More years ago than I’d like to admit, there was a local sports columnist who would occasionally write a piece that he called “cleaning out his desk drawers,” or write about several items he’d been thinking about but which didn’t necessarily need a column of their very own.
As a journalism student, I always pictured the seasoned writer opening his metaphorical desk and pulling out a stack of neatly organized file folders labeled with different topics, or maybe a neat stack of index cards, in alphabetical order of course.
I pictured myself someday opening a similarly organized mental drawer of my own, full of carefully thought-out and provocative ideas, color-coded and ripe for discussion, all there for my taking.
A couple of decades in, my mental drawer looks more like a junk drawer. You know the one: you have to squash down the 26 recipes you printed but never actually made just to open it. Then you pick through seven confiscated cat toys, a charging cable from five phones ago, two coupons that expired in 1995, what used to be a roll of Life Savers, 13 thumbtacks, six assorted race car stickers, a yo-yo and exactly 62 pens, only half of which write, to find the screwdriver you were looking for…and oh, $#!&, it’s a Philips head. WTF.
Admit it, you know exactly what I’m talking about because you have the same drawer.
Most of the stuff is useful, but it’s all tossed in there with a few things that should have been thrown out in the last millennium.
I just didn’t think my brain’s idea drawer would be like that, too. Most of what’s up there is interesting (to me, anyway) and relevant, along with a couple of grudges and some really stupid questions.
Anyhow, the mental drawer is full, so here are some thoughts that fell out of it.
So, how about that weather?
Rain has affected the last month or so of the NASCAR schedule. It’s frustrating for teams and it’s frustrating for fans. June, July and August are tough months to schedule. In the few places where thunderstorms aren’t likely to pop up on a hot day, it’s summer-in-the-desert hot, too hot for much human outdoor activity.
On one hand, NASCAR has come up with a tire that can be raced on certain tracks in some wet conditions. Sunday’s (July 7) race on the Chicago street course showed why racing in heavy rain or on a very wet track just isn’t feasible—the spray from the cars makes it impossible to see, and that’s dangerous for drivers. Even fans watching on TV can’t see what’s going on.
But the tires have allowed races to run on the scheduled day when before might have meant a postponement. They won’t ever be an option anywhere, because speeds at some tracks are too fast to safely run on the wet and those tires would overheat pretty fast.
On the other hand, at the very least, the rain delays at Chicago and New Hampshire Motor Speedway could have been avoided completely by starting the races at what was once the normal weekly post time, usually between noon and 1 in the afternoon Eastern time. Storms are most likely late in the afternoon, and if the race is already over, they can’t interfere. Not to mention, for East Coast fans, the current start times are terrible. They run through dinner time and into the evening. It’s a bigger inconvenience than a late morning start for West Coast fans.
NASCAR introduced a new rule this year that was needed for the first time in Chicago. When a race runs up against sunset at a track without lights, NASCAR now sets a hard time, and once that time is reached, the leader sees the white flag on his next lap.
Previously, the call was arbitrary, and how dark was too dark wasn’t always the same for everyone. This way, teams know well ahead of time exactly when they’re racing and can plan their final runs accordingly.
The only thing that needs to change with the timer rule is stage breaks.
If the timer is activated, the caution should not come out except for an incident, because caution laps can take a lot of time, and if fans are already going to see a shorter race than they paid for, it shouldn’t be shortened further by planned cautions.
(In reality, the stage cautions are generally superfluous anyway and could be eliminated. NASCAR had the right idea on road courses last year by scoring the stages without a yellow and should have expanded the rule to everywhere instead of eliminating it.)
Speaking of the end of races, let’s talk about retaliation on the cool-down lap.
NASCAR has been consistently inconsistent in penalizing it, but it should result in at the minimum a fine every time. For one thing, drivers are loosening their belts and dropping window nets, so they’re more vulnerable to a hit. On ovals in particular, there’s an added danger to TV crews, race crews and bystanders if drivers get into each other coming to pit road.
What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander, though. There were actually two post-race incidents at Chicago, yet many fans seem to only want one driver punished.
Nope. If one driver deserves a penalty for something, the other one should get the same penalty for the same violation. If you want to see Bubba Wallace fined for door-slamming Alex Bowman, then you have to be on board with Chase Elliott getting the same for doing the same to Daniel Suarez. It’s pretty simple, really.
And that goes for all the rules. NASCAR should penalize equally and fans should want that, even if one driver in question is one they like and the other isn’t. You can’t have or wish for different rules for different drivers.
In the third year of the Next Gen era, it seems like the bigger, wealthier teams have done what we both figured and feared they would and gotten further ahead of the smaller and mid-tier teams. It was more fun when nobody had the thing figured out.
Underperformers of the year so far: Richard Childress Racing and Legacy Motor Club. Even Austin Dillon is underperforming (who knew that was even a thing), but Kyle Busch’s season is an eye-opener. If anyone can pick up a car and carry it across the finish line, it’s Busch. And he may need to do that soon to have any hope of a playoff spot or extending his win streak to a phenomenal 20 seasons.
Legacy is also a mystery, because when it announced a switch to Toyota, the collective thought was that it’d be more or less equal to 23XI Racing in terms of equipment. Turns out, it’s a lot less, and why is a bit of a mystery. Did Joe Gibbs have a meltdown at the thought of sharing the Toyota pie and not allowing information sharing?
It seems like both 23XI and Legacy could have benefitted from a close working relationship. Plus, it had to have taken some doing to persuade Jimmie Johnson, who has been loyal to Chevrolet since he was a teenager, to jump ship. You have to wonder what changed. Johnson doesn’t have ownership experience, but Maury Gallagher does, and the team’s performance doesn’t make sense.
A couple of quick thoughts on some schedule rumors: Loudon in the playoffs? Yes, please. Fall in New England is spectacular. Rockingham Speedway anywhere on the schedule? Also yes, please. And Bowman Gray Stadium hosting the Busch Light Clash? Better than LA.
As Silly Season rolls along, a word of caution to … well, everyone: any ride is safe until someone comes along with shiny things to offer.
Now that the junk drawer closes again without anything falling out, my final thought on this hot summer night: at the end of the day, there will never be a moment more perfect or filled with promise than that one that happens every week when the pace car drops to the pits and the green flag is about to wave. Anything can happen.
And if you watch long enough, it probably will.
About the author
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
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I agree with most of your post other than not having a caution after the stage ends. Without cautions we used to see one or two teams nail the setup right out of the box and walk away with it leaving perhaps only about 10 cars in the lea$ lap and second place half a lap back. Cautions brings the field back together and give teams an opportunity to massage their cars.