STAR POWER: Whenever someone talks about it being a bad idea for all the Cup drivers to keep running in the Truck and Grand National races, one of the arguments used to defend that practice goes like this: at tracks that don’t have Cup races, this is the only way for those fans to see these Cup drivers run. In other words, people go to the races to see those Cup drivers, not the Grand National or Truck drivers. I think that argument got thoroughly discredited over the weekend with the lousy attendance at the Superspeedway. Or maybe they are right, and it’s just that Harvick, Busch, and Edwards aren’t the stars people think they are.

LYING LEFFLER: NASCAR really needs to do something about idiots on the track. Case in point: Jason Leffler (see Carl Edwards at Talladega). Leffler thought he was hit on purpose by a rookie driver which caused him to wreck. So, he pulls an Edwards: they get the car running well enough to go back out 60 or so laps down. Then he intentionally wrecks James Buescher and then has the gall to lie about it on national TV. NASCAR parked him, but what they really need to do is have a rule that says if you’re down more than 10% of the laps in a race, don’t bother coming back out. It’s also a safety issue: how many cautions have had to be thrown because a car comes back out leaking oil or shedding sheet metal?

PHANTOM CAUTIONS: I’d meant to say something about this last time, but I just forgot. At Martinsville, that last caution was completely inconsistent with how NASCAR had been calling the race. There were several instances where cars slowed on the track or were spun, but NASCAR held off on throwing the caution flag. Then in the last few laps a car spins and gets going, and they throw the caution?

LENGTHY CAUTIONS: And while I’m on the subject of cautions, I don’t know why NASCAR seems to think that they need to give the drivers time to pit when the caution comes out. The purpose of a caution should be to clean up the track… period. If it takes 15 laps or 1 lap, when the track is clean, they need to give the one to go signal. I know they have these so-called “quickie” cautions, where they let everyone pit, but I’m talking about these cautions where there’s nothing happening on the track and they just go on and on. There’s no need for it that I can see.

BY THE TIME I GET TO…: If NASCAR ever decided to shorten the Cup season to 30 races, Phoenix is a track they could eliminate completely.

FOUR WIDE, BABY! - A few years ago, John Force and his family had a reality show called Driving Force. Watching that got me a little interested in watching drag racing…not to the extent that I planned my weekends around it, but if I happened to be channel surfing and came across it, I’d stop and watch. And that’s about the extent of my interest these days. But when I heard that they were going to race four wide at Charlotte last weekend, I had to make sure I watched. I set the DVR for the Saturday qualifying and the race on Sunday. Saturday during Funny Car qualifying,  two cars lost their bodies in the same race. That was quite a site, and thankfully, no one was hurt (one guy even made it to the finals). The rain on Sunday forced the postponement of the Funny Car and Top Fuel finals, so I didn’t get to see that until I got home. The above mentioned John Force won the race, with his daughter Ashley finishing second. I have to say the four-wide format is a lot more interesting than two wide. I was surprised that the grandstands were only about half full; I would have thought the uniqueness of the format would have drawn a full house. Ah well, Bruton Smith says he’s going to build another one in Las Vegas. Maybe it’ll catch on.

ECONOMICS 101: It’s no secret that NASCAR races are no longer selling out. Bristol had tickets available on race day I hear. I think NASCAR needs to hire an economist. And the first thing that economist will tell them is that when there’s too much supply and not enough demand, you’ve got a problem. What NASCAR needs to do is remove about six races from the season. They go to some tracks twice that they shouldn’t even go to once. Fewer races should meet the current demand, and give the sport time to grow back into a longer season schedule.

PROMOTION 101: Bruton Smith’s four-wide drag strip is an example of a promoter thinking outside the box. NASCAR needs to do the same thing to garner more interest in their product. Here are some ideas stolen taken from Saturday night races:

1. Double points – have two or three double-points races during the season. That would give some drivers a chance to make up some ground. Having those at places like Talladega and Bristol would make it even more interesting.
2. Heat races – we already have “heat races” to determine the starting lineup at the Daytona 500. Why not do it at a few other tracks? Have four heat races with the top five in each race moving to a semi-final.  Then the top five in each semi move on to the final.
3. 50 lap points races – Remove the pit crews from the equation, and put the whole thing in the drivers’ hands. Take the top 10 or 20 from qualifying or heat races, and let them go.

