A Sport Sinks While Leadership Keeps Up the Practices that Are Killing It
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(Fair Warning: This
article is another rant about two of my favorite what’s-wrong-with-NASCAR
issues, the charter system and driver development programs. My feelings on both
remain the same, but a couple of recent news items gave me some raw material to
“fire away” one more time.)
If
anybody out there is really good with Illustrator, PhotoShop
or something else along those lines, would you please consider creating an
image of Rob Kauffman as an undertaker?
I
consider this a necessary graphic because Kauffman, the chair of the Race Team
Alliance of Monster/Cup owners, is doing his level best to bury this sport.
Kauffman,
whose professional background is investment banking (“W
get our commissions whether you make a million or lose your shirt”) entered our
midst, if you’ll recall, as a part owner of Michael Waltrip Racing a little
more than a decade ago (when NASCAR had reached its peak). After that team went
belly-up, he bought into Chip Ganassi Racing and seems to have been one of the
movers and shakers behind the owners asserting their power in the sport. It’s
safe to say he had a role in the birth of the charter system.
Last
month, when the entry list for the Coca-Cola/World 600 exceeded the number of
spots in the starting field – something fans used to think was the sign of
success – he unleashed a rant against part-time teams competing against (and
presumably taking money from) the 36 chartered teams.
Let’s
look at this. When this sport established itself, you had to be among the fastest
to make the race – no exceptions. Look at results from way-back Darlington and
Daytona races, and you’ll see some pretty big names on the sidelines; they
weren’t fast enough. Then, when one of those “pretty big names” became Richard
Petty near the end of his career, we created a “past champion’s provisional”
starting spot. Somehow, that morphed into more “provisionals” to guarantee that
a big-buck sponsor wouldn’t be embarrassed by missing the race (and be tempted
to pick up its marbles and leave).
In 1968, Cale Yarborough won 6 races but raced
in fewer than half of the season’s events. How times change: So far this season
(prior to Michigan), 31 drivers have run every race, and 41 have run 5 races or
more. Nearly all the variety has come from different drivers behind the wheel
of three or four of the cars running near the end of the pack. No part-timers
have won. Fifty years ago, in 1968, only 4 drivers ran the maximum number of 49
events, with 5 others running 48, but 62 ran 5 races or more, because there
were many more part-time teams. Rob Kauffman obviously thinks otherwise, but to
me, the 1968 scenario was better.
Then
came the charter system, and suddenly only FOUR positions in the entire
starting field are really up for grabs, and now Mr. Kauffman thinks it’s
scandalous to fill all of those or – God forbid – have competition for filling
those forlorn four slots on the grid.
Do
you see the connection here to a financial profession where the company makes
its money even if you, the client/customer, lose all of yours?
It
seems to me that the connection above is a lot stronger than any link between
the charter nonsense and the ideals that got this sport where it once was.
“But,”
some will say, “These are race drivers who will give their all on race day,
regardless of whether they have a guaranteed starting position or whether there
are 5, 15, 25, or 39 other cars on the track.”
That
may be, but it’s an arrangement that virtually destroyed Indy Car racing (with
CART) and is doing nothing I can see to help stem NASCAR’s slide into oblivion.
Everybody
(except maybe Rob Kauffman) was ecstatic that this year’s Indy 500 had more
cars (35) than starting spots (33), but the series has never recovered from the
disastrous CART split and a series run by car owners. In 1968, the 33 starters
came from a field of nearly 60 entrants.
If
NY Racing, the fledgling, part-time team that seemed to prompt Mr. Kauffman’s
anger, had a decal or some such swag, I’d be tempted to display it.
Rant #2 –
Driver Development
NASCAR
has proudly announced its 2018 NASCAR Next class of “emerging star” drivers.
Some names are more familiar than others, and all are doubtless good drivers.
On the other hand, I note that all but two of them are teenagers, and the
oldest is 23.
By
that standard, you realize, had this system been in place a few decades back,
our sport would never have had Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Harry
Gant, Alan Kulwicki or – yeah, I was saving him for last – Dale Earnhardt. Matt
Kenseth probably would be on the outside looking in, and there’s a good chance
he’d be joined by Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex.
You can have all the Legends and K&N
East/West racing you want, but I’ll take my future heroes from the weekly wars.
That worked fine for Earnhardt (shown here at Bristol).
All
cut their teeth/earned their chops in tough local racing circuits without the
assistance of mighty NASCAR, and they didn’t do too badly. They just needed a
little more time to earn their break.
In
most cases, they also spent that time building a fan base that followed them to
the big time.
NASCAR
brags that “Next” program alumni include Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, William
Byron, Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott, Gray
Gaulding, Eric Jones, Corey LaJoie, Kyle Lawson, Daniel Suarez and Darrell
Wallace Jr. I really like some of these guys, but I doubt the lot of them sells
as many t-shirts as Earnhardt, Bill Elliott or Wallace did single-handedly, nor
do they put as many fans into those fast-disappearing seats at the track. Give
‘em a few years running at Hickory, Southside, Nashville, or another good short
track, let people start following them there first, then see if NASCAR
attendance reflects the difference.
Oh,
but I’m just an old fart who’s lost in the past and doesn’t understand what
works today. Yeah, that’s true; I’ve never taken an enormously popular sport
and run it into the ground. Guess we should let those with experience do their
thing and be grateful.
On
behalf of everyone else who hasn’t been to a Cup race in a while, I’m not
grateful.
As long as I’m being unhappy about everything
this week, let’s make note that at one time, NASCAR ran a race in June at
Rockingham. If “throwbacks” are one way to get people interested again, maybe
we could head back to The Rock.
No Loose
Lug Nuts this week – I’m in the midst of a
serious clean-up project at home. (“How serious is it, Frank?) So serious that
I just found my “press pass” from one of the Richmond races in 1992. That’s a
couple of strata down.