"Parity" doesn't have to restrict competition

From its very beginnings, NASCAR has attempted to impose parity among the teams participating in the races they sanction. From the very beginning, car owners and drivers have been trying to find a way to get an edge on the competition by going around the rules and finding "gray areas."

NASCAR began as a "strictly stock" series, where the only modifications allowed to the cars was to tape the headlights and bolt the doors shut. The "strictly stock" rules only lasted all of 1949 and 1950, because, after constantly having to disqualify cars because of modifications, NASCAR conceded to the owners that modifications were part of the competition.

Since then there have always been parameters within which the teams can modify their cars, but there has also been some leeway in which the teams can try to find a competitive edge. As the NASCAR version of the stock car evolved, so did the methods in which the teams and even the manufacturers "tweaked" their cars to make them run better than the competition. Notorious "tweakings" were Chrysler's Hemi engine, which was disallowed by NASCAR in the mid sixties, and Chrysler's flying wing, which was also disallowed by NASCAR in 1971, and resulted in Chrysler's withdrawal from NASCAR competition as a manufacturer.

In 2007, NASCAR began introducing what was then known as the "Car of Tomorrow" or CoT to the series. The idea behind the car was twofold--safety and parity. Now known as the "Car of Today (CoT)," the "Car of Right Now (CoRN)," or simply "the Cup car," absolutely no aerodynamic modifications to the body or the rear wing are allowed. In addition, NASCAR dictates what rear end gearing can be used, and how far the rear end tracking can be offset. This was supposed to even things up between the well financed and the not-so-well financed teams. It was also meant as a way to cut costs for the teams and sponsors.

While there have been some good races this year, most notably at Lowe's, Phoenix, Talladega, and Martinsville, the Cup car has shown that it still needs a lot of work. Often, "parity" becomes "mediocrity," as the cars are able to catch up to other cars, but unable to complete a pass while racing wheel to wheel. In order to leave the fans completely satisfied at a race, NASCAR needs to allow more competition by allowing the teams to do a little more with the aerodynamics, and allow some experimentation with the other aspects of the car. Until the introduction of the Cup car, the crew chiefs could custom fit the car's handling characteristics to the driver's wants and needs, but now, with specifications nearly as limited as they were in the "strictly stock" days, that has become much harder to do.

If NASCAR wants to find the competitive edge among the teams that would keep the fans happy, while maintaining some semblance of parity, they might want to consider administrively limiting the amount of money a team may spend on a car during the racing season. This would be similar to the salary caps imposed in other professional sports.

It has been estimated that it costs about $7 million to run one race car in the Sprint Cup Series for an entire season. That includes the construction of the car and its engines, testing costs, transportation, salaries, tires, repairs, and entry fees. "Testing" doesn't include wind tunnels and seven post shaker rigs, those are extra. If NASCAR were to limit all teams to $7,000,000 per car, if that were possible, that would be a type of parity. But there would still be engineers and crew chiefs on each team who would want to change something on the car, and they would. In that case there would still be competition within the limits of parity. The downside would be that, just as in the "parity" we see now, innovation would be strictly limited.

Of course, NASCAR is correct in not trying to impose spending. It probably would take too much administration, and would also be an overstepping of authority by the sanctioning body. The idea of the teams having their financial records under review by NASCAR would not sit well. The best sponsors want to see the teams they sponsor have a competitive edge, and will provide as much financial support as is needed. As private corporations, the teams and their sponsors would be free to go to another series and race at venues not sanctioned by NASCAR, if they didn't like the rules that NASCAR imposed. It would likely result in NASCAR losing its top notch participants, and tranfering their power and prestige to, for instance, a new sanctioning body organized by Bruton Smith.*

*In 2004, Bruton Smith was rumored to be involved with Cale Yarborough in forming a new series featuring more traditional style stock car racing than NASCAR offers, but the idea never got off the ground due to lack of interest by sponsors and team owners.

