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He
Said, She Said: Silly Season Before the Season Even Starts; is NASCAR Becoming One Duke Short of a Hazzard?
January 22, 2008
Everett
Mugg and Debbi Willis
Driver Age Limits?
He Said: What is the deal with a possible age limit of 21 for driving in Cup? Have officials lost their ever loving
mind? Are there plans to serve the drivers alcohol before each race to make it more interesting or something? Kind of a “going
back to the moon shiners” roots of NASCAR? Are the other drivers scared of youngsters like Brad Coleman, Reed Sorenson,
or Kyle Busch? If they want to improve the racing keeping young, talented, hungry drivers off the track is not the way to
do it. Why not dump perennial back markers like Kyle Petty or Michael Waltrip? I would much rather see Joey Logano and Brad
Coleman than those two. These days’ kids start racing at 5 years old. You can go to any local short track and watch
kids as young as 14 racing at the front in late models. Lagano, James Buescher, and Trevor Bayne all were highly competitive
in a National series (Hooters Pro Cup) at 16 or younger. Brad Coleman competed in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona race when
he was 16, with two other 16 year olds, Colin Braun and Adrian Carrio, not only finishing the race but also finishing it in
7th place. Age should not be the determining factor for a race car driver, skill should be. Unfortunately too often the
real factor is neither skill nor age, but how many sponsor dollars a driver brings to a team.
She Said: Ah, yes, the “Logano Rule,” as it’s been
called by many in the media. Setting an age limit sure does seem like a silly idea at this stage of the sport! My initial
reaction was to agree with you on this as it certainly seems ridiculous after all this time, but upon further consideration
I began to think perhaps there’s actually some merit in this idea. Yes, many young drivers began driving at a very young
age but many owners, in my opinion are drawing from the lower ranks of racing reserves much too soon. This results in young
drivers hitting Sprint Cup before they’ve matured enough to handle the daily pressures heaped on the average Sprint
Cup driver. On top of the immaturity factor, NASCAR and alcohol are nearly synonymous in sponsorships and celebration in victory
lane with beer and/or champagne. How much sense does it make to have drivers winning races who can’t even legally drink?
What kind of image does that project for the sport?
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Talent can come in young packages
and skills can be learned at any age as has been proven, but nonetheless one always needs time to age and mature. Limiting
the age to drive in the Sprint Cup series would guarantee that experience would be acquired in the lower rank series’
of the sport AND that the owners who have these drivers in their development programs would truly invest in their development. With
the current concerns running rampant about the survival of the Nationwide Series and the overinvestment of Cup drivers by
Cup owners in the Nationwide series, this might be just the ticket! NASCAR just might be onto something brilliant for the
sport after all: eliminate underage drivers in victory lane with alcohol (bad image), insure more mature drivers entering
the Cup ranks, and automatically reinvent the Nationwide Series as the development driver program. The more I think about
it, the more I think it’s a pretty good idea.
Tony Stewart: Weight and Contract
He Said: The year is just beginning and already we are seeing hard hitting journalistic articles speculating on
how many push-a-ways Tony Stewart should have done from the table during the off season and talk about his driver’s
contract. If he were in a swim suit contest or a foot race, one may have a decent reason for commenting on his weight. I somehow
do not see it as anything whatsoever though to do with his performance as a NASCAR driver, and to be honest would not be able
to tell you from a glance if he gained or lost weight. Maybe he is just wearing a double set of depends for long races.
Why are folks concerned
about Stewarts’ contract? Does anyone seriously think that when his current contract expires he will be left without
a ride and reduced to begging for spare change on freeway off ramps? At the end of his contract, the only reason Stewart will
not have a lucrative deal with a competitive NASCAR team will be because he does not want one. I somehow doubt he lies awake
at night worrying about how to pay the grocery bill. Stewart has proven that he is among the top tier drivers on the NASCAR
circuit. He is a threat to win every time he gets in the car. He may actually be getting tired of NASCAR. He loves his Sprint
cars and may win another Championship and drive off into the sunset to run dirt circles the rest of his life. Who (besides
Stewart) really knows? Why is it an issue this early on?
