To be honest, were I even able to watch the NASCAR race this weekend, I’d still have watched this instead. To sum up why in a word, Pocono. The good news is that, even though this race was on Fox, Digger did not appear during the pre-race. The bad news is that this race was probably about as exciting as Pocono. Regardless, I got what I came for: a Jenson Button win!
I didn’t buy my usual F1 season preview issue this year. Just as well. When I flipped through it on the newsstand, Brawn GP wasn’t even listed. The next issued featured all of one page interview with Button after his Australian win. The cover, however, was wondering which Ferrari driver would win the championship. Or something like that. It was so irrelevant I wasn’t paying attention.
This was the first time this year I’ve gotten a good look at the new cars. Let’s see, there were little bitty needle noses, little rear wings, and a big snowplow in the front. The Brawn and Red Bull cars had tremendous rear end boxes housing their magic diffusers. Then there was Renault’s fin, which was part of their top intake. If none of this sounds attractive, that’s about right. These vehicles were the high-tech equivalent of the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow: ugly as hell.
These changes, in addition to the reintroduction of slick tires (along with the option tire rule), were hopefully supposed to lead to changing the aerodynamics of the car enough to allow for more passing. I know that there was plenty of passing at the Australian GP. I guess it was a fluke. In modern F1, this pursuit is becoming futile, much like most overtaking attempts on track. The cars are so wind tunnel tested and aero-stroked, passing on track is matter of not just being faster, but a whole lot faster, or hoping for a mistake. I know that there was plenty of passing at the Australian GP. I guess it was a fluke with new cars with widely differing interpretations of the rules from the off season. Next year’s budget cap may make a difference, but I’m not holding my breath.
One piece of the technology I was excited by was the KERS energy return system. For right now, it just weighs down the car, but allows it to be fast enough in places to hold up a faster car trying to pass. Further development of this system in racing may be helpful in integrating it into road cars. Fuel savings on the road are being offset by the weight of the system. Race engineers will be looking for all sorts of ways to slim it down. I wonder if this will end up getting axed under the budget cap? A headline on a cover on an F1 magazine from a few years ago read, “Technology vs. the Sport.” We may finally get this issue answered next year.
Well, on to the race coverage. The opening montage featured a lot of Lewis Hamilton and no Jenson. I wonder when this was put together? Ah, what to make of Lewis the Backmarker? I’d say he gets attention during the race like Dale Jr. and Danica get in their respective series, but that isn’t really fair. He is the current world champion, while the other two are really mostly marketing icons. What I don’t get is the utter hatred that the British racing press and many fans have for him. One day, he’s the superkid, the future of racing. Next, he’s the F1 equivalent of Kyle Busch, the ultimate villain. If he’s just whiny and engages in gamesmanship, that would put him on par with every other driver, in every other series. I guess this is what I get for not being able to watch every race.
Whatever. I’m still totally getting off on Jenson whipping his ass.
You know Jenson is.
Fox sports doesn’t have any control over the race production, so I can’t criticize them. F1 produces the coverage and packages it for everyone else around the world, to add their own commentaries. This may somewhat explain why the volume was so subdued during the race. Every time they went to commercial, I was reminded of this as the sound blasted me awake. The bottom line ticker was a bit less intrusive than the top line ones used in NASCAR and the IRL. There were a couple of good panning shots across some of corners. I share the commentators’ lament that there wasn’t a good shot around Turns 7, 8, and 9, the big curve. (Why don’t they name the corners on these new tracks?)
The commentary team themselves did a pretty good job with what they had to work with. That is to say, no control over the pictures and a fairly boring race. I liked how they explained the rules and differing race strategies. Though they did explain the “Option Tire” rule, the group failed to explain how stupid it is and how little impact it has on the racing. Come to think of it, KERS is really just Push-To-Pass, another failed Champ Car racing “innovation.” (F1, please carefully regard what happened to Champ Car before following their example any further. Having everyone drive the same cars, getting rid of all the European drivers, and eliminating more European race dates, for example.)
There was some false drama over race strategy and about Button’s gearbox, but functionally the race for the win was over when Vettel bobbled the car on lap 1 and Button passed him. That was it. I could say that there was plenty of action in the back, but that was mostly Barrichello trying to make his way back to the front after a bad start. After he damaged the car, that was that.
I tuned in to see Jenson on the top step and getting post race interviewed, and I did get that. I have to quibble with the announcers again. This year isn’t the first time he’s won. They forgot his 2006 win in a rain-soaked race in Hungry. By the way, F1 car numbers are handed out based the team’s finish the previous season (skipping #13). The race results were quite the sight with all those double-digit car numbers listed at the top. And there was Jenson Button, car #22, on top. Given that there were only twenty cars in the race that should tell you how far this team has come since last year.
