start by co-driving the winning car in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Now can he do that on the superspeedway portion of Daytona.

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Does anyone miss Deborah Renshaw?

I thought not.

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BTW, when will Daytona finally be repaved?

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Speaking of repaving, Las Vegas didn't exactly garner rave reviews for its new banking after numerous crashes and blown tires interrupted Winston Cup testing there. Elliott Sadler topped the speed charts while A.J. Allmindinger may be on the way out of Winston Cup after two wrecks in two days and zero competitive moxie anywhere.

Continuing Stupidity Against The Iraq War

What is it about celebrities that they side with leftism? A recent demonstration against the liberation of Iraq attracted celebrities and attracted MSM attention, and like all such demonstrations, attracted nothing in the way of truth.

The reality is nothing the antiwar side says about Iraq is the least bit accurate. There is no civil or sectarian war in Iraq, there is Islamo-Arab sabotage; there is no hopelessness for a democratic Iraq, there is a battle to secure it; there was no recklessness by the US in attacking, there was the fact it was the only option. We of course get "realists" trying to say otherwise, except those "realists" are unrealistic.

The continuing stupidity against the Iraq war needs to be countered, and the need for real ideological diversity in the celebrity culture remains high.

The Drawback Of Star Power

This look at David Beckham's foray to US soccer makes a great point about when sports teams and leagues try to emphaisze a "face of the sport/team" instead of competitive depth. Star power is a two-edged sword because the boost it can make for a sports team is ultimately short-lived and does not change that it is competitive depth and emphasis on the basics of a sport and a team, not glitterati, that make a sporting endeavor successful.

NASCAR Knows What It's Doing?

David Smith argues that NASCAR knows what it is doing with the varied changes of the last few years. He argues that the changes of the last few years "have been an amazing success, especially the new 'Chase For The Cup.'" His argument, however, is not persuasive.

Smith askes, "Tell me who was in tenth place in points at the 2003 Capital City 400." Of course one has to look up this stat, "but I'm sure you can tell me who was there in 2006, 2005, and 2004, as well as eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth." Uh, no, like with the 2003 Richmond question it would have to be looked up, and how relevent is it in any event? The driver who was tenth after the Capital City 400 was locked into the top ten in points those previous three seasons; what happened after that? The competitiveness of the racing wasn't helped at all by the playoff format.

Smith also cites new TV deals, without noting that NASCAR has done a 180 here. When it got the FOX/NBC deal of 2001-6, a stated goal was to centralize TV coverage, the argument going that fans had to jump around too much to find TV coverage each week. Now, though, we're going back to jumping around, as BGN will be on ESPN entirely, the Trucks are still on SPEED TV, while Winston Cup starts at FOX, jumps to TNT for late-spring and summer, then jumps to ABC/ESPN from late July onward. So which is it, guys - is TV coverage split up too much or is it centralized too much?

"ESPN has access to markets and mediums that NASCAR could only dream about." It does? You mean FOX, NBC, and/or CBS don't have similar access? Smith lays out that a problem was "lack of good television coverage during the second half of the season," and states that the solution was "Bring back ESPN." He ignores the lowball quality of ESPN programming, far worse than anything NBC or FOX have - ESPN has made Monday Night Football in particular a travesty and its racing coverage was always inferior to CBS/World Sports coverage when it was involved in the sport.

There is also the addition of Toyota to Winston Cup, and like everyone else David Smith ignores how Toyota has helped bankrupt the Truck Series like it has every other racing series it has entered. Smith mixes Toyota's entry with the entry of Juan Montoya, saying "it will boost NASCAR's drive to diversify the sport." Smith of course doesn't explain just why there is any need to diversify the sport or anything else for that matter. Diversity campaigns never succeed, especially in a competitive market that makes arranging the winners beforehand fail.

Smith wants us to remember the mid-1990s and claims NASCAR was not in the top five in pro sports in this country. He ignores that NASCAR ratings back then were more than competitive with everyone save the NFL. NASCAR has not improved in that regard since then. "Last season's dip in ratings and atendence was going to happen at some point." A leveling of ratings and attendence, yes, but not a drop as has been seen the last four seasons; a drop such as this indicates a fundamental weakness catching up to the sport.

Smith obviously hopes the Spec Car/Car of Tomorrow will live up to its promise of safer drivers and racier cars, ignorant of the failure of the COT in testing and the fundamental unsoundness of the design to go with overselling the danger element of the cars before. NASCAR for its part has continued pushing the COT, and Penske Racing's Daytona test last week was part of that push, even though once again teams boycotted bringing COTs to the Daytona test - all were invited to do so - and neither driver tried to draft with the car; the speed of 191 was a red flag as "that's not the way we can race around here," Ryan Newman noted.

"Many of you said NASCAR was ruining the sport 20 years ago when they switched over to different cars..." Actually no one thought that. "...or when they changed from bias-ply tires to radials, or when they added restrictor plates..." It's been the plate races that saw the highest ratings increases over the years. "Still, even after all that, you watch. Why? Because NASCAR knows what its doing." No, David, people watch to see racing, not because NASCAR knows what its doing - if anything, NASCAR has shown it doesn't know what it is doing. People watch more in spite of NASCAR than because of it.

NASCAR's Gimmick Gets Gimmicked

To no one's surprise NASCAR will add two drivers to its playoff format and increase race-winner points by a whopping five points. However, a bizarre new twist is added, as for the Chase, the drivers will be seeded based on wins, so that the driver with the most wins will start first, then a driver will start second, etc.

Thus does the gimmick of the playoffs get its first of what will likely be many gimmicks in coming years.

The playoff run was implemented after Matt Kenseth stroked his way to the 2003 title on the strength of one win, clinching the title well before the season finale. With TV ratings and attendence beginning to slip in 2003, Brian France pondered what to do to increase the competitive fire of the sport.........and came up with a dud called the Chase.

2004's inaugural Chase saw little in the way of a spike in interest in the sport, despite what some of the RSM may say today about how "compelling" the 2004 playoffs were. 2005 and 2006 saw the novelty of playoffs wear out and ratings and attendence slippage continue.

Adding two drivers to the playoffs doesn't correct the fundamental flaw of a playoff system for a sport, racing, incompatable with any kind of playoff, and increasing race winner points by only five is worse than useless, it is an indication that NASCAR brass is refusing to recognize the seriousness of its competitive ennui.

