Stockcarfans.com NASCAR Blog

A Justifiable Risk?

2005-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

How's this scenario? You've got about a half mil invested in a speedway car, and Talladega is coming up. You're only running a limited schedule (5-6 races) so you know the NASCAR Owner Points are gonna be meaningless to you. You've got to make the race on time, so you're competing against 10-11 drivers for 8 spots. You've got a relatively high-dollar sponsor (at least when you consider how many races you're running) and you've got a paid pit crew. You're already light years ahead of the other 10 drivers (most of their cars are totally devoid of decals, especially on that all-important hood), but do you push the envelope, bend the rules, and try to make the field at all costs?

This is a very justifiable risk when you look at the penalty handed down by NASCAR today. Caught with a trick rear-end housing, the team of Waltrip/Wallace was hit with a 25 Owner/Driver point penalty and a $25K fine for the crew chief. Now $25K is $25k, but those points (at least in this situation) are totally worthless. Let's see....we're 58th in Owner Points and the Top-35 are exempt from qualifying on time, so that's no penalty at all. Kenny's 57th in Driver Points, so the shame of being 58th will probably be fairly easy to handle.

And, when you equate this penalty with getting the same number of points deducted (when you're in the Chase no less) for using a no-no in Victory Lane half an hour after the race, or showing up at a short-track with a car that didn't come close to being legal (and keeping you from qualifying for the Chase), where is NASCAR's head?

If I'm one of the have-nots when it comes to qualifying, I try everything! Course, most of the have-nots don't have the resources to pull it off, but the point is still the same. You've got nothing to lose....so why not try it.

Whereas those guys up top (who have everything to lose) have gotta be sure they don't get in too many accidents, don't say anything or perform "actions detrimental to stock car racing" (whatever that means), and make sure they don't get caught doing whatever it is they've been doing all along .

I ask you.....do the penalties to the #29 team at Las Vegas, the #8 team at Talladega last October, and the #42 team at Bristol last April bear the same weight at the one announced today? You do the math.

Henry

A Shakeup in Broadcast Partners?

2005-04-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

NASCAR loves to call the guys who pay the freight "Broadcast Partners". Well, this morning, they may begin looking around for somebody new to take to the dance.

With the announcement that NBC is back in the NFL game (they're going to do the Sunday Night deal that ESPN had been doing.....ESPN now gets the Monday Night gig) you've got to wonder how this is going to effect our sport. We keep hearing talk about the networks wanting more races to end in prime time.....Homestead is adding lights so the "Chase" can be completed in those big ratings times (at least on the East Coast), and since ratings equal dollars they can get more for their commercial spots. But, if you move those races to TNT that certainly doesn't signal a move ahead for NASCAR.

Could this possibly help NASCAR? Are we to expect that ABC/ESPN will now join the bidding for the NBC/TNT part of the package that comes due soon? Does Mickey Mouse have any money left after they pay the NFL $9M? Does NBC/TNT keep the package and stay in the afternoon? What happens when it comes time to switch to football and the race is still going on? Are we gonna have to put up with highlights of every touchdown dance every 10 laps, couched as "breaking news"? Will we see more Saturday Night racing?

Lotsa questions....we'll just have to wait to see if we get any answers anytime soon.

Good Business Sense

2005-03-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

NASCAR announced the expected penalties today, and I think a couple teams made a great business decision to break the rules.

Let's start with the #48 Lowe's team of Jimmie Johnson. Had your car legal, could you have won? If not, how many spots down in the field would you have been? Would you have been 4th? Not inconceivable....but every position below 4th is a real plus. See, 4th place pays 160 points....and you got 190. You don't need to be a math major to see the advantage to skirting the rules, do you?

Now, lets look at money. Jimmie Johnson received $428,066 for winning at Las Vegas. NASCAR took away a whopping $25K. In the immortal words of Archie Bunker "That's a real detergent to crime!". JJ won $20K for the Nextel Leader Bonus (and he's no longer the point leader so I'd hope that would be rescinded) so isn't that a kick in the wallet.

You can apply the same logic to his teammate Kyle Busch. They won $244,800 and received 170 points. If he could have done no better than 7th with legal fenders, he's also ahead of the game. At least in his case his fine is 10% of his winnings....in JJ's case it's about 6%.

The biggest hit of the day was the four week suspension to Todd Berrier, crew chief for Kevin Harvick's #29 GM Goodwrench Chevy. That could hurt if their performance falls off the next four races, but remember if they hadn't run so fast in quals they wouldn't have been caught, either.

