Gibbs Ultimately Owns This Penalty

April 25th, 2013 Journo 7 comments

Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket?

If the answer’s yes, did you try telling the officer, ‘that wasn’t my intent’?

Or maybe you were just a MPH or two over the limit, did you try telling him, ‘I wasn’t speeding that much’?

When he got done laughing at you, did he still write you a ticket? My guess is, he did.

Welcome to NASCAR rule enforcement. The body has very little sympathy for intent or amount, and zero tolerance for infractions related to tires, fuel and engines.

Joe Gibbs Racing found this out the hard way yesterday – not that they shouldn’t have already known. When you move beyond the specified limits and beyond the tolerances provided, it’s likely NASCAR will throw the book at you.

JGR is facing, pending an appeal, a six race suspension and $200,000 fine for crew chief Jason Ratcliff, a loss of 50 driver and owner points, the loss of Kenseth’s win toward the Chase wild card berth, a six week suspension of Joe Gibbs’ owner license and the loss of owner points for the next six weeks thanks to a connecting rod that did not meet weight requirements. Toyota has also been docked five points toward the manufacturer’s championship.

The penalty was reminiscent of the one levied to Carl Long in 2009 after he was found with an illegal engine at the Sprint All Star race. Long was fined $200,000, docked 200 points (the equivalent of 50 points under the current system) and suspended for 12 races.

His suspension was eventually reduced on appeal, but he has been unable to pay the fine and hasn’t worked in the Cup Series since.

Regardless of the claims of ignorance in both cases, there are two general rules that reign supreme: (1) the team is ALWAYS responsible for the equipment it uses, regardless of who/where it comes from; and (2) if the team exceeds tolerances, regardless of the amount, it has broken the rule.

Every team member, owner and driver knows this. And I suspect, at this point, most fans do too.

I understand all the arguments here – the amount that exceeded the tolerance was small; Gibbs didn’t have any control over this; they didn’t do this on purpose. In the end, none of them matter.

NASCAR, in 2013, is a sport of fractions of an inch and thousandths of a pound. Teams will do whatever they have to do, shave whatever they have to shave in order to score that competitive advantage (not saying that happened here). Because of this, the sanctioning body has to work hard to maintain the integrity of the sport and enforce the rule book, regardless of intent.

I sympathize with Gibbs. And if recent decisions are any indication, I suspect the appeals panel will reduce some of the penalties. But at the end of the day, NASCAR did what it had to do – send the message that engines are out of bounds, the Generation 6 car is not to be messed with and when they give you a rule book, they’re not joking.

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The Tattletale Issue

April 22nd, 2013 T.C. 7 comments

Let me just say this first: I don’t care that somebody threw the Penske guys under the bus. There, I said it. (Cue the “you work for Hendrick” trolling in 3…2…1…)

Last week, after both Penske cars were busted by NASCAR at Texas for some creative rear-end components, Jenna Fryer wrote that NASCAR may have been tipped off, and possibly by folks from Hendrick Motorsports. Both the #2 and #22 were parked in the garage next to Hendrick teams, and it would have been the perfect opportunity for a peek at what Penske was up to. But here’s the thing (and the reason I don’t care), NASCAR has open garage stalls for this exact reason.

In the essence of fairness and to create an atmosphere of compliance, NASCAR keeps the teams’ garage stalls open and the inspection process in full view of anyone who wants to watch. If you know that you have to worry about NASCAR officials AND the team next to you, it makes getting away with cheating more difficult. It’s also why when teams do get busted for illegal parts, NASCAR puts those parts on display to show the entire garage.

Another point that needs to be made here is that NASCAR isn’t little league baseball. There is a lot at stake, and if you can’t handle a little gamesmanship, maybe you should find something else to do.

Now that I’ve angered probably half of you reading this post, let the hate-commenting begin!

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Cup Start-And-Parks Dwindling

April 8th, 2013 T.C. 7 comments

The practice of starting-and-parking has been a much discussed topic over the last couple of years.

If you aren’t aware, starting-and-parking refers to a system in which teams enter a race and pull into the garage after only a few laps with a perfectly good race car in order to collect prize money. Teams can turn a profit doing this, because they save money by not hiring a pit crew or buying expensive sets of tires. But whereas this has been fairly prevalent in recent seasons, it is happening a lot less this year.

NASCAR, while not outlawing the practice completely (it’s complicated), has tried different methods to discourage the start-and-park teams. They’ve tried making early exiting teams go through a complicated inspection process, and this year they reduced the prize money paid to the five lowest finishers.

For most of 2012, it wasn’t uncommon to see as many as six or more cars pull off the track early. Some did it all year purely for profit, and others used it as an opportunity to raise money so they could run other races to the finish. Tommy Baldwin is an example of the latter.

