The Great NASCAR Qualifying Debacle and How It Just Won't Matter

Unfortunately this past weekend, most of the racing action at Auto Club Speedway had nothing to do with Martin Truex Jr.'s win on Sunday. While we saw tires wear out and four-wide scrambling on each restart, the leader was the leader was the leader.  In other words, business as usual. So, what caught our attention this week?

Qualifying drama.

On Friday the new Disco Ball in the inspection tent finally decided to drive the storyline of the sport. I have to admit I figured at some point this latest addition to the tech toys in the NASCAR garage would come into play.

Thirteen teams failed to pass inspection prior to qualifying. They ended up staying in the garage while everyone else raced for the pole position--which wasn't really a race as the No. 78 spanked the field and prepped for more excitement on Sunday.

So, what was the problem? After all, those that failed weren't a collection of teams from the bottom of the roster. The best of the best failed to get their inspection sticker with teams from Stewart/Haas, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Hendrick Motorsports starting at the back of the field on Sunday.

Well, it looks like there may have been two tricks at play here: either the team wanted to nab another smidgeon of aero advantage by playing with their rear windows (that is not a new storyline this season) or they wanted to save some money and tread on their tires. In other words, winning the pole was not at the top of their to-do list on Friday.

The very best crew chiefs, including Chad Knaus, were figuring that if they weren't going to get the pole, they might as well start at the rear of the field on brand new tires.

This wasn't about failing to understand the new body on their 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series cars. This was good old fashioned shenanigans.

As usual, NASCAR wasn't having it. On Saturday, the sanctioning body announced that all teams would be able to start the race on new tires, negating any advantage those that failed inspection might have garnered by sitting out qualifying.

But the problem goes deeper than teams trying to trick the system.  Qualifying is broadcast. There are fans in the stands. We expect to see the full roster on track on Qualifying Day. And 13 teams decided not to honor that part of the contract between their professional sports team and the paying public.

Hrm. NASCAR is taking the next step in trying to get the teams on board by eliminating pre-qualifying inspection at Martinsville next week and combining it with a pre-race inspection. Do or die, the entire field will at least make one appearance on Qualifying Day. We can still expect that a failure to pass inspection will result in starting the race at the back of the field, loss of practice time, etc. etc., but it will not affect the tires, fuel usage, or even miles put on the engine for qualifying.

Now, would NASCAR go so far as to prevent a car from participating in the Sunday showdown should they violate the restrictions of the dancing lights? That is a question indeed. And doubtful.  Nobody wants that to happen, except perhaps some of the media outlets as it would surely give us all something new to talk about for a week--something other than a single team dominating the season so far.

The interesting part about this whole inspection debacle is that the drama which is surely happening in board rooms and at the garage will not be aired on NASCAR RaceHub. By and large, the fans will only see the cars report for qualifying, take a couple laps, and start at the front or rear of the field on Sunday.

It's a whole lot of excitement, but without any real voice in our current media stream. It's a tug of war behind closed doors with the ingenuity of NASCAR's mechanical geniuses fighting against the corporate moguls who really need the ratings to pick up for the big race. Who is going to win?

We may never actually know. Worst of all, this latest chess game will have no discernible impact on the show for which we pay the really big bucks.

If we needed one more example how NASCAR continues to roll down the manufactured sporting arena of the WWE--this is it.

Jeff Gordon and the NASCAR Hall of Fame: Too Soon?

 Jeff Gordon: 2019 Nominee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Photo: Fox Sports)

Once the driver of the DuPont Chevy No. 24 scored his 77th win in the Winston Cup Series, it was a foregone conclusion that someday Jeff Gordon would be in every museum celebrating the history of NASCAR.  Well, just two years after he completed his last full-time season he has been nominated for the 2019 Class of the NASCARHall of Fame.

I don't know about anybody else out there, but it barely feels like he left the cockpit. I still see the iconic No. 24 on the track and have that instant moment of recognition before reality shatters my dreams.  Couldn't they wait a little bit longer before mothballing his career? Why is the date of eligibility just two years from retirement?

Other Major League Sports Wait Five Years

If this was football or baseball, we would still be waiting for Gordon's name to appear on the ballet. Time does allow the fans, media, and others involved in voting on the new HoF class time to digest the true importance of that person's contribution to the sport. Was it really as fabulous as we thought at the time?

Now, in Gordon's case there is absolutely no doubt that his name should be enshrined next to any of the other legends in the Hall of Fame. His 93 wins in a single car over 25 years is one of the best stat sheets that exist in all of NASCAR's history.  His career will remain a benchmark for all others to stand up against for quite some time in the future. This does make his inclusion in the 2019 nominee list less remarkable.

