In order to be successful on race day, crew members must all be on the same page. Knowing what to expect for the upcoming 500 miles (or laps… or kilometers) can mean the difference between winning or finishing second. Teams have gotten so big now, and have so many moving parts, that it’s vital for everyone to be as prepared as possible. And the last chance to get everyone together before the race starts, is the closed-to-the-public pre-race meeting.
It happens every weekend. About an hour before the green flag drops, crew members will disappear into team haulers for this all important meeting. In it, crew chiefs will go over a variety of important information for the day, and many will give pep talks.
The information shared during these meetings often includes things like when the first pit stop will be and how far the car can go on gas, what adjustments the pit crew can maybe expect to make during the race, an update of the weekend’s happenings and how the car is running, a minute-by-minute schedule of pre-race activities (generators pushed off pit road, National Anthem, start your engines, etc), any post race tasks that need to be completed, and a variety of other topics.
Just like every good leader (especially in sports) many crew chiefs will also take this time to pump their guys up for the day’s activities. Pit crews will be reminded to be smooth and accurate, and watch each other’s backs. If they were good the week before, the boss will tell you to keep it up. If you weren’t so good the week before, he’ll encourage you to stick to your fundamentals. And behind-the-wall guys will be reminded to be prepared at all times for any situation.
Once the information has been relayed, and nobody has any questions, the team will break and crew members will go about getting changed into firesuits and completing any remaining pre-race jobs. Then, it’s go time.
Farewell Suitcase Jake We were all saddened today to hear that the sport had lost one of it’s legends. “Suitcase” Jake Elder, who led some of the best drivers in NASCAR’s history, died at the age of 73. He had been in declining health ever since suffering a stroke a few years ago. During his long career, Elder sat atop the pit box for legends like David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons, and Fred Lorenzen. He also helped Dale Earnhardt win the 1979 Rookie of the Year. For more on Elder, check out this piece by SPEEDTV.com’s Mike Hembree.
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.
In other sports, home games happen just as often as away games. But racing is different. We spend almost the entire season at away games. The sport as a whole only gets two home weekends a year; the 600 weekend in May and the October night race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Both offer a welcome respite from the usual grind of the season.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I always enjoy the chances to go racing here in Charlotte. It’s like every other weekend in that I still get to do what I love, but it always seems to mean a little more getting to do it close to home.
One thing you always notice about the Charlotte races is the amount of people roaming around the garage area and on pit road during the race. Besides the usual suspects, the proximity to home allows many friends and family who don’t normally get to see what we do to come out and spend the weekend with us. The credential lists for these weekends always end up full because of the extra requests.
On top of that, it’s nice to not have to travel to a far away race track. Instead of long plane rides or crowded van trips, it’s only a short drive for most to the track. And it’s nice at the end of the day to be able to go home and sleep in your own bed.
And I don’t know if you happen to notice a difference, but to me it seems like the racing action is always a little more amped up. I think everyone wants to be able to win in front of a home crowd, so teams bring their “A” games and drivers are a little more aggressive. Charlotte races don’t usually disappoint.
To top it off, the facility at Charlotte really is a great one. The garage and pit areas are nice, and you can’t beat having a half mile dirt track and the greatest drag strip on the planet all in the same complex. Bruton (and Humpy) really did a great job.
For high school and college sports, those homecoming games are always a big deal. The fans come out to support the team, there are a ton of festivities, and you know the games will be hard fought. Racing is not different. Our homecoming weekends mean just as much. There really is no place like home.