She Said: Honestly, I could care less about Stewart’s weight.
In the fall of 2006, it was the “big” story that he had a trainer, but this spring 2008, the story runs that Stewart
is looking plump again. And again, I can only say, who cares? What difference does Tony’s weight make to me about his
racing? Not one iota. It’s like Jimmy Spencer. Spencer is a big guy, always has been, probably always will be, but Jimmy
could race. And that’s all that mattered. Such is the same to me regarding Tony Stewart. Only Tony Stewart should be
concerned with his weight and if he’s not, neither am I. Racing isn’t about hormones so who cares if our drivers
have six pack abs and drop dead good looks? It’s time for the media to stop trying to turn the sport into a “People”-
watch.
Now, as for his contract, Tony’s
fans have good reason to be concerned. I would hope that the media would leave that alone until it’s done but because
of his fans, they won’t. Considering Stewart’s ties to Chevrolet in other racing divisions, I personally will
be surprised if he re-signs with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). However, in light of a recent quote about the new Toyota, the COT
and testing at Daytona, Stewart said: "It's just literally a decal package and a motor package for the most part. I think
it's less of a change this year than it would have been in the past." Pretty calm attitude from one of the best drivers in
the sport indicates to me that there’s really no issue here.
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Changing Gears
He Said: Halfway through testing, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby announced that there would probably
be a gear change for the Daytona 500. That’s sweet. The teams testing when it was announced were able to rush the new
gear to the track and do some testing in anticipation but the first group of testers is pretty screwed. Did they not spend
a few years developing this new “Car of Tomorrow?” Would it not have been nice for the teams that have been building
these cars and testing them the last couple of weeks to have known that NASCAR was just kidding when they told them they would
have to use either a 370 or 375 gear? I have an idea that will save the teams money and make the races “exciting.”
NASCAR can kind of combine Junkyard Wars with stock car racing. A day before each race dump truck can drop off a load of equal
parts in each garage stall and the teams have 24 hours to build a car out of the provided parts and then qualify that car,
the first 43 that can make it two laps around the track without losing any parts are in the race the next day. Look at the
major benefit, the teams would not have to spend all that money building cars and then sending those cars with drivers and
crews to tracks for testing that will not really matter anyways because the rules will be changed… Just damn.
She Said: Gee, it’s damned if they do and damned if they
don’t. If they let the gears go and the cars go too fast, and accidents happen, then they’re going to be really
chastised by every armchair expert around. If they make the changes now when they see what’s going on, they’re
chastised for not thinking of it soon enough. Poor NASCAR, obviously, they’re attempting to be proactive albeit somewhat
ludicrously. With all the data they gather, and all the regulations they set, it seems to me they could determine exactly
what they want these cars to do well in advance of the weeks of testing. The COT is not “new” anymore. The tires
aren’t “new.” The tracks haven’t changed drastically. Instead they play wait and see and then decide.
It’s more like, let’s see who’s doing what and then change the game! Someone needs to take the gun
out of NASCAR’s hand and teach them how to stop shooting their own foot. Otherwise the combined Junkyard Wars with stock
car racing would probably be a very entertaining idea.
But speaking of changing rules,
what gives with these two new pit road rules concerning pushing cars no more than three pit boxes, and tires being rolled
back to the pits by the pit crewmember. These rules leave a lot of leeway for gray areas of judgment calls and I predict a
good deal of distracting controversy throughout the season as NASCAR interprets them time and time again. Overregulation only
creates more complications to interpret.
Questions, Comments:
Email Everett
or
Email Debbi
The views and opinions in this article are that of the writer(s) and not necessarily that of SCR
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2006 StockCar Review.