Lack of winners and lack of lead changes remain the core issues of NASCAR's competitive ennui and ensuing ratings and attendence slippage. Adding two drivers to an absurd playoff format does nothing to correct this; adding a measely five points for a win likewise does nothing to correct this - the Chase will continue to lock out drivers who should not be arbitrarily locked out of top-twelve points contention and will continue to see stroking for the championship; despite the seeding format, race wins will continue to play only a minor role in the championship outcome, and the slippage the sport is seeing will continue.

NASCAR, in short, has accomplished nothing with this change.

NASCAR's Kelly Clarkson

Just how is Kelly Clarkson supposed to help NASCAR? Clarkson's music deal with NASCAR will include a prerace concert at the Daytona 500 - which explains why the race's starting time is well after 3 PM - and another of those stupid NASCAR, How Bad Have You Got It? ads that are turning people off instead of bringing new fans in.

Yes, there is such a thing as promotional overkill and it shows in how the sport is turning fans off of racing instead of bringing them in with all these gimmicks from the playoff format to promotional overkill. Whatever happened to letting the competitive product sell itself?

If Kelly Clarkson wants to impress me, sing some Michael Nesmith tunes; otherwise stay the hell away from the racetrack.

Paying For The Same Land Twice

As usual the reality that we're making progress in Iraq, especially with regard to militias, has been overlooked by the MSM - an MSM that doesn't even understand the model to meaure progress in the war - but also overlooked is the reality behind Democratic calls for "redeployment." It began even as the first wave of the US liberation of Afghanistan began and continued afterward. And of course it continues today thanks to a bogus read of the progress we're making in the Middle East.

"I hate to pay for the same real estate twice," George Patton said. The Democrats of course disagree.

Daytona Testing Resumes

Daytona testing resumed after the Trucks took their turn, and it was a good mixture of speeds up top. David Gilliland timed first on Day One of this second test, but that's irrelevent given Gilliland's lack of killer instinct in his handful of Winston Cup starts, a bad sign for his career, as one can calm down an aggressive driver but one cannot fire up a weak driver.

Juan Montoya as expected saw his technology savvy help Ganassi/SABCO Racing, as they posted 1-2 on the Tuesday AM speed charts. Of the other Dodges, Elliott Sadler was 6th on the cumulative chart, Kyle Petty was 16th, and the Penske Dodges surprisingly sluggish at 18th (Ryan Newman, beginning the post-Matt Borland era) and 20th (Kurt Busch).

Toyota had five cars and the BDR Camrys as expected topped the Toyota charts; Mike Skinner was 7th on the cumulative chart and Jeremy Mayfield slipped from second on Monday to 11th on Tuesday. Michael Waltrip's Toyotas were less impressive as David reutimann was 17th and Mikey only 21st. The Red Bull team, meanwhile, was just 24th with A.J. Allmendinger, who was replaced in a pre-planned swap by Brian Vickers.

RCR was sluggish as they were last week - Clint Bowyer was 13th while Jeff Burton was a distant 26th on the cumulative chart; this is one area where the speeds may portend something later, as RCR made big horsepower gains in 2006 with the hiring of Cosworth engine builders.

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Once the drafting session began everything changed. The Penske Dodges were 1 and 3 while David Reutimann was 7th, the only Toyota in the top 20 in drafting speeds. Elliott Sadler and Juan Montoya were in the top-15 for Dodge while David Stremme was 18th and Kyle Petty a dismal 28th. The RCR Chevys, meanwhile, continued to unimpress with dismal drafting speeds for Clint Bowyer (22nd) and Jeff Burton (30th).

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The real story of testing, however, was that Penske Racing will bring their Spec Cars to Daytona to run a special test to determine gearing for restrictor plate Spec Car races. This comes amid a new PR push by NASCAR for the Spec Car led by Brett Bodine's public Q&A session with fans which didn't appear to address many substantive issues with the car's raceability; one questioner discussed Dale Earnhardt passing 18 cars in the final five laps of the 2000 Autumn 500 and apparantly no mention was made that that came with a roof spoiler package that blasted open a far more effective and consistent draft than is possible with a wing or the basic shape of the Spec Car. It also appears no serious discussion was made about the gapped airdam that makes the car push in dirty air. Bodine for his part parrotted the company line that there will be no reevaluation of the Spec Car after it's run some races, which is impossible to believe given how poorly the car has done in testing.

The drafting session for Daytona testing is due soon, and here we'll get some clue about raceability.

Benjamin Stewart Parsons - 1941-2007

Broadcaster, racer, Mr. Nice Guy. All are accurate descriptions of Benny Parsons. Born in Parsonsville, NC, Benny was often called The Former Taxicab Driver because growing up he fixed cabs at his father's shop in Detroit and periodically shook them down after he'd repaired them. Beginning in Michigan area short tracks, Parsons eventually became a two-time ARCA champion and parlayed some runs with L.G. DeWitt in 1970 into a run toward the 1973 NASCAR championship and 21 wins in all. The biggest was the 1975 Daytona 500, where he started 32nd and drafted with Richard Petty to the win. His other big win was the 1980 World 600 where he sweated out nearly seven hours of rain and wrecks and outfought Darrell Waltrip over the final 20 laps.

When his racing career ended he segued into broadcasting, a vocation he'd begun on a part-time basis in 1978 but accelerated in 1984. He became a fixture on ESPN and later NBC, known for his congenial nature as well as racing experience.

Less than a month after the passing of Bobby Hamilton, racing has lost another of its greats in Benny Parsons. Rest in peace, Benny.

Day Three At Daytona

Daytona's first round of Winston Cup testing effectively wrapped up even though one extra day was set aside to make up a rainout.

With this session done, the Trucks hit the Big D while the second wave of Winston Cup cars await their turn. With three Toyotas in the first session, there should be substantially more come the next session, and this first session pretty much showed what to expect with a new effort - some teething trouble but the potential for big production come the 500. Only Brian Vickers in the Red Bull Racing #83 looked shaky among the three Toyotas involved in this session.

The Chevrolets predictably dominated most of the speed charts while Ford showed some moxie, especially with the surprise of the session, Ricky Rudd. Dodge was decent as they debuted a flusher new Charger nose, but decent needs to be better than that come Speedweeks.

We also got some more looks at the Spec Car - aka Car of Tomorrow - as NASCAR gave some public display of their new inspection station, a cage within which laser scanners are to determine whether or not cars pass inspection.

