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Tag: Knaus

  • Problems and Solutions – NASCAR’s Bad Start

    Problems and Solutions – NASCAR’s Bad Start

    Never let it be said that I don’t have an opinion. The events of the past week have been monumental for NASCAR. I think a lot of folks don’t realize that what has happened will change the way things are done inside the sanctioning body in Daytona Beach for a long time. Can you imagine that the day would come where a track owner would poll the fans to see what they wanted? Can you imagine the day when the sanctioning body would be embarrassed by its own hand-picked appellate officer? Lots of questions and more surprise and confusion.

    NASCAR, though they are a dictatorship, has always prided itself as being fair. It doesn’t always appear that way, but that is the intention. Early on, they appointed an appeals committee made up of respected industry insiders. Teams also had the right to appeal to a one-man judge who could overturn any penalties somewhat like the United States Supreme Court of Appeals, except in this case, it’s not seven judges, but only one. NASCAR has always appointed former industry officials for this office. I can remember it was once Bunky Knudson, the former Pontiac and Ford CEO, and since it didn’t seem to matter over the years, I didn’t pay much attention after that. It seems that no matter how fair CAO John Middleton was in his decision in the Hendrick Motorsports/Chad Knaus vs. NASCAR case, some things were not well thought out.

    Fans will immediately take sides because that is their nature, but NASCAR left some holes in their thinking. Why in the world would you name an executive from a manufacturer as your CAO? Further, why would you name an officer who had a personal relationship with some of the principals? Apparently Rick Hendrick spoke at Middlebrook’s retirement dinner. I’m not saying that this had anything to do with the decision, but it opens up a lot of questions in the minds of fans, other teams, and the media. What were they thinking? The fallout will be huge. Every penalty will be appealed to the CAO and the minute that someone, anyone, doesn’t get a “get out of jail free card” like the Hendrick team did, it will inevitably be because they weren’t John Middlebrook’s friend.

    The boys in Daytona Beach have a lot of thinking to do over the next few months. What did they do wrong? Why did a panel of many decide the penalty should stand while the appellate officer decided that the penalty should be reduced? Why was the fine allowed and the points penalties and suspensions be waived, given the reputation of the principals involved? Complicating all of this is the fact that we’ll never know. If one appeals to the US Supreme Court (in the example I used earlier), there is a paper trail that reveals the thinking of the court. In this case, I don’t imagine anything else will come to light as to the thinking of the CAO. Game over and maybe game on.

    This brings us to the whole Bristol Motor Speedway situation. The half full racetrack over the weekend, which I have commented on earlier, apparently struck a nerve with Speedway Motorsports owner Bruton Smith. After earlier statements that the low crowd, about half capacity regardless of what the “official” estimates were, was caused by bad weather (it rained in the morning, but cleared up for the race), the attendance at Saturday’s Nationwide race should have given the brain trust a clue. The near empty campgrounds should have been another clue. Smith has his underlings conduct a Twitter and email poll on what the fans wanted. The result was over 70% of fans not only didn’t like what they saw, but demanded that the track be put back in the configuration it was before the 2007 reconfiguration of the track. Always wanting to give the fans what they want, Smith declared last night that it would be done. How refreshing was that? But the media and some drivers protested. Smith was firm. “The fans are always right,” Smith said. We’ll see if it really happens, but I applaud Smith for listening to fans and not the competitors. Fans pay the bills, and over the weekend, not many were there. Yes, a crowd of 80,000 is pretty good, but in a place built for twice that, it had to hurt.

    So for a year that started with a rain out, a big Monday night prime time race that had great ratings, and finally a great facility that appears to be decline. Lots of problems everywhere.

    In my opinion, it’s a cop-out to blame everything on the economy as has been done for so long over these last four years. It’s time for the sanctioning body to take the bull by the horns. Bruton Smith reacted swiftly and decidedly, as he always does. It’s time for NASCAR to do the same I hope they do. I think they will, but all is not rosy.

  • After Two Races, What Have We Learned?

    After Two Races, What Have We Learned?

    [media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Two races down and what have we seen? It’s confusing, but we’ve have had one race dominated by Fords and Chevrolets, and another dominated by Toyotas and Chevrolets. What do we make of this? One has to understand that Daytona is an entirely different animal from the rest of the circuit, save Talladega. It appears that the Roush-Yates engines are the way to go at the restrictor plate tracks, and after only one of the real races, the verdict is out.

    I don’t get the euphoria the media gives the current winner of any race. Denny Hamlin might have wintered in Arizona and got his head straight. He had a good car in Avondale, Arizona on Sunday, but he was bailed out by a stronger car running out of fuel. Matt Kenseth might have won Daytona, but it might have been more luck than skill, not to take away from either victory. That’s the way racing goes. A lot of it always has to do with luck and even skill. It’s just the way it goes. So where are we?