J.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
NASCAR I’ve got issues
NASCAR held two town meetings last week, the day after the Charlotte race. Actually they could have more easily done that right at the track during all those rain delays. These meetings had the immediate effect of addressing NASCAR’s number one problem. It was decided that Tony Eury Jr. had to go as Junior’s crew chief. Until “The Legacy” starts winning again, the sport is in deadly peril, and I’m glad that the governing body took this extraordinary step in the right direction. Said Mike Helton, “Yeah, we saw what Obama did in firing GM’s CEO, and we thought we’d seize the initiative as well and make some changes on Junior’s team.”
Other less important issues were discussed. Double file restarts with lap-down cars to the back might be worthwhile. But really, inside of a lap or two, it’s going to be right back to business as usual with the leader sprinting away. All this may do is change who the leader is going to be.
Of more lasting use, NASCAR said they’d look at finding ways to modify the COT to give it better handling. Wow, it only took three years for NASCAR to hear what all the drivers were saying about the car (even Kyle Busch, whose driving style is well suited to the COT).
I’ve maintained steadfastly that the COT has been hurting competition. Good, contested races are the exception rather than the norm far too often. On some level, the networks may like boring racing. It allows them to go to commercial more often. Exciting races are harder to cut away from.
I understand NASCAR’s original thinking. They wanted to put the car’s handling more in the driver’s hands. With everyone essentially driving the same car (at least aero-wise), driver skill would be the differentiating factor. Great in theory.
In practice, putting all the drivers in nervous handling cars meant that they couldn’t push the envelope in performance without seriously risking a wreck. Thus, spread-out, single-file racing with plenty of wide berths for passing. Only the race leader would feel somewhat safe in opening up the throttle. Fiddling with the car’s ability to stick to the track, but leaving the engine the same, could only result in the drivers slowing down and concentrating on driving and not racing.
This issue isn’t unique to NASCAR. The IRL lessened the downforce on their cars for safety and competition reasons. Again, it was supposed to put driver skill, rather than aero technology, at a premium. The results have been the same. You can read about it here:
http://www.mynameisirl.com/2009/05/overtaking-talk-is-taking-over.html
Racing was once something of a test bed for automotive innovation. Now, it’s just marketing and ever more stringent governing rules to keep the competition between the top teams close. This is especially true in NASCAR, where their vehicles may actually have less relation to road cars than even open-wheel race cars do.
It’s a balancing act between safety vs. spectacle, technology vs. human skill, technology vs. cost, competition vs. the rules, and so on. Go too far in any direction and you’ll lose your audience. For example, fans like wrecks, but don’t want to watch a bloodsport, so there has to be plenty of safety precautions. NASCAR has made its choices, but the tweaking will forever continue.
There was an issue that wasn’t mentioned at the meetings, but I’ll go ahead and make a prediction about it. Given the dramatic fall in ratings and attendance for the first third of the season, look for things to get worse during the Chase. That’s not my prediction, because that’s going to happen (unless Junior goes on an unprecedented winning streak). Next year, look for a new Chase format. There will be big changes in the points structure and/or the Chase qualifications. Whatever. NASCAR’s contract with ABC/ESPN mandates some sort of “playoff,” but the network will agree to anything to help ratings.
I hate to bother making suggestions on this, because it’s pointless, but here goes. I’d like to see at least a much bigger point spread between first and second and between tenth and eleventh. Better still, only award championship points to the top ten finishers of each race. The networks mostly only cover the top ten cars during a race anyway (except for Junior). They may as well make it official that everyone else is irreverent. Yeah, I know that they say that the fans want NASCAR to stop screwing with championship rules. Wrong. The fans want them fixed.
The original points system rewarded consistency, which encouraged “points” racing and not necessarily winning racing. The original Chase rewarded the top ten most consistent racers during the season, and then whoever was most consistent during the Chase. Then it was the top 12. Then the regular season race winners got bonus points for the Chase. Most consistent and most victorious are titles that may not apply to same driver at the end of the season. Right now, Tony Stewart is in first place from running a heck of a consistent season, but all the drivers with wins are below him in the standings. NASCAR needs to make up its mind what they want drivers to focus on.
In my opinion, if a driver wins by consistency over drivers with more wins, people always bring that up. If it were the driver with the most wins who won the championship, nobody would care who scored the most top 10’s during the season.
