SHOULD A ROAD COURSE BE IN THE CHASE?
We approach Watkins Glen weekend, the second, and final, road race for the NASCAR Cup Tour. The series has a long history of road racing but always as a minority role in determining the champion. With the current title-deciding format the question is often posed: does a road course race belong in The Chase?
Right now 36 points-paying events comprise the season schedule. The initial 26 set the 12 drivers to battle for the championship. Those dozen slug it out in the last 10 races for the coveted seat at the head table during the awards ceremony.
The two road racing challenges lie within the first 26 and none are in the Chase. Looking closer at the numbers, that is one road race out of every 13 races run. So if one road-racing event were placed with the 10-race shootout the ratio would not be that far reaching.
In spite of the numbers, I think there should not be a road race in the Chase.
This is NASCAR Cup racing. As much as it is criticized and critiqued, it is still the premiere form of auto racing in the United States.
And that form is stock car racing. A manner of racing that is contested on ovals, not road courses. The occasional road race during a stock car season is a novelty, a nice change of pace, an extra way to test the skill of the men behind the wheel. It is not and should not be a major deciding factor concerning any stock car series.
In my opinion, I enjoy road racing. But I only enjoy road racing with cars that are designed for road courses. Sports cars, Formula 1 machines, and even Indycars have road-racing woven into their schedule and design. All or at least part of their schedules belong turning left and right.
Stock cars belong on ovals. Maybe dirt, maybe asphalt, but always on an oval.
If the Chase format is to be used to declare the Cup Series champion, then the 10 races need to be indicative of what stock car racing is all about. This is NASCAR’s highest platform to showcase thousands of drivers that compete under their umbrella.
It is a stock car oval series and road courses need not be in the championship showdown.
Now if only we could eliminate the Chase all together. But that is another article.
(Patrick Reynolds is a former NASCAR team mechanic who hosts "Motorweek Live" Thursdays at 9pm ET. Listen at www.racersreunionradio.com)
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Road courses represent the worst of the worst in the sport.
They are boring races in which the winner is often some loser running in the back who happened to pit at the right moment.
They are dominated by drivers who run two races a year.
Why in the name of all that is holy would someone even consider basing a championship on a race of this type ?
This sport is circling the drain as it is and I cannot imagine a scenario worse than this to finish it off.
Get real people !
My driver of choice is Tony Stewart who does quite well on these relics of the past.
The bottom line on this is whether or not a road course race should be in the chase.
My argument is that they typically are filled with twice a year drivers with nothing vested in the chase and nothing to lose by taking out one or more of the drivers who is.
Said took out Biffle, then tried the same with Stewart one lap later but that time it didn't work out as well for him.
The second argument is the ridiculous situation with pitstops.
I have seen far too many of these races lost by a dominant driver because a caution came out. As a result, second and third tier cars find themselves at the front of the field in a position not earned by racing, or by preparation of a good car but by a car who stopped early because he had a loose wheel or some other such nonsense.
This sport is dying in front of our eyes, and crying about road course races isn't going to fix it. They are the most hated races in the schedule by the majority of fans.
Get real, huh?
Did Jr Johnson outrun revenue agents on an oval? No, it was a real road with twists & turns.
Winner is often "some loser"? Not what the stats suggest.....Montoya (OK, you may call him a loser), Stewart, Johnson, Kahne, McMurray, Edwards, Busch, Gordon, et al, and hardly dominated by drivers running 2 races a year. I guess you haven't been watching lately.
Why WOULDN'T it be appropriate to base the Championship on "a race of this type"? It demonstrates the skills of the driver and team quite effectively, in a somewhat different evnvironment. It seems to me that possibly your driver of choice may not do so well outside of ovals, so you don't care for them. NASCAR has been road racing since 1956, and it's totally appropriate that the Chase should include one as part of the "final exam" for the Champion in waiting.
Of course there should be a road course event in the Chase.
Do you know the history of the International Race of Champions? First Porsches, then Camaros (how the IROC Camaro production car got it's name), with events conducted on road courses and ovals. Later IROC went oval-only for TV and for the fact that the cars were "Cup light", and the result was that NASCAR drivers tended to dominate, which apparently suited the US viewing public and sponsors--but it didn't prove much as far as who was the BEST driver. And, by the way, IROC is now history.....could that also explain the downward trend NASCAR has been experiencing?
If the Sprint Cup is to be a representation of the best driver (and team) amongst their peers, a combination of driver skill in ALL possible track environments, along with the team's skills in preparing a car, and how well the combination performs in each event (scoring most points among the Chase participants) should be the path to Championship.
You have a built-in bias, simply by the name of your column. Open your eyes & mind....the Chase needs help, but that's another column.
Patrick,
In my opinion the if they ( NASCAR ) is going to keep this stupid chase then they should have ever type of track in the chase, which would be to include a road course, having said that I agree with you 100 % on road course racing in general within NASCAR top divison, it is a change of pace, and a novelty.
In another front, I really enjoyed your article on Sam Hornish, I thought he may have lucked into a win at the recent Pocono race, playing the rain card......look forward to your column weekly.
You could make the argument to run dirt if NASCAR was already (or still) doing dirt-track events, which it has not done for 40 YEARS.
Road courses have been on the Cup schedule for much longer...in fact, it could be argued that the original beach course was a "road race" event, but I'm talking about a closed circuit with left & right turns.
Historically, Cup road races (all paved) have been conducted since 1956:
Riverside Raceway CA (started 1958, last event 1988)
Infineon/Sears Point Raceway Sonoma CA (since 1989)
Watkins Glen NY (since 1957 off & on)
Willow Springs Raceway Lancaster CA (1956 & 1957 only)
Bridgehampton Raceway NY (1958, 1963, 1964, 1966)
Road America Elkhart Lake WI (1956)
(probably a few I missed, too)
198 of the first 221 Grand National races were on dirt tracks
The last NASCAR race on a dirt track was held on September 30, 1970
So, looking at 1970:
3 races on dirt tracks
43 races on paved tracks
2 races on road courses (both at Riverside)
25 short track races
18 superspeedway races
looking forward to today, 2010:
0 races on dirt tracks
36 races on paved tracks
2 races on road courses (Sonoma & Watkins Glen)
6 short track races (Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond)
35 superspeedway races (one mile or longer)
Road racing in NASCAR Cup is NOT an aberration--it is a vital part of what it means to be Champion
What is your justification for this? It's been 40 years since Cup ran dirt. ARCA still runs stocks on dirt a couple of times a year, but I can't imagine what the rationale to have NASCAR Cup create dirt-spec cars (just as unique as road race cars, if not more so) would be. There are very few venues, none of which would meet NASCAR requirements--Springfield, DuQuoin, Indiana Fairgrounds, Syracuse (?). I won't argue whether it would make for interesting & entertaining racing, but the entire NASCAR infrastructure is not at all geared toward running dirt. End of story.
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Yes lets throw in a dirt track or two. We could even crown a Cup Dirt track series champion, like a series within a series. The dirt tracks could be short clay ovals with a one mile thrown in for the finale.