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New News, Old News, and News Not Fit To Print

Hello again, gang.

Honestly, I dont know where to start. There has been a lot happening in the motorsports world here in

the last couple of weeks, and most of it isnt too pretty to look at. I think the word train wreck might fit

nicely here in describing the uglier side of the recent news developments concerning primarily NASCAR.

However, there have also been some bright points that escaped under the radar.

But since all of us like to watch the crash footage first, and hear the goodnews afterward, lets get to

the ugly first.

The saying Be careful what you wish for. just doesnt seem to be adequate enough here.

Anyone vaguely recall here a few months ago, the trial balloons being floated out there by Jeff Gordon,

and other NASCAR notables, about how NASCAR could get along just fine without manufacturer

support.I know I wrote about how Jeff Gordon should just shut up and drive (I cant find the editorial

where I said that, and Im too lazy to look for it), and how I thought that he should leave the bidness

decisions about what NASCAR can do with and without to his boss at Hendrick Racing.well, it looks like

we are one step closer to discovering what its going to be like without manufacturer support (whoops, I

mean dollars).

With Chevrolet bailing out of the Truck series, Nationwide (or at least making it official now, as they only

gave token support to Nationwide), and now drastically reducing support for the Sprint Cup series, this

may open the door for other manufacturers to also reduce support for this series. I predicted earlier this

year that either GM or Chrysler would bail from NASCAR by as early as this summer.and whaddya

know, I was partially right.

The Car Of Some Hideous Alternate Tomorrow has become the 1965 Chrysler Imperial of the

Motorsports World.

After watching the disaster of a road course event at Infineon Raceway (Sears Point), its occurred to me

that the Car of Tomorrow is just a trifle too strong for racing purposes. I watched the Grand Am race on

Saturday.which occurred on a road course.and whaddya know, the race was a good one, and due to

the cars in the Grand Am series being just a bit more fragile (you cant tag the wall, or tag a competitor

like you can in NASCAR, and get away with it), the drivers in the Grand Am series arefully aware that

you cant stage a 350-mile demo derby and then try to con the viewing public into believing that it was a

race.

This is truly the hilarious part of NASCAR racing, as far as the COT is concerned; as hard as the Brian

Trust has tried to separate itself from its core fan base, and its beating-and-banging roots on short

tracks throughout the South, with the new and improved! Car of Tomorrow, since the drivers cant

actually race it, whaddya know, the drivers have had to resort to beating and banging in order to

advance their position in a race. Think of it as the NASCAR Circle of Life. I just wish that the France

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Cartel would own up and admit that these cars are a failure.but it isnt going to happen, so Im going to

ride this train all the way to the end of the tracks, and step off at the last stop, right before it sails off of

the bridge.

I found an interesting and enlightening interview from 2001.

Anyone remember Gary Nelson? The former crew-chief-turned NASCAR director and vice-president? I

was thumbing through an old Automobile Magazine from August 2001, as I was looking at an article

comparing the 5 M-series BMWs against each other (I like, no, love the BMW M3), and I stumbled

across an article entitled The Enforcer: Gary Nelson keeps Winston Cup racing honest.

For those of you who might have no idea as to who Gary Nelson is (or was, anyway, as hes since left

NASCAR to run his own company), Nelson was brought aboard to try to curb cheating which was getting

just a bit carried way in NASCARs top racing series. What better way to try to fix the cheating problem

than bring aboard someone whos spent a bit of his career living in the gray area, or at least one would

think so, anyway.

Did he succeed?

To be honest, his success in eliminating the cheating is questionable. Take into account the amount of

times that Hendrick Racing got away with metaphorical murder with rules violations, at times, blatant

violations; anyone remember their magical shocks, or how Jimmie Johnson was allowed to run his

illegal car, and win at Daytona (with Chad Knaus spending a few cozy weeks at home)? The T-Rex car of

Jeff Gordon ring any bells? Countless slaps on the Hendrick wrist, while other teams had the book

thrown at them for even the most anal of violations, some of which we still have no clue about as to

what rule they were violating to begin with , or crushing championship hopes for teams due to bogus

violations concerning illegal parts that have absolutely nothing to do with how the car performs(Anyone recall Mark Martin losing the Winston Cup championship over a coil spring that was 1/4

thof a

coil too short?).

I ramble here.

I hope to find a link to this article sometime, because 2001 was a pivotal time for NASCAR, and this

article is an excellent time capsule into seeing what was on the mind of NASCARs top cop 8 years ago,

when the death of the sports most recognizable driver behind Petty upended business as usual with

the France Cartel. Since I dont have the article, I will post some of the interview questions and answers

from the August 2001 edition of Automobile Magazine, oh, and of course, my comments afterward.

A.M. (Automobile Magazine): Cheating has been a favorite part of NASCAR lore from the beginning.

How come there are no more Smokey Yunicks trying to sneak creatively-misshapen Chevelles through

tech?

