Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: The White-Zone

The White Zone: NASCAR’s Safety Team Needs Some Work

There’s one thing I have zero tolerance for in the world of motorsports, and that’s when incompetence puts the safety of drivers at risk. NASCAR, your safety team needs a lot of work.

On Lap 142 of the Ford EcoBoost 400, Danica Patrick got loose in Turn 1, the result of a flat right-rear tire, and hit the wall, and was rear-ended by Kasey Kahne.

As she drove her car back to pit road, the caved-in right-front tire caught fire down the backstretch. She then decided to drive it to the garage, but the fire spread when she reached the entrance to the pits. She parked it and quickly exited the car.

From the moment the caution came out, her wheel was on fire for over a minute.

So a few questions come to mind:

Why did nobody from NASCAR tell her to stop the moment the wheel caught fire?

And don’t tell me they couldn’t. NASCAR has spotters manning the entire perimeter of the speedway, not to mention cameras trained on every inch of the track. They had to know this was happening. And if they don’t, that’s another major problem.

Why was a safety truck not tailing Patrick back, considering her car was on fire?

Again, someone from NASCAR should’ve sent a safety truck straight to her, one, to make sure her damaged car gets back to pit road, and two, to assist her extraction from the burning car. One belt strap doesn’t come undone, running the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 next season suddenly becomes the least of Patrick’s concerns.

And this isn’t the first time the safety team has come under fire.

Earlier this season, Kevin Harvick blasted them for their pitiful response time to his wreck at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“The worst part was the medical response. It took them forever to get to the car,” Harvick said. “I thought we made that better, but obviously we haven’t.”

But as Denny Hamlin revealed on Playoff media day back in September, it only got worse as the season progressed.

He told the story of how Aric Almirola’s ambulance that took him from his wrecked car at Kansas Speedway in May to the infield care center got lost.

“His ambulance got lost inside the race track and I mean, he had a serious injury,” Hamlin said. “So that was an issue, for sure. I know they’re trying to do the best they can. They’re not doing it every week, they’re just doing it when we come to town.

“People argue it should be the same team everywhere, others think that the ambulance crew should be familiar with just that racetrack.

“I don’t know what the correct answer is, but we for sure can get better because we’re not good right now.”

NASCAR, this farce you call a safety team has gone on long enough. This should’ve changed after Almirola’s mishap, and it needs to change now. And by change, I mean get an actual safety team, like IndyCar uses.

Sooner or later, this will get a driver seriously hurt, or killed.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

November 19, 2017
The White Zone: Stenhouse’s first win from my point of view

TALLADEGA, Ala. — In the 12 years I went to races as just a fan, I can’t say I attended one that resulted in a first-time winner. But in just my second year on the NASCAR beat, that changed.

As the laps of this past May’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway wound down, I took position near the exit of pit road to shoot some photos of the finish (which I do at every race). I made it out there for the final 10 laps, which ran under caution.

While under yellow for a three-car incident on the backstretch, I looked down at my FanVision to see the running order. Kyle Busch was the race leader, which wasn’t surprising as he’d been near the front all day. What was surprising, however, was the driver in second.

That driver was the race’s pole sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Now when I say I was “surprised,” that doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to his race. He was near the front towards the start, only dropping off the radar in the middle and resurfacing in closing time. That’s not just me, but also from NASCAR’s post-race loop data.

What I meant by “surprised” was seeing him in second with overtime looming and either saying internally or externally, “Oh my God. Is this the day Stenhouse finally breaks through and wins a Cup race?!”

The green flag dropped, and the race to the checkered flag was on.

Coming to the white flag, he was to Busch’s inside.

I turned back up to the big ISM Vision board to see the subsequent push Stenhouse received from Jimmie Johnson going into Turn 1, which made all the difference.

Now I’m as objective a beat writer as can be and had no vested interest in seeing the driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford win, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little joy seeing him finally win a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. While I’m a NASCAR writer first, the NASCAR fan that’s still in me was thinking, “By God, he did it! He actually broke through and did it!”

Even funnier is that Stenhouse will tell you he thought his first win would’ve come anywhere other than Talladega.

“Throughout my whole XFINITY career I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know about the speedways.’ They weren’t my favorite,” he said. “We ran decent on them. We ran good, but I never really felt like I knew how to put myself in position for our team to win, so the mile-and-a-half and short tracks I always felt like were our two good tracks in the XFINITY Series and then on the Cup side, especially here at Talladega it’s always been a track where we’ve been pretty consistent and, like I said, missing wrecks and getting good finishes, but I guess I didn’t see my first win coming at a speedway.”

October 13, 2017
The White Zone: Overtime in NASCAR is a joke

All NASCAR had to do was follow their own rule on the overtime line as was written during the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway earlier this month and again during yesterday’s Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and all of this would’ve been avoided.

But instead, their inconsistent officiating on this matter resulted in two fustercluck finishes in the span of a month!

This has to end NASCAR.

If you missed the end of yesterday’s race, what happened was Denny Hamlin spun out and turned into the wall past the exit of Turn 2, probably a result of his left-rear tire rub from contact on the restart. It triggered a three-car wreck that also collected Paul Menard and Ty Dillon.

Now here’s where the controversy comes into play. When the calamity ensued, Kahne was still a good distance away from the overtime line. As you can see from this screenshot.

Even though this shot is a few seconds after the initial wreck, it’s still obvious that Kahne was a decent distance away from the overtime line when it occurred.

But rather than throw the caution, cleanup and try again, or more like end the race via darkness (which I’ll touch on in a few minutes), NASCAR held the caution until Kahne crossed the line.

Unlike the XFINITY race at Daytona earlier this month, where you could argue they didn’t throw the yellow flag in time (although I find that hard to believe), there was no attempt to mask the blatant disregard for their own overtime rule.

And when I say NASCAR purposefully held the caution, that’s not me looking too deeply at something that isn’t there. That’s practically what NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said to Motorsport.com after yesterday’s race, when asked if having a quick caution trigger before the leader reaches the overtime line would make more sense, especially if the goal is to end the race under green.

“No, it wouldn’t, because again, like we’ve said, we want to make the attempt. But we want to do that under the regular regulations of how we call (the race),” O’Donnell said. “So, we look at that as our last attempt. We look at each (overtime) as our last attempt. If it can play out, it can play out.”

He basically just admitted that NASCAR decided against throwing the caution immediately, even though Kahne was a ways away from reaching the line the moment it happened.

There’s a problem with this line of thinking, as Jim Utter of Motorsport.com best puts it.

“If the object is to allow the race to play out to its natural conclusion, then why have the OT rule (or any other similar scheme) in the first place?”

