Charlotte Morse's article, BELLY ACHING FINALLY PAYS OFF FOR THE FORD CAMP
here on ITPB on Wednesday has had some mixed response and one very angry, very un-informed response. First let's let Charlotte address the issue and then I would like to put on my "Editor's hat" and stand up for my staff, my site and the thought provoking article Charlotte wrote.
This is from Charlotte
I've got to admit, I thought that I would receive more positive feedback than negative. Boy, I was beyond wrong. I heard everything from, "You're crazy," to "the Chevy's can take their practice times and shove them up their Jimmy Spencer's." Ouch. "Quit crying!" one person told me, while another simply stated, "Get over it."
Let's keep in mind folks, we all believe that our opinions are the right ones. It's that whole "free thought" thing. I'm sure that the Ford fans are tired of listening to the Chevy crowd scream, "UNFAIR!!" just as Chevy fans are tired of listening to the Fords, "Gimmie gimmie" routine. Honestly, look how much they've already been given, and they're still complaining.
I'm sure all you Ford fan's are sick of the negative comments from EVERYONE, so in order to ease your minds, I shall share with the world what you had to say in response to my last article.
"When it was the Chevy's whining and crying last year, and when they got their extra kick-out on the front of their car's, was it more justified because it was the Chevy's and the precious Junior?" -Laura
"I'm sure Bodine would sandbag during the Shootout so that DJ would have a better shot at the 500. Typical GM thinking."-Carroll
"Let me guess, you're a Jeff Gordon fan."-Kendal
"Oh darn, Junior wasn't even out there. I have lost all respect for the Chevy camp for their bellyaching the past several years. Let us compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges, OK"-David
"If anyone is sandbagging, it's the Chevy drivers following NASCAR's rule change. Chevy came out Monday and bagged the practice. Do you honestly believe Jeff Gordon's car that qualified at over 185 mph is now only running 184 in the draft? Come on lets get real, NASCAR should give Dodge a ¼ break and the cars will be as even as they possibly can be."-Tony
"This 'sandbagging' theory is straight out of the x-files. I guess all Ford drivers held a secret meeting (maybe at Area 51) and decided to throw qualifying and the Shootout? Maybe they discussed the JFK assassination and the OJ conspiracy while they were there. I would like you to tell the likes of Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, and Mark Martin that they are 'cheating' to their faces…And this issue of practice times? Everyone knows practice times at restrictor plate tracks are useless. When the real competition began, Ford's were blown away and everyone saw it. NASCAR took steps based on what they saw in competition- don't pretend like this have never been done for another make of car."-Burt
"There has been too much screwing around with the rules on all sides, period. And honestly, Talladega and Daytona with their worthless restrictor plates isn't racing. Whenever you have someone else's help to pass, that isn't racing, because your car and driver are not standing on their own merit. NASCAR needs to lay down a set of rules. They must be identical in every way for all 4 manufacturers. They must not change them once the season starts. Then every manufacturer and every team must build the best car they can with those rules. That rewards hard work, instead of penalizing it. That would be classic NASCAR. That's racing."-Scott
"Lets look back a couple of years are when the Chevy's were crying, 'NASCAR needs to help us, they need to slow the Fords down, we can't keep up.' What does NASCAR do? They build them a new front dam…what NASCAR needs to do is stop all this crap and give every team a set of specs to use and put the manufacturer back to building the race cars. If your manufacturer can't design a body that can be competitive, then tough."-RaceFan
I guess I got told. I'm not backing down though, and I don't expect any Ford supporters to either. The "alleged" sandbagging that may or may not have taken place by the Chevy's would have probably been a retaliation to Ford's "alleged" sand bagging. In the end though, none of us are NASCAR officials and all we have to go off of are interviews and TV appearances. I bet nobody can disagree with me on that one.
This is an actual e-mail received from H. Richer
Your unprofessional,biased,untrue comments are completely devoid
of any
FACTS,and you should be made apologize to the 20 or so hard working
Ford
competitors that you have slandered!!
First, The Chevs were secretly
given a
QUARTER INCH rear spoiler reduction BEFORE they got to Daytona practice.
So
they got the whole early practice time with the SMALLEST(6 &one
Quarter
inches tall!!) all the rest had to practice with a handicap of 6
1/2 inch
rear spoilers=FACT!!
