After watching the NASCAR All-Star Race at Lowes Motor Speedway, I must admit that there is something wrong in the way NASCAR handles race results. More often than not, NASCAR races are a bit boring as teams and drivers try to rack up points. The amazing racing at Lowes shows it doesn’t have to be this way.
The current points approach in NASCAR favors consistency over winning. There, I said it. Consistency is another word for being conservative. Conservative racing is boring racing. Ah, but what about the Chase? Well, most drivers know they can’t afford one bad finish so the racing in the chase really isn’t that aggressive. All and all, this makes for a season that has the occasional wild race, but is mostly a bit on the blah side.
The All-Star Race shows us what NASCAR could be. The drivers in the Sprint Cup are criticized for being boring and corporate. Where’s the fire? That’s what so many fans ask. Well, we saw the fire in the All-Star race. With points out the windows, it was a bare knuckle brawl to win the race. The clone, drab drivers disappeared. The men that love to drive and are highly competitive came out. The drove on the edge and it was some of the best racing I’ve seen in years.
Two drivers showed some of the biggest gumption out there. The hated one – Kyle Busch – is also clearly the talented one. Has any driver made a former champion look more like a lamb? That’s exactly what Busch did not on one, but on two consecutive starts in the last segment. The pass around the outside was impressive, but the dive job up the middle between Jeff Gordon and Kenseth was something to see.
And then there was Jeff Gordon. He looked like the Gordon of old. A bad start put him behind Kyle Busch in the last segment and even Darrell Waltrip thought it was over. The original “kid” was having none of it. For the first time in a while, we saw a drive come back on Busch and push him around the track. The final three way crash with Busch and Newman was just classic NASCAR driving with three drivers not giving an inch. If you weren’t on your feet for that one, you should go to the morgue because your dead.
All of this begs the question of how to make the rest of NASCAR as exciting. Formula One has the same problem. They’ve decided to go very aggressive next year. In 2010, only the winner will get the spoils in F1. The driver with the most wins over the year will win the championship. Now that is going to make for some aggressive driving. Why not due the same thing in NASCAR?
Okay, I’ll take a reality check. NASCAR will never do it. There are too many uncompetitive cars that need a “good run” into the top 20 to keep their sponsorship. I get it. Still, the current set up is a disaster. Why not do away with the abomination known as the Chase. We all get it that Jimmie Johnson has those tracks down pat. Instead, let’s create a situation where the winner of the race gains 25 points or more. You know, make a win actually worth something more than a trophy.
The racing we saw at the All-Star event is the racing we should see every weekend. Get rid of the Fontana tracks that produce races that are the equivalent of watching grass grow. Let’s stick with tracks with exciting races and make the win really worth going after. Do that and the talk of the demise of NASCAR will be an ancient memory before you know it.
Dirk Gibson writes about car issues for DCJAutoParts.com - your online source for
auto parts for your car.