I’ll also expand on his point. If NASCAR wants run overtime under “regular regulations,” why would you hold the yellow at this point when you wouldn’t do that at any other point in the race?

And why did they holster the yellow? Because the sunlight was running out, and they believed they wouldn’t have gotten the track cleaned up in time.

“It would have been (too dark),’’ O’Donnell said. “If we would have red-flagged the race, we would have never got it back in. There was clearly oil on the race track.’’

Disregarding the fact that NASCAR essentially shortened the race because of darkness anyway, why does that matter? The fact that there was waning sunlight shouldn’t factor into this at all. The race leader hadn’t reached the overtime line when the wreck happened! The caution should’ve flown before then.

NASCAR, either run the race to its scheduled conclusion, and no further, or go the ARCA route and do as many restarts attempts as needed to ensure a green flag finish. This overtime line approach of doing restarts is causing more trouble than it’s worth.

That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

July 24, 2017
The White Zone: NASCAR May Have Validated its Presence at Indianapolis

When NASCAR announced they would be implementing a new convoluted package at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year, a package that included restrictor plates and aero ducts near the grille area, I was incredibly skeptical that it would work. And honestly, why shouldn’t I be? I’ve heard this story from NASCAR before, that what they’re trying will “enhance” the racing, only for it to royally bomb. This came across as just another attempt by the sanctioning body to save a race weekend at a track that never was and never will be suited for stock car racing.

But then race day arrived, we saw the results firsthand and Saturday’s XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250 was phenomenally serviceable.

While in the past, the lead car had a greater aero advantage and could simply pull away from the cars behind, the trailing cars this time around could reel in the lead cars.

Well, that’s all fine and dandy for cars down through the running order, but what about getting to the lead car? I won’t say the leader didn’t still have an aero advantage, but it was much more negated than in any previous race at the Brickyard, be it XFINITY or the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

The numbers show that there were 16 lead changes, a new track record in the XFINITY Series (it was previously nine lead changes). However, those numbers don’t tell you that 10 of those took place during pit cycles (green and/or yellow). So we’re left with six that occurred on-track during green flag racing, which, proportionally, is on the lower end of what I’d expect for a XFINITY Series race not held at Daytona or Talladega.

Hence, this is why I say this race was “phenomenally serviceable.” It was better than anything I’ve seen previously at the Brickyard, but this package could still use some work, especially on long runs. If you didn’t get a great restart, passing was, while not impossible or even difficult, a little harder.

That’s not just my view, that’s also the view of No. 22 Team Penske Ford driver Joey Logano.

“The package was really interesting. You had to race really smart,” he said in his post-race press conference. “For us, we may not have had the fastest Discount Tire Ford, so I had good restart early in the race and was able to get some track position. Then our pit crew and everyone did a great job of maintaining that track position. You just had to be smart on restarts and knowing when to race guys and when to just keep momentum because if you started losing momentum you lost five or six spots. Being smart inside the car was key. I just wanted a faster car. That would have been key to do that to go up there and race with those guys.”

Teammate Brad Keselowski was also asked if this package is the way to go for at Indianapolis.

“Not the restrictor plate, but the air ducts are the way to go, for sure,” he said. “That was a huge gain and something I’ve been pushing on NASCAR for a while, so it’s good to see them do it and give it a shot over there.”

Bottom line, this package could use some work, but it’s the direction in which to go for Indianapolis. While I still believe the XFINITY Series belongs at Indianapolis Raceway Park (or Lucas Oil Raceway or whatever name the track goes by now), at least the race it was replaced with is no longer an absolute joke. Also, whoever at NASCAR concocted this deserves a raise and/or promotion.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

July 23, 2017
The White Zone: Let’s adopt F1’s constructors’ championship model for the owners championship

If I may ask, why do we have an owners championship in NASCAR?

No really, what purpose does maintaining a separate championship for drivers and a separate championship for the owners of cars serve? The main prize at the end of the day is the drivers title. The owners title almost always goes to the owner of the car driven by the driver who won the drivers title. The only place it ever gets any real mention is in the XFINITY Series, and that’s because the races in the series are won by Cup drivers in Cup-affiliated rides more often than not.

Aside from bragging rights that carry less weight than the drivers title, owner points are used to set the lineup whenever qualifying is rained out. Why we can’t just use driver points or practice times to do this is beyond me, especially when NASCAR has shown a propensity to bypass qualifying in favor of practice time when the weather looks iffy.

But if we must continue with an owners championship, let’s adopt a different model to decide the champion. And you need to look no further than Formula 1 for the answer.

For those who don’t follow F1, their version of an owners championship, or “constructors’ championship,” involves the organization as a whole accumulating points towards a championship. So rather than the No. 44 (driven by Lewis Hamilton) and the No. 77 (driven by Valtteri Bottas) scoring points as individual car entries towards a championship, as is the case in NASCAR, they both score points combined for Mercedes.

So let’s scrap the current owners championship model in NASCAR and replace it with the one used in Formula 1, or one similar to that used in Formula 1.

And I know not every team runs a multi-car operation in NASCAR. So to keep the playing field level, points will only be accumulated by the highest finishing car from each organization.

My reasoning behind pushing this is that making the owners title a more organization-centered points battle would add relevance to it as it does with the constructors’ title in Formula 1.

Of course if NASCAR chooses not to, nothing is really lost. The focus will still be on the drivers championship as it should be. I just personally think it would be fun to see what lengths teams would go to win a more organization-based owners championship.

Now this is a chance I overlooked something. So if you find any oversights in this, please hit me up on Twitter or in the comments below.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

July 12, 2017
The White Zone: ‘Cars’ review

Pixar Animation Studios have churned out many of the best animated films of the last 20 years. Cars, however, is not one of them.

Seeing as the newest installment of the Cars franchise hits the big screen in less than a week, I’ve decided to give my take on a film that scores positively with both audiences and critics (Rotten Tomatoes). Before you tell me I have no business reviewing movies on a website dedicated to covering cars racing in circles 36 weeks of the year, or 34 of 36 for you nitpickers, I’ll point out that NASCAR has heavily promoted all three Cars films over the years. So if the sanctioning body of the sport I cover for a living gets to promote these movies, that gives me license to review them.

For the record, I’m only reviewing the first Cars movie. I won’t review Cars 2 because it was heavily panned by both audiences and critics.

