Level Playing Fields? Not Until All Winners Face R&D Inspections
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It's
that time of the season. New rules
package announced for next year. Ride heights, common splitters, common
radiator/oil coolers, enhanced data recording system with high speed cameras,
change in inspection procedures replacing the grid, module and LIS with a
camera based system. All sounds
good. All done in the name of ensuring
we have a “level playing field.”
“Level
playing field.” I just love that term, don't you? It's a very lofty and noble goal. As I look over the rule changes, I wonder, do
we really have that? Did these rule
changes achieve that? I think not.
The
reason why I say this is after all these changes there is still a fundamental
omission that keeps the “playing field” from being level. You see, under the current inspection
procedures all winners don't have to face R&D inspections… and that’s just
not right.
Come
on, you say. That's not possible. You’re pulling our collective legs. All winners’ cars go to the R & D Center
for extensive post-race inspections don't they? They take the second place cars as well,
along with a “randomly” selected car.
NASCAR has it more than covered.
So all winners do go, don't they?
Well,
guess what? They don't. It’s true that all race winners
do go, but under this year’s newly implemented stage racing each race now has
multiple winners and Stage 1 and Stage 2 winners don’t automatically face the
R&D Inspections.
If
Stage 1 or Stage 2 winners win the race or finish second, of course they
go. Likewise, if they are “randomly
selected” they would go. However, if you
win Stage 1 or Stage 2 and don't finish in the top two and are not randomly
selected, you skirt by and get off scot-free.
You get your season points. You
get your valuable playoff points which you keep into the Chase. You get it all and you don't have to face a
major teardown and possible encumbrances that seem to have cropped up of late
with cars going through those types of inspections.
That's
hardly a “level playing field” is it?
You’re
may be thinking, what's the big deal?
Stage 1 and Stage 2 winners only get a single playoff point. That’s true, but as Martin Truex Jr. has
shown those points add up as he racked up 18 of those bad boys through Stage 1
and Stage 2 wins. That's the equivalent
of winning three more races and then some.
So, instead of rolling into the Chase with 4 wins, tied with Kyle
Larson, Truex is really sitting there with a playoff points total as if he won
seven races. That's huge.
When
you couple that with the fact that out of those 18 stage wins only four faced
automatic R&D inspections because the 78 also won the final stage (the
race) and had to be inspected because of that, he basically won three races and
did not face R&D Inspections. That's
huge!
More
importantly, that’s not right.
Think
of the uproar that would happen if NASCAR just gave a team three free passes
after race wins. However, with the
current procedures that is exactly what is happening, yet the Sanctioning Body
sees no problems with it.
Well,
is it a problem? Is this just a 78
issue? If you look at the twenty-six
race regular season results, there were 52 Stage 1 & 2 winners and one
Stage 3 winner (Charlotte) for a total of 53 stage winners. Only 9 of those stage winners were subjected
to automatic inspections because those stage winners also won the race (six
times) or finished second. This means
83% of the stage wins did not automatically receive inspections.
If
you are seeking a “level playing field” that's a problem; a big problem!
“But
wait” I can hear them say. “Stage
winners who did not finish first or second in the race could be “randomly
selected” and face inspection that way.”
That’s entirely possible and may in fact have happened. To what extent it happened is not easily
discerned since those “random” selections are not readily documented anywhere
(or anywhere I could easily find).
Including stage winners under the single “random” selection rarely
covers the situation and in fact creates an even more “uneven” “playing field”
as in half the races the Stage 1 and Stage 2 winners were different cars. This results in four cars that on a “level
playing field” should face R&D Inspections but only three can be selected
under the current procedures. So which one of the two do you “randomly” select
and which do you “randomly” give the free pass?
See
the problem?
Bottom
line, it doesn't matter how much the inspection process is improved or
automated to “level the playing field”, it can never be “leveled” as long as
the process to determine the cars subjected to inspection is flawed. The current selection process, race fans, is
flawed… seriously flawed!
The
good news is that unlike things like aero-push and other issues that are
hindering the sport, this one can be easily fixed. All NASCAR has to do is to add any Stage 1
and Stage 2 winners not part of the current three cars currently selected to
the selection list. That would mean the
race winner, second place finisher a “randomly” selected car and any stage
winner not in the first three would be making the trip to Charlotte for the
weekly tear-down fest.
This
change means that as few as three cars can be selected (like Vegas and Kentucky
where Truex won stages 1,2 and the race) to as many as five cars (where stage 1
and stage 2 winners did not win the race, finish second or were randomly
selected, as happened in 13 races) can face R&D inspections.
Bottom
line - All winners get inspected.
Simple. Straight-forward. Fair.
Field leveling.
NASCAR
constantly talks about creating a “level playing field”. Of late it seems to have become one of their
pet phrase. The truth is, until they
include all Stage winners in the R&D inspection process the field can never
be level no matter how much they talk about it or how hard they try.
The
solution is there. Now is the time to
either fix it or quit talking about level playing fields.
Talk
is cheap. Credibility isn't.
What's
it gonna be for 2018?