In the last few years NASCAR has been making some drastic changes all in the name of closer competition. The chase was meant to give us excitement. The car of tomorrow was supposed to bring the wide gap between teams closer and the racing was supposed to be better. Those are the two biggest things we've seen and there have been dozens of smaller things too that are all meant to add to competition. Have they all worked, that's hard to say, but I have to give them credit for trying. On one side I like the chase and enjoy the excitement of a championship battle that comes down to the last week. On the other side Jeff Gordon would be a 6 time champion of we still ran under the old Winston Cup points system.
Here I am rambling on about this and you're probably questioning my title and what it has to do with competition. I'm about to get to that. NASCAR seems to want to have better competition on all fronts......except for their tire maker. Why are we bringing tires to the track that won't even hold together? You may think that they are trying to give them a tire that is a compromise on durability and drivability, which may be their excuse. But if every car has the same tire on it, why don't they just make sure they aren't going to fry off the car after 20 laps? Is it going to take the death of a driver before they finally decide to do the right thing? These are some of the most talented drivers in the world. If you put them in a 3 cylinder Yugo the racing would still be good. Why does it matter that they may qualify 10 mph slower? Am I the only one who thinks that giving them a hard tire that won't blow up is the best answer to the tire situation?
What they need to do is go to the track that is hardest on tires, do some testing and come up with a compound that can withstand a fuel run at the very minimum with no questionable wear. Once they've accomplished that then they use that tire and that tire only at every track. In this hard economical time wouldn't it be price effective to have one tire that needs to be made instead of half a dozen that are used at different tracks. I'm sure the drivers would much rather have a dependable tire than a faster race. I don't see how they couldn't. As long as everyone has the same equipment it's fair.
So the question is why are Goodyear and NASCAR not smart smart enough to see this? Well you're guess is as good as mine. It can't be money, it can't be safety, and I don't see how it's an issue of competition. The only thing it can be is the old homage "well that's how it's always been done".
The bottom line is that we're seeing the new NASCAR running on old tires and no one has a good reason why.
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Some valid points there, El Capitan. I like the chase and the new cars. They've done a lot to enhance the racing (more so the cars than the chase). As for the tires, I say leave them alone. It adds another variable to the mix, much like a big wreck, blown engine, pit road mistakes etc. Part of why it is so bad is because the teams are throwing the old cars set up on the COT and the loadings simply don't match up. The COT is a totally different animal. If they went to a hard tire everywhere I think the racing would suffer. So there is my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteVariables are good, but I prefer the ones that are left up to the drivers and teams. Tires are going to blow if you have too much camber in your set up, but when you have 2/3 of the teams blowing tires after 15 laps; that's when someone needs to be held accountable.
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