Let me make some things clear before we start though. If you like it, that’s fine. If you enjoy it, that’s fine. If you consider this your favorite movie, that’s fine. In fact, if you fall into any of the categories I just mentioned, please explain to me (in a civil manner) why you like, enjoy and/or consider this your favorite film. Entertainment is not experienced in a vacuum and we all have different tastes. This fact is what allows people to have so many interpretations of the same film. I’m simply doing this to offer a different point of view of looking at the movie Cars, as a good critic is supposed to.

I’m also doing this to see if people like me doing reviews of other racing movies, even if you don’t agree with my point of view of the film.

With all that out of the way, let’s dive into Cars.

SYNOPSIS

The movie opens in a dark room, revealed to be a hauler trailer, with monologuing from the main character Lightning McQueen (played by Owen Wilson). It’s a motivational pep talk about how he’s the fastest and everyone else are ants. The door to the hauler opens and he exits to thunderous applause. The establishing shot reveals that the setting is a race track called “Motor Speedway of the South.” It’s meant to be an expy of Bristol Motor Speedway (check TVTropes.org for more on “expy”), but it looks like a Bristol that was combined it with Neyland Stadium and Bryant-Denny Stadium.

We spend a few minutes on shots that show us the world in this movie is made up entirely of sentient cars. This raises some questions. Is this an alternate universe where humans never existed, yet somehow sentient automobiles do? Does the evolution of cars in the Cars universe mirror the evolution of humans? Were there actual car dinosaurs?! Hell, we see there are car insects in this world. Why wouldn’t car dinosaurs have once existed? I’m genuinely curious if there’s an answer to the questions I’ve raised.

But this also makes me ask, why make this a feature length film? As we go along, you’ll see that this story probably would’ve worked better as a TV show on the Disney Channel.

So after a few minutes of shots showing how cars in the Cars universe aren’t much different from humans, we cut to the actual race itself. After McQueen works his way through the field, we’re told it’s the final race of the “Piston Cup” season and there’s a three-way tie in points at the moment between The King (played by Richard Petty), Chick Hicks (played by Michael Keaton) and McQueen. It’s also divulged that McQueen is a rookie on the Piston Cup circuit who has taken the sport by storm.

Hicks tries to slow him down by spinning him out, then turned another car, causing a multi-car pileup. McQueen makes it through the pileup in a manner so over the top, both figuratively and literally, that even the makers of Days of Thunder would say was “too stupid.”

When the caution flies and everyone pits, McQueen opts not to change tires, the same ones he flat-spotted in that earlier spin, to take the lead. Keep this plot point in mind folks, because everything that happens from now until the end of the film is a result of this stupid decision. And don’t tell me he couldn’t have gotten the lead on new tires. He had almost a full lap lead on the field when the white flag flew, while racing on incredibly worn and flat-spotted tires.

Speaking of the final lap, McQueen has an almost lap lead on the field when his rear tires blew out rounding the final turn. Seeing this, The King and Hicks hit the gas to try and win the race. Why they hadn’t done this already is beyond me. But with The King and Hicks charging and McQueen hopping to the finish, the winner of the race is…too close to call.

It turns out that the race ended in a tie and a tiebreaker race will be held a week from now in California. I can accept that this series would be thrown off by a tied finish for the win. But they didn’t prepare any tiebreaker scenarios to determine the champion at the track so as not to force a run-off race? That’s a rather huge oversight.

That’s another major problem with this movie. So many characters have to commit idiotic actions and there have to be contrived conveniences for the plot to work. There was no reason that McQueen shouldn’t have taken tires on his last stop. If McQueen is really that stupid, then I seriously doubt that he’s actually as good as the movie made him out to be in the events that occurred before the movie started. And I’ll ask again, why did the Piston Cup not have tiebreaker scenarios in place to prevent a run-off race? There is no racing series on Earth that operates in this manner. Even NASCAR was able to break a tie in points between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards back in 2011. So why doesn’t this series? This whole dilemma could’ve been settled with bonus points going to the driver who led the most laps. Do that, and this movie is over. It’s just a Pixar short film shown prior to another Pixar feature film. Or you want to keep the original plot, make it a TV show like I stated earlier. It doesn’t work as a feature length film.

So McQueen loads up into his hauler and his truck Mack (played by Pixar mainstay John Ratzenburger) set out for California traveling at the speed of plot (TV Tropes), which is set to the Rascal Flatts song “Life is a Highway.”

Snarking aside, the few minutes of seeing McQueen’s hauler travel across the United States is actually very well done. In fact, the animation is truly on display when you see the shots of the desert landscape. That’s always been the greatest aspect of Pixar. Their animation is second to none. Even in their lesser films like The Good Dinosaur, the landscapes and creatures that inhabit it look more realistic than CGI landscapes and creatures I’ve seen in other movies, and I’m supposed to know that everything in The Good Dinosaur isn’t really there.

After driving for what’s probably been a day or two, Mack is fixing to pull off at a truck stop to rest for the night. But McQueen tells him not to, despite doing so violating federal law regarding the number of hours a truck may do in a 24-hour period, and Mack continues driving through the night. Why did he keep driving when he specifically stated it violated federal law? It’s because McQueen wants to get to California first to “schmooze” Dinoco, a rich company that sponsors The King, who’s retiring at the end of the season.

Later that night, a group of street racer cars on an interstate in the middle of nowhere USA (seriously, there’s not a metropolitan area near the location of where this occurs) just happen to stumble across a drowsy Mack and play some Kenny G to do…something (it’s never explained). This…something, leads to Mack falling asleep and running over rumble strips. This somehow doesn’t wake him up, even though rumble strips are designed to do EXACTLY THAT! But, somehow, he manages not to run off the road. What it does do is cause vibrations to rattle the inside of the hauler where McQueen is sleeping (which by the way, he gets to sleep the whole time, but Mack doesn’t?), leading to a McQueen bobblehead falling off its shelf and onto the button that opens the hauler door. This leads to an unsecured McQueen slipping out the back of the hauler and onto an unrealistically busy interstate. Before you say, “Of course it’s crowded. It’s an interstate highway,” McQueen and Mack were in the middle of nowhere USA in the middle of the night. I’ve yet to drive further west than Kentucky Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway in my travels as a NASCAR writer, but I haven’t seen an interstate as crowded in the middle of the night as this movie presents, and I do a lot of 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. drives to the race track to cover a race. One last note on this point: How does Mack not have an alert that tells him when his hauler door is open or when his most important commodity slips out the back? Am I seriously expected to believe that NOBODY ever conceived the possibility of a scenario like this?! How could they not? THE DOORS OPEN FROM INSIDE!!!