    Much of it has to do with what happens next. Las Vegas is key and Bristol is a crap shoot. We won’t know much until we get to California in three weeks. And then we probably will have to look to Charlotte to get the full picture. So far, it’s an open field. A lot will depend on what happens in the soon appeal of the NASCAR penalties given to the No. 48 team after Daytona, regardless of what you think about Johnson, Knaus, and Hendrick Motorsports. That team is a force in this series. The 25-point penalty is big, So far, no date has been established for the appeal. Regardless of what anyone thinks, a lot depends on this decision. The Johnson-Knaus team is formidable.

    I have a real problem in talking about points this early. The media loves it because it gives them something to talk about, but when did we get to the point that points and the Chase was more important than who won the race on any given Sunday? If last year’s championship proved anything else, it was that winning was important. It was the tie-breaker in the closest championship in history. Maybe, the lesson here is that nothing matters until the final ten races, and that bothers me. In stick and ball sports, it works well, but in racing, it’s almost that the individual races don’t matter. Denny Hamlin won Phoenix. Big deal. All that matters is how many points he got. That is NASCAR in the 21st Century. Win a bunch and have a few poor finishes, and you are dust. In the old days, the winners were given all the spoils. Winners were important. Nowadays, it only matters until the final ten races.

    We’re a long way from that, and hopefully exemplary performance will determine the season champion, but I’d wish we could worry about that in August instead of March. I’m a fool and I know I’m daft, but I wish that. Unfortunately, I’m in the minority. Bad deal for me,

  • The Wait is Over — News from Daytona

    The Wait is Over — News from Daytona

    [media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”236″][/media-credit]Most years in February, I’m heading down to Daytona Beach for the opening of the NASCAR season. The last few years, I’ve stayed home for any number of reasons, but mostly because it’s inconvenient for me. I prefer to let someone else cover the opening race while I get ready for my first race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Usually, outside of the new teams and the constant pledges of new starts, little really newsworthy goes on. This year was different.

    After the longer than usual off-season, Daytona has been buzzing with news. After months of no news, no TV, and little on radio, even on Sirius-XM’s NASCAR channel, it’s been non-stop interviews on all the air. First was media day with each manufacturer and each team getting interviewed by nearly everyone, and then it was the hype about the Budweiser Shootout. I think it was seven straight times that I heard from Jeff Gordon during that time, but there was some real interesting developments.

    It started in earnest with the Shootout. We learned that next year, the exhibition race that started with the pole-winners of the past season and had been changed over the last four or five years to include anyone (almost) who ever raced at Daytona was going to go back to the old format. In 2013, the race will be for Coors Light pole winners and past winners of the race provided that they attempted to qualify for at least one Sprint Cup race in 2012. The interesting part is that the news release does not mention Budweiser anywhere despite the fact that InBev, the corporation that owns the Budweiser brand has a contract to sponsor the race for at least three more years. Stay tuned.

    Next came the fantastic Shootout that saw a multitude of bent sheet metal and a killer finish. The car control shown by Kyle Busch was worth the price of admission for those attending and the time for those of us watching on our big screens. It looked like every competitor was having fun despite the carnage and getting along. Fox Sports was rewarded with a great rating and everything seemed to on the upswing. But earlier in Daytona 500 practice, it was revealed that there was another rules infraction and it involved a very familiar team and crew chief.

    Once again, it was the No. 48 team piloted by Jimmie Johnson and supervised by Chad Knaus. NASCAR found that the C-pillars on the Lowes Chevrolet were out of compliance and made the team repair the car before they could qualify for the 500. NASCAR assured everyone that this would be dealt with—after the Great American Race. Why? Because it was discovered before practice or qualifying. So Johnson was allowed to qualify with a legal car. Punishment would come later. Johnson’s qualifying day wasn’t so good, but Knaus was still on the job, even though this has become a pattern for this team. The last time it happened was 2006 when Knaus was escorted from the track, but that was after qualifying. It should be interesting to see what penalty he gets. Even though Jeff Gordon is the supposed owner of the team, Rick Hendrick is in fact the owner and he is in denial. He revealed that this was the same car that was raced at Talladega last year when in the intercepted radio transmission between Johnson and Knaus created a stir. To refresh your memory, Knaus told Johnson to spin out and damage the rear of the car if he won. Fishy. You can bet that there will be an appeal, so we’ll see Knaus on the pit box for a while until the appeal is heard.

    The Red Bull team that closed last year finally found owners. BK racing is the new Toyota team. Its owner are Cup veterans Wayne Press, Scott Gunderson, and others. The drivers include David Reutimann and Landon Cassill. Travis Kvapil will race at Phoenix in one of the cars and they will carry the familiar No. 83 and the new No. 93. No mention of Brian Vickers anywhere. Vickers says he will be back and he is trying to find sponsors. Good luck, Brian.

    So, after the news, we will be looking forward to the qualifying races for the 500. Fords dominated the qualifying, so a strong contingent of Fusions will be starting up front in both races. Also starting up front will be the favorite son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Will this be the year? The Shootout gave the faithful some hope. I found it interesting that while Fords dominated qualifying, it was the usual suspects—Gordon, Stewart, Earnhardt, Busch, and others—who looked strong in the race. We didn’t see much from the fast Fords. I’m ready to go racing. Just remember that Trevor Bayne qualified ninth. Could lightning strike again? You just never know.