24 Hours of Daytona

In response to the conclusion of the football season, Frank Helps You Think It All Out slowed down a little last week. But the blog is right back this week- and I will start with the horrible show NASCAR put on with yesterday’s “24 Hours of Daytona”.

Okay, okay- it really was the Daytona 500- but as it stretched into sixth hour yesterday- it was a little obscene. Let me abridge Mike Bianchi a little here:

This will go down in infamy as the Pothole 500. The Great American Race turned into a Great American Disgrace.

How does this happen? How can a sport whose entire existence is based upon good asphalt have its most important event all but ruined because of bad asphalt?

"We're the world center of racing," said Robin Braig, president of Daytona International Speedway. "This is the Daytona 500. This is not supposed to happen, and I take full responsibility."

The Daytona 500 was red-flagged and delayed twice — for nearly 2½ hours — as track workers struggled before finally patching a mysterious hole on the track between turns one and two. The race started at 1 p.m. on a cool, sunny day. It ended more than six hours later when Jamie McMurray held off a hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. under the speedway lights.

NASCAR simply can’t have its signature event extend almost seven hours due to non-weather related, non-Act of God style shenanigans. And NASCAR owns Daytona- so don’t send the President of the Speedway out there to take the flak. This is their pothole and their mess.

Secondly, I get the green-white-checker rule. I don’t like it, but I get it. NASCAR wants fans to see a finish under racing conditions, rather than a caution parade to the finish. So yes, giving the fans a chance to see a racing finish by extending the race- fine, grudging approval.

But je’zum crow. We’re now going to do this three times? Who was not rolling their eyes as NASCAR again and again and again, again edging toward hour seven, lined these guys up to smash into each other?

One solvable problem with the green-white-checker finish is that NASCAR rewards a change of position pretty much the same no matter where you are in the field. A driver gets roughly the same points boost improving from third to second as he does from 23rd to 22nd. So all through the field you have incentive to drive like a nut. Particularly at a plate track, where a driver can improve several positions in two laps.

I would make it a true overtime- clear the track of every driver but the top five or so- and let them sort it out. A meaningless wreck over fourteenth place, involving a whole field re-set again and again and again- is not the purpose here.

Lastly, I’ve been working on both a Tulane editorial and Olympics for this week- so content is back this week with a vengeance!

Goin' To Bristol

Folks, Frank Helps You Think It All Out is going on vacation for a bit. It is time for my annual trek to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500 and to see Miss Food City, Lindsey Blevins , in person.

Next week I’ll be back with the 2009 Tulane football preview- still the most accurate prediction service going!

Don't Rain On My Parade

Let’s face it, the Daytona 500 was sleep inducing. All the worst parts of NASCAR’s modern era were on display.

There were way too many cautions- including for debris and for “competition reasons”. Frankly, if NASCAR is worried about some competition issue- code for “tires”- have Morgan Sheppard go out and run twenty hard laps in a back-up car at noon. Don't stop the race for 7-9 minutes (10 green flag laps) for this nonsense. Do your knitting your own time.

And the number of debris cautions has got to be cut back- if stuff falls off an undisturbed car more than once in a season, that car has gotta be fined fifty competition points. It isn’t so much the race stoppage, it is the endless time it takes the field to loop around a super speedway three/four times under said caution. At any two mile plus track, for any minor incident, one lap to collect them, one lap to sort them, then race again.

And yes, forget the pit stop. There is zero drama in yellow flag stops at restrictor plate tracks. Track position doesn’t matter at plate tracks until the last fifteen laps.

And of course, these late starts force a dependence on weather. Starting at 3PM reduces the window you have to get five hundred miles in- particularly when you are committed to running a regime that features a dozen caution periods a race.

In my humble opinion, the two biggest changes in NASCAR this decade have been anti-racing: the new point system that rewards months of effort to simply make laps running ninth and the increased emphasis on safety. Now, I am not anti-safety. But be honest, it does effect the product detrimentally- and needs to be compensated for.

For one thing, NASCAR has a hockey helmet problem. The NHL mandated helmets to protect players’ heads- and "surprisingly" stick fouls and injuries to the head sky-rocketed. Putting the helmet on players’ heads removed the collective responsibility to police your stick to keep your peers from getting hurt. If you are increasing safety, while decreasing responsibility to keep one another safe, you aren’t advancing anything.

NASCAR’s never ending emphasis on safety has achieved a similar effect. They’ve made everything ostensibly “safer”- and accidents are through the roof. Every race now has ten cautions for people running into each other. Not too long ago they were able to run places like Talladega and Bristol with one or two (or zero). Drivers knew craziness could get them hurt or dead.