McQueen wakes up and, realizing what just happened, speeds to find Mack. He sees a truck pulling off at an exit and hedges his bets that it’s Mack. I’m not the first to point this out (that belongs to CinemaSins), but what sense does it make for McQueen to think that this truck pulling off is Mack? There’s not a truck stop or gas station area at this exit. So what reason does Mack have to pull off here?

He reaches the end of the road to discover the truck he thought was Mack was in fact a totally different truck. Next, rather than simply turning around and getting back on the interstate where he could probably still catch Mack, he turns left at the T-intersection. And yes, he could’ve just simply turned around because the only turn he made prior to the intersection was getting off at the exit. After that, he’s driven in a completely straight line.

Turning left sent McQueen toward a town in the middle of nowhere called Radiator Springs. He speeds past the welcome sign and the officer on patrol duty. McQueen initially decides to pull over, thinking the officer could help him get back to the interstate, but keeps on going when he thinks the officer is shooting at him (he just mistook piston backfiring for gunshots, and how one would operate guns in this world is beyond me). The end result is McQueen causing destruction to the town and to the road, and winds up hanging from a power line.

The next day, McQueen is brought into the courthouse for the damage he caused. Judge Doc Hudson (played by Paul Newman) enters the room speaking in terms that renders him a “hanging judge” (TV Tropes). But upon realization that it was a racer that caused the damage, he makes a 180 shift and fixes to let him go (it makes more sense later on when we learn his backstory). But is persuaded not to by the town prosecutor Sally (played by Bonnie Hunt) and sentences McQueen to community service, fixing the road he destroyed.

So while he’s repaving the road, he gets a paranoid fantasy about what Chick Hicks is doing with Dinoco. In my opinion, the second biggest problem of the movie is summed up in this moment. You see, McQueen is freaking out that he’s stuck in this town fixing this road while his rival Hicks is on his way to California and, in McQueen’s view, has Dinoco all to himself. Here’s the problem, we’re expected to feel bad that all this woe has befallen our protagonist. But Hicks a dirty driver, nothing more.

So that rather than feel for him after he’s called out by Doc for his half-assed road repair, I must ask what has the movie revealed about Lightning McQueen that should make me want to give a damn about his plight? The answer is NOTHING! There is nothing about McQueen that makes me feel the least bit sympathetic to his situation or his plight to win the Piston Cup.

To put it simply, I don’t care what happens to this character. And you know why? Because at no point has McQueen expressed concern for anybody but himself. From the start, he’s been an arrogant, egotistical, cocky jerkass who wants nothing to do with the company that currently sponsors him, made his truck violate federal law and bypass a rest stop just to get to California first to woo a rich sponsor, isn’t the least bit sorry that he destroyed the only road that runs through Radiator Springs, tried to skip town the first chance he got when his parking boot was removed, which essentially amounts to a prison break, and intentionally half-assed the road repair, after he was specifically told to go slow and steady, just to get out of town faster. If a character can’t express concern for anybody but himself/herself, why should the audience express concern for said character?

And yes, characterization matters in storytelling, even in a kids film. The perfect example is The Secret of Nimh. The story is about Mrs. Brisbee trying to save her ailing son, Timmy. She’s not a horrible cretin or perfect angel. She’s just a mother going to great lengths to save her son’s life, despite the fact she’s deathly afraid of the things she does to do so (buy the movie or watch it on YouTube if you’ve never seen it because I can’t recommend it enough). It’s because of those great lengths that makes me want to see her succeed.

But to the film’s credit, McQueen actually has a fleshed character, even though he’s irredeemable. The others are just one-note stereotypes. Mater is just Larry The Cable Guy if he were a truck, George Carlin is playing a stoned hippy that the film tries to pass off as a Volkswagen van to disguise that fact, Paul Dooley is playing the drill sergeant that I’ve seen in other movies (Full Metal Jacket) and Paul Newman as Doc Hudson is Mr. Miyagi, minus the snark. Then there’s Cheech Marin playing a Mexican lowrider, Jenifer Lewis playing the sassy black woman car and Tony Shalhoub as the Italian tire dealer is about as authentically Italian as the Mario brothers. Hell, Giovanni from Pokémon makes a more convincing Italian, and he’s a crime boss.

BOTTOM LINE: While McQueen isn’t the worst offender in the “not connecting with the audience” department, it was enough to damage the film for me. The worst part, however, is that we’re not at the worst offense this movie has committed.

But anyway, let’s get back to the story.

So McQueen is pulling the asphalt machine down the road when, after talking to Mater, he gets the idea to speed up the process and save time, as opposed to slow and steady over five days as Doc told him. He finishes, but Doc calls him out for his shoddy work and tells him he’s finishing the road until it’s to his satisfactory. When McQueen protests, Doc offers him an out: McQueen can go, if he beats Doc in a race. So they arrive at the makeshift race course where Doc allows McQueen a head start. He asks Mater if he’s got his tow cable for what’s about to happen, because the next thing that happens is McQueen finds himself crashed into a canyon full of cacti.

McQueen spends the rest of the night (lack of a better word) shoveling up the road job he did and doing it over.

And here we come to another major problem with the movie. For much of the middle of it, nothing of importance occurs. Yes there’s the tractor-tipping scene and the drive through the canyon, but that doesn’t connect to the overall story. It’s just filler. Once again, the idea for Cars probably would’ve worked better as a TV show instead of a film. The only plot points that come into play later in the film are Doc telling McQueen “If you go hard enough left, you’ll turn right,” McQueen stumbling upon Doc’s past, including his career-ending wreck, and watching him perform a drift.

Eventually, McQueen finishes repaving the road. But rather than hi-tail it, he spends another day in Radiator Springs.

So allow me to sum up the movie to this point: A hotshot rookie gets lost on his way to California, crashes in a small town, is sentenced to community service fixing the damage and makes new friends with the people of said small town.

I swear I’ve seen this plot in another movie somewhere…oh that’s right, DOC HOLLYWOOD!!! No really, it’s Doc Hollywood with cars. Aside from McQueen being a racer instead of a doctor and having torn up a road as opposed to crashing into someone’s fence, it’s point-for-point a rip-off of Doc Hollywood.

Don’t believe me? Go watch Doc Hollywood and see for yourself. It’s available to stream on YouTube for only three bucks.

It’s time to wrap this up.

McQueen’s hauler Mack and the press finally discover him, after being tipped off by Doc. Again, how Mack didn’t notice McQueen disappeared BEFORE he got to California is beyond me, but that’s beating a dead horse.

So a demoralized McQueen partakes in the big race, but his mind isn’t on the big macguffin race. That’s until Doc shows up on his pit box decked out in his old racing colors, along with several of the towns people. I probably should harp on how Doc shouldn’t have been able to do this considering he hasn’t been at a race track in 52 years and probably hasn’t received a hard card in that time, but I won’t because the movie is almost over.