It thus largely wrapped up the session as preseason testing continues.

Daytona Testing 2007 - What Have We Learned So Far?

With two days of testing at Daytona down, we've got some speeds to work with and analyze - not of course that they mean that much given the inevitable caveats of differing agendas and sandbagging. So for what it's worth, some pontification -

There's always at least one car that posts a fast lap that will all but disappear when the shooting starts. Count on Tony Raines in that category - fastest on the rain-shortened first day and third in Day Two's drafting session but who hardly set the track aflame in 2006. Boris Said can also be put in that category, as he was 11th on the first day but around 18th in the drafting session and who's never shown much killer instinct even in his primary racing discipline, road racing. Bill Elliott also is unlikely to display any killer instinct come raceday despite being fifth in the drafting session.

Predictably for restrictor plate racing, Chevrolets largely monopolized the speed charts. Dale Junior's Deion Branch to Teresa Earnhardt's Bill Belichick soap opera took up considerable time in press conferences (even though no one seemed to point out that Belichick is a smarter leader than Teresa Earnhardt) and Junior seemed to channel some frustration into the fastest time in the drafting session. The Chevys looking a little suspect are the RCR Monte Carlos, as Kevin Harvick hasn't made any noise in the first two days of testing and testing teammate Scott Wimmer hasn't lit much up, either.

Of the Dodges, the Evernham squad looked pretty good as did Reed Sorenson of Ganassi Racing. Bobby Labonte was slow on the charts in solo runs but the #43 was pretty good in Tuesday's draft, hitting 13th (I'm counting each driver once on the charts).

Of the Fords, Jamie McMurray posted good times but is under the gun because of his lack of success with Roush. The surprise was Ricky Rudd's fast laps in Robert Yates' #88, both solo and in the draft; whether he has enough to sustain anything like that remains to be seen but it's a good start.

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Then of course there is Toyota. Dave Blaney fired a shot with a strong Day One session in Bill Davis' #22 but was less impressive in Day Two solo runs and was way down in the drafting session charts. Dale Jarrett (Michael Waltrip #44) was decent in the drafting and solo sessions and Brian Vickers (Red Bull #83) has been largely MIA on the charts, looking to become the first #83 to win since Lake Speed said Hoosier Mama to the Lady In Black in 1988.

Of course it's all subject to change as Day Three rolls in.

Five Ideas From Tim Tuttle

Everybody wants to get into the act. Tim Tuttle of SI has offered five changes he wants to see for 2007, and they're worth examining.

Abolish The Top-35 Lock-In Rule - He's wrong here. He offers arguments about how if a car not in the top-35 goes home, it cripples that car's ability to establish a foothold in the series and is not a level playing field for cars trying to break into the series.

The first problem is that it's not at all clear that the sport even should have some of these new cars or teams entering the series. Given the damage they've done to the Trucks, it is unfathomable, for instance, to see where Toyota benefits Winston Cup. And what about established teams trying to regain a competitive balance? What would benefit the sport more - Red Bull Racing's Toyotas winning in 2007, or Petty Enterprises Dodges winning in 2007?

NASCAR's current teams deserve to be protected, but that doesn't mean the top-35 rule is really adequate. What it boils down to is that it's time for larger starting fields - no more send-homes after qualifying. Inf 50 cars show up, as seems likely every week, then start 50 cars. Sending teams home after qualifying has never made any sense.


Limit Buschwacking - He's only partly right here, in that he doesn't go far enough. Buschwacking needs to be banned outright. The arguments for some form of Winston Cup participation in BGN no longer work because all Buschwacking has done is bankrupt the BGN series and has also hurt in the Trucks; the series need to establish their own identity and NASCAR needs to start spending the money it should have been spending on these series before.

Make All Restarts Single File - Again he's only partly right, for lapped cars should never be allowed up with the leaders on restarts. He apparantly proposes lining lapped cars in the middle of leaders a la in open wheel racing because he notes, "cars will be stuck behind lapped or slower cars, but they'll have plenty of room to maneuver past." He ignores that this consistently costs these cars time and track from the leader of the race. He also ignores that double-file restarts allow more passing; the sport needs to line the leaders abreast for all restarts.

Reduce The Number Of 500-mile Races - The Attention Deficit Disorder Brigade whines again. Contrary to Tuttle, Dover has seen some attendence slippage after it was all but extorted by NASCAR to cut its race distances to 400 miles, and Daytona never reaches the attendence for its 400 that it has for the 500. Tuttle and the other like-minded critics always ignore that changes in the race's outcome always happen when they are 500 miles, not 400; they also ignore that the drivers don't race harder in a 400-miler than in a 500-miler; 500 miles is always a better test of machinery and driver than 400.

Modernize Engine Technology - For what? "Control speeds through rev limiters," never mind NASCAR already has those and they don;t control the speed all that well. "Allow more advanced electronics like a pit-lane speed limit control." Just why NASCAR needs to have pit speed limits at all isn't even considered. "Increasing the technology would get rid of the restrictor plates and improve the racing, the safety, and the fairness of racing at Daytona and Talladega." Nowhere in history has increasing racing technology per se ever improved the quality of the racing, and restrictor plates do something all this technology has always failed to do - slow the speeds and keep them permanently down. As for safety, it's higher speed that is the safety danger, not restrictor plates. And fairness? Where has the restrictor plate ever been unfair?

"Doesn't NASCAR believe in Win On Sunday Sell On Monday?" It gets that with the technology it presently has; it doesn't need to increase technology; if anything it needs to take technology out of the cars.

Tim Tuttle needs to work on his ideas for racing.

Who Betrayed Winning The War?

Two compelling posts deserve reading. The first examines some of the absurdities about Osama Bin Laden. The second examines what it is that makes the US not try to win wars in the last four-plus decades.

Bobby Hamilton - 1957-2007

Bobby Hamilton, Racer.

Yes, Vietnam Was A Winnable War

Whenever there is talk about Iraq we often hear comparisons to Vietnam - comparisons supposed to convey that the war can't be won.

Problem is Vietnam was a winnable and noble war, and this look at an overlooked book on the early years of the war helps rectify the amnesia that still permeates discussion about Vietnam.