The wreck Junior caused this weekend was because of the safety improvements- not in spite of it. He can do something incredibly risky and dumb- because there is no consequence for it past a torn up race car. These guys simply don’t race with that respect generated from fear anymore. So you need to replace that fear with something else- taking big points from guys for causing repeatedly accidents.

Daytona isn’t marred by endless crashes because of the plates or competition- but by the fact these guys don’t think they can get hurt. You wouldn’t see half the craziness, the running with wounded, ill-handling cars- if these guys thought they could get seriously injured. I don’t want to bring back “guys getting hurt”- but I want to restore the incentive for racing without crashing. A good point docking would help get them there.

That being said, I’m inclined to give Junior a grudging pass- although I acknowledge the national press is not so kind (here and here and here). He is simply not a dirty driver- just not a very good one- and he had made a mistake. Frankly, he makes that sort of mistake all the time. His issue is not equipment or talent- but his focus over lap after lap, race after race. In the middle of July, at a routine stop on the tour, you know Jimmie Johnson is going to hit his marks again and again. Junior can go races just sort of being there- for all the hype, he is a pretty boring competitor- because he goes week after week making a concentration mistake or two and quietly running thirteenth.

On Vacation

Folks, Frank Helps You Think It All Out is going on vacation for a bit. It is time for my annual trek to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500 and to see Miss Food City, Jennifer Whittington, in person.

Next week I’ll be back with the 2008 Tulane football preview- still the most accurate prediction service going!

Hopefully, the Phillies can hang in there until I get back. I'm increasingly doubtful- as no one hits! Somehow we've managed to get back to where Myers is the most reliable starter.And frankly, Billy Wagner leaving their 'pen can only help the Mets.

Take The Barriers Out

Jennifer Lizotte writes for the Portland Press Herald- and runs a newsy site that summarizes the day's NASCAR news. She's on to this SAFER barrier thing: a device that makes the walls "softer" when race cars imapct them inadvertantly. Honestly, I think she misses the point. If I were President of NASACAR, the first thing I would do is remove the safety barriers. Seriously.

Look, no one is anti-safety. But the number of cautions and red flags has turned this product into week-after-week of four- plus hour marathons. There was- not too long ago- a time where a real NASACAR event could be run in three hours with a mere handful of cautions routinely. Heck, they've run Bristol in the past without a single caution flag.

Frankly, NASCAR has a hockey helmet problem. The NHL mandated helmets to protect players’ heads- and "surprisingly" stick fouls and injuries to the head sky-rocketed. Putting the helmet on players’ heads removed the collective responsibility to police your stick to keep your peers from getting hurt. If you are increasing safety, while decreasing responsibility to keep one another safe, you aren’t advancing anything.

NASCAR’s never ending emphasis on safety has achieved a similar effect. They’ve made everything ostensible “safer”- and accidents are through the roof.

Even Miss Food City knows the bad lick Jeff Gordon took this weekend was because of the safety improvements- not in spite of it. Face it, everything "racing" is sacrificed to safety mandates: the endless cautions for debris, the prolonged cautions for clean up, etc. And for what? These guys simply don’t race with that respect generated from fear anymore. Daytona isn’t marred by endless crashes because of the plates or competition- but by the fact these guys don’t think they can get hurt. You wouldn’t see half the craziness, the running with wounded, ill-handling cars- if these guys thought they could get seriously injured.

Remove the safer barriers and drivers would drive with “respect”: fewer cautions, fewer accidents, better safer racing.

Driving in Circles

Obviously, the reconstruction of the Bristol Motorspeedway is a huge boon for the racing there. Even a cursory glance at the last thirty laps of the Busch race Friday night, where four racers swapped the top two positions again and again while racing three wide, would be proof that the “racing” is better. The picture represents how those three guys ran lap after lap after lap after lap. Everyone raved about the Busch and Truck race- and they were fantastic.

Conversely, I am not surprised that the Cup race has gotten a lot of thumbs down from fans. I think this guy and David Poole have a point killing the Cup race- similar to one I wrote about earlier this year.