So re-energized by the power of friendship, or any other cliche I’d more expect to find in shōnen anime, McQueen eventually works his way to the lead in the closing laps.

But alas, there’s one more dumb moment in this film.

Hicks, who states he won’t finish behind “The King” again, dumps Strip Weathers, sending him into a violent wreck down the frontstretch. McQueen is coming to the checkers when he sees on the video screen the mangled car of Weathers. This causes him to stop short of the line, because he’s reminded of Doc Hudson’s career-ending wreck, and Hicks crosses the line to win. McQueen reverses to Weathers and pushes him across the line.

Now this could’ve been a great moment except for one tiny detail.

WHY DID MCQUEEN GIVE UP THE WIN?!!! There was no reason McQueen couldn’t have crossed the line to win the race, come back around and THEN pushed Weathers across the line. Either way, Weathers was finishing behind Hicks. So all McQueen did was let the dirty driver win the race. If this was supposed to show how far McQueen has come as a character, it didn’t. It just demonstrated what an idiot he still is. He learned NOTHING! What’s more, winning the race was his entire reason for coming to California! This means that the entire movie was POINTLESS!!!

Hicks wins, but gets booed by everyone. Dinoco offers to sign on with McQueen, but he declines in favor of sticking with the company for whom earlier he was too embarrassed to do a sponsor appearance. He moves his racing operations to Radiator Springs, which puts it back on the map, and the movie ends.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

So what exactly is the story of Cars? When you get down to it, there really isn’t a coherent plot thread that keeps the entire story sewn tightly. The big race at the end of the movie is what’s driving the plot, but it’s quickly forgotten about when McQueen winds up in Radiator Springs — which he also forgets about as the second act progresses — until the end of the second act. By the time the big race comes, it’s nothing more than a macguffin that was only meant to kickstart the story. Now a macguffin isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The plot to Titanic is driven by the search for a macguffin diamond, and it got 13 Oscars out of it.

What exactly was needing solved by the end of the film? It clearly wasn’t McQueen winning the race, because he gave that up, for reasons that still don’t make sense to me.

All that this movie accomplished was demonstrate how pointless it’s very existence is.

However, it’s also harmless.

I call this the Pixar equivalent of Don Bluth’s The Pebble and The Penguin. There’s far better to chose from, especially from Pixar (Finding Nemo and just about any Pixar film) and Don Bluth (The Secret of Nimh), but you can also do worse, especially from Pixar (Cars 2) and Don Bluth (A Troll in Central Park).

As I stated in the beginning, if you like Cars, that’s fine. If you disagree with my point of view, that’s fine. Considering this is a film that scores 74 percent with critics and 79 with audiences (Rotten Tomatoes), I expect to get disagreement, and even some hate.

But whether you agree or disagree with my point of view on this movie, I’d like to know if you enjoyed my review of it. Depending on audience reaction in that regard, I’ll do more reviews of racing films, starting with Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

June 14, 2017
The White Zone: Thoughts on the first quarter of the 2017 season

RICHMOND, Va. — Yesterday at Richmond International Raceway marked the end of the first quarter to the new era of NASCAR, so I thought I’d give my take on how it’s turned out.

Brian France and the other dignitaries from today’s press conference join in a toast to welcome Monster Energy into the NASCAR fold. Photo: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

For all intents and purposes, the 2017 season really began on December 1, 2016 with the, at the time, worst kept secret in NASCAR. At the Wynn Las Vegas luxury hotel, in the midst of NASCAR’s Championship Week Banquet sendoff to exiting Cup Series sponsor Sprint, it was officially announced that Monster Energy would take over as the new entitlement sponsor of the Cup Series.

Monster Energy, a company that targets younger consumers and fans of extreme sports, was to say the least an odd choice. It made sense for NASCAR to want to bring aboard Monster Energy with the sport’s aging demographic. But it didn’t make sense, to me anyway, why Monster Energy had any interest in doing business with NASCAR, especially when the sport is in a decade-long television ratings decline. Yes I’m aware they’ve sponsored Kyle Busch in the XFINITY Series and Kurt Busch in the Cup Series, but sponsoring individual drivers with their own fanbases isn’t the same as sponsoring the sport in which they compete. The Busch brothers, being of a Generation-X age, draw a much different age group of fans than the sport itself.

However, I kind of had that question about Monster Energy’s motive answered by Mark Hall, chief marketing officer for the company, if they would go after the exiting, and markedly older NASCAR audience, compared to the consumers Monster Energy targets.

“There’s really — there’s two answers to that question,” Hall said. “Young people set trends in fashion, and then older people adapt, and I don’t want to say old. Fashion is set by a small group of influencers. The challenge is to make your product relevant to that group and then have them influence the others. If we’ve been successful in the past, we’ve followed that model. I think we have a lot of drinkers in the current NASCAR fan base. I think we can make the sport more interesting to some younger consumers, as well.”

NASCAR executive Steve O’Donnell and a selection of NASCAR personalities and NASCAR/ISC/SMI executives address the media during a press conference announcing new format “enhancements” to NASCAR’s three national touring series during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The next major plot point of the 2017 season was at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 23, 2017 with the drinking word of the offseason, “enhancements.” NASCAR was crystal clear to use the word “enhancement(s)” in place of change(s) this time around.

At this point, we all know the “enhancements” included stage racing and giving winners of the race and stages points specifically that would be added to your total at the start of the Chase, oh I’m sorry, “playoffs.” Yeah that was also another “enhancement” for 2017, dropping the name “Chase” and using the generic “playoff” term instead. Playoffs were so radically different from the “Chase,” despite the fact virtually nothing was changed about the system formerly known as the “Chase,” that the name “Chase” no longer seemed warranted.

All this wording was totally naturally, and not a cynically manipulative ploy by the sanctioning body to make this lead balloon go over much easier.

Despite all of that, I still decided, “What the hell? I’ll see where this goes.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – FEBRUARY 26: Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the 59th Annual DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The third plot point of this story was on Sunday, February 26, 2017, the day of the 59th running of the Daytona 500.

The Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s biggest race, held on it’s grandest stage, Daytona International Speedway. It’s the culmination of an offseason of work by all departments of the race shops located back in Charlotte (or Denver in the case of Furniture Row Racing), and the culmination of Speedweeks (from January (Rolex 24) to the Daytona 500).

The success, television-wise, sets the tone for the rest of the season more often than not with the ratings of the rest of the races to come.

