Rewarding the field for Speed

 

Mark Martin has four poles in the Sprint Cup series this year. Photo from cbssports.com.

 

              While watching NASCAR Race Hub today on Speed, an interesting point was brought up. In the Overdrive segment with Bob Dillner (@bobdillner), and Matt Clark (@MattClarkMC) were discussing the fact about giving bonus points for qualifying. I had thought about this a while back, and adopting more of a points system along the lines of Formula 1. With them, there is a high premium on qualifying, and they only give point down through 10^th place. A typical field of cars for them would be 25. But anyway, back to the segment on Race Hub.

            It was stated that maybe three points should be given for pole, two for second, and one for third starting position. Well I wasn’t sure how much of a change it would have had on the points, so I did some research. I will highlight some of the battles instead of just throwing out a ton of numbers. After the Atlanta race, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin would be tied with 833, instead of Keselowski having a nine point lead over Hamlin. Harvick would leap frog Bowyer, and lead by four points. The most interesting part of the point system would have to deal with the battle between Kyle Busch, and Jeff Gordon to get into the chase.

Kasey Kahne also has four poles this season in the Sprint Cup series. Photo from the Chicagotribune.com.

           
            Kyle Busch had 746 points compared to Gordon’s 734, but with the bonus for qualifying Busch would have 758 to Gordon’s 739 after Atlanta. Gordon would receive two bonus points under this system for his 2nd place starting position, so the gap would close from 19 to 17. You have to account for the change in racing, because changing the points like this would change a lot throughout the season. Besides that, if we played out Richmond like it happened, Kyle Busch would have led Gordon by two after the race. Kyle Busch would be in the chase if this format was adopted. The last race was exciting already, but if Gordon knew that he needed to win that race, what else would have happened? Would we have another Paul Menard incident, but instead of Childress, it was Hendrick quarterbacking a caution? We will never know unfortunately.

            I think this would be a good thing for NASCAR to look at, as well as Matt Clark’s thoughts about a chase mulligan, even though Bob Dillner is totally against that idea. What you didn’t see about the points system other than what I talked about above was how it tightened everyone. Changing those few of points could mean the difference in two-tires, fuel only, or no pitting. The excitement level would go up for the racing just by giving incentive for an event that is struggling for our fans to watch anymore. Just think about how different this chase would have been had Kyle Busch been there. Until next time.  



Surfing Kangaroos in the Concrete Canyon - Australian V8 Supercars

Opening lap wreck with Grand-Am standout Ricky Taylor at the wheel. Picture from V8Supercars.com.au

                I have talked about the Australian V8 Supercar series in some of my last posts, so I figured I would give them a dedicated posting. Speed has a tape delay on these races, and it finally aired Saturday night. The race happened at Surfer's Paradise in the Gold Coast of Australia. The track is known as the Concrete Canyon to the drivers. They really know how to put on a show, as the picture I opened up the post with shows. This race is known as an Enduro, each team has their normal driver, but they get a co-driver from outside the series. Greg Ritter is the normal driver of the car shown in the picture above, and his co-driver was Ricky Taylor. He races Daytona Prototypes in the Grand-Am series.

Ricky Taylor's Grand-Am Daytona Prototype SunTrust Corvette. Picture from autoweek.com.

                 The story behind the picture above is that the V8 Supercar guys use a standing start to begin the race. Think Formula 1, where everyone is sitting on the grid, and once the lights go out, it's time to go. Well since the international drivers start the race, and most aren't used to this, some people stalled. When this happened, it instantly created a gridlock. Here is the highlight video from V8Supercarofficial's YouTube channel. You can also see the second try at the standing start, and more chaos. Other than Juan Montoya hitting the jet-dryer at Daytona, where have you seen this much excitement in racing?



