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Question
Nascar NASCAR and other professional stock car racing (rec.autos.sport.nascar)
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#11
 
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Re: Question -
12-21-2005
, 06:01 PM
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If I were a driver I would be concentrating so hard on my pit road speed that I would probably drive right past me pit box! :-) |
Martin & Jeff Gordon occasionally miss their pit (not necessarily
because they're concentrating on speed, but it's part of the
distraction from seeing the pit board).
John
#12
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Paul <ME (AT) MYISP (DOT) COM> wrote in news:ha9jq1ls144ouqdh60tl9uec0l5f186fdn (AT) 4ax (DOT) com: If I were a driver I would be concentrating so hard on my pit road speed that I would probably drive right past me pit box! :-) This happens half a dozen or so times a year. Even guys like Mark Martin & Jeff Gordon occasionally miss their pit (not necessarily because they're concentrating on speed, but it's part of the distraction from seeing the pit board). John |
Yes, now that you mention it I did see someone drive past the pit box this past
year. I just can not remember who. I thought it was strange and funny at the
time and that is why I remember the incident at all.
Must be embarrasing for the driver. :-)
And speaking of pit boxes, don't you all think some of those boxes are awfully
small? Seems like those crew members are in an awful lot of danger. Hope they
get paid well. In fact didn't someone get hit this past season and get his leg
broken?
#13
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Consider this. Yes, it cost the person you originally were discussing, say 2nd place money compared to 36th place money. However, the driver typically only gets 40-45% of their "winnings" and are paid a handsome salary on top of that. "That" driver, isn't hurting and likely won't miss the few thousand dollars difference. I imagine that he/she was more angry at the finishing position than the money. But is it too harsh? Sometimes it appears so, nowadays, but you just have to know that the sport is 55 years old now, and for the first 50 years, they weren't harsh enough IMO. They had to then get super strict to get the teams' attention. That sir, is subjective, and is why some people follow the sport. Just for the controversy. Actually, you get "used to it". Not that I've wheeled a Cup car in competition at all, but I did actually "sim race" for over 5 years. Several nights a week, nearly 52 weeks a year (not including practice). Hitting your RPM target (soas not to speed) becomes second nature after a while. I still dabble in sim racing (though the best sim on the market lost the NASCAR rights after 2003) and pitting is still fairly easy for me. It's just another aspect that you learn, and basically never forget. And, you don't see it very often, but teams (drivers included) will actually practice getting to their pit stall once they have picked it (after qualifying). It isn't shown on TV much, but some of the top drivers even still come into the pits several times during practice, to "find" their pit stall after coming off the track, so that race day is *not* the first time they do it that particular weekend. And of course during the race, their crew chief counts down the stalls over the radio until the driver can see his target, and they also put up "tape" numbers on the outside pit wall opposite their stall so drivers can also see "their car number" up ahead on the wall to the right, as they make their approach. And they also have those pitboards on poles, usually with the car number on it, that they wave up and down, right at the point where they want the nose of the car to be when the car stops. Here we agree. NASCAR should have some contingencies for special cases, but they don't. That call irritated me, and I'm not even technically a Musgrave fan. But without the law, we'd have lawlessness, and where would the sport be then? Don't be. NASCAR overall is no worse than umps and referees from the stick and ball sports. All sporting officials blow calls on occasion, and NASCAR is no different. You have to consider the circumstances. It was a restart, which means they were only going 55 mph most likely. Dangerous? Indeed, in a neighborhood maybe. On a race track though? Hell, there are drivers in Cup that have golf carts that can go 55mph. You have to consider relavent factors, which in racing, covers a lot IMO. Now for the flip side. If there had actually been a "whole year of fine driving" in place, finishing last would not have cost him the title. He'd have been up by enough points to have not to needed to worry about it....He was in a tedious position, and didn't capitalize on the situation, it's racing, it happens. Matter of fact, I'd say less than half the time they run a race is it that the "best car" actually wins the event. Life isn't fair, and apparently neither are the racing Gods at times. Because there are bigger issues out there: schedule realignment, a points "Chase" that wasn't needed for a single solitary thing except to help a struggling network attempt to compete with the NFL, Cars of Tomorrow (and their eventual effect on the racing and manufacturer support), network packages, tire contract ending after 2007, new tire and testing rules and their effect on small teams, team car limits, etc. Unfortunately, that's life. Very seldom outside of true criminal law and order, does the punishment fit the crime. (Like: a speeding ticket conviction costing you higher insurance premiums for 3 years!?...) That's aweful extreme. I mean being sent to the back is only extreme when there isn't enough time to get back to the front (let's face it, pitting "out of sequence" can send you to the back as well). If this truck you originally were discussing was really good enough to be hanging in the #2 or #3 position, given enough laps, he could've gotten back up there if all else was equal. His (or her) case this time was simply piss poor timing. And NASCAR calls infractions when and where they happen, regardless of the laps remaining...in other words, the rules don't change in the "last 2 minutes" or whatever like some stick and ball sports may do. That's why it is so competitive, every lap, from lap 1 to the white flag lap. That's what makes motorsports in general very exciting to follow, since it literally "ain't over, 'till it's over". |
#14
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And speaking of pit boxes, don't you all think some of those boxes are awfully small? |
causes:
- in days of yore, they started fewer than 43 cars at the short
tracks (usually 36). When they expanded the fields, the pit
boxes got shorter to make room.
- pitting "on the backstretch" is now considered an unfair
disadvantage, so the tracks that had backstretch pits have
redesigned their frontstretch pits to fit everyone into one
pit road.
- tracks that weren't intended to have big stock cars and
lots of pitstops are running stock car races, for no good
reason (i.e. Sonoma and Watkins Glen).
- the rule closing the pits until the field collects behind
the pace car on a yellow, has caused a larger number of cars
to be on pit road at one time.
Quote:
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Seems like those crew members are in an awful lot of danger. Hope they get paid well. |
a fairly recent thing.
John
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