Something that would make the cars race better would be to have tires that were made for the Cup car. NASCAR is still using tires designed by Goodyear for the conventional racing stock car. Since the Cup car has far less downforce than the conventional car, the tires either provide not enough grip to make the car controllable at high speeds, as we saw earlier this year at Atlanta and Texas, or have a compound so soft it does not hold up to the rigors of the track itself, as we saw at Indianapolis and Las Vegas. The Cup car requires a wider tire that would provide more grip while using a rubber compound that would stand up to the track conditions.

Goodyear, who has an exclusive contract with NASCAR through 2012, is working on a tire that would fit the needs of the Cup car, but that tire is not expected to be available for two more years.
This leaves the responsibility for better racing now in the hands of NASCAR.

Putting louvered vents on the left side of the car that would allow air to pass through the oil tank container would give the car a little more downforce, without affecting the aerodynamic characteristics of the car itself. That would be a quick fix that would not require an overall redesign of the body, and would not be too expensive for the teams to implement. Several teams, including the #99 team of Roush-Fenway Racing, tried to get away with leaving the lid of the oil tank container loose to allow air to pass through, so it must be a good idea.

The most practical thing for NASCAR to do right now is to allow a little more adjustment. Raising the front splitter would provide a little more downforce on the front end of the car. NASCAR could allow more adjustment on the rear wing as well, giving the teams a little more leeway. The #66 and #70 teams got caught a few weeks ago trying to raise the rear wing by 1/32 inches, so, again, it must be a good idea.

At Lowe's, for the Coca Cola 600 this year, we saw some great racing. This could be attributed to the fact that NASCAR allowed the teams extensive testing at that track, and also allowed the teams to offset the rear tracking of the car by so much it seemed as thought the cars were crabwalking around the track. This required a tougher differential and rear axle, so, NASCAR, in trying to limit the cost to the teams, limited the rear end offset to 1/2 inch. If NASCAR could ease up on that restriction, and allow the teams up to 1/4 inch offset more, we may get to see, once again, the kind of racing we saw at Lowe's.

It was wrong, in our opinion, for NASCAR to design this car and then leave it up to the teams to figure out how to make it race well, without allowing more tolerance within which the teams could work than they have.

Granted, for the second time around at the tracks, the racing is expected to be better than the first time, because the teams have had some experience at those tracks. But it has become obvious that more testing is needed at each track before the teams race at each track, and NASCAR has promised that more testing will be allowed next year. They have said, however, that there will be no more testing scheduled for this year. The problem is now, and we fear that the final race of the season at Homestead may be a disaster of the kind we saw at Indianapolis.

NASCAR needs to listen to the feedback given them by the teams, and relax the rules just a little bit this year, rather than waiting until next year. Parity shouldn't mean supressing innovation. It seems that a little bit would go a long way toward better racing.

NASCAR's first points race in the rain

It is much better to be sceptical of something, and be pleasently surprised afterwards, than it is to be optimistic and be bitterly disappointed. This is what we have learned over the last two weeks.

NASCAR had to have a lot of guts to experiment so soon after the tragic excuse for a race at the Brickyard last week. As far as this fan is concerned, it paid off.

NASCAR's experiment was the Nationwide Series NAPA 200 race in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Since rain was forecast in the area, NASCAR made the decision earlier this week to go with rain tires if they needed to. They did need them eight laps into the race.

There were some stumbles, and a little bit of stammering. But they somehow got it right. The first competition turn in the rain was not the disaster predicted by some--nobody crashed on the first turn--and there was actually some passing. In fact, Marcos Ambrose immediately passed Scott Pruett for the lead.

One of the things the teams learned was that, in the rain, they wanted the car to roll more as it turned, as the weight shift actually helped the car through the turns. So, some teams disconnected the sway bars when they switched tires. When it became evident that the track would stay wet, the other teams followed suit.