NASCAR needs to realize soon they need to do something to get their product back in the minds of sports fans.

MARTINSVILLE: And finally, how about that finish at Martinsville? I DVR’d the race, and unfortunately, wasn’t able to avoid finding out who won. So rather than sit through three hours of the race, I watched it on 2x Fast Forward. I could still see who was leading and only slowed it down to see what caused the cautions. But I did watch the last 30 laps in real time. Knowing who the winner was, it was interesting to see how that last pit stop played out. Not sure if it was luck or skill that won the race, but congrats to Hamilin for making it exciting.

OLD TIMERS: I tuned in to see the last 20 or so laps of the old timer’s race at Bristol on Saturday. The concept of the race is interesting, but the reality of it is that some drivers are too old to be in it. Think about it: their reflexes are not what they used to be, but they’re still going 120 mph around the track… in late model cars. Despite what the announcers said about “how safe” the cars are, both drivers that were involved in that late-race wreck were knocked out, and it’s a wonder neither of them were killed. Put them in Legends cars at Charlotte and let them have at it, or put them in retired Cup cars with smaller engines so they can have the benefit of truly safer cars, or make them take a reflex test before they can drive in it.

SPOILER ISSUES: No, this isn’t about NASCAR going back to spoilers in the Cup series. This about ESPN interviewing the winner of the Grand National race during the red flag period of the old timers’ race. I had just started watching the race on my DVR and saw the promo for the old timers’ race, so I decided to stop watching it and watch the old timers’ race. Then ESPN interviews the winner of the Grand National race, and that left me with no reason to watch it. Thanks ESPN. I guess you don’t understand that a lot of folks have better things to do on a Saturday than sit in front of a TV watching a race. I watch races on my own time, not yours.

THE FEUD: Everyone’s been talking about Brad and Carl’s feud. Most of the talk seems to be centered around how Brad deserved what he got because he has a “reputation” for wrecking people. You’re kidding, right? He deserved a cheap shot by a driver who only came back on the track to wreck him? <sarcasm> NASCAR put Edwards on double secret probation for three races, so I’m sure that got his attention and he’ll never do it again </sarcasm>. Maybe Keselowski has wrecked a lot of people; I don’t know. But it reminds me of when Ernie Irvin came on the scene and got the same kind of reputation. He finally saw the error of his ways and apologized to everyone at a drivers’ meeting. Or when Kyle Busch moved to NASCAR, he wrecked everything but the pace car. Or even someone named Carl Edwards, who also wrecked his share of people when he started. The point is, racing contact is one thing, but intentionally assaulting someone is something completely different.

BRISTOL: I’ll have to say I liked the Cup race more than I thought I would, even with Johnson’s win.  There were enough lead changes to keep the race interesting, and no one was able to get the lead and run away with it. That’s all I ask as a fan.

LAPS-DOWN DRIVERS: That brings up another point: should a driver who can no longer make up any laps be allowed to stay on the track? Edwards premeditated attack on Keselowski would not have been possible if NASCAR had a rule that prevented drivers back on the track if there’s no way they can make up any laps on their next competitor.

AN EXCITING FINISH (NOT): Edwards also robbed the fans of an exciting finish in the making. It was evident that Montoya was going to challenge Kurt Busch for the win, but Edwards idiocy quashed that.

HEY, JACK, HERE’S THE BILL FOR MY CAR: Penske and the 7 or so teams who wrecked after the first green/white/checkers should send Jack Roush and Carl Edwards the bill for the repair of their cars.

EXCITEMENT: The Atlanta race was definitely better than the Las Vegas race. While a leader would get out ahead by a couple of seconds, he couldn’t stay there.  The cars behind would gradually reel him in, and pretty soon there was a challenge for the lead.

BRISTOL: Bristol is up next, and I’m probably in the minority on this when I say that I’m not really looking forward to it. I’m not sure why people think the Bristol races are so great. NASCAR is starting way too many cars for that size track. Maybe there’ll be a dozen start-and-parkers who’ll pull off after a couple of laps.

BIFFLE KUDOS: Good on you, Greg Biffle, for buying a short track to keep it running. I wish that were an option for the Fairgrounds Speedway here in Nashville, but short-sited elitist leaders are trying to get rid of racing as fast as they’re running off the music tourism industry.

