Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Category: Flashman’s Take

Fleshman’s take on NASCAR

  • A different Martinsville

    A different Martinsville

    I cannot put into words how I feel about Martinsville Speedway. It was the first track I attended as a child, and I have gone back there so many times. It is like going home. Most of the people I have known over the years have moved on, but there are familiar fans I see every time I am there, I see common and small-town folks. Yes, it is a throwback to an earlier time, but it still reminds us of how exciting short track racing can be.

    Unfortunately, the Covid-19 virus stripped many media people and fans from being in the press area and the grandstands and that ends my streak.

    After that initial visit, I was there for every Cup race for 20 years as a fan. By the end of that first streak, I had become a business owner and the 160-mile trek home in the dark kept me away until 1995. That is the year I became part of the working media and for the next 51 races, I have been there, sometimes in the Media Center, but mostly in the press box.

    That ends Wednesday night.

    I have moaned about night races in these pages. I am not a fan of night races. I think Martinsville should be run in the sunshine and earlier in the year. I still marvel that it started snowing on that Saturday before the truck race in 2018. Being from West Virginia, I can smell a snowstorm. I headed back to my motel. I remember being there right after 9-11 and snipers on the roof. It confused many. In fact, one elderly man told me that he doubted terrorists could find Martinsville on a map. I witnessed the domination of Hendrick Motorsports and the day the Hendrick airplane went down nearby. There was chaos in the press room because it wasn’t released to anyone until after Jimmie Johnson won the race.

    That all ends two days from now.

    I look forward to watching in my family room on a 57-inch television, but it will not be the same. I imagine the crowd would have been small even if NASCAR had not used caution in having races with no spectators. As I mentioned earlier, Martinsville has a blue-collar fanbase, and if there’s work on Thursday morning, those folks would have done what I will be doing, watching on TV.

    One of these days, we will be back to normal. I promise you that. There will be spectators at Martinsville again and I will be there to start a new streak.

  • NASCAR on the Eve of the Playoffs

    NASCAR on the Eve of the Playoffs

    It’s been a while since I’ve appeared in these pages. My trip to Martinsville was a disaster (snowmageddon), so next on my schedule was Bristol, which despite gloomy skies, tremendous races happened. The crowd was good, but many wanted to make fun of the crowd. No, the track wasn’t full, but a good 100,000 was there and Kurt Busch outlasted and outran one of NASCAR’s darling young drivers, Kyle Larson to claim victory and qualify for the Playoffs.

    Darlington is my second favorite track, but I couldn’t get there this year, much to my chagrin. It was a big crowd, and the race was good. Brad Keselowski won the race, teammate Joey Logano was second, all to the glory of Team Penske, and though Larson finished up front, he didn’t’ win, he led the most laps, and then, the atomic bomb hit.

    It was a shock to everyone when Barney Visser announced that he was closing the doors of Furniture Row Racing, home to Martin Truex Jr., the reigning Cup Champion, at the season’s end. Apparently, this had been planned between FRR and Joe Gibbs Racing all along and probably Toyota Racing Development. Within a day, though there was no formal announcement, it was learned that Truex was moving to a JGR car, the No. 19 previously driven by Daniel Suarez, who had replaced the departing Carl Edwards only a short time ago. Where Suarez will end up, is rumored to be at a satellite team to JGR, but this seems to be a too familiar scenario. Sorry to say, but I imagine Suarez’s star will not move at the rate it was before. So much for diversity.

    Anyway, the only questions that remain involved Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, and probably more changes. I expect Busch and McMurray to stay put, and A.J. Allmendinger to move on from the 47 car. His replacement could be anyone, or someone I don’t know. By the way, Kasey Kahne retired. No one seems to care. I think it’s a great loss, but, it will all work out. I hope.

    So, we head to Indianapolis, a place the drivers love, but the fans do not. Boring races are the rule, and I imagine the place will look empty, and after two triumphant weekends, this will be a downer, and I hope that’s not the case. It will bring the haters out, but the truth is the field will be set for the Playoffs like it or not. I can’t wait to see what happens.

