NASCAR running thread

Maybe Gordon will get in the chase after all.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2013/09/11/joey-logano-david-gilliland-jeff-gordon-chase-richmond-conspiracy/2801119/

Whatever happens this a mess.
And a black eye for NASCAR - largely of its own making for this whole "Chase" playoff bullshit.

 

The inherent contradictions of running a sport where it is marketed as individual competition but in actuality dominated by powerful teams were bound to create a situation like this sooner or later, whether there was a playoff (which I don't like either) or not.

 

Yeah, with so many multi-driver teams now, conspiracy stuff was bound to happen.

 

It is indeed a very deserved black eye for NASCAR. I still say the Chase is one of the worst ideas NASCAR came up with. Although, they didn't come up with it per se. A lower series, I believe the Hooters Pro Cup Series, came up with the idea first and NASCAR copied it. At least, that's what I recall the Hooters people proudly proclaiming at one of their races I covered a few years back.
But multicar teams trying to manipulate races isn't new. Going back to the 1990s, I recall times when Roush/RCR/Hendrick drivers would slow for each other to allow teammates back onto the lead lap, while racing drivers of competing teams hard back to the caution.
Heck, it wasn't even always multicar teams. In 1993, Earnhardt was leading Wallace headed to the finale in Atlanta. RCR had Neil Bonnett drive a second car and park shortly after the race started, ensuring Earnhardt of a few more points. When Earnhardt was chasing Gordon in 1995, Hendrick fielded a car for Jeff Purvis for the same reason. But to me, that's nothing on the scale of what the MWR teams did last weekend. I just wonder how much hot water Vickers is in with MWR for clearly expressing such surprise.

 

I think Vickers better wonder if MWR's even gonna be around next year. Those sponsors have escape clauses, I bet, and they're eyeing them.

 

Only in NASCAR are teammates not allowed to help each other.

 

Not sure if it's still the case, but Vickers and Gordon used to be pretty good friends.

 

Only in NASCAR are "teams" not recognized for winning anything. And only in NASCAR do teammates compete against one another and help each other . . . IN THE SAME BLEEPING RACE.

Just make a choice: Individual competition or team competition. Cannot be both and be taken seriously.

 

There was a time in which Phil Anschutz and Lamar Hunt owned nine of the teams in MLS. Multi-car teams are only slightly more collectivized than that.

 

Oh, that's not correct as a practical matter. The NASCAR season is BOTH a weekly competition among individuals ("The Acme Toilet Paper Ford Fusion" team vs. the field) AND a season-long competition among (and also, sometimes, within) multi-car teams (e.g., RCR vs. Stewart-Haas vs. MWR vs. Penske Racing). That in and of itself doesn't preclude the sport's being taken seriously. But it certainly puts the sport in stark contrast with other major U.S. spectator sports.

Whenever I talk with non-NASCAR types about NASCAR, I have to warn them that trying to appreciate that sport with the mindset of, say, an NFL fan is a fool's errand. It's just not set up that way.

 

Three teams representing less than a quarter of any field winning three-quarters of the races makes the NBA look competitive.

 

I guess if you get paid to write fluff, you write fluff. But still...yikes.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/big-moments-define-france-10-100000379--nascar.html