The 2017 Daytona 500 was perhaps the most critically important race in the history of NASCAR. As I mentioned earlier, the sport is in the midst of a long slide in ratings, and I, as well as many other NASCAR writers, consider this season a make or break year for the future sustainability of the sport.

To make a long story short, this year’s Daytona 500 absolutely HAD to deliver at all costs.

So what were the results? It too soon to tell.

Let’s discuss the most important aspect of a race, the race itself. How did this year’s running of the Daytona 500 fare out with stage racing?

From start to finish, and I mean this with all sincerity, that was the most entertaining restrictor plate race I’ve watched in a long, long time.

The intensity was there, even for the lead, almost every single lap. It had the pack racing, drafting and carnage you’d expect from a race at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Kurt Busch celebrates with his Stewart-Haas Racing crew after doing donuts through the infield grass of Daytona International Speedway in celebration of winning the 59th running of the Daytona 500. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Chase Elliott is on his way to his first career victory on the sport’s biggest stage when he runs out of gas. Martin Truex Jr. takes over the lead, and then he runs out of gas. Kyle Larson takes the lead coming to the white flag, and he runs out of gas.

Taking the lead exiting Turn 2 is Kurt Busch.

The story writes itself.

Busch, a driver who started his Cup Series career receiving the middle finger salute, courtesy of Dale Earnhardt, in the 2001 Daytona 500, two years ago, two days prior to the Daytona 500, was banned from NASCAR for alleged domestic abuse (of which no charges were pressed), one of the most talented drivers of the 2000’s takes the lead on the final lap of one of the most important races in NASCAR history and wins the Daytona 500.

This race alone was so great that any driver winning it would’ve made a great story, but the fact that it was won by a man who’s very life, both professional and personal, is worthy of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary feature, is the best part. As someone who’s watched Kurt his entire NASCAR career, as a race fan during the years he was king at Bristol Motor Speedway and as a member of the media, I take great joy in knowing I saw his entire story arc play out (on the NASCAR side).

But as happens every year, when Daytona ends, the grind of the season truly starts.

As a seasoned NASCAR observer, both as a fan and scribe, I know that Daytona, and plate racing, is its own animal.

But there was no denying that stage racing and playoff points made the racing more intense than usual, to the point where the usual problem of passing the lead car was not a major problem (also thanks to Brian France warning against drivers blocking in response to a fustercluck of an XFINITY Series race at Daytona the day prior).

So I thought if cars could pass with ease at Daytona where it’s hard as hell to pass for the lead, then we’re in for one hell of a race at Atlanta, where passing is much, much easier.

Well a few hours, I’d say two, after the Cup race, Jeff Gluck and I were “shooting the bull” about the race at the exit of pit road. We both thought stage racing was going to turn the intensity “up to 11,” like we saw at Daytona. We both agreed, however, that around halfway, the intensity wasn’t always going to be “up to 11.” It’s just going to be the same old product we’ve been getting, especially on the mile and a half’s.

Thus started the “some notable moments in an otherwise forgettable race” trend we’ve experienced outside the short tracks.

The first was the finish to Atlanta.

Gluck asked me what I thought of the race overall. I said,”It was average for Atlanta, and that was with the way it ended with (Kevin) Harvick’s speeding penalty. Take that out of the equation and Harvick wins this, I don’t think this race registers.”

“Oh agreed,” Gluck replied. “It’s basically Truex at Charlotte if Harvick wins this.”

Then came Las Vegas. Keselowski has a part failure and Truex wins, which is overshadowed by a, let’s call it, fight on pit road between Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, of which Gluck captured the best video.

Phoenix sees Ryan Newman snap a four-year winless drought with a decision to stay out in the final laps.

Fontana delivers Kyle Larson his second career victory and demonstrates he’s truly a threat to win the championship this season.

Martinsville hands down was not only the best race of the season, but also my favorite race to ever cover. You have cars making the outside groove at MARTINSVILLE of all places work, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bumping Kyle Busch out of the way to stay on the lead lap, allowing Chase Elliott to win the stage and a 10-lap duel for the win between Kyle and Brad Keselowski with less than 50 laps remaining that saw Keselowski win the race.

Texas showed us Jimmie Johnson is still arguably the greatest driver in NASCAR history and is going nowhere. It was also the breakout race for Ryan Blaney, who led 148 of 334 laps and won two stages, but finished 12th thanks to a bad pit stop.

Bristol, when I wasn’t getting soaked trying to get from my car in Lot E by the drag strip to the deadline room and press box, was a good race as Bristol always is, but not as great as everyone said. Either way, it was fun to watch the events that led to Johnson win yet again on a Monday afternoon in Tennessee.

Finally there was Richmond.

It was…good. Like Bristol, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was still a short track race that delivered excitement. In the end, it was Joey Logano who scored the checkered flag.

I said during the media tour that I would give some time to see how stage racing plays out. After one quarter of the season is complete, I love stage racing. But I’m not convinced it’s the direction that’ll resuscitate the ailing television ratings, especially when the ratings continue sliding down after eight races (Richmond’s rating wasn’t available when this was posted).

So how will it play out during the second quarter, we’ll just have to see.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

May 1, 2017
The White Zone: Was this past Bristol race really that great?

I’ve had three days to process the events of Thunder Valley this past Monday and I must ask if the race was honestly as great as everyone is saying.

I sat in the press box in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 to watch the race for about 350 laps. I went down to the infield media center to watch 75 laps, taking about five minutes to get down there from the press box and 20 to 25 laps clicking off in the process, and I watched the final 50 laps outside the deadline room and photographed the cars circling around the .533-mile concrete oval while listening to the radio broadcast of the race.

Everyone around me was saying, “What an awesome race that was!” I, however, was just thinking, “That was just average for Bristol.”

The biggest problem I saw was it was extraordinarily hard to pass a car, especially the leader, on the bottom lane. When a car would catch the leader, the leader would simply jump to the top line in the turns and pull away.

That’s not just me looking too deeply into something either. Kyle Larson admitted after the race Monday that running the bottom wasn’t advantageous.

“It’s hard to keep your momentum up on the bottom, and the bottom seems to be faster here for 20 or 25 laps, and then once you get ‑‑ it seems like 3 and 4 slows down quicker around the bottom,” Larson said. “It slows down quicker than it does in 1 and 2 so you can pop up and run the top there. Yeah, it’s just all about timing that right. In that second stage Joey (Logano) was really close behind me, and I actually beat him to the top of 3 and 4 and started pulling away a little bit and he moved up there, and then the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) was really good around the bottom. It’s just an awesome racetrack. We have options to move around and makes the racing really competitive and exciting.”

