Chevy Dominance and Gordon's Goof

Tech Inspection

 

NASCAR, over the last 10+ years, has been elusively chasing manufacturer parity, the idea that no matter whether you ran Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, Pontiac or Ford, it would come down to the team and the driver to win races.  The new car is supposed to be as equal as is possible.  But how, if at all, does NASCAR respond when all the top teams seem to be Chevrolet teams anyway? 

I don't think it's a matter of a Chevy advantage, I think it's just a combination of a little coincidence, cooperation and the prevalence of big multicar teams that has brought about this Chevrolet dominance.

The success of Hendrick, the resurgence of Childress, and strong running by a couple Gibbs cars and a couple DEI cars (a total of 11 cars - over one fourth of the field), combined with a Roush team not as strong as in years past and the struggles of Yates, Petty, and Evernham have combined to make the races look like an All Chevy Show. 

Whether it lasts or not, I don't think it should be up to NASCAR to "fix" the situation.  Take Ford for example.  Wood Brothers hasn't been really competitive in years. Yates almost didn't exist this year.  But if Roush isn't winning races, well, there must be something wrong with the Fords, and they need help, right? 

As much as I like Michael Waltrip or Carl Edwards, I'd really hate to see them get to Victory Lane because NASCAR twiddled with the cars to get the Toyotas or the Fords running closer to the Hendrick Chevys. 

As long as NASCAR can assure that all the cars and engines are equal between manufacturers, they should just let the chips fall where they may, because "fixing" parity issues sometimes just results in a free ride to victory lane for someone who didn't earn their way there. 

Tech Inspection II

 

One of the commentators of the Indy race at Michigan this weekend commented on the safety aspect of all that tech wizardry and telemetry in the current IRL car.  Danica Patrick was losing a pound of pressure a lap in her right rear tire, and she was able to bring it into the pits safely before the tire went down.  Had she been in a stock car, she might not have known she had a tire problem until she was sliding backwards into the turn 1 wall. 

If NASCAR is concerned about introducing too much technology into the car setups, which would change the dynamic of NASCAR dramatically, they could always monitor the tires themselves and issue black flags when a tire goes critical, before it pops and causes a wreck.  Just a thought. 

Qualifying

 

Congratulations to Michael Waltrip Racing, for the Pocono race was the first race this season where Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann all drove together.  The cars all drove together at Infineon, but P.J. Jones drove the 00 car and Terry Labonte was in the 55. 

Yellow Flag

 

I seem to be the only person of this opinion, but I think NASCAR got it right when they penalized Robby Gordon.  All they had to do was explain it all.  Robby Gordon was sent back to 13th for failing to slow down under caution, i.e. by passing Marcos Ambrose.  Why NASCAR didn't penalize Ambrose for the spin of Gordon is beyond me.  And when NASCAR tells you to do go to a certain spot in line, and you respond by starting where you damn well feel like, and blatantly spin out a race leader, I'm surprised that the one race in Pocono is all that Robby Gordon will miss. 

Checkered Flag

 

It doesn't matter how good your case is in court if you go about presenting it the wrong way.  Whether or not he thought the facts on Saturday were in his favor, the way Robby Gordon presented his case didn't seem to win favor with the NASCAR judge, now did it?  NASCAR has admitted mistakes in the past and re-awarded race wins after the fact.  Lee Petty at Daytona and Wendell Scott come to mind. 

However, in those situations the drivers handled themselves much differently.  So instead of a NASCAR official tapping Kevin Harvick on the shoulder and saying, "I'm sorry, but...," NASCAR suspended Gordon for the Pocono race, saying "The way he performed and his actions on the track, in our mind, certainly disrupted the conduct of that event.  We're not going to permit that, we're not going to allow that.  It's way over the line when it comes to conduct to on the track." (from NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp) 

On top of that, he kind of ended up looking like an idiot, putting on a show of doing a burnout like he won the race right next to Kevin Harvick.  I've heard nothing but good things about Robby outside of his car, interacting with the fans or signing autographs, and it's just another example of how personalities change when they strap themselves into a race car.  It's too bad we can't get Autograph Session Robby in a race now and then. 

The Postrace Show

 

Don't forget the Governor's Cup reuinions at The Milwaukee Mile (August 24-26) is coming up soon!  For more information, read the press release.