Jim McLaurin wrote after the race: Bristol racing is not guys being able to pass each other, it’s two guys fighting over the same spot, usually to the detriment of one or the other. Like the plate races, Bristol was always more of a show- theater if you will. While NASCAR will always ultimately be about “racing”, the spectacle, the banging, shoving and temper tantrums- made Bristol a must see event, not the race itself. As this anonymous writer says (some of the comments are good too):

After all the hoopla, specially designed colored flash cards in the stands, testimonials of drivers all week...singing the praises of the most fantastic track surface in the universe and the promise that fans would witness one of the best races in history, the truth is things simply didn't pan out. The race was somewhat sedate and comprised mostly of green flag runs. The entire personality of the Bristol Experience was altered by the redesign and reconfiguration of the track surface and banking and the introduction of the vehicle that represents the future of NASCAR racing to it. Depending on the particular tastes of fans, those who desire aggressive, feisty, rowdy racing have seen the last of it. Tonight's race was anything but that, and was probably much enjoyed by the safety conscious and purists who love the sight of cars monotonously making left turns, especially side by side.

That theatrical scene is gone now in the showplace division. Right now, Bristol is not a rock’em, sock’em event at the Cup level.

The track is better (so far)- but unfortunately, winning at Bristol is no longer important to the Cup guys in the big scheme of things. It is no accident that the top guys in the Chase- Gordon, Johnson, Hamlin, Stewart, Harvick- spent the night content to merely make laps, stay out of trouble. Running twelfth, protecting their big advantages over the 13th place driver, crossing off another date until the Chase starts was a more-than-satisfactory day for those guys- particularly at a track that introduces so many chance variables.

It is not surprising that all the guys who ran well, or who were entertaining, were drivers either battling for the twelfth spot who needed to run aggressively with their competition to make up spots (Busch and Earnhardt) or guys so far back that only a win meant anything (Kahne, Yeley).

Frankly, there were just too many guys on the Speedway who were incentivized to run Top 15 and park it- then try to win. That is what the Chase regular season does- it distorts behavior in the guys who are comfortable in the Chase. Your best drivers and teams merely want to run eleventh and go home as quickly as possible- quite content to have knocked the schedule back another day.

The Trucks and Busch series will never have this problem- a top ten finish means you lose points to nine guys- the antithesis of securing your post-season run. Short of killing the Chase, NASCAR simply has to start really rewarding guys now more for winning, or finishing top five, in the first part of the season. The enticement problem fixes itself in the Chase- so I don’t care- as you got to chase the leader then. The old way rewarded consistency over the season and encouraged high car counts (important in the 1970-90s)- so a bonus was actually counter-productive. The current system clearly provides an incentive to happy with eleventh place- so you gotta do more to discourage that complacency.

Racer Eight

I am a pretty neutral observer on Dale Earnhardt Jr. Like most NASCAR fans, I always was partial to his charging father- who was one of those guys in sports who got it: a real competitor who appreciated the fans and sport that paid his salary. But I was never fired up for Junior as a racer. Frankly, his step-mother had a valid gripe when she postulated that the younger Dale needed to decide whether he was a champion or a spokesman for Drakkar Noir first.

That being said, it seems to me that if you are both a Junior fan, accordingly want to see him win- well, he is with a team that can most definitely win. Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) just isn't anymore. Frankly, it is an “either or” situation. He could either ride around in twelfth place for another three years at DEI, sulking about his step-mother and muttering about the team’s decline- or move to a team that definitely could win. And if his "fans" grousing about "being teammates with Gordon" was the major downside... well, please. Yeah, Jeff Gordon is a phony- we all know that- but it isn’t like Dale has to marry the guy. Or even share haulers.

One of the best reasons for this switch is that sometimes a change of scenery is good for people. Whatever dynamic that existed at DEI just wasn't working too well anymore. It wasn't terrible: there is nothing inherently "bad" about being a key participant in one of the top ten-fifteen individual stock car teams in the entire USA.

But these super multi-car teams that dominate NASCAR now made huge investments in engineering, technology and talent development. Hendricks is a totally bigger and tech savvy organization than it was a decade ago with the Rainbow Warriors. Compare that to Dale Jr.’s existing organization. DEI is still largely a collection of Earnhardt family members- particularly in the decision-making roles. Along similar lines, does anyone think it helps matters that his sister is his agent? I mean, if that is not a graduate PhD psychology experiment waiting to happen- then what is?

Talent selection was based on relationships. Martin Truex was there largely because he was Dale’s pal. Michael Waltrip drove the second car there for a long time. I am not sure it is a real smart move to run your second car with a second tier veteran rather than trying to develope a real grade one talent. But again, Waltrip was “family”- and evaluated on a different curve. Also, DEI was a strong team; it really was. But Dale Jr insisted on this clubhouse atmosphere- and bears a goodly share of the responsibility for the team’s decline. Yes, it was cute when family ties made Dale Jr. and his pals the guys who cut the grass at the shop. It isn't so cute when the exact same lawn mowing team is still in charge of building the cars and executing the racing organization.

