Did you notice the short field in the Nationwide Series this weekend? Certainly not a great indicator of health of the sport. But then did you notice the fields in the Cup and especially the Truck Series? Those should make us all feel a little better.
Consider this: there were 40 cars on the Nationwide entry list, the first short field since 2008, 44 on the Cup Series entry list and 41 on the Truck Series entry list. In the Truck Series that’s five more cars than make up a full field.
Unfortunately that meant some great young talent like James Buescher and, for the second week in a row, Tayler Malsam didn’t make the race. Still there wasn’t a single team that start-and-parked. That in itself is quite an achievement.
With the lesser cost of entry and the investment by teams like RCR, KHI and KBM, the Truck Series this season is a whole new place. Competition is improved (or perhaps expanded) and the fields are full. To see reduced and or eliminated start-and-park teams is wonderful.
This season is shaping up to be really interesting. Let’s hope these full fields continue.
Tommy Baldwin Racing Announces Their Start-And-Park Run
File this under the strange moment of the weekend, Tommy Baldwin Racing actually announced they would be start-and-parking. The team had planned to run the full race, but a wreck in practice meant they would have to go to a backup – which turned out to be their Las Vegas primary.
Apparently they decided they’d have better luck in Las Vegas and they wanted to tell everyone – from a PR perspective, I’m not sure I see what the benefit of this was though. And NASCAR didn’t either. NASCAR’s VP of Competition Robin Pemberton said before the race Sunday:
“I can’t speak for Tommy and why he did it, but I just thought that it totally took us by surprise… We know that if anybody tries to run all the races it’s Tommy Baldwin. When he can he does. Quite honestly, just taken back by it, and I thought it was just poor timing on his part and that’s all I’ve got to say about it.”
Telling everyone you’re about to take part in a frowned upon practice is not advisable – though it’s admirable they apparently felt bad enough about doing it that they decided they would tell everyone. With the response they got, I doubt they do this again.
An interesting tidbit none the less. What do you think? Would you prefer for a team to announce their intention, or would you rather they just did it?
UPDATED: Link to TBR’s full statement here.
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