I honestly expect NASCAR will start making some changes for the better. Next season’s action should be improved over what has occurred so far this year. If not, NASCAR will flounder and eventually fall out the hands of the France family. Even then, I am confident that the series will eventually come under the stewardship of someone who will make the necessary changes.
J.
Other less important issues were discussed. Double file restarts with lap-down cars to the back might be worthwhile. But really, inside of a lap or two, it’s going to be right back to business as usual with the leader sprinting away. All this may do is change who the leader is going to be.
Of more lasting use, NASCAR said they’d look at finding ways to modify the COT to give it better handling. Wow, it only took three years for NASCAR to hear what all the drivers were saying about the car (even Kyle Busch, whose driving style is well suited to the COT).
I’ve maintained steadfastly that the COT has been hurting competition. Good, contested races are the exception rather than the norm far too often. On some level, the networks may like boring racing. It allows them to go to commercial more often. Exciting races are harder to cut away from.
I understand NASCAR’s original thinking. They wanted to put the car’s handling more in the driver’s hands. With everyone essentially driving the same car (at least aero-wise), driver skill would be the differentiating factor. Great in theory.
In practice, putting all the drivers in nervous handling cars meant that they couldn’t push the envelope in performance without seriously risking a wreck. Thus, spread-out, single-file racing with plenty of wide berths for passing. Only the race leader would feel somewhat safe in opening up the throttle. Fiddling with the car’s ability to stick to the track, but leaving the engine the same, could only result in the drivers slowing down and concentrating on driving and not racing.
This issue isn’t unique to NASCAR. The IRL lessened the downforce on their cars for safety and competition reasons. Again, it was supposed to put driver skill, rather than aero technology, at a premium. The results have been the same. You can read about it here:
http://www.mynameisirl.com/2009/05/overtaking-talk-is-taking-over.html
Racing was once something of a test bed for automotive innovation. Now, it’s just marketing and ever more stringent governing rules to keep the competition between the top teams close. This is especially true in NASCAR, where their vehicles may actually have less relation to road cars than even open-wheel race cars do.
It’s a balancing act between safety vs. spectacle, technology vs. human skill, technology vs. cost, competition vs. the rules, and so on. Go too far in any direction and you’ll lose your audience. For example, fans like wrecks, but don’t want to watch a bloodsport, so there has to be plenty of safety precautions. NASCAR has made its choices, but the tweaking will forever continue.
There was an issue that wasn’t mentioned at the meetings, but I’ll go ahead and make a prediction about it. Given the dramatic fall in ratings and attendance for the first third of the season, look for things to get worse during the Chase. That’s not my prediction, because that’s going to happen (unless Junior goes on an unprecedented winning streak). Next year, look for a new Chase format. There will be big changes in the points structure and/or the Chase qualifications. Whatever. NASCAR’s contract with ABC/ESPN mandates some sort of “playoff,” but the network will agree to anything to help ratings.
I hate to bother making suggestions on this, because it’s pointless, but here goes. I’d like to see at least a much bigger point spread between first and second and between tenth and eleventh. Better still, only award championship points to the top ten finishers of each race. The networks mostly only cover the top ten cars during a race anyway (except for Junior). They may as well make it official that everyone else is irreverent. Yeah, I know that they say that the fans want NASCAR to stop screwing with championship rules. Wrong. The fans want them fixed.
The original points system rewarded consistency, which encouraged “points” racing and not necessarily winning racing. The original Chase rewarded the top ten most consistent racers during the season, and then whoever was most consistent during the Chase. Then it was the top 12. Then the regular season race winners got bonus points for the Chase. Most consistent and most victorious are titles that may not apply to same driver at the end of the season. Right now, Tony Stewart is in first place from running a heck of a consistent season, but all the drivers with wins are below him in the standings. NASCAR needs to make up its mind what they want drivers to focus on.
In my opinion, if a driver wins by consistency over drivers with more wins, people always bring that up. If it were the driver with the most wins who won the championship, nobody would care who scored the most top 10’s during the season.
I honestly expect NASCAR will start making some changes for the better. Next season’s action should be improved over what has occurred so far this year. If not, NASCAR will flounder and eventually fall out the hands of the France family. Even then, I am confident that the series will eventually come under the stewardship of someone who will make the necessary changes.
J.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Dover Cup race: That was more like it
Certainly this week’s race didn’t have much competition for comparison with last week’s. (Tellingly, there was no Fan Council poll sent out for the Coca-Cola 600.) If you consider the Nationwide Series a warm up for the Cup, then things got off to a good start. The ESPN crew was full of enthusiasm, and the race delivered a great finish. Congrats to Brad Keselowski for opportunistically finding Victory Lane again this year, as Logano and Kyle Busch took each other out of the lead in the final laps. Kyle was uncharacteristically mum after the race.
