What a race we had today! It had everything you could possibly want. There was beating and banging, flared tempers, dramatic events, wild strategy, three wide racing (at Martinsville!), no wing, double file restarts, a race that didn’t end under caution and Jimmie Johnson wasn’t in victory lane (though this was a negative for some of you). Unfortunately, not many people saw it.
It really is a shame rain forced this race on to TV mid-day Monday. This though is often a symptom of racing at Martinsville this time of year. I can hardly think of a time, either Spring or Fall, that I have been to Martinsville and not had to worry about weather. I always make sure I’ve got my umbrella and raincoat ready to go at a moments notice.
This weekend, and every other wet weekend spent at Martinsville makes me wonder why NASCAR doesn’t consider moving at least one of the dates. It’s apparently something track president Clay Campbell is wondering too. He told The Virginian Pilot’s Dustin Long that he is asking if there is something that can be done about the Spring date. With the impeding inclusion of another Kansas date, the economic toll on the track from things like this has got to be making Campbell nervous.
On top of the cost it brings to Martinsville, it’s unfortunate fans are having to bear some of the financial burden of the rain delay. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but the fans are the reason we do this and their hard earned money is the reason we can continue to do this. As TC pointed out yesterday, for the fans it’s one more day of lodging and food and likely missed work.
I think Martinsville is a great race track, certainly one of my favorites, and the racing it produces is consistently some of the best we see. It’s races like the one we had today that the sport needs more of. We can’t continue to do this every year though. It’s bad for the fans, the track and the sport.
So I implore NASCAR, please consider Clay Campbell’s request and keep in mind all the people who wanted to be at the race today, or wanted to watch the race today and couldn’t. Give Martinsville a better date.
From the last to the first! Yes, it’s the first Ask The Insiders Wednesday of 2010, so lets get this year started off right. If you don’t know what this post is, we answer any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From yankeegranny:
I was very surprised to hear that the over the wall pitcrew member who recently passed away from h1n1 possibly was a “contract” employee and didn’t have health insurance. Is that common with race treams? It seems to me that the only contract employees would be the drivers. Is it common for race teams to offer health insurance to some employees (shop workers) and not others?. Seems to me that could be a PR nigntmare for Childress as far as sponsorship is concerned. Who wants to be associated with a team that doesn’t offer basic things such as health insurance, but makes millions, or appears to be.
Yes, there are certainly crew members who are contractors just like the drivers. The guys who are just weekend warriors are the ones treated as so. Full time guys who work both in the shop and/or at the race track are usually provided with benefits. But contract employees are paid a flat rate for their services, and that is it. RCR is not alone in it’s hiring of contract workers, as most race teams use them at one time or another. And I believe that contract workers in any industry are not provided with benefits, so this isn’t a practice just found in racing. – T.C.
2. From Dan:
Hey Journo after reading your “Undeniably A Decade Of Change” and seeing Casey Atwood’s name I was wondering what went wrong on his drive to the top. He seems to have fallen off the radar. Did he not meet expectations or was he just shoved aside by some other shining star? If I remember there were high hopes for him. What happened? Any info? Thanks.
I think there are a couple of factors here. First and most obviously sometimes drivers don’t pan out. Whether they aren’t given enough time to develop or just aren’t any good sometimes things just don’t work. Casey was also very young when he got pushed up to Cup. He had one full Nationwide season where he performed well and then was thrown into a brand new Cup team. When he didn’t perform well quickly he was booted down. Casey and Reed Sorenson are very similar in this respect. Reed was very young and performed OK in the Nationwide Series and then was thrown into a Cup ride. Neither panned out for whatever reason. Remember too, Dodge has struggled through the years to compete with the Chevrolet, Ford, Pontiac and then Toyota teams. They had that good season with Sterling Marlin early on, but that was about it. I don’t think there was one thing though. – Journo
3. From Daddy Wiltone:
Ok I will pose this as a question. In a recent article about the Bud Shootout. These names were in question about thier relavency Derrike Cope, Sterling Marlin, Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte, Geoff Bodine, and John Andretti. A few of these guys still have a huge fan base not to mention name recognition. Do you think NASCAR added these guys to generate interest from the “discarded” fans of the 80,s 90,s base?
To be honest, no. I think they just happen to be eligible with the new requirements NASCAR has put in place for the race. Remember too, just because one of these drivers is eligible doesn’t mean they will actually participate in the race. It’s certainly possible you won’t see Schrader, Bodine, or Andretti run. – T.C.
4. From Willy:
Why is it that you guys have to be so secretive about your ID’s. FYI I definately love your site. It works so well on my dial up. I wish the whole internet was still like this.