We'll have to keep an eye on that team to see if this is a telling penalty or not. If they have a good stretch the next month, they won't feel a thing.

When you realize that all of this is just as horrible as a slip of the tongue in Victory Lane 30 minutes after the race you've gotta wonder if everybody's on the same page.

Not condoning previous sanctions.....just wondering what's really "Actions detrimental to Stock Car Racing".

New Rules in Place

2005-02-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

It's our first non-plate race and we've got a bevy of new rules in place this weekend. Lotsa technical stuff but the one that intrigues me is the new qualifying and "compressed" weekend deal.

We used to haul 2500 miles and qualify on Friday, practice on Saturday, and race on Sunday. Now, we haul 2500 miles and practice on Friday, qualify on Saturday, and race on Sunday. Wow, big change, huh?

The cars are quarantined after they qualify on Saturday, so other than checking air pressure there's nothing for the teams to do till race time on Sunday. What do you do? Do you spend this time at the beach? (Didn't we just do that for 10 days at Daytona?) You can sleep in tomorrow cause there's no use getting to the garage at 6 anymore.

I don't understand how this is going to help the racing, tho. We're gonna have 35 cars who are guaranteed in (actually 36 with the Champs provisional in vogue this weekend) and the other dozen or so cars will have to time in. Do you chance running a quicker (qualifying-type) setup to make sure you make the event, or do you go more conservative in race mode and hope you're in the top 7 of the outsiders?

Are we gonna be the only sport where practice doesn't make you better? That seems to be contrary to everything we've ever been taught about anything in life. We've got car owners telling us they're putting their drivers in other races to get seat time.....have they been pulling our leg or does NASCAR know better? Does cost-cutting trump all? If so, why do you spend money testing at non-tour tracks at every opportunity? Does NASCAR expect the racing to be as good, or do they care?

It appears the decision to go to this compressed weekend will pretty much break down along the SMI/ISC lines. The Speedway Motorsports tracks will probably continue to have a separate pole day, and if the racing there turns out to be better than that at the ISC owned tracks, it'll be interesting to see if this plan gets scuttled.

We'll be able to compare soon enough....after the off week we go to Las Vegas and they're not using the new procedure.

It's all about the Sponsors

2005-02-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

OK, sometimes I'm a little slow....

I've been staring at the Nextel Cup schedule trying to figure out why we need an off-week after Fontana. We've only just gotten started....two races in....the teams can't be tired and worn out yet. Then I realized that this is the sacred week for the Mexico City Busch race. Obviously, NASCAR wants nothing to detract from this event and this way the sponsors (and maybe even NASCAR?) can pressure Cup drivers (called Buschwhackers every other week) to participate. After all, the sponsors want this.

Those of you who remember the Japan fiasco will recall we were told the same thing. That's an important market.....our sponsors want us to be there. We saw Jimmy Spencer (that well known road racer) eating sushi, mechanics who can take a carburetor apart in no time trying to use chop sticks, and all types of local culture that was Greek to our guys.

You'll recall how poorly attended those Japanese races were. For that matter, we're far from our best on a road course, but that Twin Ring thang didn't work either. We usually draw bigger crowds than that at an autograph signing in a parking lot of a 7-11 in Pocatello, Idaho.....at 3 AM!!!!

I guess we should be happy they don't think that Kamchatka is an emerging market for them this week....

If we can go to Mexico, we should be able to go to Nashville, Kentucky, Pikes Peak....anywhere else that our sponsors don't think are as important. Kansas is screaming for a second race....same for Las Vegas. They seem to be able to sell most of their tickets, so I trust the same standard will be applied next week south of the border.

We could certainly have inserted that second Phoenix race this open week and that would have opened up a week up in April for a deserving track in a climate that maybe couldn't go this early in the year.

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when the new ISC tracks in (insert Pace Picante sauce pronunciation here) NEW YORK CITY and the great Northwest get up and running. Will you grab this weekend from Mexico or do you yank another date from those fans who knew you when! (Are you listening Darlington?)

Here's hoping the bloom is off the Mexicali rose by then.

Restrictors come OUT!

2005-02-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

I know.....it sounded like an exorcism. Fact is that NASCAR should exercise the demon restrictor plate. Since it's inception the restrictor plate has caused numerous wrecks, and one could even argue that it cost Dale Earnhardt his life. How can you predict if the bottleneck that was created in the mess that Dale in would have existed if restrictor plates hadn't been used. It was very clear where Dale stood on restrictor plates.

