Category: Flashman’s Take

I don’t think there is any doubt that the best team in NASCAR’s top series is the No. 48 car at Hendrick Motorsports. Recent races seem to verify this, and Jimmie Johnson has many fans, but after watching the NBA finals tonight, I couldn’t help to draw an analogy between not only the Miami Heat and the Lowe’s Chevrolet team, but to LeBron James and Jimmie Johnson. Stay with me here. It’s all about domination and how we deal with it. It’s not a pretty picture for some.

You win too much and people begin to just root for anyone else but you. The New York Yankees know this well and so do the Big Red Machine. Folks like a lot of variety and that rarely is the way it is in sports. The Yankees inspired a play called “Damn Yankees.” The 1970-1976 Cincinnati Reds team had people rooting against them. Jeff Gordon was maligned by fans when he was at the top of his game. Many hated the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. It’s just the way it is. So it is with Jimmie Johnson’s Lowes No. 48 Chevrolet team. They used to say “anybody but Gordon” and “anybody but the Yankees.” Today it’s “anybody but Johnson.”

Tuesday night, I’ve never seen so much wailing and gnashing of teeth after a game. LeBron James must have been the antichrist. The Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs tonight in game five of the NBA playoffs, and all fans harped about was James and the Heat. Maybe it has a lot to do with confidence and maybe just a little arrogance. James, when he was changing teams from Cleveland to Miami, made boast about championships and during the season talking about domination. And then going out and doing it.

All the vitriol is aimed at Johnson in NASCAR, but a lot of it falls on Chad Knaus, the crew chief of the five-time championship team. Knaus is so calculated he seems like a character from some science fiction movie where the brilliant scientist is so smart that he seems not of this earth. Johnson doesn’t help when he calls every loss, “the one that got away.” The result is that many fans just root for anyone to win the race. Maybe I should change that to anyone but Kyle Busch, but that’s another story.

Greg Biffle won Sunday’s race at Michigan, but television and media in general spent little time with Biffle, a guy who led the points going into the Chase last year, and has a solid career in Camping World Trucks, Nationwide Series races and Cup. It seemed it was all about Johnson, Junior, Kahne, Jeff Gordon, and this week, Tony Stewart. Meanwhile Biffle was the lap leader and winner, but it’s like everyone knows when the final races comes along, Johnson is going to be there, just like last year and most every year for the last seven or eight years. He may not win every year, but he’s always in the background and he is ready to take the title.

This year, despite a couple of devastating races, he’s nearly an entire race ahead of anyone else in the points and many are rooting for anyone else to win at the end, just like those who would never be San Antonia Spurs fans are sitting with clenched fists to win the NBA title. Its normal and the way it’s been as long as I’ve lived (too long to tell you). Just like at Dover and Michigan, someone else won, but at Pocono, all the things moved into place.

Racing is a strange sport. Just as someone or some team seemed to be in control, another unlikely team comes out of nowhere to win. Witness the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, the Cincinnati Reds in 1990, and the New York Giants in 2011. Nothing is a sure thing, but many will be rooting against Johnson and Knaus, just like they did Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Elliott, Lorenzen, Waltrip, and Earnhardt. In the end, the cream will rise to the top. And that bothers some, but that’s sports.

I hate to quote the Beatles, because it dates me and after watching the Billboard Awards, I get the feeling that no one knows what’s good music is anymore, but all I can say is the first line of a great Beatle song. I heard the news today, but oh boy. The latest news is Bruton Smith, billionaire CEO of Speedway Motorsports is considering moving the fall Charlotte race to Las Vegas. Smith has long wanted a second date at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but taking a race away from one of the sport’s iconic tracks is almost criminal, but that doesn’t matter to Smith. His motto is that it’s all about the money. Proof is in ticket prices that have reached triple digits at most of his tracks, even at Bristol—a 250 mile race. Let’s go a little deeper in this discussion.

There are no tracks that I’d rather visit than Bristol and Charlotte. I’ve been a season ticket holder at Bristol for years. I also attend both races at Charlotte and have for more than twenty years. I’ll be frank in saying that the racing at Bristol isn’t what it used to be and the racing at Charlotte is at best boring. It’s just the way it is. Regardless, both tracks are state of the art, and enjoyable places to visit. The officials at Charlotte have been gracious in granting me credentials forever. They are wonderful folks and in my short meetings with Smith, I find a gracious and wonderful person. There is no one in this sport who is as enthusiastic has Bruton Smith and I glory in the fact that he has lived eight decades and still is the innovator that helped fuel NASCAR’s great surge in the last 40 years, but I have a problem.

