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So much has been said and
written about the Allstate 400 at the
Brickyard that it seems almost
impossible to say more, but something
more has to be said. Well, I’ll blow
that out of the water with this column.
About a year ago, I leased a new Ford
Edge which just happened to have Sirius
Satellite Radio in it. I was kind of
excited because I had XM in my other
cars and was disappointed when NASCAR
coverage was switched to Sirius. Now I
could have my racing fix again. Little
did I know…
Sirius programming is so much better
than the job XM did for a few years. The
voices that actually call the races on
radio are all there and it makes you
feel at home, especially for a guy who
grew up with MRN. MRN used to be the
only link I had to races (that and the
Universal Racing Network which sort of
morphed into MRN). It’s all day call in
shows. Every “Goober” in America can
call in and state their opinion, which
is scary sometimes, but fun others.
Early on, you have David Poole, one of
the finest journalists covering racing
today with s series of sidekicks. Later,
you get “Chocolate” Myers, the former
RCR gas man and Steve Post. In the
afternoon, the entertaining Dave Moody,
Suzi-Q Armstrong, and cast of thousands
field calls. If you’re a night owl, you
might get to here the excellent Buddy
Baker and Rick Benjamin. What I’ve heard
today (and I was in the car a lot), is
an attitude of “move on.” The problem is
that the fans are still upset and aren't
willing to "move on." OK, but what was
the real problem?
Ricky Craven, in his column on Yahoo,
finally came out and put the finger on
what was to blame. To give credit where
credit is due, Monte Dutton did the same
thing. It’s the Car of Tomorrow and
NASCAR’s lack of understanding of how
different this car is. Ray Evernham, in
an excellent interview on Moody’s show
made it clear. NASCAR makes these
decisions without much input from the
teams. This car will not react like the
old car at tracks. Indianapolis was one
of those tracks. As the teams are
learning about this car, Evernham
thought it was rushed into service
without the large amount of data needed
to fully evaluate the car and how it
would react at various venues on the
circuit. That much is obvious.
Goodyear brought a tire that was not
adequate given the circumstances. That
will happen, but with this car it is one
thing after another. I’m certain that
NASCAR will come up with solutions as
they go along, but what we saw Sunday
will possibly rear its ugly head again.
The fans, which spend so much money and
time, will be the guinea pigs in all of
this and see the kind of show that is
less than fulfilling. Should the COT
have been eased in, like many thought it
would have been, instead of running the
full schedule this year? Should more
testing have been done? Absolutely. Why
didn’t it happen? I don’t know, but I’d
like to find out.
The fans booed after the race on Sunday,
and drivers like Ryan Newman, Brian
Vickers, and Carl Edwards apologized to
the fans for the show they put on. Some
car owners did the same. What’s missing
in all of this is the realization from
the powers that be that it’s the car.
Yes, there have always been tire
problems at Indy and yes, it got better
as the race went along, but this was a
different car. Why did they forget that
it might not get better as in years
past? Those are big questions.
Hopefully, they will be answered in the
next few weeks, but if they are not, how
can the sanctioning body not look in the
mirror and not see the problem?
You can
contact Ron at
ron.fleshman@verizon.net
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