Mind of Montgomery

A NASCAR BLOG BY Lee Montgomery

It's time to send start-and-park teams packing

Mar 22
LEBANON, Tenn. – I wandered out to pit road before the Pepsi 300 Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, and I happened to walk in the pit of the No. 91 MSRP Motorsports team.
 
What did I find? A pit cart and three Sunoco fuel dump cans.
 
That’s it. No tires. No other tools. No crew members. While many other pit areas were bustling with activity less than an hour before the race, this one was empty.
 
But it wasn’t alone. In NASCAR, we call them start-and-park teams. As in, they start the race but head to the garage to park their cars not long after the green flag waves.
 
It’s not an uncommon practice. Teams are simply collecting a paycheck without the overhead of a pit crew or tires for the entire race. Some can make a decent living doing it, so I don’t blame them.
 
But it’s embarrassing and an affront to competition, and NASCAR needs to put a stop to it. How many times have we seen “vibration” or “suspension” listed as a reason out? Way too many this year.
 
Either we have 43 cars intent on running the full distance or it’s time to reduce these fields to match the number of actual teams.

Average Rating: 5.0

Comments

3 responses to "It's time to send start-and-park teams packing"
  1. 1
    Gregg Trennepohl said:
    Mar 23, 2008 at 8:28 AM

    I agree with you. But possibly more embarrassing is that these teams outqualify those that DO intend on running the distance. Maybe Nascar should have a policy if your team has no tires or no crew you will be disqualified and the next fastest team will replace them?

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  2. 2
    Jimmy Graves said:
    Mar 24, 2008 at 5:08 PM

    I wish I could get hired by one of these so called "start and park teams". I could make a better living and wouldn't have to work quite as hard. The reason out:Driver Hung Over!!!!!

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  3. 3
    LINDA THEOBOLD said:
    Mar 25, 2008 at 7:04 AM

    THERE ARE SO MANY TEAMS THAT WANT TO RACE AND ARE SENT ON THEIR WAY BECAUSE THEIR TIME WAS A LITTLE OFF. THEN YOU HAVE THESE GUYS. STOP IT NOW NASCAR. LET THE TEAMES THAT WANT TO "RACE" DO SO. LET THE ONES WHO ARE OUT FOR A SHOET DRIVE AROUND THE " FREEWAY" STAY HOME.

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