The Truth
So another Labor Day weekend race at California Speedway has
come and went and the annual cry for the Southern 500’s return has come and
went as well. Good riddance to
both! I do not think I have ever been so
bored by a race in my life, or at least since the Mother’s Day Eve snore-fest
at the before-mentioned
You can chalk a portion of your boredom up to this race being the penultimate event in the “Race to the Chase”. Basically, you had those solidly in the Chase taking no chances and aiming the car at a top 15 finish while Kasey Kahne did exactly what he needed to do, winning the race and leading the most laps. Those who could challenge him, namely Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, and Junior, all were content to finish well and move on to Richmond instead of making a push for victory. Again, a good finish trumps a win, something unseen before the Chase format.
The fix for this is not to do away with the Chase, as it is
again the single greatest change in the history of stock car racing since its
inception. To fix it, award more points
for first. If the difference in points
between Kahne in first and Junior in second was 40 points instead of 15, would
Junior have pushed harder for the win?
Who knows, but that would have taken Juniors now 77 point lead on Kahne
and cut it to 52, or the difference between Junior needing a 16th to
make the Chase as things stands now if Kahne repeats his California points at
Richmond versus needing to finish 9th. That is a big difference, especially at
Speaking of Junior let me be the first to say I am
completely surprised by the turnaround at DEI.
This team went from losing a motor at Loudon in July and Eury Jr.
stating that DEI’s engine shop had been making shitty engines all year, to
being run over by Scott Wimmer in his field-filler #4 piece of shit the
following weekend at Pocono because DEI’s engine shop again could not find
horsepower. The following week at Indy,
Junior said he had no confidence in his car.
Luckily, Eury Jr. did and left him out at the end of the race, turning
Junior’s 30th place attitude into a 6th place finish. The following week at Watkins Glen, the #8
team struggled to an 18th place finish. Then the big turnaround happened with a 6th
at
This does not go without a bit of wondering on my part, though. What happened at DEI to bring about this huge turnaround? Why all of a sudden can the engine shop build good motors with the same personnel that they had when they were making crap? Did Theresa step in and kick them all in their candy asses and tell them to shape it up or get the hell out? It took RCR an off-season of retooling and pulling engine guys away from Roush to make this change, so I have to believe DEI has some good guys. I think they started resting on the Earnhardt name and figured the paychecks would roll in regardless of their time and effort. Something has changed at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and whoever saw to it deserves a big chunk of that Earnhardt name money.
Unfortunately, here is the part I have to talk about the racing or lack there of. First, if I have to hear about how California Speedway allows for three-wide racing I am going to vomit. These cars can drive three wide in the corner, but once they reach the exits, they have to get two wide. One hundred percent of the time, the guy in the middle has to get out of the gas or wreck all three cars, meaning there are only two raceable grooves on the track. This allows for only two-wide racing with occasional three-wide driving.
Second, the cautions. There were only six, but those six were for 29 laps. The longest one was for six laps and occurred when David Gilliland spun the #38 and hit nothing. Six laps for nothing! That is twelve miles spent behind the pace car for about ten minutes. Again, for nothing. That is one lap longer than the caution for Brian Vickers blowing a tire and spraying rubber and sheet metal all over the track. Somebody either dropped the ball on that one or had to work out a bigger turd than expected.
Third, the heat. The race finished at about 9:00 PM local time, making it dark for about an hour of the four hour race. With daytime temperatures pushing 110 and stock cars driving on a sun-baked track for three hours, the track did not dump temperature as expected. What you got were guys driving around a little loose as dusk set in waiting for a track to cool off that never did. Another reason forcing a night race on the West Coast is not a good idea.
Fourth, my ass was dog tired. A beautiful 80 degree day spent barbequing,
playing Monkey
Bar Golf, and, of course, drinking way too much led to me not giving a shit
who had been running in 7th the whole damn
race. This race is the Allstate 400
without The Brickyard for a backdrop.
Both are parades without the free candy being chucked at you from the
top of a hook-and-ladder. I would have
rather taken a roll of Smarties in the eye, winged by
some smart ass 18-year-old volunteer fireman, than have to listen to Wally and Dingleberry Weber rattle off the same field rundown 50
times. I hope when the promised section
of
Even the SCC board has been boring as hell lately. The GM thread is by far the most interesting material on the board right now. Any time something related to racing shows up, some douche bag shows up stroking Denny Hamlin and ruins it. Or how about the Junior fans who have spent the last 6 weeks or so shitting in their Wranglers and crying into their Budweiser telling those who have been calling it how they see it to shut up now that Junior has been running well. Hell, even Steeler said to wait until Sunday to ask him if he thought Junior would make the Chase. He will make it, do not worry! After that, all will return to normal in Junior-land and you can start thinking about next year again.
This week’s Benny Parsons watch finds him again at home
resting up so he can return to fully annoying next week at