Imitating Nick Saban On The NASCAR Chase

NASCAR still isn't getting it about the failure of the playoff format, but it also appears there's a case of putting out fires going on. Brian Z. France had stated in November that changes were "not on the table.....ten races, ten drivers." But now Jim Hunter has stated that there will be changes - more points for winning a race and more than ten drivers in the playoffs - Bruton Smith speculates the changes will be ten extra points and twelve Chase drivers. Ramsey Poston of NASCAR then added in classic spin mode, "We don't think there's anything new here."

Either someone is confused about what policy is coming or there's an awful lot of imitation of Nick Saban going on here. Regardless, they display the maddening refusal of NASCAR to get it - The Chase is a failure. They remain in denial about the Chase, refusing to see that it has hurt TV ratings and attendence, has made what was an already ennui-driven championship battle even more mediocre, and continues to attack racing's competitive core by trying to stick-and-ball-ize the sport.

Adding ten points for winning the race might as well be adding one point, for it continues to refuse to make winning races paramount; winning the most races still needs to be the requirement of a champion. Adding two more drivers to the Chase ignores the question, what of the others mathematically still in the points race? And what of the rest of the field? Why does NASCAR have to arbitrarily shut out most of the field from at least top ten points contention for an illusiory spike in TV ratings?

It gets NASCAR off to another uninspiring start as it enters a pivotal season.

The State Of Defeating Jihad

Some interesting looks at the state of defeating Jihad can be found here and here. Also worth examining is this big picture look at the battle against Jihad worldwide. These pieces certainly show civilization has a long way to go against Jihad, but there is progress to be seen, and certainly no reason to quit - especially given the absurdities inplicit in the antiwar argument and also with regard to Iran, whose Ayatollahist regime is much weaker than we are. Also worth remembering is the historical reality of Islamo-Arab imperialism.

Osama's Ally In Aggression Executed

Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin laden's ally in aggression, was executed.

2006 Year-End Motorsports Miscellenia

Various racing thoughts while wondering if Drew Bledsoe is laughing his ass off at Tony Romo's recent collapses, if Faith Hill is still stewing about Carrie Underwood, if Tony Romo can dodge opposing defenses enough to cuddle with Underwood, and if Keith Olbermann will ever get his sanity back......

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Kirk Shelmerdine got rebuked for running a Bush-Cheney sticker on his racecar by the FEC, though he got a humorous defense of his action by one member. Given how venal politics can be, is it any wonder a Democratic activist would call attention to something like this? It also brings to mind this tidbit from Greg Fielden's photo history NASCAR Chronicle - Roy Tyner ran a Kennedy-Johnson sticker on his car during the 1960 Grand National season, a sticker reflecting his own views on the Presidential race rather than any kind of sponsorship deal. Given how close that fateful 1960 election proved to be, one can reasonably say Tyner's vote swung the election.

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Doug Richert is a pretty amazing crew chief. Preparing for Red Bull Racing's 2007 assault on the Winston Cup Series with Talladega winner Brian Vickers, Richert will be involved in his 28th season as a major league crew chief. Richert has run a pretty hard gamut; he was pressed into crew chief duties in June 1980 for Dale Earnhardt when J.C. Elder quit Rod Osterlund's team; Richert helped Earnhardt win the 1980 title but the collapse of Osterlund's team left him adrift; he worked at Richard Childress' team before moving over to the Neil Bonnett #12 Chevy of Junior Johnson. The late 1980s and early '90s were lean times for Richert's crew chiefing career - he reunited with Osterlund in his ill-fated two-year return to NASCAR 1989-90 - but it the formation of the Craftsman Truck Series that anded him back onto a major league stage as he was signed up by Dale Earnhardt Inc. and driver Ron Hornaday. That success eventually saw Richert come to Roush Racing and Greg Biffle, and the tandem exploded to eleven wins together.

Now Richert takes the reins of Red Bull Racing's #83, and some of their adventures can be chronicled here.

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Remember when it used to be that a driver needed five years before it could be determined if he'd be a power in the sport? A graphic illustration of how irrelevent age and experience have become -

In 1992-3, of the sport's thirteen different winning drivers, six had more than seven years Winston Cup experience while a seventh, Mark Martin, ran his rookie year in 1982, fell off the tour in mid-1983, then came back in 1988. Jump to 1999; of that season's eleven winners, only four had more than seven years experience. In 2006, only two drivers had more than seven years experience - Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Brian Vickers all had less than five years experience, and all but Kahne won races in their rookie season - in fact, one has to go back to 1998 and ill-fated Winston Cup washout Kenny Irwin to find the only other season in the last eight years a rookie failed to win.

So to say the hiring of Winston Cup quitters Ricky Rudd and Ward Burton for rides in 2007 is a mistake should be restatement of the obvious - and yet the reaction of fans that I've seen shows that this point isn't clear to a lot of people.

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Is the Erin Crocker Error - err, Era - over yet? Apparantly not, as she tested in ARCA's late-December Daytona test and appears to have been demoted to ARCA with the disbanding of her Truck team. Given how poorly she did in her 2005 race outings, can anyone profess surprise that she was a washout in the Trucks? It makes one wonder what anyone could see in her as a racer, beyond following the gender mau-mauing of "diversity."

I could say she looks like a dorky version of Amy Grant, but that would be an insult to Amy Grant.

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From the Whatever happened to.....? files - whatever happened to Bob Rahilly and Butch Mock? In the 1980s they had one of the unsung teams of NASCAR, the Rahmoc Racing Pontiac #75, a car that won with Neil Bonnett and should have won with Morgan Shepherd.

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How far back has Ken Schrader been racing? The old Car & Track TV series filmed him at a NAMARS midget race during Speedweeks 1975.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been airing episodes of Car & Track in edited form and it's the best thing SPEED Channel has besides live race coverage.

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Well, Happy New Year everyone.

NASCAR's True Markets

NASCAR's attempt to get a speedway built in Kitsap, WA is still going nowhere fast despite continued effort, and that they're still even discussing such a project shows how off-track NASCAR has become with regard to its own identity.

NASCAR still thinks the Pacific Northwest and New York City are necessary markets, this despite the failure of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway in the LA area and the mediocre popularity of the tracks at Fontana and Chicago. No one who supports building tracks in the Pacific Northwest and NYC can cite any instance where sponsors either left the sport or did not participate because of lack of speedways in so-called "big" markets like New York City, nor can one think of where the Fontana and Chicago tracks have brought in new sponsors or any serious influx of new fans.