There were very few mishaps under green, and more racing than was expected. The drivers who had little experience in rain, gradually learned what they could and could not do, while the ran veterans ran quite competitively. Marcos Ambrose took a huge lead, but there was plenty of hard racing going on for second through tenth places behind him.

There were actually green-flag pit stops. Ron Fellows, driving the #5 car for JR Motorsports, pitted for fuel twelve laps ahead of schedule, hoping to gain positions when the other teams pitted. While the rest of the field pitted, beginning with around thirty-four laps to go, some teams took tires, while others took fuel only, and others had to stay in the pits to fix the windshield wipers or disengage the sway bars, if they hadn't already done so. Marcos Ambrose got caught speeding, on both the entry and exit on the pit lane. The drive through penalty didn't hurt him that much, as, after the pit stops cycled through, he came out in third. But third place was forty-seven seconds behind race leader Ron Fellows at that point.

Then the rain started to come down very hard. There is a point where the race just has to stop because of too much rain. The visibility was very bad, between the rain and the lack of light, so the caution came out. The visibility was so bad that Jaques Villeneuve hit the car in front of him, under caution, hard enough to damage his car beyond the ability to finish the race. This is where we learned that there is not much difference at all between a Villleneuve fan from Quebec and a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fan from North Carolina. The stands more than half-emptied at that point as the disappionted Villeneuve fans decided the race was over for them.

As it turned out, the race was over for everybody. Joey Logano, who had been doing a spectacular job in his first road race and rain race, running as high as fifth, lost traction, still under caution, and hit the wall hard. NASCAR red-flagged the race with 23 laps to go, giving Fellows his fourth Nationwide Series victory. Not bad for a part-time driver.

NASCAR's first ever points race in the rain was not a disappointment. We really didn't think the 3400 lb cars could put on a decent show in wet conditions, but they did. It wasn't the jump-up-and- down-yell-at-the-TV-set good of the the races we saw at Phoenix, Talladega, Lowe's, Richmond, and Martinsville, but it was chuckle-in-appreciation-and-rub-the-hands-together-in-gleeful-satisfaction good. There was more action than anticipated, and less tragedy than expected. And plenty of drama.

NASCAR had to put on a good show after the Brickyard, and, even though it wasn't the best race ever, making history was good this time.

Changes in the new car may happen, but when?

A few weeks ago, NASCAR officials held a meeting with the drivers and "asked" that they refrain from dissing the new Sprint Cup car in front of the press. It was widely known as the "shut up and drive" meeting. As we saw from Sunday's race, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, "shut up and drive" didn't seem to help the car at all, and may have hurt NASCAR's image some.

Now it isn't the drivers that are complaining about the car, having dutifully conformed to the sanctioning body's wishes, but it is the fans and the sports journalists who see the car as a disaster.

The 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard woke somebody up, it seems. According to reports on ESPN's NASCAR Now, both Mike Helton and Competition Director Robin Pemberton seemed to indicate Tuesday that they would consider a wider tire for the Sprint Cup Car. The wider tire would require a change in the body style of the new car, something NASCAR has previously said wouldn't happen.

Wider wheels on the car would help, as it would give the tires a bigger footprint on the track, which would mean more traction with a harder compound, and it would reduce the "billowing" effect on the sidewalls.

A New York Times article seems to confirm that NASCAR officials are considering changes:

“The fans didn’t get what they exactly wanted, and we’ll do everything in our power and it won’t happen again, I can tell you that much,” Pemberton said in a conference call. “So we’re going to put a lot of effort towards it and get a better plan moving forward.” (read entire article)

On this blog, we have suggested before that NASCAR should allow the teams a little more leeway in adjustments, and in finding ways to make the car work better with the tires they are given. More testing is needed, and Pemberton has indicated that there would be more testing in the future. However, NASCAR has also said that they will not add any additional open testing to the schedule this year.

So, it seems, things will get better, and nothing like what happened at IMS Sunday will happen again. We will just have to wait until the off season to get a view of what changes will be made for next year.

