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Is the Green/White/Checker Good for NASCAR?
Lisa Fowler
July 8, 2008 - SCR
I watched every lap of the Coke Zero 400 (previously the Pepsi 400, previously
the Firecracker 400) at Daytona Saturday night. I enjoyed some of it very much. I did not enjoy all of it and especially
did not enjoy the last 20 or so laps. What started out as a fairly uninteresting race, ended up as a total mess that
took NASCAR several minutes of reviewing scoring loop data and video to determine who won.
Throughout most of the night, it was apparent that Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the best car and looked to be the sure
bet to win. The few times that he dropped out of the lead, he was able to come back to the front without the "dancing
partner" that everyone assumes is a necessity at restrictor plate tracks. His car was strong and his inherited gift
of feeling the air in the draft seemed to be the recipe for a win.
There
were other cars that ran near the front all night but none seemed to be able to overtake Earnhardt and hold him off for very
long. Some that were expected to do well never really made an appearance. At one point there were three Hendrick
cars, Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, followed by Mark Martin, who will be a Hendrick driver in 2009, running first,
second third and fourth. I'll bet Rick Hendrick was sitting in the pits with a big grin on his face.
As the laps ran down, it seemed that the drivers were all determined to bring on the "big
one" that the media has conditioned us to expect at Daytona and Talladega. What had been a fairly mundane race turned
into a demolition derby. I know that racing is all about winning, but is it really better to take home a destroyed race car
and a 30th place finish than to take home a perfectly good car and a 15th place finish?
I have begun to question the green/white/checker finishes that NASCAR decided we need in order to have an exciting
race. I would suspect that most fans have enough respect for the teams, owners and drivers to allow the race to finish under
caution and let the car leading at that point be credited with the win. I personally do not like seeing so many cars
taken out of competition and I do not enjoy having a restart that will most certainly mean that the dominate car will
not get the win. I would rather the best car win than the luckiest.
Being
able to avoid the wrecks is not the measure of a good driver. If that were the case, then we should just run obstacle
courses and see who manages to miss the cones. I like to see a race, wide open, to the finish. I like to see the car
that has led the most laps win, I like to see the team that had the best pit stops end up out front, I like to see the skill,
talent and determination play out to the end.
Maybe NASCAR should reconsider
the green/white/checker finishes and go back to the beginning of this rule change and see how many have actually ended
under green. I suspect you will see that we rarely get to the checkered flag. We get green, white and yellow and
lots of wrecked cars, lots of mad drivers and lots of disappointed teams.
Questiosn, Comments:
Email LisaThe 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.
