Catchfence

It was a hell of a way for the larger racing world to get its introduction to Brandon Igdalsky. The Pocono Raceway track president faced some heavy media and message board fire before the Sunoco Red Cross Pennylvania 500 at Pocono and was quite determined in his response, noting how Pocono will be adding additional SAFER barriers and so forth, and boasting that the track would become more aggressive in promoting itself. I’m actually a little disappointed, because Igdalsky should have come out in a more aggressive defense of his track, especially with media criticism of the track’s armco barriers backed by earthen embankments and tire barriers as well as the presence of grass infield on the back portion of the speedway. It is impossible to see any scenario where Elliott Sadler’s wreck would have been lessened by a SAFER barrier or paved runoff area – in the decades I’ve gone to Pocono and followed racing in general never once did I see a paved runoff area do better; I remember the assertion that grass infield was making cars get airborne and paved runoffs would keep them on the ground – and in the real world of racing it isn’t happening. The SAFER is hardly foolproof, having been damaged in some wrecks in the years it has been used in NASCAR.

If anything what Sadler’s crash illustrated – again – is the fact these cars are simply too fast to race unrestricted. Trap speeds at Pocono reach 200, and the reality of racing is that 190 has been the cut-off point for safety, and even that’s a bit iffy. With the Trucks making their Pocono debut on Saturday, it was noteworthy that they were noticeably slower down the straights than the cars, be they Sprint Cup or ARCA; the Trucks also displayed a noticeably stronger drafting effect, especially at Lap 40 when Todd Bodine from some ten lengths back in third got on Elliott Sadler’s bumper and blasted him down the frontstretch and erased the ten length gap to leader Denny Hamlin before they even got to Turn One – in contrast, though the battle up front in the 500 became at times downright stunning and Dale Junior and a few others tried to push-draft cars, it was obvious the COTs simply were too fast and too aero-tight for push-drafting to work at well.

It would thus seem that while adding more SAFER barriers is a done deal, Brandon Igdalsky should be pushing NASCAR to start restricting the cars there as well as everywhere else. The racing would certainly improve and its impossible to see any safety degradation from it.

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Amid Brandon Igsalsky’s introduction to the larger NASCAR world, NASCAR’s Brian France found himself under fire for the secret fining of drivers Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman. The reaction of other drivers was on the side of NASCAR to a striking extent, with a lot of verbiage about the need not to attack the sport.

It leaves one radically mixed. Certainly criticisms that are less than honest warrant censure, but what has been at work here is less appropriate censure than what appears to be a vengeful attack by Brian France in a fit of denial that the sport over which he presides has been faltering and that the changes he has wrought not only have not worked but have only worsened the decline in popularity. His push to market NASCAR The Brand has clearly not worked, with the term NASCAR more and more a pejorative than a positive thanks to promotion of The Brand instead of the product.

The laundry list of Brian France failures easily overwhelms whatever successes he may have brought – the Chase and the general refusal to change the points structure to punish mediocrity and reward hard-charging and winning; the bastardization of downforce and tires and its inevitable endgame the COT; the push to impose NASCAR on demographics (LA, NYC, Washington State, to a lesser extent Chicago) that don’t want it and the resultant campaign of speedway fratricide; the implosion of the sport’s economics to where even car owners have begun holding powwows to discuss cost-cutting (though the recent one seemed woefully dry on credible ideas toward that end); and the steady eroding of the sport’s competitive depth with lack of winners, lack of lead changes, and the renewed phenomenon of independents – aka start-and-park cars – actually a controversy.

“We shouldn’t have to lock the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in our glovebox when we drive….into the NASCAR garage.” Here Mr. Mulhern is correct. We also shouldn’t not hold critics accountable for their criticisms, and those in position of power manifestly should be held accountable – and with Brian France lashing out in what can’t look like anything except a fit of denial, the light of accountability needs to be shone.

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Amid all that, the sport still has the 2010 season to go, as Watkins Glen beckons.