The California area certainly has racing history, but not in LA or the big cities; it's been like it's been everywhere else in the US - the rural areas. Blogger MD80891 has noted how Hanford Speedway in central California was in a demographic far more suited to racing than big cities; the same is also true of Kansas Speedway and Kentucky Speedway. Most of NASCAR's other tracks are in superb racing demographics - a track like New Hampshire International Speedway would go nowhere in the greater Boston area, but in rural New Hampshire it sells out every year and is within easy communting of Boston, so that major market does get served. The same is true of Pocono, located within fairly easy range of NYC and Philly and which sells out every year even with its two Winston Cup dates so close together.

Rockingham was closed ostensibly because that demographic was saturated, although that argument is just a smokescreen by NASCAR's powers-that-be, shown by their effort to let Darlington die out. Darlington was cut to one date in 2005, but a funny thing happened - the fans refuse to let it die. Indeed, one can see where Fontana will eventually have to give back its second date to Darlington, since Fontana really isn't doing a good job supporting two dates and is in a poor racing demographic to begin with - and if anyone tries to cite Will Ferrell's abysmal NASCAR movie as proof that Fontana has helped expand NASCAR's demographic is more delusional than I thought.

One can even argue that a big superspeedway in California should never have been built near LA, but instead in the Hanford area. Certainly a Talladega-style superoval at Hanford would suit the sport's West Coast needs far better than Fontana has.

In the final analysis it comes down to what it's come down to for the sport forever - it is not suited to big urban demographics and should stop pretending to be something it isn't. It needs to stick to its true rural identity; go after rural areas and especially shore up those demographics the sport already has - which means keeping the dates presently taken at those tracks that serve the sport's true demographic.

NASCAR Aerodynamics: A Short History

Amid all the controversy over the Car Of Tomorrow, it's worth looking back at the history of NASCAR aerodynamics, especially when one considers that the modern aerowars of NASCAR dated back 40 years ago this past season.

In 1966 NASCAR's factory wars had hit a rough stretch following the Chrysler boycott of 1965; the 1966 season would be marred by a Ford boycott. At Daytona Speedweeks, though, the Ford and Mopar contingents were out in full force following Dan Gurney's Riverside victory in the Wood Brothers Ford. Richard Petty dominated the 500 and this began a strong comeback year for Chrysler's Motor Parts division after the '65 boycott.

Largely unnoticed at that time, however, the 1966 Daytona 500 saw the introduction of a new bodystyle that would ignite a war of aerodynamics that would rage on and off for decades thereafter. The 1966 Dodge Charger was quite different from the other bodies campaigning the 500 - the nose was flatter than the other brands and the roofline and trunk area were one single sloped piece. The Charger campaigned primarily on big tracks, and in the first half of the season the car proved unstable. By the Firecracker 400 NASCAR had allowed Dodge teams to fit a tab, about two inches in height, to the rear deck to trap air onto the trunk area and thus stabilize the car. This rear spoiler proved valuable as Sam McQuagg drove Ray Nichels' Charger to victory.

Leeroy Yarbrough won the National 500 in Jon Thorne's Charger and Buddy Baker drove Ray Fox's #3 Charger to win the 1967 National 500; most Mopar big-track wins, however, still came with Plymouths, notably Petty Enterprises victory in the 1966 World 600 with Marvin Panch and three wins at Darlington with Richard Petty; Tom Friedkin's #14 Plymouth meanwhile added a dramatic comeback win in the 1967 600 with Jim Paschal.

Though the Charger was hardly a dominant car, its aerodynamic sleekness was directly copied by Ford for the 1968 season. Ford debuted fastback Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones, sporting the exact same body shape of the Charger 500 but with narrower side windows. Ford fought long and hard all season with Mopar and dominated the superspeedways; only the two Charlotte races, won by Buddy Baker in the Fox #3 and Charlie Glotzbach in Everett "Cotton" Owens' #6, went to Mopar that year; both were won in 1968 Dodge Chargers, sporting longer noses and flatter trunk areas than the '66-7 Charger.

When Richard Petty switched his Plymouth team to Ford for 1969, Chrysler went to work to reclaim the superspeedways, and in September came out with the most famous aero warrior ever to hit stock car racing - the Dodge Daytona, a shark-nosed high-winged monster that easily set new speed records. The Daytona ran four big-track races in late 1969, winning the boycott-marred Talladega 500 (Richard Brickhouse in the Ray Nichels #99) and the season-ending Texas 500 (Bobby Isaac in the Nord Krauskopf-Harry Hyde #71).

Chrysler then built Plymouth's twin to the Daytona - the 1970 Superbird, sporting a slightly wider nose than the Charger. Intended almost entirely to win back Petty, it succeeded, and Petty got the backing to run two cars on big tracks. Pete Hamilton bested David Pearson in the Daytona 500, then swept Talladega. Richard, meanwhile, recovered from a spin to win at Rockingham, then dominated Riverside, then took down wins at Trenton, the Dixie 500 at Atlanta, and Dover in the Superbird. The Daytona, meanwhile, won the Atlanta 500 with Bobby Allison in Mario Rossi's #22, the Yankee 400 at Michigan by with Charlie Glotzbach in Ray Nichels' purple #99, and the Southern 500 by Buddy Baker in the Cotton Owens #6.

But the 1969 Talladega boycott continued to affect the sport in 1970 because the speeds involved on the speedways was a major factor in that boycott; it was after testing in mid-summer that Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, David Pearson, and Paul Goldsmith suggested a power restrictor for carburators to slow the cars. At the Yankee 400 NASCAR debuted the restrictor plate, run on all tracks the rest of that season and on and off until mid-1974.

Ford's decision after 1970 to withdraw from the sport led to Chrysler's drastic cutback to two cars in 1971 and abandonment after that. NASCAR also restricted the winged Mopars to running 300-CID engines in hope they would be abandoned. The 1971 Daytona 500 nonetheless saw Mario Rossi campaign a Daytona with Dick Brooks as driver, and the car fought for the lead and came home in the top ten despite wreck damage. NASCAR then banned the winged cars outright; only on USAC's stock car tour did the winged cars continue; among wins for USAC winged stock cars was Roger McClusky at Pocono in 1972 in a Plymouth Superbird.