In other words, that VHT substance that was supposed to fix the problem of cars running single-file against the wall didn’t really fix the problem.

I wouldn’t be so hard on this if three weeks earlier I hadn’t covered arguably the best race ever at Martinsville Speedway. Now I know that race also made the outside lane work, but you needed a really strong car to make the outside work and the inside was still far superior.

It worked at Martinsville because of the mix of strategies and the inside being superior. At Bristol Motor Speedway, seeing so many strong cars race different lines and not lose momentum is like watching dirt racing, which I consider overrated.

What made Bristol great was the single-groove racing that forced drivers to put the chrome bumper to the driver in front or out-brake them going into the corners. That’s not possible with progressive banking. The only way we return to the “Bristol of old” is to do away with the progressive banking.

Plus, I’m not a big fan of gimmicks designed solely to “enhance” the racing. Restoring non-variable, 36 degree banking — and yes, I know that figure was also disputed by a number of individuals over the years — back to the high banks of Bristol is a more natural remedy to what Marcus Smith and Jerry Caldwell are trying to accomplish with the VHT.

That’s my view for what it’s worth.

April 26, 2017
The White Zone: Some good things in NASCAR right now

As much as I harp on NASCAR for getting things wrong and continuously point out the serious problems within it, I think it’s only fair to also give them their due when they get things right and point out the fantastic aspects in the sport at the moment.

Let me be clear. This isn’t me playing Ms. Pauliana, trying to brush a coat of gilded-color paint to cover up serious problems bubbling under the surface. In what I consider a make or break year for NASCAR with a decade of declining ratings and signing Monster Energy as the new title sponsor of the Cup Series, it’s not off to a hot start in the ratings and viewership department. The ratings for NASCAR this season, compared to last season so far are flat in ratings but up five percent in viewership (Daytona), down seven percent in ratings and three percent in viewership (Atlanta), down 18 percent in ratings and 17 percent in viewership (Las Vegas) and down 18 percent in ratings and 19 percent in viewership (Phoenix).

But while I find more wrong with the sport at the moment, I decided to do a column listing just a few items I believe show NASCAR is on course for better days when they also fix the bigger problems.

Without further adieu, here’s just a few things I feel are right with NASCAR at the moment.

1: Restrictor plate racing

I’m not talking about the “bet on disappointment” XFINITY Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this coming July where NASCAR is going to use restrictor plates. I’m talking about the events of Speedweeks.

During The Clash on a Sunday afternoon, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano worked together to breakup the Toyota contingent commanding the lead in the closing laps one by one until Denny Hamlin was left all by himself. When Hamlin tried to block Keselowski’s advance in Turn 1, he got loose and turned himself sideways. Logano drove to the high side of them and won the race.

Granted, the current restrictor plate aero package still gives too great of an advantage to the leader, especially when it allows them to block any advancing lane and not lose said aero advantage, and that is the most frustrating aspect of plate racing today. But it was less prevalent during the Daytona 500, thanks largely to NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France telling the drivers in the drivers meeting don’t look to NASCAR “when you block somebody out there.”

“When you block somebody out there — and it’s going to happen today — it causes almost all the big incidents — do not look for NASCAR,” he said. “You’d better hope there’s a Good Samaritan behind you who is going to accept that block, because they have that lane.”

Considering the carnage in the XFINITY Series race the day before, France’s comments weren’t so out of left field. But given most of the wrecks were the result of the close nature of plate racing and bump drafting, his comments still left more questions than answers.

Regardless, this running of the Daytona 500 was entertaining from start to finish. It wasn’t next to impossible to pass for the lead and unlike the XFINITY race the day prior, the carnage didn’t start until halfway through. Breaking from what’s become the norm of plate races, there wasn’t a caution in the closing laps. Instead, the race went straight to the green on the last 47 laps. In the closing laps, Chase Elliott ran out of gas while leading, Martin Truex Jr. ran out while leading and Kyle Larson ran out while leading. Kurt Busch took the lead exiting Turn 2 and won the Daytona 500.

If we get a race similar in entertainment while at Talladega, plate racing in NASCAR will finally be back to a great place.

2: The young guns

This season might be the true start of the youth takeover of the Cup Series in NASCAR.

After four races, Larson is riding a streak of three consecutive runner-up finishes. Even though he’s led just 26 laps, he’s leading the points thanks to those runner-up finishes and finishing top-10 in every stage segment so far this season, minus the final stage of the Daytona 500 where he finished 12th. While he’s yet to earn a playoff point, his consistent stage finishes demonstrate the importance of running well the entire race and not just at the end.

Compare this to Kevin Harvick who had dominant runs in the Daytona 500, winning the second stage, and Atlanta, winning the first and second stage, but an early exit at Las Vegas and another non-factor day at Phoenix has dropped him from the points lead to seventh.

Other impressive “young whipper-snappers” so far includes Elliott. He was a few gallons short of possibly winning his first NASCAR race in the Daytona 500 and led over 100 laps in a disappointing 12th-place finish at Phoenix.

Ryan Blaney is also making good of his runner-up finish in the Daytona 500, sitting sixth in points.

Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez quietly earned their first top-10’s in the Cup Series this past weekend at Phoenix.

Austin Dillon is off to a slow start, currently sitting 25th. But it’s too early in the season to write them off.

3. The finishes so far

So far, the racing this season isn’t good. It’s just where we left off with 2016, serviceable to mediocre on most weekends. The finishes have been the saving grace to each of these races: last lap pass for the win at Daytona, closing laps pass for the win at Atlanta, Truex passes Keselowski for the win with two to go at Las Vegas and Ryan Newman stays out on final caution to win at Phoenix.

The way these races have finished this season have somewhat made up for the fact the races haven’t been that good. Truth be told, the stage breaks and stage racing are the only things that’s made the racing this year tolerable to watch.

Jeff Gluck and I were talking on the exit of pit road at Atlanta after the Cup race ended and he asked me what I thought of the race. I told him I thought it was average for a race at Atlanta, and that was with the way it ended. I added that if you took Harvick’s speeding penalty out of the equation and he won, it doesn’t register. Gluck responds, “Oh agreed. It’s basically Truex at Charlotte if Harvick won.” We also talked about how this race was a race to “adjust our expectations” after Daytona. I told him while I know Daytona is its own animal, I thought the stage racing contributed to making the race far more intense and made passing at a track where it’s been next to impossible in the past easier. I thought if that’s what we got at Daytona, imagine what we’ll get at Atlanta where passing is much easier. But halfway through, I realized we were going to get the same kind of racing we got last season. The only difference is we have stages to break them up.