Well I’m glad it works on your dial-up. I can’t imagine how hard it is to load a flash site. We’ve chosen to keep our identities secret because it allows to talk about things and bring you news without compromising ourselves professionally or anyone around us. Our anonymity allows us to bring you news and rumors that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to bring you. We understand it takes a little bit of trust in us, but it helps us protect ourselves. At the end of the day neither one of us needs any glory from doing this, we just have fun with it and sometimes it lets us get things off our chests. – Journo
5. From DexterMorgan:
Is there any hope that NASCAR will abandon its use of the phantom debris yellow? Very little ruins the credibility of this sport than mercy cautions.
Well, I don’t think you can definitively say they even exist. And for NASCAR to do away with them, you’d have to get them to admit they actually happen. I don’t disagree that there aren’t some very suspicious cautions at times, but I think no matter what happens there will always be caution flags that NASCAR fans don’t like. Remember too, the TV people don’t always show the reason for a caution. They may tell you it’s for debris, but don’t think it’s worthwhile to show you the debris on the track. – T.C.
6. From Ric:
Do Pit Crews try different routines in practice in hopes of finding a better / faster way method? Do you try different things just in case you need to do it at the race?
Teams and crews will experiment from time to time with different methods of servicing the car. The casual fan won’t notice, but many guys do things differently. There are three distinct methods in indexing a tire, changers have different ways of pulling tires and moving around the car, and some jackmen have little differences. Each guy has his own philosophies, as do coaches. In terms of trying things in practice, we do prepare for situations like flat tires, dead pit guns, and damage repair. – T.C.
7. From Kevin:
Hey guys, watching a football game I saw the ad for the 500, its coming fast!! Feb 12th is a little over a month away. What exactly is the stage of preparation right now for the cars that will go to Speedweeks? I know most guys take very little vacation, but when exactly will people hit the shop again full time 100% looking towards Daytona? PS-Is the Fox crew gonna be back fully intact this season? PSS-for Journo – What is Ricky Craven getting into, I saw that he left Yahoo, I like the stuff he did over there, he had a nice perspective on things. I hope he is gonna be writing somewhere else. Any idea?
Everybody is back 100% right now. Most teams give pretty nice vacations through the New Years holiday (though that’s not universal) and then it’s full steam ahead after that. Right now they’re building those cars that are headed to Speedweeks. Teams are testing, going to the wind tunnel, going to the k-rig. To your second question I believe so. There’s been nothing to the contrary. And to your final question I’m not 100% sure but I believe he’ll be back on NASCAR Now at the very least. – Journo
8. From Tony S.:
What is ask.com doing for 2010?
All I know is that they weren’t sure they’d be back. I would guess they’ve entertained some teams, but I honestly haven’t heard who those teams might be. They entered the team sponsorship arena to legitimize they’re involvement as an official NASCAR partner. If they were happy with growth and ROI, then they’ll probably be back. If not, obviously, they won’t. – Journo
9. From Ric:
At a track are you allowed to return tires if you feel there is a problem with them?
Certainly if you find a problem with a tire, it can be returned to Goodyear. If a tire is damaged, or won’t hold air, or has some other problem, they can be returned. – T.C.
And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!
Following Talladega and comments by NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston on his blog, there has been a lot of discussion of the coverage of NASCAR races; more importantly how that coverage is shaping the audience’s perception of what they’re seeing.
All I can say is, it’s about time. Earlier this year I took up the topic of NASCAR and perception. No matter your feelings on the state of the sport, it’s undeniable that the color of coverage shapes what people feel.
Dustin Long interviewed Brian France on the issue of TV coverage. He touched on this issue. He said:
“We fully expect a lot of criticism for any number of reasons, judgment calls that are made, officiating calls that are made and some strategy or policy decisions that are made. We’ve always had that. That’s OK. What I’m saying is in opinions that are under the guise of criticism or being critical that just go on and on and on without much thought that’s different from some policy or rule violation that we didn’t handle correctly, somebody is more than fair to criticize us. It’s just there’s an unprecedented level that occurs when you espouse your opinion about how to do one thing or another.”
If you’re truly being honest with yourself, unless you’re out gathering news, where you get your news or in this case your racing coverage, is going to shape how you feel about it. For instance if you watch the local TV station that is big into covering local crime, chances are you’re going to believe crime is higher in your city. Likewise watching Fox News over MSNBC is likely going to shape how you see issues.
How many times in the last two seasons have you heard about ratings declines, or sagging attendance? The fact is attendance is down in the NFL and ratings are down 6% for MLB on ESPN (we’re no worse off than any other sporting event). If you hear something enough (like this race is boring) though you’ll start to believe it, it’s human nature. The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
I personally found the coverage a little much. I doubt the brass at ESPN was thrilled with it. They’re only driving away the audience for programming ESPN’s already paid for.