ANOTHER SNOOZER: Two snoozers in a row for NASCAR. Too bad that yellow light didn’t malfunction more often.

CROWD CONTROL: Those stands sure did look pretty full during the Cup race. But then I looked closer and it seems that in the first 10 or 15 rows of one section, the seats were painted random colors to appear as if someone was sitting in it. I guess that’s one way to do it.

THAT’S IT: Normally I’d try to come up with several more of these little RacinDeals, but there’s just nothing worth my time. Maybe Atlanta next week will give us one of those close finishes again.

WHERE’S DANICA?: I watched the whole Grand National race on Saturday,  and not once did the announcers update us on where Danica Patrick was running. Not once! No, not once, but about 30 times it seemed. I have to agree with Kyle Busch on this one: she hasn’t done  anything to garner that kind of attention, other than being female. And it’s really kind of sexist if you ask me. I thought it was very interesting that the ESPN announcers quickly tried to lower expectations for Danica by telling us how other Indy Car drivers did in their races at California Speedway. They didn’t give us any context, just finish positions (would have been nice to know if any of those drivers led or was taken out in a wreck not their fault).

START TIMES: I’ve seen ads on Speed touting the  consistent start times for Cup races. Apparently Fox doesn’t expect its viewers to know the difference between when a race starts and when coverage starts. The TV listings showed the race starting at 2:00 pm, when in fact it actually started at 3:00 pm (actual green flag was closer to 3:15 pm). Fox needs to separate their pre-race coverage from the actual race coverage. I nearly wasted a whole hour of DVR recording time because of their fake start time.

YAWN: Wake me when the race is over. If ever there was a race that indicated a need for competition cautions, that was it. And the Grand National race would have been the same except for the green/white/checker finish.

IS DIGGER WITH DANICA?: I noticed a lack of the stupid cartoon “Digger” during the first half of the race. And in the second half, they only showed the cartoon during caution laps. Maybe they finally got the message that people didn’t want a cartoon taking up half the screen when they were racing.

NO, LITTLE E IS WITH DANICA: Was last week a fluke for the 88 team? Are they back to their back-marker ways? Is he regretting leaving his dad’s team now?

THE PACE CAR: I wonder if NASCAR had to install one of those ignition cut-off switches in the pace car?

Look: I don’t have anything against Danica Patrick. I hope she’s successful in NASCAR. But you know and I know that she wouldn’t be getting 1/10th the attention she’s getting if she was ugly (or a guy). She’s an above average IndyCar driver who’s managed to get one victory in all her IndyCar starts. And with a field of only about 20 cars, it’s pretty easy to get top tens.  I’d be more impressed with her move to NASCAR if she’s won a championship or two. Heck, when Dario Franchitti moved to NASCAR in 2008, he’d already won an IndyCar championship and a few races. I daresay that he got nowhere near the publicity in his whole NASCAR career than Patrick has gotten in two stock car races.

IN THE BOOTH: ESPN has to have the worst announcers in the booth of any of the networks. Keep Dale Jarrett and replace Petree and the other guy. Bring back Bob Jenkins, please! Buddy Baker would be good to get back into the booth too.

WILL THE REAL START TIME PLEASE STAND UP: Speaking of ESPN, they had the start time of the Nationwide race at noon my time. I didn’t find that out until about 12:40. I ran downstairs thinking I’d missed the first 30 or so laps, only to find out that I’d only missed one green flag lap and they were under caution on lap four. So I didn’t really miss anything. Maybe ESPN didn’t get the memo to distinguish between the pre-race show and the race coverage. They should have said “pre-race show starts at noon, and race coverage begins at 12:30″.

And Fox wasn’t any better. I had the 500 set to record on my DVR, and the start time that Fox had was an hour earlier than the actual race. I know they want to get people to watch their pre-race shows, but I’m just not interested anymore. Ten years ago, yeah. But not today. And I don’t appreciate being tricked into watching it… and I just fast-forwarded past all that junk anyway.

MAKING THE RACE: I wish they would go back to the old method of selecting the starting field for the 500. With thirty-five guaranteed spots, it takes the drama out of the qualifying races. But I guess NASCAR got tired of some of their big names not making the race.