Yes, stage racing is contrived and cautions at the end of the stages are more contrived. I’m still skeptical as to whether the stage racing concept NASCAR has devised will stem the decade slide in television ratings it’s experienced. As I pointed out in the beginning of this piece, that doesn’t seem the case.

But the bottom line is these races outside of Daytona would’ve been far less interesting without the stage racing. However, we’ve only raced at downforce centered tracks so far. So that could change.

CONCLUSION:

There’s a lot wrong with NASCAR today, but these three huge things show this sport is set to head in the right direction if it fixes its other problems. If NASCAR does something about the quality of the racing and the XFINITY Series, it will find itself in a much better state.

March 24, 2017
The White Zone: Let’s see where these new ‘enhancements’ go

Alright NASCAR, you’ve peaked the interest of this skeptic and I’m curious to see where these new “enhancements” lead us this season and beyond.

If you haven’t heard by now, the sport announced some rather radical changes – or “enhancements,” which is one of a few new buzzwords that are now part of our lexicon – which, in short, include segment-based race events for all three of the national touring series.

It was confusing as hell to learn and I just barely understand it now. I plan to better understand it by the time I head to Atlanta Motor Speedway to work my first race this season.

But for now, it sounds like an idea that’s worth giving a chance. So let’s give it a chance.

If you haven’t already jumped straight to the comment section to call me a “paid shill for NASCAR,” hear me out.

I’ll start right off the bat by saying it’s gimmicky and contrived. This is something I’d expect to see done in the All-Star Race. In fact, some elements of this have been done in the All-Star Race such as the segments.

I also wish NASCAR wouldn’t have added these “enhancements” to events like the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Bojangles’ Southern 500. These three events are the crown jewel races and should stay gimmick-free, especially Darlington Raceway, who’s tagline is “the tradition continues.” Yeah, nothing says tradition like a 500-mile race at a track like Darlington with a bunch of contrived elements.

Most of all, Cautions should only be thrown when there’s an actual hazard on the track and not just to bunch up the field to jive up the race. This was my biggest grievance with the caution clock. It wasn’t designed to stop frequent hazards. It was meant to disrupt the flow of the race every 20 minutes, just for the sake of it, and have a restart, just for the sake of it. I won’t call it manipulation by NASCAR as others have because that implies the sanctioning body had nefarious purposes for implementing it. It was simply an element they implement with the intention of making the racing better, but it caused more backlash than it was worth.

Taking factors such as these into consideration, it’s not hard to see why some people don’t care too much for the “enhancements” being made to the sport.

But now let’s talk about why these changes had to happen.

We can’t avoid the elephant in the room. NASCAR’s television ratings in 2016 were lousy.

This past season alone, 21 of 36 races suffered a decline in ratings from the year before and 22 suffered a decline in viewership from the year before. Fifteen races suffered double-digit declines in one or both measures. Finally, 11 of the final 12 races (excluding rainouts) suffered an all-time or decade-plus low in ratings or viewership (all figures are courtesy of Sports Media Watch).

This past season wasn’t an aberration either. It’s been the latest in a downhill slide from NASCAR’s peak ratings in the mid-2000’s, at a point when the sport was second to the National Football League in ratings.

The sport suffered heavy as a result of the Great Recession of 2007-2008 and it took years to get back on solid footing.

The impact is also being felt at the turnstiles.

Not long ago, NASCAR races were packed to the brim with devoted fans who would happily sit for hours in the stands to watch an event.

Now, only the Daytona 500 and the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway sellout, and even that has come with people saying those weren’t really “sold out.”

Most weeks, the stands are roughly 65-80 percent for a Cup Series race. But it’s when the series ventures to tracks such as Indianapolis Motor Speedway that the drop in attendance is more spotlighted. At a venue with a permanent seating capacity of 235,000, we’ve had numbers recently as low as 50,000 and 30,000 according to last year’s estimates.

It also doesn’t help that stock car racing at The Brickyard is dull.

Which brings me to my next point: The times when the racing just isn’t good….Yeah, that’s a major problem.

Today’s NASCAR is slanted towards downforce-centric tracks, such as the mile and a half’s. Stock cars are best suited to run on short tracks and high-banked, high-speed ovals such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Because of this unbalanced favoring of downforce-centric tracks, the racing is hit or miss at some tracks, such as Atlanta, and is completely nonexistent at others, such as Texas Motor Speedway.

With higher downforce, passing goes to a higher tier.

It also doesn’t help that we’ve engineered the failures out of the cars to the point that they’re indestructible. Even back markers rarely retire from a race now with a mechanical failure.

The two paragraphs above are how you get Martin Truex Jr. leading a whopping 392 of 400 laps on his way to winning last years Coca-Cola 600.

Now whereas people such as myself must watch every lap of that woodshed whipping because I was in the media center covering the race, others have the option of DVR’ing the event and fast-forwarding through the beatdown and skipping to the finish.

Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer said it best in his column on today’s announcement.

“I know several people – and not all of them are young – who make a consistent habit of watching entire NASCAR races in 10 minutes.

“They record the whole race, then watch the replay at 60 times the usual speed. They don’t stop the recording unless they see smoke, which means a crash, which means an interesting restart.

“Then they stop the recording for one last time with 20 laps to go in the race. They watch those laps at normal speed, see who won and switch over to ‘The Walking Dead.’”

In other words, people don’t feel as if they’re missing anything by simply DVR’ing the event and fast-forwarding through it to the end. Formula 1 has reached this point. There’s a saying that the race is to the first turn and that’s not entirely wrong. If you beat the field down into Turn 1, you’ve pretty much won the race nine times out of 10 in F1.

Don’t get me wrong. I love F1, but I’m not going to act like it has the most compelling racing in the world.

Now anecdotes doesn’t necessarily equate to proof, true. But Fowler has covered sports, especially in Charlotte, for longer than I’ve been alive. So I’ll take his word that he’s telling the truth. And I’ve heard these same complaints made by fans, young and old, on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio for a number of years now.

Bottom line: The races are, or were, marathon events and with an upcoming generation that now has the attention span equivalent to a goldfish, the days of just sitting in the stands and watching those marathon events will be relics of the past. My generation isn’t content with just sitting in the stands at Bristol Motor Speedway and watching whatever happens like I was (before joining the media corp). My generation isn’t content with just watching a 24-hour endurance race like the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Most of all, my generation isn’t content with waiting for the climax of the race. They need some assurance that what’s being built up will lead to a great payoff.

Whether or not these “enhancements” will work will be shown in a matter of time.

January 23, 2017