Even without the winged cars, though, the aeroization of the sport by 1971 had been astonishing. 1969 Mercuries were campaigned by most Ford teams while Mopars had the 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner or Dodge Charger, both arguably the best balanced cars aerodynamically, with the Dodge having a slight edge due to a sleeker nose. Between the bodies and the use of restrictor plates, the draft that had been notably less effective in the previous four or five years came back with a vengeance, seen in 48 official lead changes, an all-time motorsports record to that point, at the '71 Daytona 500. The draft was also effective at the new Ontario Motor Speedway two weeks later as the lead changed 28 times officially and more than that unofficially.

Charlotte Motor Speedway president Richard Howard, however, introduced a new angle in May with a 1971 Chevrolet driven by Charlie Glotzbach. The Chevy, built by Junior Johnson after he'd liquidated all his Ford equipment, bore some aerodynamic resemblence to the Plymouth Roadrunner and was competitive out of the gates, leading 70 laps at the World 600 and campaigning 13 races that year, winning at Bristol.

The 1970s were for the most part devoid of major aerodynamic changes. Chevrolet evolved into the common means of competitive transportation by 1975, and in that year a subtle change was made, as the slope-nosed Laguna S3 debuted at the Daytona 500 and won with Benny Parsons and the L.G. DeWitt #72 team. Used most often, though, was the notch-back mid-70s Monte Carlo, whose greater frontal resistance compared to cars like the Laguna or even the 1974 Dodge Charger provided a handling edge on the majority of tracks.

The late 1970s did see a significant aerodynamic change. For the 1978 season NASCAR banned the Laguna S3; it also allowed teams to campaign Chevrolet engines for the 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 and Buick Regal and Lesabre. The Western 500 at Riverside that January was a smorgasboard of body styles including Olds Cutlasses, '74 Dodge Chargers, Chevrolets, 1976 Mercury Cougers, and the 1978 Ford Thunderbird campaigned by Bud Moore's #15 team. Cale Yarborough won the Western 500 in an Olds and said, "The Olds is quite a racecar."

The Cutlass sported a distinctive twin-nostril grille on a sloped, slightly rounded nose, making it the sleekest car on the speedway. The Regal and Lesabre meanwhile sported a sloped grille not unlike that of the Laguna S3, but with flusher headlight covers. The Ford Thunderbird was similar in styling to its Mercury cousin but much bulkier.

For Dodge, however, the only choice available was the 1978 Magnum, featuring a notch-back, sloped headlights, and a large protruding grille. Parts supplies for Dodge teams were drying up by then, and in preseason testing the Dodge's handling sent up a red flag - "The Magnum is undriveable at 190," Richard Petty said in January 1978. Drivers of the Olds Cutlass said the same thing - "I can't drive the Olds, it moves around too much," said Donnie Allison that January. For the Cutlass, a major problem was the open rear quarter windows, which many said packed air inside the sloped rear glass.

For Daytona Speedweeks spoiler sizes were incrementally increased to add some stability, and the racing proved to be competitive. The 125s were won by A.J. Foyt in a Buick and Darrell Waltrip, driving a '76 Monte Carlo because "it's a proven product." The lead bounced around back and forth, sometimes four times in one lap, in the Twins, and Waltrip edged Petty in the final lap of his Twin where the lead changed hands twice - Waltrip after the Twin stated, "Richard Petty has the fastest car here," but in the 500 Petty pulled a three-car draft away from the field only to blow a tire and wreck out at Lap 60. For the 500 Bobby Allison won in Bud Moore's Thunderbird, using a handling edge to pull away from the sleeker Olds Cutlasses.

Complaints about instability caused NASCAR before the Atlanta 500 to add over an inch to the size of rear spoilers, and for the next three seasons the aero wars were a sideshow to the overall on-track competition. The Olds Cutlass won two Daytona 500s, the 1979 Atlanta 500, four of six starts at Talladega, and the 1978 Michigan 400, to go with a plethora of short track wins by Yarborough in 1978. By mid-1979, though, Cale had switched to the Monte Carlo for short tracks and intermediate supers, as the Monte Carlo proved a better handler than the slicker Cutlass - thus were NASCAR teams acquiring an understanding of downforce, though it would be much later that the term, and understanding of it, became a major componant of the garage area.

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It was 1981 that an even more pivotal aerodynamic change was made. NASCAR mandated a complete changeover to 1981 bodystyles with 110-inch wheelbases, a change that turned into a running controversy as almost no bodystyle of the time was stable enough to race - proven in graphic fashion by a series of airborne melees at Daytona in preseason testing and preliminary racing before the 1981 500.

NASCAR increased spoiler sizes to over five inches in height by the start of the 500, which helped keep the cars on the ground. It also cracked down on the one bodystyle suited to racing, the 1981 Pontiac Lemans, a slope-backed racer campaigned by Bobby Allison and Ranier Racing and which dominated Speedweeks before losing the 500 on fuel mileage. By the Atlanta 500 the Lemans was allowed less than three inches of spoiler, and the car was effectively stricken for the season after that. Buick Regals all but monopolized victories, while the tank-like 1981 Ford Thunderbird pulled down seven wins that year, enough to help persuade Ford to reenter the sport for 1982, while Pontiac did the same.

Chevrolet soon followed, and debuted the flush-nosed Monte Carlo at Daytona Speedweeks 1983, a car that quickly replaced the Buick Regal as the common means of competitive transportation. Ford, meanwhile, did even better, debuting the raindrop-shaped Ford Thunderbird. Sporting a very rounded nose and roofline, the style owed more than a little debt to the '81-2 Pontiac Lemans that had caused so much controversy in the 1981 Daytona 500. Fords won four times in 1983 and again in 1984, but it was 1985 when Bill Elliott and Melling Racing exploded into prominence with their Thunderbird, campaigning a car that likely was 7/8ths scale, as the car proved undraftable almost everywhere and racked up 11 superspeedway wins; only a total collapse in the short track portion of the season's final third stopped Bill Elliott from an easy 1985 championship.

But that success detonated a new aero war in 1986. Buick and Oldsmobile stepped up their NASCAR efforts with slope-backed cars, Chevy debuted the Monte Carlo with radical sloped rear glass bolted onto the trunk area, and Pontiac came out with the even meaner-looking Grand Prix 2+2, sporting a flush grille and enormous sloped rear glass. Computer engineering also began entering the sport in a big way, and the long-time practice of "raking" a car's aerodynamics took on greater importance as rooflines and other areas of the cars began to get ground down and slickened more.