G.N.(Gary Nelson): Todays sponsors dont want to be associated with flat-out, designed-to-break-the-

rules violations. Some of them write this into contracts with the teams. Its always been my policy to go

public with every illegal part we find. Now, its not a trophy, so Im always careful not to hold it up like a

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hunter holding up a deer. But we want people to get the message that if we pull an illegal part off of a

car, theres a good chance its going to get negative publicity

My comment: Before the COT came along, at the highlight of Gary Nelsons career.when he was

supposedly against this sort of thing, we didhave teams trying to pass misshapen Chevelles through

tech.and in the case of Hendrick Racing.they got away with it, at least for one race. Another note?Gary claims to go public with every il legal part that he found.however, to this very day, we never

really get to find out what specific rule was broken with most of these parts violations, now do we?

Keep in mind that the public notice enforceability was also selective; some teams got a quick mention

of a illegal part violation with the incident quickly swept under the rug, but pity Roush Racing if they get

an illegal part violation during a slow news month.

A.M. : When you were on the other side of the fence, you were known as one of the most, ah, creative

crew chiefs in Winston Cup. Is that why you were hired?

G.N. : When I was a crew chief, I used to live in the gray area of the rulebook. Sometimes my car would

make through inspection, sometimes it wouldnt. When I came to NASCAR, my goal was to eliminate the

gray area and make everything black and white. I thought that would be my contribution to the sport. I

was nave enough to think I could do it in a short period of timemaybe a year. Ten years later, were

still at it.

My comment: His contribution to the sport? Ego goeth before the fall. Theres a few problems with

trying to get rid of the gray area, Gary; First, in NASCAR, theres no clear line between a part that

actually works, and a part that is made by a series sponsor, concerning which part in question actually

works better on the race car itself. So until you have a Spec car in a Spec series that is built by one

Spec shop.there is going to be competition within the sport that spurs innovation, with the net result

being usually that better ways to do things are found, and in some cases, the car may go faster as aresult. So until we get some honesty about which part truly works better on a race car, irrespective of

any sponsors influence.it isnt going to get any better.and Im not sure I want it to.

Second; If you mandate that every team is forced to field a heap of a race car, dont be shocked and

surprised when you discover teams are trying to figure out ways around someone elses shoddy

engineering.

A.M.: So why not create a spec class where everybody has the same car? Wouldnt that be the

ultimate drivers series?

G.N.: We openly adjust the rules to even things out. We put engines on the dyno to check the power,and we juggle spoiler sizes to make sure all the different bodies have the same aerodynamic signature.

For a while, we even considered the idea of creating a common [car body] template. It made sense in

the conference room. But when we bounced the idea off of a few people, we realized that the identity

of the cars is important to the race fans. They want to see a Chevrolet, a Pontiac, a Ford, and a Dodge on

the racetrack.

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My comment: Hey, Gary! What happened here! Guess what! You were right! The fans arent liking the

Car of Tomorrow! This made me laugh hysterically for quite some time after I read it.We have Gary

Nelson, in 2001, stating how big of a disaster a spec car would be for the series.and here we are in

2009, with a spec car.

A.M.: Winston Cup is being touted as the race series for the next century. So why are the cars stuck in atechnological time warp?

G.N.: Being cutting edge isnt high on our list. The France Family (whoops, I really wanted to sub the

word cartel in here-Larry) philosophy has always been that this is a drivers series. Race fans dont want

to watch the guys in the white lab coats burn processors. They want to see their favorite drivers using

the sensors in the seat of their pants, the tips of their fingers, and the soles of their feet. Our job is to

make sure that every driver has a chance to win every race, regardless of what make the car, engine,

fuel, whatever it is, that he uses.

My comment: This statement is so hideously wrong on so many levels. Yeah, youre right, Gary, the

$1,000,000+ 7-post shaker rig is definitely oh so low-tech. Anyone else here see the dripping socialism in

his response? NASCARs job is to make sure that everydriver has a chance to win, regardless.blah,

blah? Yeah, NASCAR really scored with that philosophy, didnt they? Socialism hasnt worked anywhere

on the planet, yet the France Family Philosophy is that the every driver is supposed to be able to win

psychobabble is suddenly going to work in one of the most competitive of human endeavors (Socialism

is supposed to destroy all forms of competition).auto racing? Anyone who has lived through a

socialist regime knows the one universal truth about this particular political dogma; Trying to make

everyone equal gets really freaking expensive after a while.and now we know why NASCAR racing is

getting to be such a financial drain. Imagine that; teams and their drivers actually wanting to dominate

via great driving skills.and superiorequipment.

Want to know why IROC failed? Nobody wants to watch a spec race on a national level.yet IROC is

exactly what NASCAR wants to become, albeit with different paint jobs on the cars.and guess what,

nobody wants to watch it.

To be continued.