The NASCAR writer for the Oakland Press wrote a blog post giving kudos to ESPN for standing up to NASCAR. What are they standing up to NASCAR about? At the end of the day they’re only hurting themselves. ESPN is spending $270 million a year or $2.16 billion (from Sports Business Resource Guide) over the life of their contract for the rights to broadcast NASCAR races. Now you tell me, is it in ESPN’s best interest to say, “hey this product we’re broadcasting is really boring?” I don’t think so.
A couple of weeks ago Dustin Long did a wide-ranging interview about the state of the sport with Larry McReynolds, Kyle Petty and Jimmy Spencer. One of their big criticisms was the negativity that comes out of the sport’s media. While I think this was a pot calling the kettle black moment (they went on to criticize the sport pretty heavily) they made a good point.
Larry McReynolds said:
Darrell has put a great analogy. He goes, if you go to a restaurant and you’ve been going to that restaurant for years and you love that restaurant but you constantly read in the paper, it’s a bad restaurant, it’s a bad restaurant. Eventually, you’re going to say, I’m not going to that restaurant. Even if they rehire a complete new chef, staff, you’re still going to be hesitant about going back to that restaurant.
From time to time I like to watch old races and I’ll be honest with you, it really doesn’t look all that different. There aren’t constant battles for the lead, races do sometimes get spread out, and sometimes one car just dominates. The one big difference is you don’t hear Eli Gold or Ken Squier or Bob Jenkins criticizing the product. If you don’t believe me, track down a race from 10 or 15 years ago.
I don’t mean to suggest that NASCAR fans are more susceptible to this. But I do believe that this negativity runs rampant around here; more so than in other sports. When was the last time you were watching an NFL game and heard Joe Buck say how boring it was?
I think just like in every other sport, announcers need to walk a fine line. Criticize the league or sanctioning body for controversial decisions, fine; don’t drive fans off though by criticizing the product.
I’ve been watching in anticipation the last few days as the showdown between the Formula One Teams Association and the FIA (Max Mosley) played out. Today we learned FIA President Max Mosley would give in to the teams’ demands to not impose the spending cap and he also agreed not to stand for re-election to the FIA. Surprise, surprise.
I got to thinking about what would happen if teams in NASCAR banded to together and attempted to stage a similar coup. The conclusion I came to was that this could not and would not ever happen.
Beyond the cars, the most pivotal part of a race is the race track. In the United States the only tracks really capable of accommodating NASCAR events are owned, for the most part by two companies: Speedway Motorsports Inc. majority owned by and controlled by Bruton Smith and International Speedway Corporation majority owned by and controlled by the France family. The France family of course owns and operates NASCAR.
Should NASCAR teams break away Bruton Smith’s SMI is certainly an option but ISC is not. What this means is the break away series loses the marquee Daytona 500 and only has eight tracks to race at. I doubt the Mattiolis would turn their back on the France family, so Pocono is probably out. There are a few other tracks that could add to the hypothetical break away series, but that is assuming they aren’t already with NASCAR in some capacity.
With F1 this isn’t the case. Because this is not just a regional sport there are tons of tracks that don’t currently host F1 events that would be capable of hosting them.
Another issue with NASCAR is the lack of control wielded by the teams. In F1 the teams are king, especially with the fans. Ferrari fans are Ferrari fans. Renault fans are Renault fans. The driver is often secondary. In NASCAR just the opposite is true. The teams are very much secondary to the personalities. If you want proof of this look to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s departure from DEI.
All it took for Max Mosley to back down was eight teams (mind you eight very large teams) threatening to start a breakaway series.
Another thing working in NASCAR’s favor is their lock on TV contracts. In the United States we only have a handful of networks capable of producing and carrying large sporting events like a race. ESPN/ABC, Speed, Fox and NBC/TNT are all out of the question. Maybe the break away series could go on Versus?
Around the world there are countless companies and stations capable and likely very willing to produce and broadcast F1 races. There are a world of possibilities.
Lastly I don’t see any NASCAR team owners capable of funding another series. Sure they’re all wealthy guys, but none can afford what these F1 owners can. It is widely believed Ferrari spends/has spent in the past upwards of $500 million on their F1 program. That is insane and well more than the entire worth of most of NASCAR’s owners. Obviously large auto manufacturers can afford to fund this sort of thing, but a former Ford engineer, a football coach and a couple of auto dealers likely would have a much harder time. I guess what I’m saying is this sort of thing isn’t worth their time or money and they would have to know that.
In the end the FIA and F1 are just very different from NASCAR. The FIA is a consortium (though F1 is not), NASCAR is a privately owned and held company. The teams are allowed to organize in F1 and in the FIA, and in NASCAR the teams throughout the history of the sport have been strongly encouraged not to organize. Where F1 has a global presence and global opportunity, NASCAR is confined to just the United States and continental North America.
For better or worse NASCAR is the king of American auto racing. This is their game and we’re all just playing it. So don’t expect Roush, Childress, Hendrick and Gibbs to band together and threaten NASCAR anytime soon.