But this season, the most cars we’ve seen start-and-park in a race is three. No teams did it at the Daytona 500, and of the five teams to do so, only two, the 44 of Scott Riggs and the 19 of Mike Bliss, have yet to run a full race. The 33 of Landon Cassill, the 98 of Michael McDowell, and the 95 of Scott Speed have all raced to the finish at least once.

I think the reasons why we’ve seen the reduction are twofold. First, I believe NASCAR’s efforts have made some impact, even if it’s only been small. But I think the biggest hurdle for these teams this season has been the introduction of the Gen 6 car. The start-and-park teams are smaller and not flush with cash, and converting old cars to the new version is expensive. Many rely on buying old cars from the big teams, and it will be some time before any Gen 6 cars are available on the secondary market.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if more start-and-park teams emerge. Inevitably, it will be easier (i.e. cheaper) for the small teams to get Gen 6 cars, and the practice may grow again. It’s not something I’m sure you will ever see go away completely, but I’m glad to see more teams showing up every week intent on running to the checkered.

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NASCAR Still Working Out New Inspection Process

March 21st, 2013 T.C. 2 comments

The introduction of the Gen 6 car this season has brought with it some new equipment for the inspection process, namely the new laser measuring rig (see details and a photo here). The laser system helps NASCAR more accurately measure the chassis and things like where and how the rear end is located. But the implementation of the new process has not been seamless.

RPM2Night.com had a story on March 2nd about some of the difficulties with the system. In it, it was mentioned that Jimmie Johnson’s #48 was thrown out of the inspection line twice for adjustments before it finally passed inspection for qualifying on Friday at Phoenix. And his team isn’t the only one who has experienced this.

When cars are found to be out of tolerance, teams must get out of the inspection line, make adjustments, and get back in line. The new system measures the cars much more exactly, and it has been tougher for the crews to make minute adjustments to satisfy the system. As with Johnson’s car, some teams make adjustments and go back through, only to find they have more work to do. All of this takes time. Sometimes, a lot of time.

At Phoenix a few weeks ago, the pre-race inspection process took so long that some cars were still being pushed onto the grid while the National Anthem was playing. And for Las Vegas and Bristol, NASCAR opened the garage on Sunday a full hour earlier than normal.

One of the other problems facing teams with the laser system, is that nobody outside of NASCAR owns one. The systems are too cost prohibitive for the teams to build, and the teams won’t know for certain that their cars meet tolerances until they arrive at the track.

Debuting the new style car this season can only help the sport, but it’s clear that  both the teams and NASCAR still have some kinks to work out.

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What Did We Learn At Daytona? Nothing.

February 26th, 2013 T.C. 19 comments

If you read or hear any media member say this week that Jimmie Johnson is on his way to a sixth title, or that Danica Patrick is a contender, or that the Gen 6 car needs to be tweaked, know one thing: they don’t have a clue.

Did Jimmie win the 500? Yes. Did Danica break some records and finish in the top ten? Yes. Did the Gen 6 car provide some underwhelming racing? You see where this is going. But conclusions about the remainder of the season cannot be drawn based on one race where a small piece of metal atop the intake becomes the great equalizer. Crazy things always happen at Daytona and Talladega (see Trevor Bayne and Brad Keselowski’s first wins).

Michael McDowell and J.J. Yeley both had top ten runs at Daytona, and I don’t hear anyone singing their praises and proclaiming 2013 contention. Let’s be smart and not do the same for any other driver just yet.

So before we start crowing champions, let’s at least give this thing five races before we start prematurely jumping to any conclusions. Deal?

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Track Position Could Be Key At Daytona

February 20th, 2013 T.C. 4 comments

While you are taking a breather from the non-stop Danica coverage, consider this: this year’s Sprint Unlimited had 17 less lead changes than last year’s Bud Shootout. Granted the 2012 Shootout was seven laps longer, but it also wasn’t broken up into segments which kept the field together. Combine the number of lead changes with the fact that after gaining the lead during the first round of pit stops, Harvick was never far from the front, and we could possibly be seeing the re-emergence of the need for track position at Daytona.

Here is another stat from the Unlimited to consider: Harvick led 40 of the 75 total laps, while no driver led more than 17 laps in the ’12 Shootout (and no more than 10 consecutively).

In the last several years, the need for track position at the restrictor plate tracks had all but disappeared. A driver could go from the back to the front so quickly that teams didn’t worry about where they started or how much time they lost during yellow flag pit stops. We even saw some drivers pit second time by so as to avoid a congested pit road. But the Unlimited may have shown us that the Gen 6 car is changing the game.