Jeff Gordon's 93rd Win at Martinsville 

Still...just two years.

NASCAR's Numbers Back Up the Short Time Limit

 On any given Sunday, the Cup series fields up to 40 different teams.  That's 40 drivers.  We usually bring on between two and five rookies each year. NASCAR has been racing since 1948.  So, if we average 40 names over 70 years, that is just 2,800 drivers that would be potentially eligible for the HoF over the entire lifetime of the sport.

Major League Baseball has 30 teams.  Each team has a 40-man roster. The MLB has been batting the ball since 1869. Using just those numbers, baseball can field 1,200 potential names a year for Cooperstown and multiply that list by over 100 years and the depth is mind boggling. How they only have 323 members in the Baseball Hall of Fame illustrates that they show considerable restraint in bringing a new player on board.  The NFL boasts a similar number of players with a comparable roster in their HoF.

As you can see, NASCAR has a much smaller pool of talent to pull from when building their Hall roster.

For that reason, only waiting two years before pulling out the chair for a favorite driver is a reasonable time limit. However, it doesn't change the fact that this NASCAR fan still thinks of Gordon as a current participant in our sport--not somebody to be buried with the fading racing programs and cracking rubber of long retired memorabilia.

I'm just not ready to regard the Rainbow Warriors as nothing more than history. After all, time makes the heart grow fonder, doesn't it? I'm just asking for a chance to come to terms with his change in employment status, that's all.

Harvick is Happy Again

So, with his third win in three weeks, I'd say Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 team is well on their way to Homestead. Anybody want to start taking odds on how this season is going to unfold? I'm predicting more of the same in the very near future. 

 

9 Things We Thought About During the Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas

Kevin Harvick Celebrates his Victory of the Pennzoil 400 (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

Well, the season of mile and a half racing has commenced. With its cheese grater surface, Atlanta ran more like a Darlington than the cookie-cutters we can look forward to after the rest of the West Coast swing is over. But that didn't stop Las Vegas from producing a predictable and somewhat sedate afternoon of racing.  Which left time to ponder a variety of topics along the way.

1.       Looks like Harvick has it going this year: After the emotional score in Atlanta, this week's class in driving focused on a dominant run by a team that seems to be untouched by the fleet of new rules this season.

2.       Are the lug nut guns really a huge issue? While we have seen several lug nut gun failures during pit stops this year, is it really an issue with the NASCAR provided equipment? Honestly, there have always been failures during every race.  We're just hyper focused on the problem because it's a chance to throw some mud at our favorite sanctioning body.

3.       Hey! Blaney's great run in the No. 21 last year was no fluke: Did you notice that the new No. 12 team has been running right up front with the No. 2 and No. 22? I guess that young kid just might have the chops for a championship team.

4.       Where are the Hendrick boys?  I still don't think Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 are in any kind of trouble, but it is unusual for the entire Hendrick stable to be running so far down in the listings.  We've heard of rebuilding years in other major league sports--I suspect Hendrick is using 2018 for that purpose with their fleet of rookie drivers to bring up to speed.

5.       I really do like the new FOX Sports scoring pylon: I realize that there are still some glitchy problems with the new graphic that sticks to the right hand side of your TV screen, but I love it. The old scroll just went too slow and they changed up the stats so often you couldn't follow a driver other than the Top 3.

6.       Chris Myers continues to irk me: I know that man has been providing emcee services for the Hollywood Hotel since FOX began their NASCAR coverage in 2001, but I still can't stand his stand-up comic approach to Sunday afternoons. Please make him go away.

7.       Was that a better race than New Hampshire? This year New Hampshire Motor Speedway will only be hosting one race, losing its second date to Las Vegas. It's been a blend of low ticket sales and "boring" racing that led to the corporate shuffling of race dates. But does Las Vegas provide a better afternoon of racing? Not that I can see. I guess the slot machines provide an extra reason to spend a week with your racing heroes. I guess...

8.       The odds are...I can't stand kitchy pre-race coverage:  If the only thing you can come up with to fill the hours and hours of race weekend chatter is what kind of odds the betting parlors are putting up for Sunday's race, it's time to turn in your TV production credentials.  It's time to step up your game, FOX.

9.       Heading to the land of the rising sun--one last race at the old Phoenix:  The racing surface is not going to be impacted by the major renovation, but with the Start/Finish line moving to the entrance of the dog leg, restarts are going to something crazy to see. But that's in the Fall. For now, enjoy watching one last race at this vintage venue.