  • Weather and Matt Kenseth

    Weather and Matt Kenseth

    Weather has plagued the NASCAR schedule from Atlanta to Martinsville to Bristol. This weather shows no weather concerns with sunny skies and warmth at Talladega. That’s good news for race fans whether heading to the race or watching on television. I’ve only attended two races this year—both postponed and run on Monday, but it’s easy to see that both saw unusual weather. I saw the smell of a snowstorm at Martinsville on Saturday. I’m from West Virginia where it can snow from October to May. It was, as they say in my rural neighborhood, a “doozy.” As many people who told me at the track they didn’t have snowstorms like that in March, they did.

    Same with Bristol. The weather people were right, and the temperature dropped 35 degrees plus the rains came. It was so cold on Monday that even this crusted mountain man couldn’t handle it. From the looks of the crowd, no one else could either. What people missed were two excellent races, and that’s a shame. Maybe the powers that be should re-think the schedule a bit. There is no reason why the teams should go to the left coast and come back to snowstorms and rains when it is possible. I know, weather is fickle, but why take a chance? Why not run Talladega and Texas before Martinsville, Bristol, and Atlanta? Just asking.

    My friend, Patrick suggested something to me. In cases where weather is almost certain, why not run those races by postponing them like baseball? Food for thought. There was no reason why lights couldn’t have been used or a better date used. Of course, every situation is different. I respect NASCAR for their decisions. But why not just move the schedule to avoid all of this? I’ve wiped snow off seats at Rockingham in years passed. Maybe someone is not thinking?

    +++

    I find the announcement that Matt Kenseth is coming back to Roush Fenway Racing a little bit head-scratching. Kenseth left RCR to move to Joe Gibbs Racing a few years ago. Later on, Carl Edwards joined him. One retired and the other was non-renewed. Both could have ended their careers at RFR but chose to go to greener pastures. Both were relatively successful, winning races and being competitive. Tomorrow, if reports are accurate, we will hear that Kenseth will return to the place he was most competitive and share a ride with Trevor Bayne. It’s no secret that after his debut with the Wood Brothers in 2011, Bayne hasn’t done much. The Daytona win was spectacular, but recent great runs by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., made him look like the underachiever.

    To this reporter, it seems that Bayne is on his way out or at least there to wait for the third charter, which may or not exist to become free for Kenseth. Getting over Kenseth’s move to eliminate Joey Logano at Martinsville still sticks in my craw, but I think Kenseth wants to race and there’s not a better racer in the circuit. With the move to younger racers, some great talent gets put on the sidelines. I applaud Jack Roush and his organization to bring Matt back. I feel sorry for Bayne, but in this industry like all industries, he wasn’t getting the job done. Just like everywhere else, that’s the way of business, which has, unfortunately, become part of NASCAR, today.

  • There’s Only So Many Races at Martinsville in a Lifetime

    There’s Only So Many Races at Martinsville in a Lifetime

    My Dad loved sports, and he always told me, “Don’t ever miss an opportunity to go to a WVU football game or a race at Martinsville.” I’ve followed that advice for over 60 years.

    In fact, even though I didn’t get to see the Cup race live, I was at the track on Saturday. After 24 laps, it began to lightly rain. After one lap around the track where the trucks were running, I could see that it was turning to snow. Being from the mountains of West Virginia, I could smell there was going to be a good one. I headed back to my home base to the north, Roanoke, Virginia.

    I never left there for the weekend. I monitored my fellow journalists’ Twitter posts all Saturday night in hopes that it wasn’t that bad. The pictures I saw justified my initial prediction. It was going to be a bad snow event. At that time, I knew there wouldn’t be racing on Sunday, and after looking at pictures of the parking lots (all grass which made the snow and mud impossible to navigate), I headed home to West Virginia, where amazingly it did not snow.