THE GREAT AMERICAN RACE: As far as the 500 itself goes, it was probably one of the better ones I’ve seen in a while. I’ll admit that I was wrong in predicting that NASCAR would chicken out on the larger restrictor plate, and I’m glad they stuck with the bigger one. Good to see another Roush refugee do good. And Little Earnhardt brought back memories of the fall 2000 Talladega race, his dad’s last win, with his move from 10th to 2nd.

LETTING THE DRIVERS DRIVE: I’m sure the NASCAR brass has broken their arms patting themselves on the back for “putting it back in the drivers’ hands”. But it never should have been taken out of their hands to begin with.

WAITER, THERE’S A HOLE IN MY TRACK: The Daytona track management should be embarrassed. Their “we’ll be racing in 10 minutes” turned into 100 minutes, and then they used the wrong patching material and had to stop the race again. There’s no excuse for that, at all. If I’d been at the race in person I’d have wanted some of my money back.

DANICA, PART DEUX: Next week is California Speedway, or whatever they’re calling it now. The Danica show will be on Saturday, and the Cup teams will run Sunday.

The big news (as expected) is Danica Patrick. She ran in the 80-lap ARCA race and finished a respectable 6th. But she was nearly overshadowed by one of the other 5 women in the field, Alli Owens, who used some pit strategy and ran in third for most of the last half of the race, while Danica was recovering from a trip through the infield grass.

Now we hear that Patrick will be running in the Nationwide race Saturday. I personally think it’s a big mistake. The Nationwide Series is not ARCA. Where you might have only had two or three good drivers in the ARCA race, a lot of the Cup drivers will be in the Nationwide race, so the level of competition will be orders of magnitude higher.  I just hope that the reporters  give her the attention she deserves, and no more.

Is Junior back? He qualified on the outside pole for the 500 and only he and his teammate, Mark Martin, have guaranteed starting positions. The rest of the field will have to sort themselves out in one of the two qualifying races on Thursday. Obviously, it’s too early to tell if Little Earnhardt is back, but starting up front certainly helps.

Getting back to the ARCA race for a minute, I really liked the way Darrell Waltrip and Phil Parsons worked together in the booth. It was much less “frantic” than when Larry McReynolds is in there. Larry Mac is a good pit reporter; why doesn’t Fox hire Parsons and put McReynolds in the pits?

The Bud Shootout was Saturday night. I have to say, I don’t think it bodes well for the 500. It was another “get out front and no one can pass you” race. Of course, I could be wrong; the teams could have done stuff to those cars for that race that they’d never think about doing for the 500. I hope so.

I have to say that I’m surprised that NASCAR still hasn’t messed with the plates yet. I predicted that they’d go to a smaller plate before the race, and I’m sure they could still do that. I suspect that if too many cars get airborne on Thursday, they’ll change the plate then.

I’m DVR’ing the races on Thursday, so I’m going to have to decide whether to keep up with the race as best I can during the day, or avoid all racing news and be surprised as I watch them when I get home.

But while giving a nod to the past with the spoiler, he wants to usher in the future by abandoning carburetors and going with fuel injection in 2011. That should be interesting to police.

So, in the spirit of the new NASCAR “populism”, I have some suggestions to improve the sport.

• Since there are so many empty seats at Talladega and Daytona nowadays, why not just eliminate the first 10 rows and move all those folks back from the track. Then you could eliminate the restrictor plates altogether and not have to worry about a car getting into the fans.
• Eliminate the stupid “chase” gimmick. Last year, Jimmy Johnson won most of his 7 races in the 10-race Chase. The year before, Kyle Busch won all of his 8 races leading up to the Chase, and had a commanding lead until they reshuffled the points. He ultimately finished in tenth place. The Chase format allows a driver to pretty much coast his way into a championship scenario, and then start really racing in the last ten races. That’s how Johnson has won his last two championships; he’s done enough to stay in the top five all year, and then once the Chase starts, they kick it up a notch. Or, a driver who dominated all season can have a couple of bad races and pretty much end his chances at a championship. If all 36 races had the same level of importance, then a driver wouldn’t be able to coast to a championship, or a couple of bad races wouldn’t hurt him so bad.
• Stop competing against local tracks. The Saturday night races kill attendance at the local tracks. NASCAR seems to be doing its best to eat its seed corn. Sure, a few high profile drivers have come from the open-wheel ranks, but it generally takes those folks several years to get acclimated (if they ever do) to cars with fenders. You just don’t hear about drivers coming up from the local tracks like you used to. I think that’s because NASCAR has abandoned its roots. Sure, it might be interesting to watch Danica Patrick and see how many cautions she brings out, but I’d much rather see someone like Casey Atwood in that car.
• Actually enforce the multi-car rule. You’re supposed to only be able to own four teams, but with all the weird deals going on, you have owners like Hendrick who have an interest in teams that are supposedly owned by others (e.g. Stewart/Hass). I’d be happier with a two-car rule per team, which would allow as many as 20 or so owners. Right now the four-car limit also limits the number of owners to around 10. That’s too few.
• Eliminate the “diversity” program. It’s racist. NASCAR shouldn’t be basing diversity on skin color.