 

                Before you say it, the international drivers can drive. Here is the list and in parenthesis are their background: Nick Heidfield(F1), Marco Andretti(Indy Car), Darren Turner(DTM/Lemans), Sebastian Bourdais(F1, Indy Car, Grand-Am, LeMans), Richard Lyons(SuperGT), Mika Salo(F1), Simon Pagenaud(ALMS), Jeroen Bleekmolen(Porsche Supercup), David Brabham(GT1), Graham Rahal(Indy Car), Frank Montagny(F1), Justin Wilson(Indy Car), Ryan Briscoe(Indy Car), Will Power(Indy Car), Stephane Sarrazin(LeMans), Gianni Morbidelli(F1), Nicolas Minassian(LeMans/Indy Car), Max Papis (F1/Indy Car/NASCAR), Peter Kox(DTM/BTCC), Jamie Campbell-Walter(FIA GT), Peter Dumbreck(LeMans/DTM), Mike Conway(Indy Car), Ricky Taylor(Grand-Am), James Hinchcliffe(Indy Car), Boris Said(NASCAR/Grand-am), Marc Lieb(LeMans), Lucas Di Grassi(F1), Tonio Liuzzi(Superstar Series). As you can see, many forms of motorsport are represented, and they all are very talented. Unfortunately NASCAR is in season, so we can't showcase our stars in this race. I'm sure Marcos Ambrose would love to make a return, and take some friends such as Juan Montoya, Brad Keselowski, and maybe even Carl Edwards. I was sold on the driving talent of these guys when I was watching an earlier race and Jacques Villeneuve was filling in for an injured driver. He drove three races, and was towards the back for everyone. That guy jumps in a Nationwide car, and battles for the win, but can't even break into the top-20 against their guys, come on now.

                I have gone on long enough, but at least I have filled this one with a ton of pictures, and video for you to look at. The Australian V8 Supercar guys put on some awesome racing that has all the bumping, banging, and mirrors flying that lends itself to some exciting racing. I am planning the trip to Austin in May 2013 to see these guys in action, and I can't wait. One of my friends going, who was part of the Lexington Goat Herd, which was our group of friends who owned GTOs. She is convinced that we can steal a Holden while we are there. Check for us on the news, you may see a 5 foot nothing girl, followed by a 300 pound guy being locked away for it. I'll leave you with a video of 3-time Winston Cup Champion Darrell Waltrip and his ride in a V8Supercar from last year. He talks a lot when he is scared, and as you can tell he won't shut up. Until next time.







The Big Bad Wolfe and Little (B)Rad Riding Hood

Paul Wolfe and Brad Keselowski looking a bit stressed during the race weekend at Martinsville. Courtesy of @Nateryan, this guy is full of good information, and a quite massive vocabulary.



Okay, I know my title is corny but I wanted something kind of funny. All my creative juices are running low at the moment, I just spit out a massive amount of b.s. writing a paper for school, plus the beer pong went a little overboard last night, but anyway back to Martinsville.

Bad Brad and Paul Wolfe really did an awesome job with the circumstances they were given in today race. Well not really given, but how Brad qualified anyway. Even though Brad played it extra cool, as he always does through all the interviews, you know that he knew how much of an uphill battle they were going to have today. Anyone who knows the sport knows the contenders at this track. Jimmie Johnson counting his win from today has competed at Martinsville in a Sprint Cup car a total of twenty-one times. Jimmie has amassed six wins, completing 99.5% of his laps ran, and leading 1789 laps. He leads almost 18% of the laps at the track when he shows up to race. That to me is outstanding. You have to lead laps to win, and that guy does it. But let's get back to Brad.

While I was watching the race, trying to recuperate from last night’s shenanigans, I grabbed some pen and paper so I could keep up with the calls that Paul Wolfe made from the pit-box. Usually they are outside the box, but other than the first caution around lap 58 when they took only driver's side tires, and jumped ten spots from 27th to 17th was the only time they did what they do. I was kind of worried for a while, because every time the positions would scroll across the screen, Brad would be stuck back in the late teens, most of the time 20's and up. Brad was saved from being lapped by one caution, and the third caution was when he started to make his move, especially getting off sequence with Gordon, Kyle Busch, and Truex staying out while the rest of the lead lap cars pitted, and Brad took two tires and came back out in 15th. It wasn't until the 7th caution when Brad stays out while some of the others pit, and finally breaks into the top-10 for the first time all day at lap 231. I'm not going to lie; I was relieved to see him in the top-10.

