Catchfence

Approaching halfway into the 2010 season is being noted for its upsurge in controversies and action; as well as, for more NASCAR meetings with drivers and crew chiefs about possible changes. “Everything really across the board” is being discussed at these meetings, according to Jeff Gordon.

The controversy du jour is between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, and Greg Biffle acidly rips Logano for chopping off other cars every race. Now Logano proved at Irwindale why he won’t be the success people are assuming he’ll reach, but Biffle, a driver who seems not to know how to win anymore, goes too far with noting the need for drivers to give each other room; blaming a driver for actually fighting for something is wrong.

Logano’s problem isn’t fighting for position, because he’s never shown much fight for actual position. That he chops people off every race is obvious, but it’s not Kevin Harvick’s place (or Biffle’s) to lecture him about it given Harvick’s own bully-boy reputation. Therein lies the mixed bag of this controversy – Logano and Harvick are a fight where neither side deserves to win.

It illustrates the radically mixed bag of the 2010 season’s upsurge in nastiness. While some of the racing has been better – Pocono had spots of the best racing outside the plate tracks this year; Bristol was unusually competitive in its misbegotten concrete era; Martinsville saw the wildest finish so far – the onus right now isn’t on racing but on fights and name-calling T-shirts marketed by Kevin Harvick’s wife.

What’s been missing is racing that truly lives up to the sport’s competitive depth. Even with two-abreast restarts we have yet to see a non-plate race approach 40 lead changes; the last time it happened was the 2000 National 500 at Charlotte, and that it’s been that long since it happened is all the more damning.

Even with spots of four-abreast racing as at Pocono, it’s dirty air – always it’s dirty air; aeropush is as prevelant now as it’s been since the late 1990s; we have yet to see a non-plate race where the cars wanted to race in dirty air, where dirty air aided passing instead of impeding it. For all of NASCAR’s discussions with drivers and crew chiefs it’s obvious no one on either side of the competition garage has a clue how to make the draft overcome aeropush on the non-plate tracks.

So the sport is left with racing that in spots is good but for the most part is no better than it was a few years ago. It is also left with fights between drivers that take up virtually all of the discussion in the absense of 50-lead-change racing. So where the sport is better and where it isn’t needs to take up more serious discussion in those meetings – and lead to actual rational rule changes to make it truly better, to actually reach the competitive level the sport can have – and needs to have.