He had no trouble earlier in the week finding a camera and a microphone to discuss Junior’s crew chief change. Fox was quick to capitalize on NASCAR’s lead story with their opening montage playing Kyle’s comments and recapping events. It’s regrettable that Kyle and Junior’s rivalry hasn’t been more of the on-track variety. My own take is that I wish Hendrick had paired up Junior with an experienced, winning crew chief. The way this was done, it just looks like a panic move.
Junior looked slightly more upbeat at the beginning of the race. His Nationwide team winning on Saturday probably helped. Meanwhile when asked, DW and Hammy both openly doubted Junior’s ability to win a championship at this point in his career. Heresy? Reverse psychology? Trying to cushion the blow for his legion of fans? It’s gut check time for Junior and Junior Nation.
The rest of the pre-race flowed well. There was another Digger cartoon, but it was again a rerun. I’m telling you, the varmint is on his way out. Expect TNT and ESPN to give Fox some ribbing over their mascot at some point during their coverage. Jeff Gordon looked totally down and hurting. That interview was painful to watch.
There was a profile piece on Billy Bad Butt. I missed the incident last week that lead to the creation of NASCAR’s newest freaky crewmember nickname. For God’s sakes, there was 10 hours of rain delay. I couldn’t watch it all. In the same vein, ESPN’s piece the day before on Clint Bowyer, Richard Childress, and Bowyer’s spotter was pretty funny. The networks may need to spend some more quality time with guys on the team other than the driver and crew chief.
The season in review segment went by quick. Of course, it could have been shorter. Just show Edwards’ Talledega wreck. Highlights over. Oh, and then there was a shot of Ingrid. I’ve given up on getting a roundtable discussion of her hair. I’ll miss her and Miss Sprint Cup.
The race itself started off well. It was close, contested, and drivers were fighting for the lead. Unfortunately, this may have either been the team’s testing the limits of the tires for the rest of the race, or NASCAR ordered them to be entertaining at the beginning of the race.
Umm… Then I turned over to the Indycar race at the Milwaukee Mile. I’m not sure if I missed much action at Dover, other than Jimmie dominating. I know that if I’d missed the Indycar race, I really wouldn’t have missed much action there either. Dixon won, but his wife Emma wasn’t there, so I didn’t care. (I recall Ashley Judd wasn’t there the last time Franchitti won. Well, it’s not exactly a destination spot, unless you’re looking for brauts.) I’d read a story that they were offering all you could drink and eat beer and barbecue at the track as a promotion. I thought it was gag, but the stands were full. Sorry I wasn’t in Milwaukee.
http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2009/05/most-likely-still-time-to-get-to-milwaukee-this-weekend-for-the-most-excellent-mile-and-the-best-value-in-racingi-super-hig.html#more
Back to NASCAR (one look at the stands and you could tell they weren’t running any promotions), I missed the final, fateful pit stop, that put Jimmie back in ninth, but with more fresh tires than the drivers in front of him. The final laps featured some of the best racing of the year. This was actually enhanced by Fox losing their ticker. You could see more of the track, as the 48’s charge to the front commanded the announcers’ attention. With more screen real estate, the drama seemed bigger and added to the tension. This arrangement wouldn’t have worked out well in blow out win, but here it did. Fox might want to file this technique away for future use. (Not to mention, it forced them to show all the top cars finishing.)
Good call by Knaus and a great drive by Jimmie to make that call look good. Tony Stewart, second in the race, can console himself with his Fox Cup, as he’s now number one in the championship standings. Who’d of thunk that last year after his move to his new team. This was a definite high note for Fox to end their coverage on.
NASCAR breathes a sigh of relief. The hardcore fans that are left got a good race. Junior looked about as happy as he was going to allow himself to be with a top 15 finish. Finally, there was a heartfelt goodbye from the booth crew. Pity that Fox sports broadcasting isn’t as big a fans as their announcers are. I was surprised Digger didn’t make an appearance, or that there wasn’t some forced product placement, or a Fox show promo during their closing comments. Were it not for the fans in the booth, I think Fox’s NASCAR coverage would end up being horrific.
Well, this may be it for the NASCAR race blogging. I don’t have cable. After the digital switchover, I may not be able to watch the Chase when racing returns to over-the-air TV. As for next year, frankly, at times writing this has been a labor. Too many races have either been boring or controversial, rather than entertaining. Sometimes, the hard part has been watching the race itself to comment on it. In the meantime, I’ve got one more column in process about the sport overall.
