NASCAR 2k post-Daytona

bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING 03/19/2000

NASCAR 2k post-Daytona

Atlanta Winston Cup winner Dale Earnhardt during the 1999 "Brickyard 400"

Bob Jennings

I've uploaded most of my "better" photos at the1999 "Brickyard 400," taken from where I was sitting in Grandstand B at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I believe there is one remaining that I can use. Perhaps I can get to another Winston Cup race this season and get more interesting NASCAR photos.

That was some finish (.009 seconds) between Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte at Atlanta Motor Speedway! I don't recall a closer finish in recent NASCAR history. The Atlanta race, the fourth in the 2000 Winston Cup season, is the third race in succession with an unpredictable story line. Since Dale Jarrett's (and Ford's) expected dominance last month at Daytona Speedweeks, with Jarrett getting his third win in the "Daytona 500," the Winston Cup competition has been more open than what we've become accustomed to in recent years. There have been four different drivers and four different teams winning in three different makes of cars. Admittedly it took a rules change by NASCAR to make the Chevy Monte Carlo competitive but what the hell that happens every NASCAR season anyway. I've already heard some Ford guys crying about the latest rules change.

Here's are a couple suggestions that would make NASCAR racing a lot more credible (at least in my mind) than it is now with all this contrived competition and constant rules fiddling to keep competition even.

First off next year if Ford, General Motors or Daimler-Chrysler produces a better racer and it shows at Daytona in February leave the damn rules alone. Don't mess with them. That's the way ingenuity, technology and competition work. Let the other guys find a way to make their cars better. Don't change the rules after the season starts! The way the NASCAR rules are now it's a joke. I acknowledge how popular NASCAR is and how loyal fans are and all that, but it's still a farce.

If you don't like that suggestion how about another approach? Do away with sheet metal from the manufacturers and use a standard template. The engines will still be Ford, GM and Chrysler and the teams can plaster decals and signage all over their cars to indicate whether Dale Earnhardt is driving a Taurus, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix or Intrepid. That's no more a Ford Taurus that Dale Jarrett or Mark Martin is driving than one of the cars running in the recent USAC Midget race at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. How many two-door Ford Taurus models have you seen on the highway lately?

I don't particularly think fan loyalty to automobile brands has much to with NASCAR anymore. There are probably more fans at NASCAR races driving Jeeps, Toyotas and Hondas than there are fans driving Chevy Monte Carlos.

Despite the ridiculous rules situation, there is a bit of unusual intrigue in NASCAR in 2000 and it's fun. I even find myself giving more attention to the races. Except for the "Daytona 500" I have a hard time sitting still to watch an entire Winston Cup race without trying to do other stuff at the same time. This season I'm watching more closely. I've been adding to my awareness by signing on the It looks like the new NASCAR "adjustments" to the front air dam on the Chevrolet Monte Carlo worked pretty good in Atlanta. The Monte Carlos ran strong taking first (Earnhardt), fourth (Steve Park), fifth (Joe Nemechek), seventh (Todd Bodine) and ninth (Jeff Gordon). There's nothing like diversity among the competition even if NASCAR has to play with the rules to make it happen.

Complaining aside, after watching Dale Jarrett and his "blue oval buddies" in Fords run the show throughout Daytona Speedweeks, the three most recent Winston Cup races have been interesting and more competitive than I've seen from NASCAR in a while.

Bobby Labonte took control at Rockingham with approximately 100 laps remaining in the race. At the finish he had a 1.2 second lead on Dale Earnhardt, which was probably a bit deceiving since Labonte had three or four cars between he and Earnhardt in the final laps and he could afford to take things easy. Only Labonte, Earnhardt, Ward Burton and Tony Stewart finished on the lead lap. Throughout the first three quarters of the "Dura Lube/Big K Mart 400" on February 27 however a lot of guys were running pretty well. Earnhardt, third place finisher Ward Burton, Mark Martin, Steve Park, Jeff Gordon, pole-sitter Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Burton and Bobby Hamilton all had laps in the lead.

Do you remember when Gary Nelson built those ultra fast Pontiacs for Kyle Petty that were unbeatable at Rockingham? It was around 1990. I don't recall for sure whether Kyle was running a blue and pink car sponsored by Peak Anti Freeze or a black and green-yellow Mello Yello car. I do remember however that Kyle would go out and kick butt when NASCAR raced at North Carolina Motor Speedway or whatever it was called back then. I think the name is North Carolina Speedway now. Roger Penske liked to call his tracks Michigan Speedway and Nazareth Speedway and California Speedway and North Carolina Speedway. Do you suppose if Penske ever purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway he'd change the name to Indianapolis Speedway or Indiana Speedway?