It seems somewhat counter productive to say your using something in the intrest of safety, that causes so many accidents. Are we really gullible enough to believe the drivers would exceed a threshold of safety. These are professionals. Take a look at IRL. The drivers knew at Texas that they were exceeding a safe threshold with the G-forces they were pulling at this track. Kudos to IRL for trusting their drivers.

It's not a stretch to believe that removing restrictor plates from the cars would space out the feild so we didn't have to worry about a "big one" at every 2.5 plus mile track. The dominate cars would surface and be there at the end. If they weren't it wouldn't be because the restrictor plate caused an accident.

Demon restrictor plate.....COME OUT!

To Sandbag or not to Sandbag...

2005-02-18T12:04:00.000-08:00

I'm sure are you all know by now, DEI struggled in the Bud shootout and made a return to the top of the charts in Duel/Dual Race 2. Since that time rumors in the garage have been that DEI was sandbaggin (intentionally holding back from showing your real strength). Well lets break this down and analyze benefits vs. drawback and maybe we can figure this out.

Reason not to Sandbaggin....
- Losing the Bud Shootout when you could have, and therefore collect less money....A LOT less.
- No braggin rights heading into qualifying....ok we'll just sandbag there too.
- Listening to people write things about you like "Is the dominance over?" and "Are they really that bad?"
- Putting up with a couple hundred reporters asking you "Has everyone finally caught up to you?"
- Looking your team mates in the eye and say, "Remember not to win now, we are sandbaggin"
- Convincing your sponsors that you really need to sandbag and that your doing this to stand a chance (only a chance not a gaurnetee) to win the Daytona 500.
- Reading you and your team mates names near the bottom of all the list and speed charts.
- Choosing the right time to sandbag. Only for the Bud shootout and qualifying.
- Not knowing if your car has changed from the offseason testing. Well I'll sandbag there too.

Reason to Sandbag....
- The competition is really pschyed out now.
- That will show the other drivers who is boss.
- The cars never change so I'm at no risk by not really testing my car.

Ok that was a little "tongue in cheek" but all the articles and all the talk about sandbagging has yet to produce any credible reasoning of why it's a good idea. I can't speak for Dale Jr. but I think that is what he meant when he said....

I don't know what the benefit of that would be. "If there is one, I'd do it. We're just running as hard as we can run. The cars have been slow. We've changed some things, but I don't know if we've helped our car. If we qualified all over again it would be just as poor. I swear on the Bible that we haven't been sandbagging."

Are you sure? The advantages have never been more clear. :o)

Mixed Signals?

2005-02-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, I guess I'm confused.

I read the report on NASCAR.com last night where the sanctioning body says they're fed up with the ongoing fued between Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. Something to the effect that if they don't patch things up they'll have to pay the consequences (including race suspensions).

Then further in the article, we read this:

"Hunter said NASCAR considered the situation a "racing accident," but Johnson wasn't so thrilled.

That's NASCAR's Jim Hunter.

So which is it. If it was a "racing accident" then why the threats? If it wasn't a "racing accident" then why call it one?

If it's a fued, then I guess it's hard to figure out what Johnson did yesterday to contribute to the ongoing problem. The unfortunate part is that Joe Nemechek, Mark Martin, and Rusty Wallace are also paying the price.

Dual's Race Two: Harvick Demonstrates lack of Patience

2005-02-17T13:47:00.001-08:00

There was a moment in Dual race two that looked like it was the last lap of the Daytona 500. Kevin Harvick demonstrated some of what has got him in trouble in the past, a lack of patience. That is in stark contrast to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who made this comment about team mate Michael Waltrip, "He did what he had to do to pass me and there was no way in a qualifying race that I was going to throw a block and risk it." If Jr. had we might be talking about something else besides a DEI's return to the top after a lack luster Bud shootout.

After all the talk of tires, the story of the day turned out to be a drivers poor judgement. It was a wreck that collected 7 cars and put 4 contenders on the sideline. The bad thing for Kevin Harvick is that he is a fast car that is likely to be running without a partner. The 4 other contenders voiced thier opinion clearly, and I think one make even have voiced it with a water bottle. At the end of the day Harvick hurt himself on two fronts, he tore up a fast car, and didn't help his cause with fellow drivers.

Do NASCAR drivers forget? We'll see Sunday.

DEI Returns in Dual's Race One

2005-02-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

Well the questions about DEI have certainly been erased after race one of the Duals at Daytona. After a week of questions about other teams catching up and lack of horsepower, DEI drivers finished 1 and 2 in the first race.

They methodically moved their way from the back through the field and after pit stops made the final move around an upset Mike Skinner, to take the top two spots. Do you think Mr. Gilmore will sleep tonight? Rumor has it he didn't sleep at all since Sunday. Given the talk I can believe it.