Especially late in the race on Sunday, don’t be surprised to see teams try some strategy moves to get their drivers near the lead. I believe it is highly likely that with a few laps to go only those very near the top five will have a legit shot at the Harley Earl trophy.

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A Car of Tomorrow Renaissance

January 21st, 2013 T.C. 15 comments

I read a post the other day over at Autoextremist (a fantastic automotive blog) about the optimism surrounding the introduction of the Gen 6 car even in the face of continuing struggles for NASCAR, and it got me thinking about the recent evolution of our race cars. In the post, Mr. De Lorenzo talks about NASCAR’s unwillingness to change, and brings up the argument about races being too long and there being too many cookie cutter tracks. I agree that we probably have too many similar tracks, but I think he is incorrect in what he calls NASCAR’s “head-in-sand approach.” The Gen 6 car’s adoption is a perfect example of NASCAR’s ability to change, and their quest for a stronger sport.

As we’ve discussed ad nauseum over the years here at TNI, the reasons behind NASCAR’s fall are many. The sharp decline in the economy has played probably the largest role, but I also think the introduction of the COT did serious damage. Even though Cup cars haven’t been anything close to approaching a stock looking car for at least two decades, the COT erased what little was left of brand differentiation. But, in NASCAR’s defense, the COT made a lot of sense when it was brought about.

Put into use for the 2008 season, the two biggest reasons for the creation of the COT were improved driver safety (brought about mostly by Dale Earnhardt’s death), and a leveling of the competitive playing field. On both counts, the COT was successful. The COT put the drivers in a much safer position inside the cars (see video here for proof), and the competitiveness of the races was dramatically improved.

But where NASCAR had hoped to satisfy the fans’ want for better racing, the use of a common template to do so destroyed any brand recognition outside of emblems and headlight decals. NASCAR seriously underestimated the importance to both the fans and the manufacturers of how the cars actually looked.

I think at this point in our exploration of the car evolution it’s key to remember that NASCAR is a reactionary body, as are most similar entities. Problems are addressed as they arise. The COT was in no way a proactive move, which brings us to this season’s introduction of the Gen 6 cars.

Now that NASCAR has figured out ways to keep drivers safer (car improvements, HANS devices, SAFER barriers, etc.), and improve the quality of the racing, both of which are fundamental to NASCAR’s future health, they see and are addressing the next set of issues: aesthetics.

In the new world of corporate involvement in sports, everything has become about three letters: R.O.I. It’s not good enough anymore for companies to just have their logos displayed everywhere. They want real results, and they want to be able to measure those results. Executives must have empirical data to show stakeholders that spending big money on sports actually helps business. For the manufacturers in NASCAR, this means a return to “win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” Having race cars look much closer to their stock counterparts  will aid in this effort.

NASCAR is also hoping that having much more attractive race cars will bring back some of those fans that have walked away from the sport over the last few years. Now they can say the drivers are safer, the racing is as good as it’s ever been, and look how great the cars look!

Whether or not the Gen 6 cars will have a real positive effect on the sport remains to be seen. But I think it’s unfair to say that NASCAR isn’t trying to make improvements. Are they probably too reactive? Yes. At the end of the day though, NASCAR wants whatever will make the fans happy and keep them engaged. Because lots of engaged fans means more money for all involved.

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The Nationwide Series Is Going To Be Awesome In 2013

January 3rd, 2013 T.C. 8 comments

Thanks to a strong mix of young drivers and veterans trying to fight their way back to the top, with help from the NASCAR rule limiting drivers to one series for points, we are about to see the re-emergence of the Nationwide Series in 2013.

I mean, have you seen the driver lineup? Instead of the championship battle really coming down to two or three drivers like we’ve had the past few seasons, there are maybe as many as eight or nine guys that could have a legitimate shot at the title.

The battle for the 2012 title came down to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Sadler, and Austin Dillon. Stenhouse is moving on to Cup, but his entire championship winning team is returning to back Trevor Bayne’s run. No major changes are in store for Dillon, but you’ve got to think a year’s worth of experience only makes him stronger. And Sadler, while not with RCR anymore, has moved on to Joe Gibbs Racing, which has had one of the strongest (if not the strongest) NNS programs over the last several years.

Other key returnees include Sam Hornish Jr. (who will have veteran Greg Erwin calling the shots), an emerging Michael Annett, and Justin Allgaier who will have a revamped team (Jimmy Elledge won’t be back in 2013).

The two newcomers who will provide the stiffest competition for the established drivers are Regan Smith with JR Motorsports, and Brian Vickers in a team car to Elliott Sadler at JGR. Smith will have a first time crew chief in Greg Ives, but he did win the NNS finale at Homestead for an improved JRM. And Vickers, who already has one championship in this series, will be tough to beat with JGR behind him.