Not quite live on type delay: Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

This is a different kind of "live on type delay," because the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was a kind of race we have never seen before. Although it wasn't the greatest event for the fans to watch--for that matter it could be compared to the 2005 Formula 1 USGP in terms of disappointment--it was a race, and there was racing happening.

We can thank NASCAR and the teams for the fact that it wasn't the disaster the 2005 USGP was. The teams that were using Michelin tires for the Formula 1 event had serious safety issues with the tires at Indianapolis that year. They eventually refused to participate in the race, leaving only the teams that were using Bridgestones--a total of six cars in all--to compete in the event. That was a disaster.

The 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was also affected by tire issues. Montoya lost a tire on lap nine and spun out. After the caution on lap fourteen--involving Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch--the teams found out what kind of tire wear they were getting. The answer was complete tire wear, for there was very little rubber left on the tires used by all the teams during the first stint.

Excessive tire wear was expected during the first part of the race, until the surface was tempered by ground-in rubber during the course of the race. Except some of this surface tempering should have occurred during the practice sessions. It didn't happen. So problematic was the tire wear issue during the four practice sessions that NASCAR allowed the teams extra tire sets for practice.

So what was happening to the rubber that was supposed to be grinding into the track surface? It was turning into a fine powder, or dust that accumulated on the outer side of the track, and on the cars themselves. During the final practice session, Greg Biffle even experienced a fire in his car caused by the tire dust igniting.

So, by the time the second caution of the race occurred, just before a scheduled competition caution around lap 28, it was seen that tire wear would be a significant problem for the entire race. It did not seem that the surface was ever going to pick up the rubber it needed to create a better surface. NASCAR decided to run the remainder of the race in approximately ten lap stints. The race was restarted on lap 34, and the next scheduled caution was to be on lap 44. On lap 43, Matt Kenseth's car lost the right rear tire, which literally exploded, destroying the body work on the right rear of the car.

So the remainder of the race was run with a competition caution every ten laps, taking away any chance for pit strategy for fuel mileage, but allowing some teams to make the choice of two or four tire stops for position. Still, there was a race to be had, and it became obvious that the team that would win would be the team that had the best car to begin with, along with the best pit stops and whatever tire strategy there still was to be found.

In this type of race, there really wasn't much happening that could be described in play by play, which is why this "live on type delay" is more of an opinion and commentary piece rather than a description of the action.

Denny Hamlin took the lead during the second to last stint, which restarted with 19 laps to go. With fourteen laps to go, NASCAR closed the pit road, so no one could try to take an early pit to try to gain a position advantage by staying out for the final competition caution. It was the pole sitter, Jimmie Johnson who took the lead after that final pit stop. When we saw his pit crew congratulating each other after that stop, we almost knew what the outcome of the race would be at that point.

There was no question of overtaking, because the outside line that the drivers usually like at the Brickyard was coated with that fine tire dust, and there was no traction there at all.

As it was, it was a real race, considering that the best driver for the day, with the best car and the best pit crew for the day won. That's the bottom line. We have to agree with Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Kasey Kahne in saying that NASCAR did what they had to do to keep the race safe and to run the race in its entirety, because, as Dale Jr. said, "The only alternative would have been to pack up and go home."

Waiting until after NASCAR Now before posting this turned out to be a personal good thing, because we were treated to an excellent explanation for the excessive right side tire wear by Ray Evernham. It seems that the old car was built with the majority of the weight of the car on the left side, allowing the weight to transfer to the right side in the turns, and from the right side as the car straightened out, thus relieving the pressure on the outside tires. With the new car, the weight is evenly distributed to all four tires, so additional pressure is put on the right sides in the turns. However, nobody could explain why the track never "rubbered in."

There is no reason to explain what could have been done, because it wasn't, so what if has no effect on the outcome of the race. However, it would have been wise to allow all the teams open test sessions at IMS prior to the race weekend, so, perhaps something may have been changed for the race. There is no point in dwelling on that however. What's done is done, what isn't done isn't done and is therefore irrelevant.