SECOND,NASCAR wind tunnel tests showed that
the Ford
competitors had the most DRAG on the rear spoilers,but nothing was
done.So
,the Ford drivers went out ,pedal down & proved what the wind tunnel
showed
the NASCAR RULES CZARS-they were ALL 2or3 mph slower than the NASCAR
favored
GM (Got Money$$) cars. So NASCAR threw them a 'bone'"=the same 1/4 in
reduction they had secretly already given the Chevs,&the GM backers
CRIED
LIKE BABIES because now the Fords were equal to them ,down several
weeks in
practice time. NASCAR made the FORD teams raise their rear trunk
lids 11/2
inch to meet the trunk template,so the end result was actually more
drag &
handicap!!
THIRD, don't be naive &STUPID to think that 20 or more
DRIVERS &
Professional racing teams with huge sponsor committments are going
to throw
away qualifying,practice,the BUD SHOOTOUT and the thousands of $$$$$,
and
prestige that goes with these events to get a rules adjustment-These
teams
are not tightly controlled like the GM giant controlls their ,rich
teams
-they would be more INDEPENDENT and try as hard as possible.
Fourth,
I think
if you do a little research,you will find the TRUTH about the last
7 "PLATE"
races. Since NASCAR gave the Chevs a 41/2 inch front valence advantage
over
their competitors (after Earnhardt &the GM teams whinned like beaten
babies
!!) after the 2000 Daytona 500 -the GM teams have WON 6 out of 7
races at
Daytona & Talladega. Even an IDIOT would know heading into this
years Daytona
500 that this rules -controlled 'SHOW" is NOT "PARITY"!!Not 6out
of 7!! Do
you realise the 41/2 inch front spoiler advantage of the Chevs?
The Pontiacs
already were granted the LONGEST front nose to cut the air better
than their
handicapped FORD & DODGE COMPETITORS!!
Finally ,the speeds where
you say the
Fords were fast were DRAFT Assisted speeds ,NOT sppeds alone like in
Qualifying -where the Drag Ladened Fords got 2 cars int top 20.
This not
PARITY.!! A true Journalist has an obligation to her readers to be
:UNBIASED,TRUTHFUL,UNPREJUDICED,and most of all SOMEWHAT KNOWLEDGEABLE=GET
your FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE you embarass yourself in the eyes of
INTELLIGENT
FANS. PS. YOUR POLL is also invalid,3 or4 people don't constitute any
concensus! Where did you get your JOURNALISM DEGREE?? H. Richer
I apologize for the spelling and grammatical errors in the above e-mail. I posted it exactly as it was written.
Here is my actual response to that e-mail
Hello H. Richer,
I have taken it upon myself to respond to your comments on Charlotte's article about the Ford Camp. As you may or may not know, this topic has been covered in depth by almost every media entity out there covering Speedweeks and the majority of them have had similar conclusions, thoughts and opinions on this subject. I hope you have asked ESPN, FOX, SpeedChannel and even Nascar.com for their apologies as well.
I would like to take the next few moments to break down your e-mail to Charlotte and explain to you, the "Facts" as you put it.
You point out that the Chevy's were secretly given a 1/4" inch reduction prior to showing up at Daytona, giving them an advantage and putting everyone else at a handicap and you so nicely ended that statement with "FACT".
First off, setting all 4 manufacturers to equal spoiler heights would not level the field. Having one make with a smaller spoiler does not handicap the rest, it helps to not handicap that make. The Chevy's were not "secretly" given anything. Take 2001 out of the equation, because they had those roof blades and wickerbilled rear spoilers. So, we go back to 2000. In 2000 the Fords dominated Daytona. In the 500 they took the top 5 spots, plus 11 of the top 20. At the July race, they again swept the top 5 and took 9 of the top 20. The Chevy's were given the 1/4" back then to help them out. After the dangerous racing in 2001 from the new aero rules, Nascar decided to go back to the 2000 rules to spread the packs out and that was the rules at the time. This was no "secret gift" as you put it, FACT!!
Your second point, which mentions GM as "Got money$$" goes against your theory of being "unbiased". But I wont go into that. What I will go into is your point about wind tunnel tests proving that the Fords had the most drag and the Fords having to go out and race and "prove" to the Nascar "Czars" that this was true.
