Another Top 35 Solution

While I am writing this, I am hearing Kenny Wallace yelp about the Top 35. My idea is to eliminate the Top 35. I say lock in the bottom five teams in points, week-in and week-out. This would help new and under-financed teams gain experience and exposure.
And, by the next week, they may not need to qualify for that bottom-five help. The bottom is where the help is needed, not the top.
Fair is fair. Make the boys work for their positions.

Time Marches On, But...

The progressive nature of the NASCAR world is like the cancer in my body — not all that much fun. I know there are many, many real NASCAR fans just like myself who are more and more turned off by what’s taking place.
I watched a tape of the 1991 Hanes 500 at Martinsville the other day, and while I’m sure not saying time should stand still and names like Petty, Pearson, Wallace, Allison and even Chargin’ Charley Glotzbach should not be replaced by the current pros, I am saying we are staying away more and more because of NASCAR and what it’s doing to the foundation of the sport.
From the tracks of glory being replaced by new tracks, which are like most ballparks and look about the same, to the broadcast crews who just can’t replace Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett — I’m sorry, call me old at age 58 — but it’s just not the same.
Again, we don’t expect time to stand still, but what do we expect?
How about thanking the fans who made this sport long before now? How about cars that look like the makes we drive, not the tanks with wins and big blind spots?
Ernie Ervin was driving a Chevy in that 1991 Hanes 500. My three brothers and I are staunch Ford fans, so what fun we had giving our disapproval to Ernie and that Kodak Chevy. And today? Hell, unless you’re a Ford fan, you can’t tell what it is save for that simple nameplate.
If I ever succeed in watching today’s NASCAR’s top class, there is one thing I myself have made progress in — I’m still a Ford fan, with Dodge and even those bow ties, anything but a damn Toyota.
One last comment, NASCAR still has racing like back in the day. I can almost see Petty, Pearson, Tiger Tom Pistone, Elliott and even Dean Dalton in that No. 7 Belden Asphalt Ford or Mercury in the Craftsman Truck Series. Now, that’s racing like it used to be.

Mopar Woes?

I must say that I have been a MOPAR fan for over 50 years, back when the Dodges and Plymouths raced the six-cylinder motors. Then came the Hemi and the Max Wedges, which were tough to beat on the strip and circle tracks.
A few years ago, Dodge got back into racing and won one place race for these efforts. Now Toyota is beating the Dodges like a drum — this with a new engine without fuel injection in the truck, Cup and ARCA events. You would think Dodge could make a small block run with the winners. Hell, the 340s could not win in the Can-Am cars.
During my working days, I had about 25 new Mopars in 27 years, traveling and selling college textbooks. It has been terrible to see racing with the Dodge as a field filler. Sure, they have won poles, but can’t win a championship. As I have said before, Toyota will win a Cup championship before Dodge.
Dodge teams said it was the body and no downforce on the quasi-Dodge race cars. Now, that the cars are like IROC, what is the alibi? I would like to attend a stockholders meeting and ask why they are racing and why can’t you win? You would think the powers that be on Monday would ask the racing boss what is going on.
I suggest they get better folks at the top and get smarter people. You don’t have to work harder, just smarter.

NASCAR Ruining Racing

I have been a part of auto racing and a racing fan for 40 years. Someone please form a sanctioning body that lets racers race and give NASCAR the boot. With their phantom yellows, blatant favoritism and tyrannical rules, they are ruining racing.
At one of the Phoenix races when their favorite driver got 22.5 seconds behind, there was a phantom yellow. This happened three times in a row. Robby Gordon can’t keep up to pace-car speed and is placed in 13th position. Greg Biffle can’t keep up to pace-car speed and is given the win. And to have a rule that states what gear ratios a team can use in their transmission is ridiculous.
Racing is about outsmarting the other guy. Do that in NASCAR and get penalized. If anything, they need to revert to some of their past rules — one of which was, “with the exception of altering wheel wells for tire clearance, bodies must be of stock configuration.” Then, ban all wind-tunnel testing. This would slow the cars down and reduce owners’s costs.
Then, there is the CoT (Cash in On Toyota) program. Last time I checked, Toyota Camry’s are not made in the U.S. They are assembled here, probably to avoid a tariff. Big difference.
You think there are empty seats now? Wait another five years after Toyota has dumped a billion dollars into Cup racing, destroying it as they have the truck series.
On a lighter note, attention Bruton Smith! There is a half-mile race track with an adjoining drag strip on one section of land that is going to be auctioned off in April in Eastern Michigan. NASCAR wants a presence in the Northwest, here’s your chance. Thanks for letting me vent.

An Exciting Future?

I have been watching the top division of NASCAR since the 1960s, when the only glimpse of the Grand National division was on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It was three or four segments of seven or eight minutes each of a race that might have been run two months before the show.
They even had phony soundtracks of tires screeching on pavement as cars slid through the grass. Of course, in later years that division became the Winston Cup and then Nextel Cup,  then Sprint Cup, so we will call it WNS Cup.
I have read many letters in this forum over the off-season, criticizing the direction of NASCAR. After watching a very exciting Daytona 500, I believe this may be the most exciting time of WNS Cup. We have already welcomed open-wheel drivers Sam Hornish, Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier into WNS Cup. I believe in the next two years, we can welcome Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Vito Meira, Hideki Mutoh, Danica Patrick, Graham Rahal, Oriol Serva and many other International racing stars.
Of course, the present WNS Cup owners such as Hendrick, Penske, Ganassi, Gibbs and Roush have enough money to build teams to accommodate all of these drivers, but that pesky NASCAR rule has limited owners to four teams each.
But the upside of this is that I envision the team owners in the IRL and Champ Car World Series coming over right along with the drivers. Both the open-wheel drivers and owners will be attracted to the WNS Cup because NASCAR has chosen to utilize a spec car that these folks are used to competing in.
Obviously, with this infusion of open-wheel drivers and owners, some exciting changes will come about in WNS Cup. I see some of the old, worn-out tracks such as Darlington, Dover, Pocono, Michigan and all the short tracks going by the wayside. I see more road-course racing at venues like Road Atlanta, Road America, Mid-Ohio and additional races at Infineon and Watkins Glen.
The summer race at Daytona might be run on the infield course. And, in a few years, street-race courses in new U.S. markets, and then, obviously, overseas markets in Asia and Europe.
The opportunities are endless. I believe that in just a few short years, the drivers and owners from the IRL and Champ Car can do for NASCAR’s WNS Cup Series what they did for the IRL and CCWS. I can’t wait.