Keep those rain tires in Nationwide
Bob Pockrass
Bob Pockrass began covering NASCAR in 1992, primarily covering short-track racing and events. He has worked for Street & Smith's Motorsports Group since 2003.
Watching the rain-soaked Nationwide qualifying on television was a good reminder of how tough wet-track road-racing is for stock-car guys, and just another validation of NASCAR’s decision not to put Sprint Cup cars on rain tires for qualifying or a race.
The Nationwide guys struggled Saturday to post good laps, and many seemed to have problems with their windshield wipers and defoggers. It was cool at times to watch, but painful at others. Kind of like watching a cleanup hitter getting fooled by a sinkerball and just looking plain stupid.
Considering the thirst of the Canadian fans to see these cars, it probably wasn’t a bad decision to run qualifying in the rain. Maybe NASCAR should have relaxed some of the impound rules and allowed teams to make some tweaks to the car for rain qualifying and then more tweaks for what hopefully will be a dry race today.
There are merits to getting a race in and appeasing the fans who are there, and something said about competitors having to battle adversity to be a true champion.
But after watching qualifying – and the Nationwide race last year – there’s no doubt that it’s more fun to see these cars race in dry conditions. And NASCAR continues to make the right decision that when it comes to the premier series, Sprint Cup, that waiting a day for a dry event is the best choice.