I’m sure I’ll be able to think up a few more changes that NASCAR should make as the season starts, but this’ll do for now.

Since Dale Earnhardt, Sr. died on the track, NASCAR has made safety their number one priority… to the detriment of the sport. They’ve forced drivers to wear devices attached to their helmets, they’ve put roof-flaps on the cars, they’ve even completely redesigned the car. While it’s great to try to make the sport as safe as possible, in the end, it’s still a dangerous sport.

NASCAR mistook the jump in popularity after Earnhardt’s death as people being actually interested in the sport and becoming fans. What I think really happened is that people tuned in to see who would get killed next.

Before I go too much further, I can see where some might think I’m advocating making the sport more dangerous to the extent that it kills someone so that the popularity goes back up. I’m just stating what I think has happened, not what should happen.

Anyway, here are a few of the changes in the Cup Series and what I think about them:

• Bump-drafting will be allowed again. This was one of those safety over reactions that resulted in one of the most boring races I’ve ever seen. Should make the restrictor plate races more interesting.
• Larger restrictor plates at Daytona. My prediction is that they’ll be smaller before the actual race. NASCAR will lose its nerve and change them after the qualifying races.
• Replacing the wing with a spoiler. I’m not so sure about this one. The reasoning is apparently to make the cars easier to drive. Uh, excuse me, but isn’t the ability to drive an ill-handling car part of the sport? How many times did Earnhardt, Sr. take an ill-handling car to victory lane? And it seems to me that they’re missing out on a legitimate safety improvement: they put a hinge on the front-facing side of the wing, and when the car goes backwards, the wing pops up (like the roof flap) and helps keep the car on the ground.
• The “promotion” of John Darby. Yeah, that was a promotion all right. I think he was made the scapegoat for the lousy competition last year.

NASCAR also announced some changes in the Nationwide and Truck Series.

• Nationwide teams will be limited to 15 crew members. NASCAR is making a lame attempt at helping teams curtail the costs of running in the series. That just gives the rich teams more money to spend back at the shop. They didn’t really address the real problem with the Nationwide Series, and that’s the 10 or 15 Cup drivers who seem to be in each Nationwide race. In the past, I’ve not really advocated limiting the number of Cup drivers who can run in a Nationwide race, but I’m beginning to change my thinking on that. I do have a couple of ideas that might help though:
  • Make drivers in each series declare what championship they’re going to run for. You want to run all races in the Cup and Nationwide series? Fine, but you can only run for the championship in one of them.
  • Only allow the top three fastest Cup drivers to run in a Nationwide or Truck race. This would apply to Cup drivers in the top 15 in Cup points. That would still allow teams with inexperienced drivers to get the track time in the lower series, while leaving spots open for full-time Nationwide teams.
• The Truck Series will use double-file restarts. Eh. I don’t think that whole double-file restart thing was as exciting as everyone hoped it would be. I remember when drivers were able to earn their laps back by actually racing for them. That’s no longer the case. Ah well.
• The Truck Series will go back to traditional pit stops. This was one of the most stupid rules I’ve ever seen, where they couldn’t fuel and change tires on the same stop. Frankly, I wish the Truck Series would go back to its roots: have a 10 minute time out in the middle of the race. That would do more to reduce costs than anything. I remember Bobby Hamilton racing in one of the first Truck races at the Fairgrounds here in Nashville. He had a couple of guys and a small toolbox. That was his pit crew.

I’ll give NASCAR credit, they may have finally realized that people actually want to be entertained while watching a race. I hope the changes make the races more exciting. I guess we’ll see.