Now when we get to the last caution, and the top five comes in, I find myself sitting there waiting for the call, and I see Keselowski drive past the commit line. I was excited at first, because this is the stuff I like from this group, the chance to try and steal a win. When the dust settles though, it is just Keselowski, and Dale Jr. At that point I was worried, and images from the spring Martinsville race start to play through my head. Keselowski and Dale Jr. played Johnson and Gordon from the spring on old rubber, while the field was on new rubber again. In the spring, once the green flag flew, the chaos ensued. Much to my surprise, Keselowski held off Jimmie for a lot longer than I expected. I don't know why it surprised me honestly; everything he seems to do in a race car has been amazing when it comes to this year, and much more specific to the chase. Even though Brad was relegated to his sixth place finishing position, he was better off for the call since he was able to lead a lap, and get that one extra bonus point. I hate to be like everyone in the media, but I have to now. "Ask Carl about getting that bonus point."

So the Big Bad Wolfe, and Little (B)Rad pulled another one out of their bag of tricks today. It was especially huge because of the electrical problem that halted Denny Hamlin's shot at the Championship, but weirder things have happened I suppose. I am pulling for Brad, but I am all for the thrill of it coming down to Homestead and not knowing who is going to hoist the cup at the end. With that said good luck Brad, Paul, and the whole Penske Racing team in their quest. If you can pull it off, it will be that much sweeter with Jimmie, and Chad being on their game like they have been. I'll leave you with a picture from Dover and Brad celebrating with the guys after winning the AAA 400 for some good karma. Until next time.



Picture from the Chicagotribune.com

The smart thing would be to dumb down the cars

               Okay, I know you haven’t heard from me in a while, but I am on a roll and I have something on my mind. Just to give you a little bit of background, I was unfortunately laid off from my job last week, so other than applying for any job I can; I go to the gym, and hangout at home. That is why this blog was started, and why I have blown it up in two days already. Enough from my first paragraph of nothingness, which I guess will end up a staple of this blog.

Let’s talk about some of the crazy Aussies and V8 Supercars. I started watching them a couple of years ago off and on, mainly because I became obsessed with Holdens. I used to own a 2005 GTO, which I drag raced a ton. If you ever get bored, and want something to look at on YouTube, just type in DJ Pontiac GTO in the search bar, and it should pull up 4 or so videos. My car is black. But anyways, the GTO was sent over from Australia and rebadged. In Australia, they are a Holden Monaro. Well, the G8 before its demise was a rebadge Holden Commodore. Through me being a fan of NASCAR, around the same time Marcos Ambrose was working his way up the ranks, and his famous commercial with Kevin Harvick’s face coming alive on a t-shirt calling him “Kangaroo Meat” got me looking his way.

Marcos Ambrose from his V8Supercar days at Bathurst.

Photo from V8Supercars.com.au

           

Marcos Ambrose worked his way up the ranks being born originally in Tasmania, through the V8Supercar series. If you are a motorsports fan of any kind, you need to watch what these guys offer. Their style of racing is more of a short sprint style, and they usually break up their weekend by having two separate races like say a practice, qualifying, and race on Saturday, and do the same thing again on Sunday. Anyways I will talk more about these guys in the future, because they are coming to Austin in 2013, and this guy will be there with three of his friends. I can’t wait, but they have some interesting rules that could be applied to NASCAR to help some of the underfunded be able to compete on a higher level. 

Parody helps the product of what the fans see, whether they spend the money to have a seat at the track, or they decide to watch the race at home. The Aussie’s just finished up their Enduro series, which consist of races that range from 600km, to 1000km and each team has their main driver, and they hire a co-driver. They too have a feeder series, so picture it like this. If the Sprint Cup had an endure race, some parings may be Jimmie Johnson – Regan Smith, Dale Jr. – Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon – Justin Allgaier, and Kasey Kahne – Cole Whitt. I just used these off of affiliation through Hendrick Motorsports, but you get the idea. Well, these teams have practices, and qualifying for each driver of the car, so newbies have a practice, and their own qualifying, and the main drivers have the same. Let’s say that the newbie wrecks the car, then what? If it is America, they would go to a backup car. Perfect example of this is when Denny Hamlin wrecked his primary car in tire testing at Kansas, and pulled his backup car out while another car was on the way to be a backup to his backup. Are you with me still?

            The Australian V8 Supercars rules and regulations are posted on their website, so I wanted to find out what they would do in this situation. During the Enduros, a couple of teams wrecked their cars on one day, and frantically thrashed to get it fixed for the next day. I just thought that they all had backup cars until this, why not pull it out? Well in their rulebook, it says, “C3.9 No Replacement Cars – Unless otherwise specified in the supplementary regulations, replacement cars are not permitted, and a Competitor must only use the one (1) car which had been originally entered for the Meeting.”

