The first of two road races is coming up for the Winston Cup warriors of NASCAR, and as they Sprint their way to Sonoma, CA they will be joined by the usual gaggle of road racing specialists – Boris “You Can Call Me Badenov” Said in John Carter’s Roush-aligned Ford, Ron Fellows in James Finch’s Hendrick-aligned Chevrolet, Brian Simo in the woebegone Tommy Baldwin Toyota, ex-CART ace Patrick Carpentier in Michael Waltrip’s Toyota, Tom Hubert in Kirk Shelmerdine’s Toyota, and P.J. Jones in a second Robby Gordon car.
Much will be written about the road ringers and their chances of winning the Sears Point 350. The problem here is the road ringers have been doing this for years and yet Mark Donohue remains the last road ringer to win a Winston Cup road race, doing so in January 1973 at Riverside on a set of disc brakes on Roger Penske’s AMC Matador.
This is one angle of believing something when it is actually seen – the next time a road race ringer wins a Winston Cup road race will be the first time since 1973; it is a scenario I have to see to believe.
And in modern NASCAR believing scenarios when we see them has become all too necessary. The continuing fiasco of the COT is one such area. It came into the sport amid promises of improved competition and reduced cost, and we’ve seen neither. The reduced cost angle was bantied about because of NASCAR’s supposedly foolproof CLAW supertemplate and overall rigorous inspections. Yet overlooked by seemingly everyone was an acknowledgement during the Pocono weekend by Kyle Busch, the most vociferous critic of the COT. Coming amid NASCAR hints of allowing tweaks to the COT, Busch noted what most in the sport probably knew in the back of their minds – teams have figured out how to build these cars lighter via exotic materials etc. to where they now are adding several hundred pounds of lead where before there was no lead to be put into them at all. The cars use less material in being built than they did before.
In other words, the teams are still ahead of NASCAR in the technology arms race and are using that edge, and it is reflected in the continuing near-monopoly of the Big Three in the sport.
Now we did see a spurt of three new winning teams in James Finch, Michael Waltrip Racing, and Stewart-Haas Racing. But whatever momentum effect that generated looks gone now.
The COT was supposed to reel in budgets, but it was always a case of believing that when we see it – and now we know it isn’t happening. The spurt of new winners was encouraging, but we have to see more of such as well as comebacks by teams that presently are struggling badly to believe the competitive promise of the sport.
It’s a promise that still gets made in some areas of the racing media as we’ve heard comment (notably by Art Weinstein) on the alleged competitive depth of the Top 25 in the final run before the Chase. Having gone through Chases since 2004, to hold any anticipation toward it is foolish – it’s another area where promise has to be seen to be believed. The next time the Chase produces a real championship battle will be the first time it ever does so.
The sport needs far more genuinely positive things to happen for anyone to seriously believe in promises of something better for a sport that remains in need of something better.