NASCAR thought it had something to increase the excitement of its racing, coming after the much-hyped “summit” between participants and the sanctioning body. Coming after a six-week period that saw three new winning teams and two new winning drivers, the sport suddenly had a burst of competitive momentum and looked to accelerate that momentum entering the days of summer.
Instead, the sport reaches the second half of June having slid back to the competitive funk it has wallowed in for over ten years.
The double-file restart rule is now two races old, and certainly two races is not enough of a test to definitively declare success, but the inescapable result so far of this rule has not been positive to the sport. The sport has seen no discernible increase in positional passing with double-file restarts; certainly the situation at Pocono was as favorable to the rule as anything could be yet the net result was a gain of nothing. The lead never changed on restarts, and in fact the angle of allowing the leader to restart in whatever line he chose wound up stifling attempt at passing.
The double-file concept is definitely a positive one and the rule needs to be kept, but there has been no sign that it has worked, and this needs to be acknowledged right now.
And making things worse is the cutback of factory backing the sport is now witnessing amid the government-mandated handover of GM and Chrysler to the UAW. Already the sport’s two lower-tier tours – BGN and the Trucks – have been all but purged of manufacturer participation, and the Winston Cup level is about to see cutbacks as well, with Hendrick Motorsports all but assured of being the last remaining factory Chevy team and the bitter pill to many in the sport’s fanbase that is potential Honda involvement one that may have to be swallowed for the sport to maintain anything resembling competitive depth. Certainly one is hard-pressed to see any future of manufacturer backing for teams such as RCR and Ganassi and the warning shot of a Petty Motorsports switch to Toyota apparently already being fired.
Racing has long been about survival and an element of basic survival has crept into even the Winston Cup level, where the competitive depth remains lacking. Mark Martin’s Michigan win got considerable celebration but adds up to just another forgettable Hendrick Motorsports win in a season where April-May’s burst of first-timers in Brad Keselowski, David Reutimann, and Stewart-Haas Racing now seems years past and Michigan offered no promise of a breakthrough for teams like Petty, RCR, Ganassi, Yates, or Robby Gordon, this amid the realistic end of the season for Tommy Baldwin’s pathetic attempt at fielding a Winston Cup team.
Rough stretches are to be expected in sports, but ten-plus years of a sport whose competitive promise goes mostly unfulfilled cries out for more than just a summit meeting between participants and the sanctioning body. We aren’t supposed to talk about just another showdown between Hendrick and Roush, we’re supposed to be talking about more than 15 winning drivers and more than 10 winning teams. That we aren’t still requires change.