Category: Flashman’s Take

Jamie McMurray is one of the nicest guys in the garage. He’s a family man and gives everything he has to be successful. When he was tagged to replace a retiring Mark Martin so long ago, much was expected of him. It never came to fruition. It has been the same story since moving to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. It’s not that he hasn’t had the talent; it’s more than he didn’t have the talent behind him.

In NASCAR for the last decade, it’s been Hendrick, Roush Fenway, Joe Gibbs, and at times Richard Childress Racing and Penske Racing. They have been the dominant players with Hendrick and Gibbs being the main players. Even though McMurray went to Roush, he was never successful. He signed with EGR and found some success, but in truth, that was short-lived. It’s refreshing to see someone out of the top five organizations do well, even if it was at Talladega or Daytona. Remember that those two tracks are different from the others. Anyone from David Reagan to Michael Waltrip can win there. It’s unfortunate that wins at these two tracks are considered less in the eyes of purists, but it’s true. The restrictor plate tracks are the great equalizers—the one place anyone can win. That is the fault of a sanctioning body that can’t – even tried to figure out what to do with a large speedway with high banking. It’s been a lot of years, and still choking engine to half horsepower is the answer?

I align with myself with David Poole, the great writer of the Charlotte Observer and one of the hosts on SiriusXM radio’s morning shows. I do not consider those races a race. It’s a spectacle that was created and has many fans. You can’t call it racing because there is no give and take unless you have the draft. It’s close race, which many like, but it’s so uncharacteristic of real racing. I watched a race that wasn’t a race on Sunday. I saw people move from the back with ease and only to see them move to the back when they lost the draft. You can’t say anyone “had a good car” because it didn’t matter much. It’s the antithesis of racing where the good car wins. In this sort of racing, it’s only who can get someone to help. It’s the racing version of a crap shoot, and still we are fascinated with it. No wonder so many unlikely winners have emerged from James Hylton to Ragan.

Too many people like this form of racing, I don’t see it going away again and compared to what we see at many races it seems to be a better show, but it’s still a show and not a race. Back in the day, it wasn’t that way, but I’m old and probably irrelevant these days. Whatever happened to the insurance problems with a car going 200 mph in a lap? Looks like a few tracks have that problem and insurance is never even mentioned.

This takes nothing away from McMurray’s win. He followed the rules and won. He should be congratulated, but like I said so long ago, it wasn’t racing. It was the four times a year spectacle. There has to be a solution. I’m not smart enough to figure that out, but surely someone in the sanctioning body can. It’s just too popular to do anything about it.

The decision was unexpected even to the beat reporters who follow NASCAR daily. After Saturday’s race, thing just didn’t look right, something officials missed. By Sunday at the truck race in Iola, Mike Helton, NASCAR’s President, commented that NASCAR was going to review the race and radio transmissions. That was the first clue that something was up. A timeline was not given, however.

Apparently, officials met most of the day, listening to radio transmissions (first brought to light by ESPN) and race tapes along with official race telemetry. I have to assume the decision was that there had to be something wrong.

To refresh your memory, late in the race at Richmond International Raceway, the race that would determine the Chase, a lot of things happened that changed the lineup for the Chase, or what it looked like at the time. With eight laps to go, Clint Bowyer, of Michael Waltrip Racing spun his car for no apparent reason. That brought out a caution when Ryan Newman was leading and apparently on his way to a win and a spot in the Chase. On the ensuing pit stops, Newman got shuffled back. In the meantime, Ty Norris called teammates Bowyer and Brian Vickers into the pits just as the green flag was waving. The result was that their other teammate, Martin Truex, Jr., ended up making the playoffs. Code-filled radio transmissions between the teams made things look very suspicious. It also allowed Joey Logano to make the field and shut out Jeff Gordon.

The meeting resulted in a change, and some would say a just verdict. All three MWR teams were docked 50 points, Ty Norris was suspended indefinitely from participating, and a $300,000 fine. Newman was placed in the Chase in place of Truex. Justice was served except for one tiny matter. What about Bowyer’s punishment? A spin is a spin, and determining if a driver spins out on purpose is nearly impossible. Why didn’t Gordon replace Bowyer? As it is NASCAR’s practice, the point penalties took place in the regular season standings. The 50 points didn’t hurt Bowyer’s place in the Chase, only his seeding. NASCAR was obviously punishing MWR and not the drivers.

This writer is glad NASCAR took a stand in this matter, but I’m totally surprised this hasn’t happened before. When you have a system that leads to one race where multi-car teams have a driver or two close to qualifying, this is bound to happen sooner or later. I’d say NASCAR is lucky it hasn’t happened before. NASCAR and the media push the Chase from the Daytona 500 in February until Chicago in September, and it has become very lucrative financially to teams, mainly because sponsors want their car in the Chase.

So, as it now stands, put Ryan Newman in the Chase and Martin Truex, Jr. on the sidelines. I’m still shaking my head at the events of Saturday night, but I’m glad it was handled swiftly by the sanctioning body.

Want to know what’s killing NASCAR? Maybe is the lack of parity. It isn’t talked about much these days, but years ago it was a topic of conversation. If one team for one brand became dominant, the sanctioning body would step in to make thing equal. In those days, it was important to level the playing field for all brands. You see brand was important. I thought it had come full circle by now, but I was wrong.

Today, Chevrolets led 135 of the 160 laps in the race at Pocono Raceway. One team dominated and that was Hendrick Motorsports, who led more than 100 laps of the 135. In the end Hendrick finished 1-2 and Jimmie Johnson led another 40+ laps until his unfortunate brush with the wall. It’s almost like the HMS drivers have an unfair advantage. For the record, Ford drivers led 18 laps and Toyota driver led only nine laps.

The great argument is that the other teams need to catch up, and I’ve been a proponent of that argument, but from the start, it was obvious that Johnson was far superior to anyone else in the field. Once he was out of contention (and to note that he continued on to finish 13th when it was all over even after suffering much damage to his car), It was Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon, not to mention Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who took up the company banner. Yes, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex led, but it was futile. The class of the field was the HMS cars. It was like they were only teasing Roush-Fenway, Richard Childress Racing, and the various Toyota teams.

Yes, the racing was good. Keselowski made a dynamic run to the front, but finished sixth. The battle between the 2012 champ and Kahne was entertaining, but in the end it was Hendrick vs. Hendrick. Even when Richard Petty won 27 races so long ago, there was a chance that your favorite drive might have a chance. That’s not the case anymore. Is that something that would encourage fans to come to races and watch on television? I think now.

Is there a solution? No, but it speaks volumes about the state of the sport when longtime fans turn the TV off or watch MLB when it becomes obvious what the outcome is going to be. It’s not parity, it’s more like domination. It is what it is. When Bill Elliott did it in 1985, it was said that it would surely end. And it did. I see no end to this now. And it is something that will go on for many years. I do think it has a lot to do with the lack of attendance. My only wish is that when the analysts continue to harp on why the sport and cite the economy, they might look at the competition. Of course they won’t.