    Dad also always said that you only got a few opportunities in a lifetime to go to Martinsville. I went, saw 29 laps including caution laps, and headed away from dreaded snow. My first trip to Martinsville was in 1964. Fred Lorenzen won in that magnificent Holman-Moody No. 28 Ford. I was hooked for life. I missed a lot during my high school and college days but started a string of being there for 78 consecutive Cup races and the only Busch Series race run in my time. If you don’t mind, I’m going to count last weekend because I was there at least for a while. I watched at home on the big screen, mainly because one of the great parts of being an elected official is having to be there on meeting day.

    What I saw was really amazing, even on a 55-inch television. Clint Bowyer, who had not won in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for 190 races, won going away. And I missed it. I probably could not repeat any of our three or four conversations verbatim, but it was like talking to your next-door neighbor. He’s genuine and one of the characters NASCAR needs now. He’s not corporate like many drivers who spew sponsor’s names at the drop of a hat. In the middle of one conversation, it developed into a sports talk about Oklahoma basketball and the Big 12. He’s just a guy who is approachable and a personable one at that. His win was good for NASCAR.

    Bowyer is a beneficiary of the great Ford and Stewart-Haas resurgence. The team founded by Gene Haas and Tony Stewart has dominated the series. Fords have won four of the first six races, three of them by Kevin Harvick and Bowyer’s win at Martinsville. Team Penske is always a threat for top-five finishes so far in their Fords while Chevrolet’s new Camaro has been less than competitive. Toyota has produced great finishes from 2017 champ Martin Truex Jr, and Kyle Busch. We will know more about this at Texas after the Easter off week. As of now, it’s a blue oval world, but it could change in an instant just like the weather at Martinsville last weekend.

  • Why Kenseth?

    Why Kenseth?

    Why Matt Kenseth? You remember the famous move from Roush Fenway Racing and then the more famous move of Carl Edwards to Joe Gibbs Racing, don’t you? Both escaped what they thought was an uncompetitive situation at RFR to the promised land of Toyota’s top team. What happened next was shock after shock.

    Both drivers had success at JGR, but Edwards decided he didn’t want to race anymore, suspiciously after the season was over and Gibbs had to scramble to field Edwards’ car for 2017. Did Edwards see the writing on the wall? Kenseth has won races for the Gibbs organization and raced for championships, but the talent there had to have Kenseth looking over his shoulder. Erik Jones was given a ride with Gibbs farm team, Furniture Row, but an announcement later in the 2017 season meant only one thing. Someone had to go because Gibb’s best recruit, Jones, was going to get a ride somewhere and with Furniture Row not having sponsorship, someone had to let go.

    Kenseth was secure at Roush Fenway, but he went where the grass was greener. One could say Edwards was in the same position. You could envision a team of Kenseth, Edwards, and Stenhouse if Kenseth and Edwards had not gone to greener pastures. The performance wouldn’t have been as good, but they would all be employed and the experience of Kenseth and Edwards would have been beneficial to RFR and Stenhouse.

    Those decisions have been made, but two drivers who had had success everywhere are now gone. One has to hate it for Matt and Carl. With so many youngsters now pushing for a ride in NASCAR’s top series, the fate of older drivers are in danger. It didn’t have to be that way, and it will continue. I’ve heard the term, “It’s business” so often that it makes me wonder where it will end or if it should.

    This business, which was once family, is no more. Edwards saw that and decided he had enough. Kenseth hung on and got the ax Edwards avoided. I still think Kenseth is capable, and many others teams do too, but the assumed deal he has been used to at Roush and Gibbs was not available and neither was the performance. NASCAR is less attractive with the loss of Edwards and Kenseth. It’s just business.

