This section features "General Stories/Articles".
It is basically a forum for people to sound off on whatever
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it will hopefully be worth reading
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Let the whining begin!.
By- Rob Faiella
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Ah yes, Speedweeks are coming!. Our beloved stars return to the track, racing engines fire, adrenaline flows and cry babies come out from behind their Team Hauler and whine like a stuck pig to the Nascar officials. Welcome to Nascar 2002. Ever since the beginning of Nascar, Auto Manufacturers have battled for the spotlight. "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" became the motto. The problem is with all the "minor" changes to improve their chances at winning, the cars have become mere interpretations of what you can "Buy on Monday".
Of course, in the interest of speed and what we have come to know and love, you wouldn't want to see Dale JR in a factory Monte Carlo and Jarrett in a nice 4-door Taurus. That basically would make for some terrible racing. Also, back in the day, the car makers were selling these "nascar" style cars like hot cakes. Now, people, and the government, want cars that conserve gas and put out little emissions. So what is Nascar to do? Race these environmentally compliant cars or stretch the rules to allow interpretations of these machines?
But, alas, with these interpretations comes frustration. Dodge gets to stick their nose out further, Chevy owns the restrictor plate races, Pontiacs only won a few races... and so on..
The Ford guys complain that Dodge had it too easy. They say, Dodge came in with a basic Ford style car and made a few changes to the Nose and Rear. News flash: Have you ever seen a street version Taurus and Intrepid sitting next to each other? The difference is the nose and rear. Care to guess which manufacturer had their current body out first for sale to the public? Dodge.
The Pontiacs are at a disadvantage. Yes they are. Not because of the car, but because of several factors. 1) There are only a handful left. You have Gibbs' 2 cars, MB2's 2 cars and A.J. Foyt's car. Schrader hasn't won since 1990, Benson never won and Foyt couldn't keep a driver in his car long enough over the past 2 seasons to learn anything. That left the weight of Pontiac's performance on Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte. Tony won 3 times and Bobby twice. That's 5 wins for that team. Jarrett and Rudd in their Fords combined for 6. All 3 DEI teams combined for 5 and Childress had 3 and Roush had 2, both from Burton. Sounds pretty even to me.
My point, if I had one, would be that Nascar does everything they can to even the playing field. I don't agree with them changing the rules several times through out the year, but I guess it does keep things even. My favorite thing during Speedweeks is to hear these guys complain about the major disadvantage they have and to watch them "sandbag" in testing. Everyone is afraid to "show their hand" for fear of Nascar changing the rules or the other teams realizing they have to step it up. Do not let the numbers and results from testing and practice fool you. These are merely political cat and mouse games and you will not know how fast these guys can run until the race begins. Trust me.
I am still surprised that Kleenex hasn't stepped up to the Winston Cup division as a major sponsor. They are in the Busch series, but the Cup guys need them. And as I always say, if the Dodges are beating you, run a Dodge. If you feel that the Pontiacs have a disadvantage, ask Pontiac to design you a better car. If Chevy has grabbed another manufacturers title, and dominates the plate races, run one. A.J. tried that and they finished terribly. Maybe it isn't the car. I think Nascar should sign a multi-year TV deal with C-span to cover the events in the "Red Trailer". These guys are politicians at their best!!!
See ya at Daytona in a few weeks!!
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