            This amazes me, and is so simple that it could save the teams so much money. Watching the telecast of qualifying from Martinsville, a quarter of the teams built new cars for this race, and we are changing the bodies in four races for next year. Here is what I suggest for NASCAR moving forward. Change the regulations so that the templates require the same thing whether the cars are at Talladega, Atlanta, or Bristol. Change the height of the tire to the same on both sides, so no more stagger allowed. Decrease the allowable amount of camber on the front tires, so that there is less of a chance of blowouts. Don’t allow these teams to cock-eye the car with offsetting the rear end to allow it to turn, make the car track straight. The teams are only allowed to have two cars built at a time, and only take one to the racetrack with them for a race weekend. If a driver wrecks, and needs a ride, then let them do like the old days and buy a lesser ride from an independent to garner their points for that weekend. F1 has an engine rule, and those guys can only use eight engines throughout the year, or face a 10-spot grid penalty. Install a rev-limiter on the cars, keeping the ceiling on a Sprint Cup motor to 9k. Have a meeting with everyone to agree on a number, but let’s say they must use a motor over 3-5 race weekends. The biggest thing I propose and I am just going where NASCAR already went in the Nationwide series, cut down the available spots to race to 36. If the field is cut down, then the racing will get better because only the best cars will be racing, and more money will be distributed to less people. I think James Finch was onto something; hopefully this move would get rid of the dreaded start and parks.

            I know this sounds like a lot of rambling and whatnot, but it is just a few thoughts I had going on in my head, that would help someone like Phoenix Racing, and Burger King Racing to compete with the bigger guys, since their checkbooks won’t be stretched so thin anymore. Let us have more moments like Regan Smith winning the Southern 500 last year more often. Leveling the playing field, while taking a lot of the mechanical advantages of the bigger teams with a huge engineering budget away will let this get back to the roots of the sport, where the underdog can jump up on the wheel and go get a win. Also, if the sport didn’t cost as much, then more sponsorship opportunities would present themselves, and may help the sport to new heights. Until next time.

Picture from speedwaymedia.com

 

F1 and NASCAR as bed fellows?

Buddh International Circuit in India, site of round 17 of the Formula 1 season.

           

            While watching the first practice of the Grand Prix of India, this turn caught my eye. This is the best picture I could find, but it has many different variations of orange and white in differing patterns. It just looks wild when they go to the helicopter shot while the cars are blasting around the double apex turn. Well back on topic.

            I have started to watch a lot of Formula 1 coverage this year, namely because I finally came into the 21st century, and got a DVR. No more trying to stay up late when getting home from the bar, and passing out before the standing start. But anyway, I could always tell that there was a lot of money in F1, but it wasn't until last month that I really started to look into it. @JennaFryer broke the news about Lewis Hamilton moving from McLaren-Mercedes, to Mercedes for a cool amount of three years, at $100 million dollars. I couldn't believe it, I knew they made good money, but $33.3 million a year is nuts! Well during one of the races on Speed, there was a big deal made about Marissa-Cosworth displacing Caterham-Renault for 10th place in the Constructors standings. The way they did this, is Timo Glock finishing 12th at Singapore. Even though none of the teams at the bottom of these standings have any points, Marussia-Cosworth holds the spot with this finish. The part that really blew my mind though, is that the top-10 teams in the Constructor Standings at the end of the year, split 700 million dollars... Yes that is correct; almost 1 billion dollars are paid out at the end of the year. Let me redirect you into how this plays into my post and NASCAR as well.

            There is no doubt that Formula 1 reaches more fans worldwide, than the traditionally Southeastern sport of NASCAR racing. I know what you are thinking, but NASCAR has races in Canada, and North of the Mason Dixon line, hell they even have made it to the West of the Mississippi too. Well, if they want to continue to grow the sport, and reach younger fans, then that isn't enough. NASCAR was doing a good thing, even though it was just with the Nationwide series in trying to grow the sport. The Nationwide series held a race in Mexico City, and Montreal. The Montreal race is no more, even though NASCAR keeps dropping hints about racing at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next year to replace Montreal. NASCAR quit taking the Nationwide Series to Mexico City in years.