  • And Then it Rained in Concord

    And Then it Rained in Concord

    I looked forward to the NASCAR weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Of course, I always look forward to going there because the entertainment quotient is so high. I was especially excited because there was going to be two races in the daylight, something I had wanted for the longest time. For the last few years, maybe longer, all Speedway Motorsports tracks had fallen in love with racing under the lights. It wasn’t my idea of a good time. It was finally going to happen.

    I know the arguments for night racing. American sports fans relish in the nighttime event mainly because it’s party time. I understand the tracks liking it because if you start a race near dinner time, you can sell more concessions. I get it, but there is something about watching the race on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and relaxing with some food and beverage afterward. It was how I fell in love with the sport when that’s all there was.

    Friday was a beautiful day. Lots of nice sunshine and a nice breeze. Then Mother Nature stepped in. After watching weather forecasts of sunny weather and low chances of precipitation all week, Saturday turned harsh. I mean real harsh. Downpours, cool temperatures, and overcast skies were the recipe of the day. A race from the XFINITY Series was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. It rained and it didn’t start. Track dryers worked hard to dry the track only to have a shower erupt and the process began all over. The lights came on and at 8:30 p.m. and the racing began under dark skies. A night race? Yes, and all those who were upset that it wasn’t a night race, got their wish.

    It was a good one with young Alex Bowman, heir to Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is vacating at the end of the season, in victory lane after Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, and Sam Hornish had pretty much dominated the race. The fan’s desire for new blood was satisfied and a Chevrolet, the fan favorite in NASCAR, ended up in the top spot, ending the constant parade of Toyotas winning race after race. Bowman copied an original Blaney move (first done at Dover), giving the checkered flag to a youngster in the stands. And then it poured rain again.

    Sunday started with overcast skies and periodic rain. Somehow, it stopped long enough to get the Cup race in. Martin Truex Jr. won again in a Toyota with fan favorite (besides Dale Junior), Chase Elliott, finishing second in his Chevrolet for the second straight race. Kevin Harvick finished third while Denny Hamlin’s Toyota that started on the pole, finished fourth and Jamie McMurray landed in fifth.  Harvick won the first two stages and was always in contention, but cautions were kind to Truex as he smiled after taking the checkers. And then it rained again.

    My first thought tonight was how fortunate it was that NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway had the smarts to change the start time of the race from 2 p.m. to 1 p.m. I also wondered what would have happened in a playoff race if it had been the usual nighttime start, and the rains which are still falling in Concord, NC, where the track sits would have postponed the race with forecasts of rain until Thursday? That’s a question that didn’t have to be answered, thankfully.

  • Upon Witnessing the Southern 500

    Upon Witnessing the Southern 500

    Posting from the great state of South Carolina today. I slept during the Bojangles’ Southern 500 race and awoke late to chronicle the iconic race. It seems like the throwback idea is going to last awhile. The crowd was large and everywhere you looked, the 80s were apparent. Does that show that NASCAR fans want to go back to the 1980s? Maybe. The jury is still out on whether the Lucky Dog, the Wave Around, and double file restarts are the reason for the swoon in attendance.

    Anyway, the only thing that didn’t take fans back 30 years was the race was one of those dusk-dark features. Start in daylight and end in the dark. Until nearly 11:00! In former times, the race was on Labor Day and was over by at least 5 p.m. but TV and the sanctioning body, as well as the tracks, like this schedule. It’s up to conjecture whether the fans like it, but it’s what we have. And it was good except one little thing.

    After a slow start, Joe Gibbs Racing and its six Toyotas are domination. I say six because it’s obvious the two at Furniture Row Racing are part of the Gibbs team somewhat like Wood Brothers Racing is part of Team Penske. I’ve even seen the No. 21 in the Penske shop alongside the other two Penske cars. Somewhat like Hendrick Motorsports in the 90s and up until recently. Harvick on the pole? Only temporary. Once the race starts, the Gibbs cars take over the show, while the fast Chevys and Fords fall behind.

