Jared Turner: NASCAR needs one format for all-star race
By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2008
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COMMENTARY
In a season stamped by politicians’ promises to bring about “change” in the United States, I’m of the persuasion that too much change of any kind can still be too much.
Look no further than NASCAR’s Sprint All-Star Race, which will be held in its 24th edition on Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. This year, the race will feature four 25-lap segments with a break in the middle and a mandatory pit stop before the final segment.
Sounds simple enough.
But wait.
This same event last year consisted of a quartet of 20-lap segments instead of 25. From 2004 through 2006, the race featured one less segment and followed a 40-lap, 30-lap, 20-lap format.
In 2002 and 2003, the event included the same number of laps over three segments but had the added caveat of a procedure that eliminated some drivers after each segment. From 1992 to 2001, the event consisted of 70 laps broken into segments of 30, 30 and 10 laps.
In 1990 and 1991, the race was broken down into two segments. The inaugural all-star affair in 1985 had just one. Ditto for 1986.
If you're looking for a pattern, forget it. The only pattern is the absence of one.
Rules concerning the counting of caution laps, the inclusion of a midrace inversion and the number of cars inverted, as well as pit stop procedures, have also varied by year and circumstance.
Confused yet?
Don’t worry.
You’re not the only one.
“The format has changed so many times I couldn’t even tell you what the format is,” said Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon, a three-time winner of the all-star race, when asked about the all-star race two weeks ago at Richmond International Raceway.
Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Mark Martin, himself a two-time winner of the non-points-paying event, was also unable to shed any light on this year’s format when questioned on the same day as Gordon.
“No, not really,” he said when asked if he could detail the lap breakdown. “Excitement I’m sure. I think I saw something about that, but I don’t pay much attention to what it is. We’ll figure out what the format is when that’s at hand.”
And he wasn't kidding.
Pay attention, NASCAR and Sprint. If two of the sport’s biggest-named drivers can’t recite the format of the all-star event two weeks before its running, can you expect the fans in the stands to even know the format or distance of the race when they arrive?
It's doubtful.
If that’s not confusing enough, consider the convoluted system that guarantees some drivers a spot in the race while leaving others out. Try explaining to the average fan why Roush Fenway Racing’s Jamie McMurray, Hendrick’s Casey Mears, DEI’s Martin Truex Jr. and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Juan Pablo Montoya – four drivers with a combined win total of five victories – are guaranteed to start Saturday’s main event while Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne, a seven-time winner at NASCAR's top level, must race his way in through the so-called Sprint Showdown?
This is supposed to be racing, folks, not rocket science.
If NASCAR Chairman Brian France wants to really make good on his intentions expressed in the preseason to reconnect with the sport’s more traditional fans in 2008, why not start by standardizing the format of the all-star race?
Make it simple enough that drivers can speak authoritatively about the race procedures more than a few days before its arrival and make it such that fans don’t have to buy a program to know if their favorite driver is on the grid.
As much as change has been good for NASCAR, what the sport needs is a little continuity. And nothing could use it more than the all-star race.
Comments
1 response to "Jared Turner: NASCAR needs one format for all-star race"
Andy Gray said:
May 17, 2008 at 9:03 AMExcellent post. Lets not forget about the name changes this race has undergone as well. I think by the time the race rolls around, NASCAR will have done an excellent job confusing fans much like they do with all their so-called rules as we go.
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