Did anyone forget to tell Brett Bodine and Geoffrey Bodine that the Fords were slow? They were in the top of the practice sheets all thru testing and practice. Why? Because they can't fall back on a provisional to make the race and had to put all efforts towards going as fast as possible. Also, Nascar had not conducted any wind tunnel tests at this point so I am not sure what data you are referring to. And, to say that the Fords were now "down several weeks in practice time" shows that you are not as educated in the sport as you think. Let me help you. Daytona, especially with these aero rules, is all about handling. The emphasis in testing is on suspension and not aero. Changing the spoiler DOES NOT mean that the cars need to go out and redo their shocks, springs, and weight set ups. The handling and suspension package will be nearly the same, minus a few tweaks. The only difference the spoiler makes is allowing the cars to draft up on each other, which has nothing to do with the set up. And they all knew that the deck lid change would have to happen with a spoiler reduction. I knew that. This was not a surprise to anyone, but the uneducated in the sport.
Your next point talks about the possibility that these teams threw away practice, qualifying and the Shootout and that the "rich" GM teams and "giants".... hmmm.. are you sure that YOU aren't biased? Sorry. Back to the point. The point is that from the moment they announced they were going back to the 2000 rules, the Chevy's, Pontiacs, and Dodges went to work preparing cars and the Fords immediately started crying foul and asking for a rules change. They even brought a smaller spoiler and had Rusty run it to show Nascar that it would help them. And, how do you explain Monday's "burst of speed" from the Ford camp while still under the 6.25 inch spoiler? I will give you the benefit of the doubt that the 6.25 helped even them out, but they did not need the other .25".
Your fourth point mentions the fact that the Chevy's won 6 of the 7 races since the front nose change. Yes they did, however, 4 of those were under the Wickerbill spoiler/Roof blade aero rules, which have no bearing on this discussion. Those 4 races were also won by cars from the RAD program which spends the most money and dedicates the most time to just those 4 races. In case you arent familiar, RAD is a combined effort of Richard Childress racing, Andy Petree, and DEI. These 8 teams pool their resources and it obviously paid off. Hence, they did their homework and maximized their efforts without having to beg Nascar for help. So, Chevy won 2 out of 3 since the nose change and those winners were Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Those 2 guys winning a race each should come as no surprise no matter what make of car they were driving.
Your final point mentions the practice speeds and your point about them being "draft assisted" speeds and not qualifying speeds where they cars suffer from the drag. You aren't helping your cause with this statement. In case you didn't notice, the majority of the Daytona 500 and all restrictor plate races are run in "drafting" conditions. No one runs all by themselves on the track and even if they find themselves in that situation, they would never catch the pack no matter what the spoiler rule or engine rule. The Fords may have suffered slightly in qualifying, but the 1/2 reduction has given them way too much for race conditions.
In closing, let me say that I am a Dodge fan. Do I think the Chevy's have an advantage? The Chevy's have Childress racing, DEI, and Hendrick Motorsports. Yes they have an advantage. That advantage is the capabilities of those teams, the money, time and effort that they spend putting the best car possible on the track is amazing. Dodge is the only other manufacturer that comes close to supporting it's teams. Pontiac has all but given up since they really only have the Gibbs organization left. And the Ford camp got stuck with the Taurus because Ford wanted to discontinue the T-bird and the Taurus was the only car they had left to use. Chevy brought back the Monte Carlo specifically for their racing efforts. If you go back to the beginning days of Nascar, the factory backed teams dominated. The manufacturers made special models of their cars just for racing. The economy doesn't quite allow them to do such and therefore Ford has reduced its efforts to support its teams at the track. This is a FACT.
And yes, maybe Charlotte does owe an apology to the "20 or so hard working Ford competitors" that you mentioned. Allow me:
"To the 20 or so guys on Brett and Geoffrey Bodine's teams who did not get involved in the politics and who just prepared the best car they could and went out and ran fast, we at ITPB are sorry. Good luck and God bless and may you finish higher than the Roush and Yates teams and your other political "allies?" "
Ah yes, you also mentioned that a "true journalist" needs to be unbiased, truthful, unprejudiced, and somewhat knowledgeable. In case you didn't notice, we are not the nightly news. We are an independent website offering insight, entertainment and we like to write articles that get people thinking about the issues and cause them to form an opinion. LOOKS LIKE IT IS WORKING QUITE WELL!!!!!!
Thanks and keep reading!!
Rob Faiella
Publisher/Editor- InsideThePitBox.com
I would love to hear more comments and responses to this topic and I urge you to e-mail both myself and Charlotte by clicking the link below!
Thanks and keep reading!
Rob
RobFaiella@insidethepitbox.com & Charlotte@insidethepitbox.com
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