NASCAR running thread

And the farce gets more farcical. NASCAR has added Jeff Gordon to the Chase as the No. 13 seed.
Why?
Well, partially because it might be the fair thing to do. And partially because they can.

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9669892/nascar-adds-jeff-gordon-13th-car-chase

 

Yeah, but it's like the year there were 35 starters in the Indy 500. It'll just be a footnote. The 24's not running anywhere near good enough to be a factor.

 

Tony Stewart might tell you that anything can happen ...

 

In the late 19th century, National League owners were allowed to own more than one team. Baltimore sent its best players to Brooklyn and won a couple of pennants. Cleveland's owners also owned St. Louis, and sent all the top players there, which resulted in Cleveland having the worst record of all-time (20-134). After 1899, four teams were contracted. Louisville's owner also owned Pittsburgh, and merely transferred his players, including Honus Wagner, there, and Pittsburgh followed Brooklyn with a couple of pennants. In other words, competition was hindered because you had owners being able to manipulate two teams.

Heck, even in the 50s, even though they weren't owned by the same people, the Kansas City A's were practically a minor league team for the Yankees because of various business dealings. It wasn't fair to the other clubs.

I don't mind if NASCAR teams share resources and information, but when it comes to the on-track racing, they've got to keep it as an individual sport. Otherwise the credibility of the races will be lost, and we'll end up having 1970s roller derby.

 

Brain France talking about protecting the integrity of NASCAR is hilarious. He does realize it's a bit late, doesn't he? Oh who am I kidding? He's a France, after all.

 

If NASCAR was truly serious about this, they'd ban any communication between drivers' teams during races, even if they're on the same team.

 

It's not explicitly outlawed, but I do believe NASCAR got rid of the teamwide radio channels that all drivers in a multicar team could tune to. I may be wrong on that.

 

They did, mainly because at Daytona and Talladega the drivers were talking to one another to make tandem drafting easier. When they changed the car package at those tracks last year, the upside for that went away anyway. But no, the drivers can't talk to one another anymore.

And, to Baron's point, it would be very difficult if not impossible to prevent teams from communicating with one another. And not all team-to-team communication is necessarily bad. At the big tracks, for example, spotters routinely piece together pitting partners so that when their drivers leave the pits (under a green flag) they won't fall hopelessly off the pace. That kind of thing makes for more competitive racing.

It'd be nice to think that somehow NASCAR could police things such that circumstances like this can't happen, but I'm not sure there's much that can be done to prevent it beforehand. The good news, however, is that a perfect storm such as this is probably pretty rare. I suspect such a clean opportunity to do something like this -- with an obvious opportunity and an obvious payoff -- is fairly unlikely.

 

I don't mind teams or even competitors working together or sharing information. You could give another team your exact race setup, but they still have to go out and drive the car and execute pit stops. Even in the pre-Chase days, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be allowed to lead a lap for the bonus points, knowing the favor would be repaid sometime in the future. But when you cross into outright race manipulation, I'm glad these guys were busted, and I hope MWR is on the hunt for sponsors at the end of the season. Although it's not supposed to happen now, that's the kind of crap F1 did for years.

 

NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon back in Chase -- with Long Island native as his spotter

http://www.newsday.com/sports/motor-racing/nascar-champ-jeff-gordon-back-in-chase-with-levittown-native-eddie-d-hondt-as-his-spotter-1.6075562

Thanks much!

Josh

 

Re: NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon back in Chase -- with Long Island native as his spotter

We have an all-encompassing NASCAR thread. Thanks much to you as well.

Double J