This combined with escalating horsepower to increase speeds well past 200 MPH, and a series of airborne melees tore up a lot of cars until Bobby Allison ripped out 100 feet of frontstretch fencing at Talladega in May 1987. NASCAR tried smaller carburators for the two remaining races at Daytona and Talladega that year, only to see Ken Schrader flip into Harry Gant and almost into the fencing in the trioval in the Firecracker and then Brett Bodine get upside down at Talladega in late July.

With the aero wars came a noticable weakening of the draft, which was now affecting ability to pass as the drafting wake off of a car that had been over 300 feet in the early 1980s had by 1987 shrunk to less than 100 feet. NASCAR now mandated restrictor plates for its two largest superspeedways for 1988, and spoiler size began to increase again as GM debuted its GM10 bodied racecars, rounded machines such as the Chevrolet Lumina. By 1993 spoilers had grown to 6.5 inches in height, and at that year's Daytona 500 it helped make drafting more effective, to where the lead changed hands 38 times officially and Dale Jarrett, driving for second-year team owner Joe Gibbs, gunned down the Lumina of Dale Earnhardt in one of the greatest Daytona 500s ever seen. The bigger spoilers also helped improve the draft a tracks like Charlotte, where the World 600 proved to be a spirited race-long battle, and Pocono, where that July the lead changed two to three times a lap on at least five seperate laps.

Speeds, however, were escalating even more, between horsepower, aerodynamics, and the introduction of radial tires during the Goodyear-Hoosier tire war of 1988-9. A series of airborne melees hit the sport in 1993, and when rookie Johnny Benson tumbled down Michigan's backstretch that August, NASCAR tested Ken Schrader's car with a restrictor plate at Charlotte. The plate was 1.25 inches in diameter, larger than that used on the big supers, and did not slow the car used by more than five MPH. Other drivers lobbied against using the plate, recommending instead that spoiler be reduced to five inches in height and the front airdam be raised to five inches off the ground. The reasoning was that the bodystyles were making so much downforce that corner speeds were too high; reducing downforce, so the argument went, would force drivers to lift for the corners and thus slow the cars. This became known as "the 5&5 rule," and in its first race, the National 500 at Charlotte, it failed spectacularly - the cars proved unable to close up on each other and Ernie Irvan, driving Robert Yates' Ford, led almost the entire race, the worst runaway at Charlotte since Leeroy Yarbrough's runaway win in 1966.

The 5&5 rule was quietly dropped after 1993, but in 1998 it came back, and was run for the entirety of the season. In the interregnum, meanwhile, Chevrolet came out with the 1995 Monte Carlo, a rounded, muscular bodystyle deliberately built with downforce as a primary goal. A controversial change to the car's rear deck allowed it to destroy its opposition in 1995 en route to 21 wins, but it also led to a precendent in NASCAR circles - after the Atlanta 500 in 1995 NASCAR confiscated one model of each competing make and tested them in Lockheed's windtunnel, this after Ford lobbied ferociously about the Monte Carlo. "(Billy) France felt like the manufacturers had lied to him," noted Shaun Assael in Wide Open: Days And Nights On The NASCAR Tour, and when they provided aerodynamic numbers he didn't understand, it was the final straw - he now determined that NASCAR would set the aerodynamics of the cars, not the manufacturers.

Windtunnel testing now became a norm of NASCAR and a series of spoiler changes came to equalize the three makes involved in the sport. Ford was eventually allowed to lower the MN12 Thunderbird's roofline and came out in 1996 with a flusher nosepiece, eventually going from eight wins in 1995 to 13 in 1996 and 17 in 1997; in the process they won 1997's manufacturer championship, one of six they'd win over the period of 1992-2002.

Pontiac, meanwhile, came out with a new Grand Prix in 1996, but the car teethed badly in its first year; initially submitted to SABCO Racing in latter 1994, the Grand Prix was to have been built for testing by March 1995, but SABCO refused to build one and eventually Petty Enterprises and Bahari Racing built the prototype, the project losing six months of lead time. The Grand Prix's unique aerodynamic characteristic was its twin-nostril nose and also its rear deck, sloped upward at the taillight areas and downward in the middle, an interesting approach to reducing drag without sacrificing downforce. The Grand Prix needed a new nosepiece by June of 1996, but broke through to win at Phoenix with Bobby Hamilton and the #43, and when GM switched Joe Gibbs' team to Pontiac for 1997 development of the car accelerated; in 1999 JGR and its two-driver tandem of veteran Bobby Labonte and rookie Tony Stewart erupted to eight wins while John Andretti and the Petty #43 rallied to win Martinsville and he and teammate Kyle Petty combined for some 18 top ten finishes. Also making noise that year was Ward Burton and the Bill Davis #22 Pontiac, contending almost everywhere for top tens.

As for the draft, it made a mini-resurgence in the 1995-6 period. "Drivers were telling me, 'Man, I can't believe what the draft's doing now,'" Ernie Irvan said during World 600 weekend in 1995; this was reflected in a hotly contested 600 and also a pair of hotly contested Pocono races in which the lead changed multiple times a lap on several occassions.

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The aero wars took a few new twists in the early portion of the 21st century. The most spectacular twist came when NASCAR tested several cars with a strip across the roof and a wicker on the rear spoiler, designed to add drag and slow the cars down more. This roof spoiler package was tested in the summer of 2000 and debuted at Talladega in October 2000; the Winston 500 turned into the most exciting and celebrated race ever seen as the draft became unstoppable and the lead changed hands 49 times among 21 drivers. This package ran on the plate tracks in 2001 with tentative plans to begin integrating it onto other tracks after that, but the death of Dale Earnhardt and a massive wreck at Talladega in October 2001 set off a surge of driver demands to eliminate the roof spoiler package. NASCAR dropped the roof spoiler after that, though it came back for the Busch Series' plate races in 2004 and again proved supremely effective in improving the competitiveness of the racing.

The longer term twist came in 2003 when NASCAR mandated a basic aerodynamic shape for all makes, a process called aero-matching by NASCAR but more derisively referred to as common templates elsewhere. Following a 2003 season in which Ryan Newman won eight races and did so on several occassions by not pitting under late yellows and stretching his fuel, NASCAR cut spoiler to five inches for 2004 and less than that for 2005, in yet a third edition of the 5&5 rule, this after ferocious lobbying by Ryan Newman's erstwhile teammate Rusty Wallace. NASCAR involvement in the aerodynamics of the racecars then reached an ultimate degree with the design of the so-called "Car Of Tomorrow," a design-by-committee hybrid of a racecar and a racing Truck sporting a grotesque gap in the front airdam, a raised roofline, squared body, and wing on the rear deck.

