Another Fox broadcasting baseball/NASCAR double-header. It’s a great way to kill an entire day in front of the TV. Unfortunately, the baseball game was a terrible disappointment in excitement, 8 to 0, Dodgers over Giants. All eyes had been on SoCal because of Manny Ramirez’s 50 game drug suspension. What little pre-game there was and the in game chatter about the suspension primarily focused on his return. I admit he was quite a highlight reel the last time the Dodgers were featured in the game of the week.
(I like color commentator Eric Karros, but his players’ union rep side is intolerable at times. “I say Manny should play in the All-Star game if he’s voted in by the fans.” “Well Eric, our Fox poll shows that the fans have voted 80% to 20% that Manny shouldn’t play in the All-Star game this year.” “Like I said, if the fans want Manny to play, then he should play.” This explanation went on for five agonizing minutes due to the blow out in progress. And, no, he shouldn’t play.)
What on earth does this have to do with NASCAR?
The abbreviated NASCAR Darlington pre-race briefly mentioned Jeremy Mayfield and a couple of crew members had been suspended for failing their drug tests and had been indefinitely suspended. I’d compare and contrast the drug situation with Man-Ram, but that tidbit was the whole story and discussion on the broadcast. No mention of what drugs were involved or discussion of NASCAR’s testing and suspension protocols. Unlike Shane Hmiel (not sure I’m spelling that right), I knew who Jeremy Mayfield was before the suspension. This issue merited some more coverage, but like I said, it was a short pre-race.
So what was on the pre-race instead? A quick Digger promo. A couple of tantalizing glimpses of Ingrid. Jeff Gordon and his mom made a pitch for his mom’s new cookbook, but carefully skirted the issue of Ingrid’s new ‘doo. (I’m still waiting for some in-depth coverage.) Then came one of the most pathetic moments in Fox’s NASCAR coverage history: DW practically begging Junior to win a race in an interview. Oh wait. That’s pretty much every interview this year. How sad.
Fox hasn’t yet figured out how to get Junior in Victory Lane, but has figured how to monetize their Junior coverage. At least for this race, the Mountain Dew cam showed Junior’s progress throughout the race, like him blowing yet another pit stop. I could pile on with the commentary, but I’ll stop here.
So the bout was set: the Tank of Tomorrow versus the Darlington wall. It was physical with plenty of hits and punches, and a few knockouts. Michael Waltrip Racing took it on the chin with three KO’s. Fox probably didn’t appreciate their pedal cam (and sponsorship) going up in flames.
It was a long race, but had lots of passing and wrecks. The sight of cars coming off Turn Four was breathtaking all night long. This Southern 500 was a race featuring a steady attrition of drivers being taken out of contention and the persevering endurance of the competitors putting themselves in a position to win.
There are good points and bad points to the typical lengthy NASCAR races compared to the IRL, ALMS, and F1 races that take under three hours. The good side is the drama. Over the course of a long race there may often be many reverses of fortune and sudden changes in strategy for any driver. Jimmie Johnson’s night was as good an example of that as anyone: starting in the back, using strategy to get up front, then going down a lap, and finally finishing second. The downside is that it’s an endurance contest for the viewers as well. Likewise, consider the argument for the DH in baseball: making the pitcher hit adds strategy to the game, but nobody goes to a game to watch the manager think. (And that is completely wrong, but this still isn’t a baseball column.) People generally watch races to see cars go fast, not crew chiefs making tough decisions. It’s hard to say definitely what sort of racing (long or short) is intrinsically the best. It really depends on the individual races themselves.
This was a generally lively race, up until after the final pit stop. Congratulations to a fine driving effort from Mark Martin. But let’s face it, any other driver up front in this one at the end probably would have won too. There was some false drama about fuel mileage, but the race was effectively over well before the end.
I’ll sum this problem up in three words: Car of Tomorrow. It’s becoming clear that, at many tracks, track position is now everything near the end. There is no other strategy. The leading car took off like it was shot out of a canon time and time again after restarts. Pit stops and wrecks were the only things slowing the leader down. I guess this feeds back into the strategy and fate issue. A short race with one or two pit stops with the COT would probably be far too predictable to be interesting.
The COT is not going to be changed anytime soon. (It would likely require some healthy car manufacturers in the series and some terrible deadly wreck. At which point they really might turn the car into a tank.) This competition issue might be fixable with the tires. They’d have to be tough enough to survive the heavy wear that the COT puts on them. (Remember all those exploding tires last year?) But their grip needs to degrade quicker, allowing car setup and driver skill a chance to trump track position. It’s a pity Goodyear has seemingly disappeared from NASCAR. With all the other product placements during a broadcast, the absence of any mention of the series only tire manufacturer is disturbing to say the least.
In two weeks, we go from endurance contest to outright marathon with the Indy 500 and Coke-snorting 600. No wait, Jeremy Mayfield won’t be there. It’ll just be the Coca-Cola 600. (Apologies if he wasn’t doing coke, the broadcast didn’t say!)
J.
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