Will Martin Truex show up like the other DEI drivers? We'll see.

Daytona Racing is Suddenly About the Tires

2005-02-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

The buzz from most drivers in Daytona with the Nextel Cup series is all about the new Goodyear tires. Most of the drivers I heard interviews with are more than just a little concerned about the tires that have been cut down during speedweeks.

Some drivers have even gone so far as to say they believe that the tire problems will continue into the Daytona 500.

Between restrictor plates and tire issues, we have the makings of a surprise winner or at the very least a mixed up start to the points season.

Dale and Daytona

2005-02-16T19:34:00.000-08:00

While contemplating what to write here on Von's new toy, I spent a little time today thinking about Daytona and seems like every memory that ran through the caverns of my mind revolved around Dale Earnhardt. While it's hard to believe it's been four years already since we lost the man that epitomized our sport for the last 20 years or so, it's also virtually impossible to think about the 500 and not think of the Intimidator.

While Dale may not have been my favorite driver (we still remember the time he stuffed the #43 into the wall at Rockingham and I called for his incarceration), he was to Daytona what red beans are to rice.

Here's a few of my thoughts:

1990: Dale Earnhardt leads going into turn three....he's finally got one. He runs over a piece of bell housing, cuts a tire......and Derrike Cope gets his first ever win in a Buddy Parrott prepared Purolater Chevy.

1996: Dale Jarrett wins his second 500....And Dale Earnhardt is runner-up. The Classic Cover on Autoweek that week states "Dale Again....Dale Not Again!" as we see that #88 Robert Yates Ford about two car lengths ahead of the #3 at the line.

The famous "gull" incident. Dale hits a seagull (right smack on the left headlight cover) early and the cars handles badly all day. For years on various message boards around the 'net he was known as the "Gull Man" or GM for short.

Then came that pit road high-five that went on forever. Seems like every single member of every pit crew was out there. February 15, 1998 and the hand shakes that went on for 1/2 mile. The famous slide through the grass.....the donuts that have been often imitated but never duplicated. And that smile. You couldn't get it off his face no matter what. He lit up SportsCenter that night like few have ever done. He was giggling like a schoolgirl and made Kenny Mayne look mature!

Then we remember how we felt just four years ago. The track he lived for had taken him from us. Maybe that's how it was meant to be all along.....

There'll never be a Daytona 500 where we don't remember DE.

Daytona More than a feeling....

2005-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

With Daytona approaching, I guess it's natural to reflect on prior seasons and races there. It's been the home of some really great races. We've seen monkey's removed from great racers backs, we've seen no names win, we've even seen team dominations.

But the bottom line is that Daytona is the place where dreams are made. Not just for race car drivers but fans as well. Don't tell me you won't be on the edge of your seat when that green flag drops Sunday. Don't tell me you won't have made a special trip to the grocery for cooking out.

Some of racing's most memorable moments have been at Daytona. The classic fight is arguably what started putting NASCAR on the map. There is something awfully special about a race track that size near a beach. If you've ever been you know that part of the fun of Daytona is running into a driver during speedweeks at the pool of thier hotel or on the beach.

Let's go racin.....

Bloggin SCF style

2005-02-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Call me addicted.... I love the blogging concept. First I'll address the blogging. The question was asked in a comment, what is the difference between this (blogging) and a message board. Well the biggest difference is that it is moderated. I pretty much set the topic and off you go. Blogs are like news stories, expect more slanted toward the opinion of the author i.e. me.

I like to think of blogs (well this one at least) as juicy little tidbits from the mind of a race-fan. Henry will be a blogger as well. Many of you know Henry from the newsletters. He's got a unique perspective on racing and is SUPER knowledgable.

More blogs to follow...

First Post

2005-02-16T04:28:00.001-08:00

As promised here is Stockcarfans.com first blog post. We've been excited about this for some time now. Thanks to Ron Felix at InsiderRacingnews.com for the great idea to use this website to do it.

As I posted the newsletter today, I noticed a story about Dale Jr. and his comments about the movie 3. That has my vote for the news nugget of the day. I loved his comment about ESPN trying to sqeeze all the one liners into one move and especially loved the comment "I if I would have kicked over any feed Daddy would have kicked my butt".

I'll be shaping this website up a bit later today. As I mentioned I am going to take tomorrow off so that I can watch the races and do some special coverage for those that want to follow along from the office that aren't able to actually see the race live.

Everyone have a great day and thanks for blogging with me.