Another driver to keep an eye on next season is Parker Kligerman. He picked up his first Truck Series win last season, and he’ll be driving for a KBM team that was strong at every race last season. Also, don’t be surprised if Kyle Larson emerges in the coming weeks as a part- or full-time NNS competitor.

Who’s excited?!

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Why Danica’s Success, Or Lack Thereof, Might Not Matter

December 18th, 2012 T.C. 16 comments

There have been several times over the last two months that I’ve started writing a post about Danica Patrick and her prospects for the future. Once, I even wrote a full post before deleting it after a conversation with Journo on it’s content. I, like many, believe she is no where near ready to jump into a full Cup schedule. And I find it extremely difficult to believe she will ever have what I would consider a successful career. But the more I’ve thought about her situation, the more I wonder if maybe it doesn’t matter.

Toward the end of the season, in both the Nationwide and Cup cars, I thought Danica showed some measure of improvement. She stopped wrecking Dale Jr’s NNS cars, and her Cup results showed us there is some hope that she could be more than just a back marker next season. Whether it was because of the crew chief changes, or actual personal progress, at least she showed us something. Even so, I don’t believe Danica will ever be a real contender for wins and championships.

I believe there is this feeling out there that at some point Danica will break out and that all the hype surrounding her all of these years will somehow be justified. The mainstream media is just waiting for the moment when they can celebrate her achievements. This is a fool’s errand.

This constant anticipation of success is very similar to what we saw in her IndyCar days. Each new season that approached was trumpeted as “Danica’s year.” But she was never able to live up to the expectations. Even while her teammates were winning races, she never managed more than average results. Her foray into NASCAR won’t be any different.

Why it doesn’t matter though, is because at the end of the day, Danica is good for NASCAR. As long as she can put together respectable runs, I don’t believe her marketability and attractiveness to sponsors will dwindle. The media will continue trumpeting her because she is an oddity, and when she does have better than mediocre performances, NASCAR will gain even more exposure.

In a perfect world, I would much rather that when the green flag flew on Sundays, we were witnessing the top 43 drivers the sport could find. The world isn’t perfect though, and in this universe I would much rather have the most funded cars possible. It means a healthier sport and more families supported by racing jobs. And if it means watching Danica never run better than 15th each week, I’m okay with that.

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Some Advice For Christmas

October 17th, 2012 T.C. 6 comments

There was an article in the Charlotte Observer last week about a woman named Christmas Abbott who is attempting to become a tire changer. She’s being supported in her effort by Turner Motorsports and is being coached by veteran jackman and coach Shaun Peet and the guys at Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR and Turner have a pit crew relationship). As someone who’s been down the road Christmas is about to start down, I wanted to offer up some unsolicited advice.

Just to give you some idea of where Christmas is starting, she’s already got the physical fitness part down. She co-owns a Crossfit gym, and is in insane shape (search YouTube for Crossfit and you’ll see it’s not a joke). So it would seem we don’t need to worry about her strength or work ethic.

My biggest concern for her future is her completely unrealistic expectations. In Scott Fowler’s article, Christmas says she hopes to be at the Cup level by 2014. I appreciate that she wants to set the bar high, but it would take a miracle for her to go from not having pitted a car in a race at any level, to the highest level of the sport in less than two years.

If she really wants to make it, she needs to acknowledge that getting to Cup is going to take time. Much of what she needs to learn to be successful can only be learned under fire, at the track. And each time she steps up to a new series, there will be new challenges to overcome. A more realistic timeline would see her trying to make the Cup Series by 2015 or 2016.

Something else that her and the people at Turner who are aiding her need to understand is that pit crew guys aren’t like drivers. If you are a driver lacking talent, a large enough bankroll will get you opportunities you don’t deserve. The same isn’t true for crew guys. You might convince somebody to give you a shot at a level you aren’t ready for, but if you don’t perform, you won’t last long. You can rush a driver to Cup like we have seen so many times before, but you can’t do it with pit crews. Pitting race cars is still a performance based business, and if you can’t get it done, they’ll find somebody who can, man or woman.

There are other things in Scott Fowler’s article that concern me, like seeing the phrases “reality show” and “marketing gold mine.” Is Christmas attempting this because of these opportunities, or are these opportunities arising because of what she is attempting? Hopefully it’s the latter. The odds are already stacked against her, and not doing this for the right reasons will only make her chances for success smaller.

If a woman is going to make it as a tire changer at the highest levels of NASCAR, it would seem that Christmas has as good a chance as any. Hopefully Peet and the guys at Waltrip can keep her focus away from the PR junk and on what its going to take to be successful.

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