Charlotte Motor Speedway is an icon amongst tracks. Smith and Curtis Turner started this track in the 1960’s and today it sits as the crown jewel in the heart of NASCAR Country. Two races have always been there for as long as I remember, one in May and one in October. It’s a lovely facility. It has lots of camping and with the improvements there, it may be the best place to watch a race that isn’t Martinsville or Bristol. That said, the news today that Smith is negotiating a deal that would take the October race at CMS and move it to Las Vegas Motor Speedway “about 70/30” bothers me.

In my private life, I am a businessman. I’ve been pretty successful, and would be a millionaire by now without some missteps. Those missteps have cost me dearly in my career, but I have always kept some principles of what I do. First, don’t do anything that is always working. Don’t change the track (or business) that is so great to make it “different.” Don’t mess with history. If people are feeding the money machine, don’t change anything. It’s good to change things up, but history is important, especially in the south. Smith is forgetting both rules.

Charlotte is the hub of the sport. The Hall of Fame is there, as well as the All Star Race and most of NASCAR history. The sport has already lost iconic tracks at Rockingham and North Wilkesboro, one to Sprint Cup races and the other to any races. Darlington and Atlanta have both lost a race. Losing a race at Charlotte might be the death rattle, but there’s more to this than all of this.
My hope is this is a typical Smith game of politics. Smith threatened to move the race into another county a short time ago when they wouldn’t do what the county surrounding CMS wouldn’t do what he wanted him to do. The fact that he brought forth this suggestion on a Charlotte TV station reeks of politics. Times are tough. Recent Smith tirades have been against Kentucky Speedway’s traffic problems (remember “Vegas,Baby”, recently). With his money and considerable clout, maybe this is just politics as usual, but what if not? A large part of history is gone to an area of the country that has no sense of the history and beginnings of the sport, where only Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a part of that history

Matt Kenseth is a man of history. Rarely have we seen anyone more excited than Matt Kenseth for winning Darlington’s Southern 500. In my youth, this was one of the sacred crowns of the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit until the powers that be decided that the old track was not worthy of two races a few years ago. The track is tough and it takes a special talent to win at the egg-shaped track, but few had as much fun winning a race here than Matt Kenseth.

When I was growing up in West Virginia, with no coverage except from the Roanoke, Virginia , radio stations or Southern MotorRacing weekly newspaper, Daytona, Atlanta, Charlotte, Rockingham, Bristol, and Darlington was all there was to have a big win in NASCAR’s top series. Well, maybe not Bristol, but you get the idea. Those old tracks with so much history behind them began to be forgotten in the sport, which really is criminal. Did Boston raze Fenway Park? Did Chicago tear down Wrigley Field? No, but in NASCAR’s world, it was time to move on and expand the series to places like Kansas, Chicago, and even Phoenix and California. Rockingham and others were closed while Atlanta and Darlington lost one of their two races. It was almost like the powers that be decided that history didn’t matter. The reasons given were attendance and the lack of the lack of things that big corporations wanted—suites, major highways, and who knows what else. But for those that grew up in the sport, those of us who grew up with Rockingham, Darlington, and even North Wilkesboro, the Southern 500 was special. Matt Kenseth is one of us.

Kenseth said it. He had never been more excited to win a race. The Southern 500 was the one he always wanted to win. It was special. Never mind that it’s put on the schedule on a weekend that is less favorable than most races—not Labor Day, but a weekend where we are always concerned with family and not racing. It was set up to fail. Who is going to go to a race that falls on one of the most sacred weekends of the year where we honor our mothers? Well, the folks at Darlington were at least given a chance to try. Rockingham was just closed for the reasons above. North Wilkesboro was sold and Atlanta was just given a crumb to exist. Labor Day went to Atlanta and the second Darlington date went away. It’s a business decision we were told. Nothing more. As attendance went down and the fan base eroded, the question was why?

Tonight, on the podium, a great stock car driver who is credited with the formation of The Chase, stood up and said this was the highlight of his career. Remember, this is a career that includes two Daytona 500 championships and many other wins. Maybe someone should listen. Of course, history means nothing when money is at stake, but the folks in Boston and Chicago could care less about that. They still operate Wrigley and Fenway because they are special. Why NASCAR doesn’t get that is beyond me. That’s the difference between a sport that understands tradition and fan loyalty. Matt Kenseth understands.

Richmond International Raceway is one of the three jewels on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit Along with Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Saturday night at Richmond should be what the doctor ordered, but it wasn’t for some reason. The beginning, and for that matter, most of the Toyota Owners 400 was an event dominated by two drivers: Matt Kenseth and Juan Pablo Montoya. At different times during the race, they were dominant. Kenseth was dominant overall and Montoya late in the race. As the race got to the deciding stage, Kevin Harvick’s crew came alive and it was the No. 29 Chevrolet that won. Montoya said it was lane choice, and maybe it was, but it was more about the RCR than any driver.