MWR's Future, The Stewart Storm, and My Own Personal Sponsor Troubles

Qualifying

 

Coming into the 2007 season with about 50 teams competing for 43 spots, I had thought it just a matter of time before the slower teams lost sponsors, ran out of money and stayed home, eventually making it easier for the survivors to make the show. 

Michael Waltrip Racing is, from all I can read from here, a well-funded team with great manufacturer support.  He and Dale Jarrett are great spokespersons who can, even missing the show, get their sponsor more TV time than some of the teams that are in the top 35, and so MWR's managed to hold on to all of its major sponsors.  Their reward is now that the first of their competitors has fallen. 

While the 15 team is now locked into the top 35, that still leaves the former 13 and 14 cars out of the events.  Two less cars competing for 43 spots is a plus for any team not in the top 35 in owner points.  Roush will also have to come to Daytona in 2008 minus one car, while other major teams have already maxed themselves out at 4 cars.  If NAPA, UPS and Domino's can remain patient, 2008 looks to be a better year for MWR and all the other teams not in the top 35 right now. 

Pace Lap

 

Ed Hinton's Sunday prerace column had the title, "A Stewart storm could be brewing." He not only won the race, but did so in a way I've never seen before. He made it look easy at a track that has been heartbreaking for so many talented drivers over the decades. But remember sometimes as one storm passes the next is just on the horizon. And you have to look no further back than second place in Sunday's race to see that Hurricane Juan just might be forming in the distance. 

And now a word from our sponsors...

 

Much to the chagrin of those advertisers who spend millions upon millions of dollars in NASCAR, to put their logo on the car and then millions more to build an advertising campaign around the driver and team, I often don't buy the products of the drivers I follow. 

The best example of this is with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  As much as I've criticized him in the past, I do actually like the guy.  But I don't drink alcohol, so there's no Budweiser in my cooler.  Nor do I buy a lot of merchandise of his.  I have a few die cast cars, but nothing with the Budweiser logos.  Why?  Because the Bud cars that Action can never seem to produce enough of go for prices outside what I'm willing to spend on a die cast car, and the $18 Winner's Circle cars in Wal-Mart are fakes with the JR Motorsports logo in place of the Bud logos.  They did, however, make the yellow Nilla Wafers car and the Taco Bell car, and I've added those to my collection.  I've also got a lot of Dale Jr. cards in my collection with the Budweiser logos washed out red or replaced with another logo. 

So, despite the fact that millions of fans are understandably sad that their collections of red number 8 merchandise will be out-of-date very shortly, I'm kinda excited.  I don't use a Sony computer or TV, but I do have a PlayStation 2, so I use one of Sony's products (a little too frequently sometimes, if you ask my wife).  Mountain Dew's name was thrown around as a potential sponsor, and I drink that (I brought a cold diet Dew with me to work this morning).  Next year I could be able to find affordable die cast Mountain Dew or Sony cars at the local Wal-Mart, the cards won't have their logos edited out of them, and I'll be able to get Dale Jr. stuff for my 2 year old son without wondering how soon it'll be until he asks what Budweiser is, or how I'll have to respond.  So I'm looking forward to a new sponsor for Dale's car. 

Black Flag

 

Tony Stewart dedicated his win at the Brickyard to his fans who have to put up with some...stuff...from fans of other drivers.  Between this incident and comparing NASCAR to pro wrestling, I can't imagine NASCAR's executives being too happy with Tony.  But for the most patriotic of major American sports to stifle the freedom of speech of its drivers is, to borrow Tony's term, bullshit.  There's a valid reason Tony compared NASCAR to pro wrestling, and maybe there's something going on in the stands that would make people feel less than welcome at a NASCAR race (I've heard a few stories, but anecdotal evidence tends to be unreliable).  In either case, maybe NASCAR should be less concerned with the words and more concerned about why they were said. 

The Postrace Show

 

This year's Governor's Cup events at the historic Milwaukee Mile (August 24-26) includes a reunion of the "Aero Cars:" Superbirds, Torinos and Daytonas.  There will also be a reunion of ARCA and USAC drivers, including former USAC and ARCA champion Ramo Stott as grand marshal.  For more information, read the press release. 

I know many readers will see a farily common multi-part article format here, but the credit for the inspiration really goes to Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.  I used to have little comments and ideas that never really were important enough to rate writing a whole article on, and one day reading Neil's column I just got the idea to put them all together under subititles with a common theme.  Thanks, Neil.

For those of you who have comments that you'd like to make to the world of NASCAR fans, send them to me at admin@carsandracingstuff.com and you might see them in a future column.