I learned something a
long time ago from a wise woman. She told me time and time again, “Son, you need to come in out of the rain. You
can play tomorrow.” Not unlike NASCAR officials, I knew better than this wise woman. I knew that it would
stop raining soon and I could go back to my playground, and when I did I always got dirty. I was young and without the benefit
of millions of dollars worth of weather radar and highly paid meteorologists, yet I still thought I could beat Mother Nature
at her own game. Oh she can be a cruel foe with a wicked sense of humor. She will dangle the prospect of clear skies
in front of anxious men. Whether the game is Golf, Baseball, or Auto Racing; rain and competition does not mix.
This brings me to the
battle of the jet dryers and the weeping asphalt we witnessed on Sunday. NASCAR may do a halfway decent job of putting
on races and controlling race teams in the garage, but as Meteorologists, they fail miserably. It’s absurd to me
that anybody actually held out any hope of getting the race in after the clock struck 9:00 p.m. EST. Yet it was another two hours before somebody came to their senses
and rescheduled the race for Monday afternoon. Now, I was nowhere near California Speedway and even I knew dew point
condensation, coupled with the seeping asphalt from the earlier showers, would make drying the track a near impossibility.
Even if they had been
able to restart at that time of night, there was more to consider than just, “Is the track dry enough to race?”
·
Would it be fair to the thousands of fans that had sense enough to get out of the rain and went home?
·
Is it safe for drivers who have been up since early morning to get out and drive at around 200 miles per hour? It would practically
qualify as driving impaired.
·
What kind of neighbor would California Speedway be if, at 11pm, they were racing
extremely loud Sprint cars?
·
Most of the East Coast fan base was long asleep by the time the race would’ve restarted. Even if Fox covered it,
a small viewership was guaranteed.
2006 StockCar Review.