With the heavy load of point penalties and crew suspensions hanging over the heads of the No. 20 and both Penske teams, it seemed like it was a heavyweight championship fight. Kenseth led early and often and Montoya late. It also became a fight to the finish. As is the norm on short tracks, things changed at the end. Everyone pitted, well, most everyone, on the last caution with less than 10 laps to go, and Harvick, who started seventh, proved that with a car good enough, you can get to the front and Harvick did. Kenseth faded out of the top five and Montoya could do no better than fourth. To his credit, Joey Logano finished third on this long night and Clint Bowyer second—two players who didn’t have any say most of the night. Sounds like a pretty good show, right? I thought so.

Behind all of this was the lack of crowd. I didn’t go to Richmond this year. I just couldn’t fit it in the schedule this year, and all I could see was empty seats. It reminded me of Bristol at the beginning of the month. If people won’t come to these two venues were the racing is so good, is there any hope for NASCAR? That’s a question that should be pondered elsewhere. With the scrum after the Nationwide race on Friday, I would have thought the stands would be overflowing. And yet, it’s a problem.

I have a theory. It’s lack of competition. I know that will be rejected by most of you reading, but look at the 2013 so far. When the Gen6 car was announced, it was the end-all of cars. It would be the solution for evening the field. It looked more like the showroom car and that would bring fans back. For an organization that said brand loyalty wasn’t important and driver loyalty was important, it was a tremendous error in judgment. The Car of Tomorrow, which has strangely been removed from the vocabulary used, was a disaster. Couple that with the domination of just a few teams, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. And yet, no one has admitted blame, at least as far as I can tell. One fan told me recently that he would not go back to Charlotte to spend $1,000 to see Jimmie Johnson win again. Years ago, NASCAR tried to keep the competition between brands equal, but with the advent of the COT (forgive me, the Gen5), all that stopped. Things started to go downhill from there.

The competition factor also relates to the Chase. The whole season is based on the last ten races. Once upon a time, it was important that drivers were always noted as the champion of the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, the Coca-Cola 600, or the Food City 500. Not anymore is that the case. It’s all relative. All that matters is if you can get into the top 10 or be in line for the two wild card slots via wins. No matter if you finished fifth each race and via circumstances you might be fifth in the points, you might start the Chase in ninth position, giving the big teams an advantage because they have more resources or got on a lucky streak. So, each race weekend is less important. Why should you and I attend a race that is only important on how you finish in the regular season? Well, I know the MLB, the NFL, and the NBA do this, but this is not a stick and ball sport, something that the powers that be are always telling us. Win the Daytona 500—big deal. Finish second on a big battle with another driver, not so much, You’re the first loser. And you get punished for the playoffs, something no other racing organization has.

Yes, the ticket prices are high (almost 20% over the last ten years according to one season ticket holder I know). Yes, motel rooms are higher and gasoline prices are higher, but so many are willing to spend the money if they think it’s worth the cash. Today, the race you’re seeing is only a stepping stone to the final ten races and a win is only good if the dominant teams (here defined as only Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, and only Roush-Fenway, Richard Childress Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing being an afterthought, among others like Earnhardt-Ganassi, and Furniture Row). Motel rooms are outrageous, and the cost of hauling an RV around is tough. But people still come to other sports venues when there is going to be a competitive event. These days, with each race not being important, and fans knowing everything will be totally different come September, it’s easier to sit at home and watch the large screen TV. I don’t see an answer.

It’s funny how you can enjoy something even if you know the final outcome. Kind of like the New York Yankees playing a Little League team. That’s what we saw at Martinsville. Whenever you go to Martinsville Speedway, you always know that Team Hendrick will win, but you watch anyway, maybe hoping they won’t or maybe hoping they will. It’s a matter of personal opinion.

After Jimmie Johnson won the pole of Friday, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. After 500 laps, over 300 led by Johnson, the multitudes, almost all of them stayed until the bitter end. The only answer is you never know what’s going to happen at Martinsville, especially in the final laps.

I’ve seen Richard Petty and others run away and win a race, but you always knew there would be a late caution to even things up. If fans remember last April when it appeared that Johnson and Jeff Gordon would win only to see Clint Bowyer take them three wide at the end, only to see Ryan Newman come out the winner. This April, even though there was a late caution, caused by Kurt Busch’s spectacular brake failure, Team Hendrick still prevailed. Johnson won, but there was doubt, and that’s what it’s all about. And yet, there was most of the usual suspects nestled in the top five. It happens over and over and yet they still come.

