Another (tedious) NASCAR season is over, and this presents a problem for me. I got some of my best naps watching Cup racing this year.
We have had four Chase seasons, and the result? The last three had no drama despite NASCAR’s efforts to manipulate the season and the TV shills trying to make them interesting. Also, Jeff Gordon would have had two more championships if the old system was used. Wonder if he still thinks The Chase is “awesome?”
As you know, I hated this phony “playoff” from the start. It only eliminates drivers. I think a long, tough 36-race season should determine who wins the title, not the same 10 races every year.
TV ratings continue to slide downhill, and empty seats at some races are obvious.
Did you hear that blatherer, “Mr. Overall” Jerry Punch, trying to make Carl Edwards’s Busch Series title sound dramatic? Edwards was only leading by a zillion points all season. Talk about verbal malpractice!
But The Chase isn’t NASCAR’s biggest blunder. The locking in of the top 35 in points is. This is so blatantly unfair. How does one start a new team?
Let’s say I’m a new NASCAR owner. I plunk down millions of dollars for a start-up team. We go to our first race, run 29th fastest, but don’t make the race because the priority teams from the previous year have. So, we head for race No. 2. Same thing, a decent qualifying run, but others are placed ahead of us because of previous years’ points.
After the fifth race, the points from this year are used. The problem is, because we can’t make any races we have no points. The sponsor, unhappy because the car never gets on TV, dumps us. So, here I am. I’ve lost a pile of money because I can’t get in a race even though the car is actually fast enough.
Now the word is that Penske Racing will use points from a team car to help Sam Hornish, Jr., qualify next year. Hornish, new to heavy Cup cars, struggled to make races in 2007. This is so unfair. This means only 34 teams get a shot at next year’s first five races. If someone would have the stones to stand up to NASCAR and take them to court, maybe they’d stop these ridiculous uneven rules. There could be a solution.
Why not put the fastest 35 cars in trials in the race? Then have the others compete in a 20-mile (or so) consolation race on Saturday. First, this would give all entrants two even chances to make a race. It would give the fans something extra to watch on Saturday. If televised, all teams would get TV time, and the newcomers would get needed track time. I know this makes sense and that’s why it won’t happen.
NASCAR is ruining the Busch Series, too. It should only allow a Cup driver 20 starts a season and a cap of four wins. Rusty Wallace says it costs $7.5 million to run a Busch (Nationwide) team. How, pray tell, do they stay in business?
On Dave Despain’s final “Wind Tunnel” TV show, Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip were very frank in what NASCAR needs to change. Odd, these commentators act like every race is a barn burner when they work a race on TV.
nTony Ferrante, Jr., who I’ve known since he was a mere lad, set fast time at the modified World Series last month at Thompson, Conn. Ferrante only races a couple of times a year. The 48-year-old driver then got married.
nHappy to report that Marty Himes’s latest reunion, which was a “still” show, went very well with more race cars on hand than before. More than 500 friends showed up. Sadly, we lost a good friend, Pat Matrangelo, an ardent supporter.
Dumping leftover turkey on my cornflakes at 25 Emerson Place, Valley Stream, NY 11580. E-mail to racewri771@aol.com.