The pressure is on Dale squarely now. Put up or shut up time for him. Hendrick wins. The team wins with different people, different crew-chiefs, different tracks, different teams and different cars. They win and win and win. If #8 can't win here, it means he probably is- outside of restrictor plate racing- a whole lot closer the past couple of years to Dave Blaney and Bobby Hamilton Jr. than a lot of his fans will want to admit. Maybe his fans need to swallow their pride and anger toward Hendrick's team- and realize they lost this battle with Gordon, etc.- but now could win a Championship. Isn't that why you are a fan of the guy- or is it to justify tossing beer and stuff at Gordon?

Stop Driving Aimlessly!

I’m not a curmudgeon. And I enjoyed the race at Bristol yesterday. I like when Carl Edwards’ flips. But I am increasingly convinced that part and parcel of this Race for the Chase is incomplete as designed. Whether you like the new format or not, it provides new competitive stresses on the nature of the competition- stresses teams are increasingly figuring out to the detriment of the weekly racing.

Teams always knew that all you had to do in these first 26 races was make the cut: the top twelve spots. But increasingly, the efficient methodology chosen to do that is to simply lock in top fifteen finishes every chance you get. Run seventh or eleventh or something similar- and then just make laps, run out the clock on the day.

Now teams have always sought to protect good days. But it is increasingly ridiculous and boring. The incentive structure has changed. Running just out of the Top Ten used to mean you lost points, possibly to multiple drivers, which would have to be made up. Now the drivers don’t lose anything, NASCAR makes it all up in one fell swoop- if you can get to their magic cut-off level. So that is the new carrot- not to stay close points-wise to the leaders- but to just get to NASCAR’s marker.

In the old days, with Gordon and Burton and Johnson holding an ever growing 200 point lead- guys like Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer could not be content with riding around twelfth- without at least trying to change the status quo. But today, their tactics are rewarded. Put it this way. Prior to the Chase, Bowyer and Edwards would have been dissatisfied with their day at Bristol. Now, they are right on schedule- pleased as punch to have furthered their chances to make the coming cut.

NASCAR has to start rewarding guys now more for winning, or finishing top five, in the first part of the season. The enticement problem fixes itself in the Chase- so I don’t care- as you got to chase the leader then. The old way rewarded consistency over the season and encouraged high car counts (important in the 1970-90s)- so a bonus was actually counter-productive. The current system clearly provides an incentive to happy with eleventh place- so you gotta do more to discourage that complacency.

Daytona 500!

The Daytona 500 was an outstanding event. It showcased NASCAR at its best: a competitive race down to the final yards, the stars running well, giant wrecks, someone finishing in the Top 20 upside down and on fire.

Of course, not that the drivers- a crew who as a collective is increasingly removed from their sports reality- get it. Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle and Ken Schraeder all went on NASCAR Weekly yesterday to whine about NASCAR refusing to throw the caution as the field wrecked behind Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.

Look, no one is anti-safety. But NASCAR has a hockey helmet problem. The NHL mandated helmets to protect players’ heads- and stick fouls to the head sky-rocketed. Putting the helmet on players’ heads removed the collective responsibility to police your stick to keep your peers from getting hurt.

NASCAR’s never ending emphasis on safety has achieved a similar effect. Face it, everything racing is sacrificed to the safety mandates: the endless cautions for debris, the prolonged cautions for clean up, etc. And for what? These guys simply don’t race with that respect generated from fear anymore. Daytona isn’t marred by endless crashes because of the plates or competition- but by the fact these guys don’t think they can get hurt. You wouldn’t see half the craziness, the running with wounded, ill-handling cars- if these guys thought they could get burned alive or crushed.

Now sure, it is fun to bash NASCAR for "inconsistency" on the caution flag. You get to sound like a knowledgeable race fan talking about the vague conspiracies that are “rife” in NASCAR.

But one place these France people are VERY consistent, is their desire to have a green flag finish. If Mark Martin didn't know this (which I seriously doubt)- than shame on him. Why do you think they have this green-white-checker rule in the first place? Why did they throw the red flag and have us sit for an interminable delay? Because the people who watch and FOX want race to the flag finishes.

Between the Cup, Busch, and the trucks last year there were races featuring a last lap incident, not directly involving the leaders, where the leaders were allowed to finish- and only then the caution thrown. Don't say this scenario was unexpected or inconsistent; it happens.

You might not like it- but don't say it is wildly inconsistent. I sense what limited distress exists over this is more a desire to see Mark Martin finally win one of these- than any real fault with NASCAR.