As I looked out of the press box window on this day, I saw pretty much a full house. Many of them were rooting for NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but even they knew who would win and yet they came. The drama was not so much there. The result was preordained. Johnson and Gordon have this place figured out. Even if Dale Jr. and Kasey Kahne do not, they live on the technology of those two teams because they do well. While the Gibbs, Roush, Childress, and Penske teams fight until the end, they are out of their league.

Sure Denny Hamlin is good here and on occasion a surprise like Ryan Newman last year happens, it’s usually a Hendrick team in Victory Lane, whether it be the quartet of official teams or one of the satellites (see Stewart, Tony or Newman, Ryan). So why do they come?

It’s the action of the short track. Sometime way in the future, someone will realize that this is the racing that was meant to be. The roots of the sport were established at places like Martinsville, and that’s where real racing lives. In 36 races, only three short tracks remain. Martinsville, Richmond and Bristol still exist, hosting only six of the 36. That’s a shame, but they come year after year, not to see high speeds, but to see real racing.

The final verdict is clear. Just like the Country Music Awards, now held in Las Vegas, and the Sprint Cup Awards Banquet, also held in Vegas, something is wrong here. NASCAR needs more short tracks, two races at Darlington, a return to Rockingham, and a renewal of its roots. Yes, they came out to Martinsville to see what they already knew what would happen, but would they at Chicago ? Doubtful. That’s a lesson that should be learned somewhere. Everybody love country music and NASCAR, but you have to know where your rabid fans are. So far that hasn’t happened. It’s the future of the sport. God Bless Martinsville and the short tracks. May they flourish forever.

Thunder Valley. Once the Mecca of stock car racing is looking a little like the 1962 New York Mets.  Bruton Smith gave away ten Mustangs and still the greatest venue in NASCAR racing was generously only half full.  The Nationwide Series race was maybe a fourth full. A lot of factors played into this, but it wasn’t the racing. Earlier this winter, a friend came to me who wasn’t so good at computers asking me if I could list his tickets on Stub Hub. He had four, but only needed two. The cold, hard truth is that two people in his party had opted out because of the cost of attending a race. Couple that with the last few races that were less than exciting, and the tickets, more valuable than gold a few years ago, were easily found on race day at a discount.

Many might cite the weather. The weather guessers had predicted that it would rain. Some forecasts said there was a 60% chance of rain both days, but both Saturday and Sunday, the weather was in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s and the only rain came at night, but that wasn’t the crux of the problem. As we sat in the middle of the fans on Saturday, the most prevalent theme was competition. Listen to those I talked to.

One fan I’ll call John (not his real name) had been given tickets to the race by his Nationwide Insurance agent, and made the trip from West Virginia for the day. His words rang true. “I love NASCAR, but it makes no difference where your loyalties lie, this race will come down to Joe Gibbs Racing, Penske Racing, and Roush Racing,” he said. “Tomorrow it will be Hendrick or Gibbs. It’s just not going to be a surprise.”

Another factor is the cost of a trip to any venue these days. John said it best. “I spent $100 on fuel just to spend the day. Add to that the $100 for food and I spent more than a day’s work to come here speaks of my love for racing. Wish I could afford it like I did in year’s past.”

Regardless of the economic considerations, both races were the best we’ve seen in years. It was sit on the edge of your seat, never look away racing. Kyle Larson, the author of the big one at Daytona is showing he is the real deal in dueling with superstar Kyle Busch and coming so close in the Nationwide race. The battles between champ Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, and others were the best we’ve seen in years. It almost makes the fans wonder why we don’t have more short track racing. It’s something we won’t see again until Martinsville in a few weeks. This kind of racing allows us to see the raw emotions of drivers like Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Only six times a year do we see this and that is the problem. Most weeks we see “follow the leader” racing where one driver or team dominates. This was not the case at Bristol. It never is.

So, as we close the chapter on Bristol 1, just ponder this a moment. Joe Gibbs Racing won the Nationwide race and Hendrick Motorsports won the Sprint Cup race. A dark horse nearly won on Saturday, but no one other than the usual suspects were in contention on Sunday. Am I missing something here? Yes, the economy is a factor, but the sport has become predictable. That’s not any different than in recent history, but maybe that’s a factor in why Bristol has fallen so far. Maybe they built too many seats, but there a lot of factors in why this great speedway looked nearly empty this weekend. Maybe it’s time to look deeper. It wasn’t the racing, which was good, and it wasn’t the track, which had one groove (up top, kind of a reversal from the old Bristol where everything was down low). It was a number of things and the answers won’t be easy.