    Why is this? Lots of theories are out there. One contends that the domination is a money thing—that Toyota is spending more on development. Another says it’s a driver talent advantage. Still, another believes that it’s just luck. This writer is in two of the three camps. It’s obvious Toyota has the coffers open for whatever their team needs or wants as well as the luck argument. Racing luck is always a part of the sport. Some make their own luck, however, but luck is always on the table. Driver talent? No. No one can tell me the talents of Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski (two noted champions) and many others are inferior to the ones driving the Gibbs cars. They’re all good, and to rate them would be insulting.

    NASCAR believes in parity (at least they say that), but until guilt is found, if indeed it exists, it’s up to Hendrick, Penske, Childress, Roush, SHR, and others to get better. Ford has their Performance Center in Concord, NC, and you cannot tell me Team Chevy isn’t also working on the problem. Until the performance improves from Ford and Chevy teams, this is what we have.

  • Will Using Gimmmicks Save NASCAR?

    Will Using Gimmmicks Save NASCAR?

    The season is now almost a third over and so much has happened. Attendance is up at some tracks and way down at others. The new stages concept has given us better racing, but many are just staying away. Some of the gimmicks NASCAR has tried in order to generate interest have worked and some have not. It’s almost like a change a week. Tracks should hand out a new rule sheet for the fans. The casual fan, whose money is as good as the fanatical fan’s money, is the one who suffers, but I digress.

    The sanctioning body announced recently that the Coca-Cola 600 would have an extra stage. It makes sense because there are an extra 100 miles on tap, but now there is talk of this happening at other tracks. You need that rule sheet. Add to that the yearly changes in the All-Star race and long-time fans as well as newcomers and casual fans shake their collective heads and look the other way. It’s almost as if NASCAR is trying to do something to bring back the glory days by using gimmicks. It’s either a sign of desperation or those at the top throwing mud at the wall in hopes that something sticks.

    One example of this is the schedule changes for 2018. The first race of what is now known as the playoffs has always been at Chicagoland Speedway. Las Vegas Motor Speedway will now be the first playoff race. The track is another 1.5-mile oval many think we have too many of anyway. The Brickyard now is the final qualification race. Barnburner? Hardly. They made a good move by putting another short track in the final 10-race playoffs, but Richmond International Raceway rarely shows the competitive racing we see at the other two short tracks, Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.

    The final big change to hop up fan interest was to run Charlotte Motor Speedway’s fall race on the road course in the infield of the track. The combination of a road course using a bit of the oval track, something they like to call a ROVAL, is like the course at Daytona International Speedway which opens Speed weeks early in the year. It’s a novel idea, and fans now love road racing for some reason, but will it work? It could be a rousing success or a colossal failure. That’s where we are these days. Grasping at straws or throwing mud at the wall. We will know more in about 16 months.

    The fans who followed the sport in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, are rapidly looking the other way in large numbers these days. Movement away from traditional tracks like Darlington, Atlanta, Rockingham, and North Wilkesboro turned a lot of those fans off. The Chase, now known as the playoffs, sent more away, and aero push finished them off. No number of radical ideas will bring them back. It’s a grand old sport still loved by many, but I hear a death rattle in the distance. Going back to the way it used to be probably won’t help that much, but the sins of the past, so to speak, have put the sport where it is.

  • Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Retirement the End of NASCAR?

    Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Retirement the End of NASCAR?

    Listening to NASCAR on SiriusXM satellite radio has not been pleasant since Monday. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s retirement at the end of the 2017 season has his fans in turmoil. Many almost weep and others declare that they are through with the sport, cementing the opinion many had that they were Dale Jr. fans and not NASCAR or racing fans. It’s an attitude that’s seen at races over the years. If Earnhardt is out of the race, the great exodus of red, green, or whatever his colors are on that day, leave in mass. I don’t think in 50-plus years of following and covering the sport I’ve ever seen that. Not for his father, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon, or anyone.