J.
He had no trouble earlier in the week finding a camera and a microphone to discuss Junior’s crew chief change. Fox was quick to capitalize on NASCAR’s lead story with their opening montage playing Kyle’s comments and recapping events. It’s regrettable that Kyle and Junior’s rivalry hasn’t been more of the on-track variety. My own take is that I wish Hendrick had paired up Junior with an experienced, winning crew chief. The way this was done, it just looks like a panic move.
Junior looked slightly more upbeat at the beginning of the race. His Nationwide team winning on Saturday probably helped. Meanwhile when asked, DW and Hammy both openly doubted Junior’s ability to win a championship at this point in his career. Heresy? Reverse psychology? Trying to cushion the blow for his legion of fans? It’s gut check time for Junior and Junior Nation.
The rest of the pre-race flowed well. There was another Digger cartoon, but it was again a rerun. I’m telling you, the varmint is on his way out. Expect TNT and ESPN to give Fox some ribbing over their mascot at some point during their coverage. Jeff Gordon looked totally down and hurting. That interview was painful to watch.
There was a profile piece on Billy Bad Butt. I missed the incident last week that lead to the creation of NASCAR’s newest freaky crewmember nickname. For God’s sakes, there was 10 hours of rain delay. I couldn’t watch it all. In the same vein, ESPN’s piece the day before on Clint Bowyer, Richard Childress, and Bowyer’s spotter was pretty funny. The networks may need to spend some more quality time with guys on the team other than the driver and crew chief.
The season in review segment went by quick. Of course, it could have been shorter. Just show Edwards’ Talledega wreck. Highlights over. Oh, and then there was a shot of Ingrid. I’ve given up on getting a roundtable discussion of her hair. I’ll miss her and Miss Sprint Cup.
The race itself started off well. It was close, contested, and drivers were fighting for the lead. Unfortunately, this may have either been the team’s testing the limits of the tires for the rest of the race, or NASCAR ordered them to be entertaining at the beginning of the race.
Umm… Then I turned over to the Indycar race at the Milwaukee Mile. I’m not sure if I missed much action at Dover, other than Jimmie dominating. I know that if I’d missed the Indycar race, I really wouldn’t have missed much action there either. Dixon won, but his wife Emma wasn’t there, so I didn’t care. (I recall Ashley Judd wasn’t there the last time Franchitti won. Well, it’s not exactly a destination spot, unless you’re looking for brauts.) I’d read a story that they were offering all you could drink and eat beer and barbecue at the track as a promotion. I thought it was gag, but the stands were full. Sorry I wasn’t in Milwaukee.
http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2009/05/most-likely-still-time-to-get-to-milwaukee-this-weekend-for-the-most-excellent-mile-and-the-best-value-in-racingi-super-hig.html#more
Back to NASCAR (one look at the stands and you could tell they weren’t running any promotions), I missed the final, fateful pit stop, that put Jimmie back in ninth, but with more fresh tires than the drivers in front of him. The final laps featured some of the best racing of the year. This was actually enhanced by Fox losing their ticker. You could see more of the track, as the 48’s charge to the front commanded the announcers’ attention. With more screen real estate, the drama seemed bigger and added to the tension. This arrangement wouldn’t have worked out well in blow out win, but here it did. Fox might want to file this technique away for future use. (Not to mention, it forced them to show all the top cars finishing.)
Good call by Knaus and a great drive by Jimmie to make that call look good. Tony Stewart, second in the race, can console himself with his Fox Cup, as he’s now number one in the championship standings. Who’d of thunk that last year after his move to his new team. This was a definite high note for Fox to end their coverage on.
NASCAR breathes a sigh of relief. The hardcore fans that are left got a good race. Junior looked about as happy as he was going to allow himself to be with a top 15 finish. Finally, there was a heartfelt goodbye from the booth crew. Pity that Fox sports broadcasting isn’t as big a fans as their announcers are. I was surprised Digger didn’t make an appearance, or that there wasn’t some forced product placement, or a Fox show promo during their closing comments. Were it not for the fans in the booth, I think Fox’s NASCAR coverage would end up being horrific.
Well, this may be it for the NASCAR race blogging. I don’t have cable. After the digital switchover, I may not be able to watch the Chase when racing returns to over-the-air TV. As for next year, frankly, at times writing this has been a labor. Too many races have either been boring or controversial, rather than entertaining. Sometimes, the hard part has been watching the race itself to comment on it. In the meantime, I’ve got one more column in process about the sport overall.
J.
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