Notables of the race, besides Jimmie Johnson's win:
AJ Allmendinger finished tenth, and even led some laps, his best finish and best run of his NASCAR career. His teammate, Brian Vickers, did not fair so well. Vickers is pretty much the NASCAR bloggers' consensus pick of the drivers currently not in the Chase for the Championship to make the Chase. His problem, a blown engine, was the only problem during the entire race not related to tire issues.
Tony Stewart, who was expected to do well at Indianapolis, fought loose all day long. In other words, he had a twenty-fifth place car and was lucky to bring it home in twenty-fourth place.

As for the other good cars, Jeff Gordon managed to pull off a fifth place finish, while Denny Hamlin finished third. Dale Jr and Kyle Busch were forced to drive conservatively due to trying to make the tires last ten laps, which is uncharacteristic for either one of them.

Final thoughts:

The question that was asked back in 2005, after the USGP disaster was "what would NASCAR have done?" We got our answer.

At least there was a race, because it could have been worse, as in no race at all. From a fan's point of view it wasn't much of a race. There really wasn't much to get excited about, as there really wasn't much to watch. The race at Indianapolis made the race earlier this year at Texas seem exciting. The problem, however probably won't happen again, as NASCAR has promised much more open testing as of next year, something they announced long before the Indianapolis weekend. We have to take the bad with the good, and, hopefully, we won't see something this bad for the rest of the season. One caution to NASCAR, however--they might do well to allow open testing later this year at Homestead. That could save some embarrassment for the last race of the season.

It's Texas Time!

Well, it's time for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to take the green flag at another "cookie cutter" track that really isn't a cookie-cutter copy of anything else on the track. The traction the track at TMS offers makes it one of the fastest tracks on the circuit, and the transition out of turn four makes it treacherous. We had some trepidation about the fact that the Sprint Cup Cars were going to this track with very little previous testing, but, so far, there have been no apparent problems, with the exception of this incident that happened during qualifying:

If you don't see the video, please click here.

There was also the incident of Tony Stewart cutting a tire in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, but that was more than likely a result of the set up, rather than tire problems such as the ones experienced at Las Vegas earlier this year.
It should also be noted that Goodyear has remedied the problem of the non-competitive tires they brought to Atlanta, by bringing a tire similar to the ones they used at Texas, except with a stiffer sidewall on the right-side tires. These are the tires that Clint Bowyer's team tested earlier this year at TMS, with similar results, so credit should be given to the tire manufacturer for bringing the model they tested to the race, something they apparently haven't done before.

So, we should be in for a better race at TMS than we saw at Atlanta. That is not to say that there won't be more than half the field one or more laps down by the end of the race--that is just one of the characteristics of these "intermediate" tracks--but racing will mean more than just letting the other guy pass.
And, from the looks of the starting lineup, there will be some real racing right from the start. Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt, Jr, is joined in the top five starting positions by Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, and Jimmie Johnson; all drivers known for being hard racers. This will not only give us some potential fire works from the drop of the green flag, but should keep the field close together for a while. Then we would have to worry about engine durability, because there will be a lot of running at high RPM.
But, if the engines hold up, if the tires stay up, and if nobody does anything immature or stupid (that's a long shot) there should be something to interest every race fan. Jr's going for his first win since 2006, which is almost expected, but there are a lot of strong cars in the race as well. It is a given that Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth (he's beyond any jinx I can put on him, Babs)and Brian Vickers will make their way toward the front. Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Burton are also figured to make a good run for the finish, which shouldn't be surprising to anybody considering the performance of RCR lately. To keep it simple, barring problems, there are going to be a lot of drivers who have a chance to play with the trophy guns in Victory Lane. (The trophy at TMS includes a pair of genuine six shooters, loaded with blanks, and a ten gallon hat.)
Personally, I think it is going to be a Toyota driver who gets to look silly in a cowboy hat.