The COT has tested throughout 2006 and has proven unraceable everywhere it has tested, but NASCAR to date has publically made clear it will campaign the car beginning in 2007. Whether this timetable actually comes to fruition remains to be seen (Robin Pemberton's recent denial of a report that NASCAR would delay introduction of the model comes across as the sanctioning body putting out fires instead of a believable response) as another chapter in NASCAR's aerodynamics history opens.

Iraq And Ignorance

Two items worth a look. First is Victor Davis Hanson's analysis of a potential increase in American forces in Iraq and also this look at basic ignorance of the enemy in the war against Islamo-Arab terror. The latter piece reinforces a point Hanson makes - the danger of liberal-inspired internecene warfare here in the US sabotaging our effort at victory in Iraq.

NASCAR Magnum Opus

He's done it again - blogger MD80891 may be the most insightful NASCAR writer there is right now, and this magnum opus examination of various issues in the sport shows why.

Zor And Zam's Second Thoughts

Check this examination of a former war protester's mea culpa. It shows an understanding of the often-varied mindsets of war protesters and the conflict that rages within some of them.

The Continuing COT Soap Opera

It may be the off-season as far as NASCAR goes but the reality is there is no such thing as an off-season anymore; teams build cars, test, and do everything short of racing during the interregnum between Homestead and Daytona.

The 2006-7 interregnum has taken on added importance because of the scheduled debut of the Car Of Tomorrow, the unpopular car/Truck hybrid scheduled to run 16 of 36 races in 2007. The importance of this off-season, though, has taken on more of the flavor of a soap opera as the rumor has raged that NASCAR will delay scheduled implementation of the COT, a rumor denied by Robin Pemberton of NASCAR. The denial, though, only stokes the rumor more, for it shows the truism that where's there's smoke, there's fire.

The truth of the matter is that the Car Of Tomorrow has been confounding its NASCAR creators to the point that a serious alteration of its 2007 schedule may be inevitable, whether through delay of its debut or a reduction in the number of races it runs. The costs involved and the great difficulty many teams have had in building them are just part of the issue; the bigger issue ultimately comes back to the machine's basic utility as a racecar.

Designed to be safer and less aero-dependent than present-generation racecars, the Car Of Tomorrow has consistently failed in on-track testing; nowhere has the car shown any improved ability to pass compared to present-day cars, and aero-dependency has arguably been worsened with the car's design. Certainly the gapped airdam with splitter practically begs for aeropush, while the rear wing has proven nothing as far as improved ability in dirty air. And the mythology the COT was built around - that the Craftsman Trucks are the best racing in NASCAR and that the cars should thus be squared up - is just that....mythology. The reality is the Craftsman Truck Series long ago wore out its novelty and has not provided that much memorable racing over most of its twelve seasons.

There is also the reality that NASCAR has created the COT to solve problems that have far simpler solutions. One of the most glaring examples lay in the gapped airdam with splitter; it is designed to deter use of ultra-soft springs in the front, springs that cost in four figures. But if NASCAR is that determined to prevent their use, why not simply issue less expensive springs to teams at the track every week? Granted this may not be the most ideal solution, but it's certainly far less expensive and more practical than the COT.

NASCAR's approach to the COT is reminiscent of NASA. Gregg Easterbrook has noted that NASA "constantly investigates low-cost Shuttle alternatives, finds a way to make them expensive, then abandons the project." This is a good encapsulation of NASCAR's inefficient approach to solving problems in general and to the COT in particular.

Under Brian Z. France NASCAR has pushed bad ideas and stuck with them despite manifest realworld evidence of their ineffectiveness - the Chase For The Championship is of course the signature example. Here, though, the reality of the idea's failure is beginning to catch up to NASCAR - dropping TV ratings and track attendence show no signs of improving as long as the Chase remains, and this inevitably adds up in lost revenue for the sport. The other major bad idea the sport has pushed - schedule realignment and its direct by-product in tracks in New York City and Kitsap, WA - has hit a dead-end, and thus the fundamental unsoundness of a bad idea has begun to catch up to NASCAR.

For the Car Of Tomorrow, that there has been so much trouble getting models built is yet another sign of a bad idea's fundamental unsoundness starting to catch up to NASCAR. Chances are there will be some races in 2007 where the COT competes in anger (a proposed usage of COTs in a non-points race at Daytona has been proposed), but even here there is reason to think that NASCAR may wind up with second thoughts about this bad idea, for Pemberton's denials notwithstanding, there is too little to gain from sticking with the Car Of Tomorrow.

Greg Engle Takes On The Blogosphere

Check this magnum opus look at the sport in response to writer Greg Engle. And Engle doesn't stop there as shown by his response here.

It shows the contrast in the Race-Stream Media's take on the sport compared to that offered by those with a more objective view.

Baker's Balderdash

The Iraq Study Group under James Baker released its report and it leaves almsot everything to be desired. It looked bad upon its first impression, while another impression shows the institutional lack of will to win in Washington, and the more one reads it the more holes one finds, to the point that the only summation one can make is the report is a waste of paper.

The basic objection one must have to this report is simple - it assumes we can't win in Iraq so we thus shouldn't try. How one can think that is puzzling, because when one cuts through the MSM's dishonest reporting on Iraq, the reality is the US effort is slowly and steadily succeeding - the longer democracy is guarded in Iraq, the stronger it will root itself in the region. And ultimately there isn't much in the report that is new or different from what the US has been attemtping all along.

One also has to remember that Baker is part of the "realist" wing of the foreign policy establishment, the wing that never recommeded actual action to protect US interests, even when this recommended inaction blew up in our face. That this "realist" wing isn't shows in what it misses.

Baker's Balderdash is about all one can say about this report. One can cite more credible alternatives to Baker's Balderdash - especially when one sees the report's contradictory nature - but there is ultimately one recommendation needed -

Win The Iraq War.

World Shrinking AIDS Day

Given that we're seeing World AIDS Day, a look back at when the disease may have actually peaked, this despite nearly two decades since then of scaremongering.