            Just based on the money that Formula 1 teams operate on, and what is generated, there are a ton of fans out there that could learn to love NASCAR. I feel that on road courses, and even some ovals that NASCAR puts out a good product, with more parody, passing, and drama than F1. They do this either at the track, or sitting on the couch at home. Formula 1 racing at times for me is boring, because if you don't start within the first 5-6 positions, and get a good start or some extraordinary circumstance, you are not winning the Grand Prix. In the top three series of NASCAR, you can start from up front, to back in the 30's plus, and still through pit strategy, fuel mileage, or just getting up on the wheel have a chance to win the race.

            NASCAR has a golden opportunity to align itself with Formula 1 without having to take the sport overseas. That was a big factor in NASCAR ceasing to take the sport to Mexico City anymore. The new Grand Prix of Austin at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and the Grand Prix of Canada at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. The France family needs to try to work on something with F1, so that they could partner in a weekend with the worldwide love of many. Play second fiddle, because other than the small sector of the Southeast of the United States, that is what will happen anyway. NASCAR needs to swallow its pride, and open their eyes to what is going on in the World of racing. Our guys in the overweight rumbling bumbling V8 powered cars put on a good show, just take the three way battle between Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Marcos Ambrose at Watkins Glen late this summer. That was the highlight of the season bar none, let’s give them some more chances to replay that, and have it be seen on the World stage. Let me leave you with the highlight video from NASCAR's YouTube channel of the battle I talked about between Ambrose, Busch, and Keselowski from the end of the race at Watkins Glen. Until next time. 

               

               





NASCAR needs help with the Party Mix: Part 1

“Hey DJ, let me borrow that Party Mix cd!”

            Children of the 80’s and early 90’s will understand what the quote is talking about. I remember burning a ton of cd-r’s and running out of things to call them, so many of them were different volumes of Party Mix one, two and so on... NASCAR needs some help with their party mix of tracks, and scheduling mainly on the top-tier series of Sprint Cup. I think about the new IPhone 5 commercial when the guy is sitting there talking to someone on the phone, and asks if they had Déjà vu, over and over again because it never changes. The term insanity stands for doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the different results. NASCAR expects that their attendance numbers will suddenly change by putting the same product out there for us to watch, I highly doubt that France Family.

   

Danica Patrick and Brad Keselowski suffering through a night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Picture from Zimbio.com.

                     The first point we need to breakdown before we go any further, is who owns these tracks? International Speedway Corporation owns twelve of the tracks used in Sprint Cup, and other feeder series of NASCAR. ISC owns Chicago, Darlington, Daytona, Fontana, Homestead, Kansas, Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville, Michigan, Phoenix, Richmond, Talladega, and Watkins Glen. The other group is Speedway Motorsports Inc. which owns a total of eight tracks that are used in Sprint Cup, as well as the other feeder series of NASCAR.  SMI owns Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, Kentucky, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Sonoma, and Texas. If you are doing the math that leaves three tracks that are independently owned that can still draw the Sprint Cup series. These tracks are Dover, Indianapolis, and Pocono.

            If we break down the weekends, and how the races are divided up, ISC receives nineteen dates, SMI receives twelve, and the self-owned tracks receive five. The big gripe that I for one, along with a lot of others in the media, and fans alike have is the redundancy of the so called cookie cutter tracks. All of these 1.5 mile tracks lend themselves to a lot of boring racing, which will not lend itself to growing the sport at all. A second issue I have with the schedule is this, road courses. If NASCAR wants to compare the quality of their drivers to other auto sports, then they need to showcase their abilities turning left, and right. These boys put on a good show at Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and even the Nationwide series at Road America, Watkins Glen, and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Grand-Am which is owned by NASCAR, and the American Lemans Series announced their merger, which got me excited because NASCAR gained the rights to Road Atlanta in the deal. I am hoping we can see some stock cars on that circuit in the near future.

Road Course ringer Jacques Villeneuve in the #22 Penske Dodge at Road America. Photo from Sbnation.com

            That is a lot of information already, so I am going to split this up in a couple different posts. I am trying to keep you interested, and secondly from having information overload. In our next installment, we will cover some more topics, like fixing the constant feeling of every track being 1.5 miles, while constantly missing the big stock cars on winding road courses. We will also talk about aligning the sport with other road course series to gain some of their fans. I'll leave you with the final lap of the 2012 Napa 200 from Montreal. Until next time.