    The immediate question must be asked. Will the retirement mark the end of NASCAR? Of course not. We may see a shift of loyalties (mostly to another driver at Hendrick Motorsports, maybe Chase Elliott) and some fans staying away, but just as was the case when other drivers retired, I don’t think this change will really change the landscape of the sport.

    My opinion on Junior’s retirement is two-fold. I’m happy for him and relieved. With his history of concussions, every time this season when he saw contact, I worried. He was mostly running in the second ten, but that’s where a lot of action happens. I want to see Junior stay in the sport, which he plans to do, and not be saddled with problems like heroes Fred Lorenzen and others. I want to see him have children, if he wants them, and live a full life. He deserves that. Though the adoration may fade, his presence has been important for the sport.

    What will happen to his legion of fans? Some will stay away and some will not watch on television, but they shall be known as not really fans of the sport. Many chose Junior as their favorite simply because of his father, and those fans will pick another and move on. The great exodus predicted by some pundits didn’t happen after Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Carl Edwards called it quits, and it won’t happen here. Yes, the fanbase has seen some slippage, but that has more to do with economics and constant rule changes. Someday, those in charge will figure that out, but for now, a retirement will not alter interest or attendance.

    So, let’s enjoy the rest of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final season. If he wins a race, something he’s rarely done while with HMS, that’s great. If he makes, the playoffs, that’s the cherry on top of the banana split, but my wish is that he doesn’t have another concussion. I wish him well and am anxious to see him reach the Hall of Fame sooner than later.

  • The Jury is Out

    The Jury is Out

    Now that the dust has cleared and a Daytona 500 Champion has been crowned, it’s time to look back at that race and see where we are with the changes made by NASCAR. First, we must understand that Daytona (and its sister track, Talladega) are different animals than the rest of the tracks that the drivers will visit. Don’t expect to see close packs and 37 leaders, but if you’re reading this, you already know about that. It’s really the points, which just a while ago we were trying to avoid. It’s almost déjà vu. Once again, another change. When will it end?

    You see, NASCAR is in trouble. Not with us hardcore fans, because we will continue to watch and attend regardless of rule changes, but to Joe Six-Pack, to steal a name from 2008, who likes to watch, but likes things to stay the same. Explaining to the casual viewer how Kevin Harvick can be third in points while crashing out early in the race, is an exercise in futility. They pretty much throw up their hands and say they’re going to watch college basketball. That’s the problem. I should admit, I did a double take, even though I thought I knew the system. If the Wall Street Journal report wasn’t bad enough, we have this mathematical equation to decipher to figure out who’s in first.

    I should admit that I couldn’t give two pitchers of warm spit who wins the championship. I grew up in the 1960s when Richard Petty won every year and my heroes were guys like Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson (really a two-time champ), and Cale Yarborough (who also, later on, won three), and others who raced hard, won, and it didn’t matter. Each race mattered and no one, that I can remember, worried about who was leading the championship points. It was more who won the most races, what car he drove, and what race was next. Call me ancient.

    That said, what about the race? Since I stayed home this year and watched on television, I will say it was great TV. I was glued to the tube. The only problem was that it was more wrecks than racing. I’m on record as hating the kind of racing we see at Daytona and Talladega, but the segments didn’t seem to register with the media guys and the public at large, or maybe I’m out of touch. Either way, the drama was there, even though the guys everyone thought would win—Junior, Keselowski, Logano, Truex, Harvick, and Chase—were nowhere to be found at the end except Logano and Truex. Kurt Busch was a surprise winner and we had one of the young guys, Ryan Blaney (thanks to Logano) finished second in the Wood Brothers Ford. So, where does that leave us? The jury is out.

    If those of us who are “older” fans can get past the complicated points and concentrate on each race and the moment, we will be fine. For the young fans, it’s more about spectacle and maybe seeing Junior win. There, we have the problem. Daytona was Daytona—an aberration. I’m withholding judgment until after Atlanta and the western tour. Then I’ll have an answer. Maybe. Stay tuned.