This season's "spring" Rockingham race was a little bit like the old Gary Nelson - Kyle Petty - Felix Sabates days at Rockingham. The Pontiacs were almost as strong at Rockingham as the Fords looked at Daytona and some of the new Chevy Monte Carlos didn't run too bad either. Other than the race winner Labonte, it looked like the fastest cars in the race were Ward Burton's Pontiac and Hamilton's Kodak Monte Carlo.

Rockingham is a nasty track. I guess the soil in the area is very sandy and the sand gets on the track surface at Rockingham and chews up tires. I play the Sierra//Papyrus NASCAR games on this computer and I hit the wall (of course I have car damage turned off) just about every time I go through the corners. I have braking assistance turned off too!

I couldn't believe how many empty seats there were for the Winston Cup race at Rockingham! I bet there weren't 50,000 people in the grandstands. That's incredible to me. I could almost understand if it had it been cold on race day at Rockingham as it usually is. I saw crewmen and spectators in short sleeves on the TNN telecast however, which indicates it couldn't have been too cold. Rockingham isn't far from Charlotte the hub of NASCAR competition and it would seem to me that fans would fill the place. It makes me wonder why Roger Penske worked so hard a few years ago to keep Bruton Smith from buying Rockingham from the L.G. Dewitt family. There are usually a lot of empty seats at the Winston Cup race at Rockingham in the fall too.

The same thing can be said for Atlanta Motor Speedway too. They always seem to have a lousy crowd for the March Winston Cup race and that surprises me too. I would think Atlanta would be a "hotbed" of NASCAR fans but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Substantially lower TV ratings for the "Daytona 500" and small crowds at Rockingham and Atlanta are possible suggestions that perhaps NASCAR has peaked in popularity. I've heard comments from various people that Winston Cup races have become too expensive for many long time NASCAR fans. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is floundering as race crowds and television ratings get smaller. Maybe the love affair between NASCAR and the racing public is starting to cool. Maybe I'm drawing too many conclusions from these indicators and being premature with my suggestions. I don't know for sure.

One thing I do know is that the number of Winston Cup entries continues to increase and some prominent names have been sent home early for failing to crack the 43-car lineup at each race. There are a lot of people who want to run NASCAR Winston Cup. Speaking of the guys who are being left out on Sunday in NASCAR, Scott Pruett, who made the switch from CART along with car owner Cal Wells, didn't make Rockingham and won't be racing at Darlington today either. I don't imagine Tide the sponsor of the Wells number 32 Taurus is too thrilled about missing these races although Pruett's front row qualifying run at Las Vegas had to help the new team's cause. A.J. Foyt's new Winston Cup team is off to a bad start. Rookie Mike Bliss failed to qualify at Rockingham, Las Vegas and Atlanta and he's been benched this weekend at Darlington in favor of Dick Trickle. Former World Of Outlaws star Dave Blaney who had such a promising 1999 season in the Busch series failed to qualify at Rockingham. Rick Mast missed Las Vegas. Robby Gordon failed to qualify at Atlanta and he was on the pole for the Winston Cup race at the same track in March 1997. Wally Dallenbach will miss the Darlington race. Johnny Benson the almost Cinderella story of the "Daytona 500" failed to make the Atlanta race.

If the crowds at Rockingham and Atlanta were disappointing, the crowd at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was somewhere between 130,000 to 140,000 and filled to capacity despite the threat of rain in the forecast. The Vegas race might've turned into a good show had the weather not interfered. Still there were some interesting things going on.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks to me like he's coming along quickly. He had the Budweiser Chevy number 8 in front when the Vegas race restarted after the first rain delay early in the race. Perhaps seeing Earnhardt Jr. and his Busch Grand National series buddy Matt Kenseth running one-two was a look into the future of Winston Cup racing or something like that. Stronger forces were emerging however, like the dark clouds overhead and the "Jack Roush twins" Jeff Burton and Mark Martin on the track. Burton had beaten Martin in an opportunistic situation the previous day in the Busch race. Jeff passed "Little E" on lap 59 and thereafter the personality of the race changed.