It's the fourth quarter. It's quickly approaching the two-minute warning. Pittsburgh, chasing their seventh Super Bowl title, leads 42-17 over the resurgent Redskins who are looking to pick up the Lombardi trophy for the first time since Joe Gibbs was coach. The ball is Washington's, and they've just moved into field goal range with four fresh downs and two timeouts left. Just as the clock ticks to 2:00, the referee cues his mic on the field: "scorekeeper, please adjust the score for Washington to 39 points."
How many football fans would erupt over the notion? How many would chose not to watch if the NFL blatantly evened the score to give the audience a better show?
The answer is that the NFL audience would be incensed and a very large and significant portion of them would easily find something else to do with their Sunday afternoons.
Manipulating competition is what the WWE does. Sure, professional wrestlers use many athletic moves and must be in tip-top shape (and often use performance enhancing drugs to get into that shape), but their events are orchestrated and scripted. Therefore, true sports fans who watch to see who wins and who loses in a true competitive format don't generally watch professional wrestling.
NASCAR might not script races the way WWE does wrestling matches, but they are closer than ever before. In fact, they are manipulating the competition through the nefarious "debris caution".
There are many problems in NASCAR right now, many that will take a generation of new drivers to fix, but the debris caution is something that can be fixed immediately. But it will take a fresh new attitude by the officials in the tower to make it happen.
The thought is they are giving the fans a better show by bunching up the cars. The reality is they are impacting the competition and driving fans away. Do they want the same audience that the WWE has? Or do they want the once fiercely loyal audience that made the sport a powerhouse back in the 1990s?
When the tower calls for a caution, there needs to be an actual reason for it. Jimmie Johnson leading by seven seconds is not a good reason for the caution flag. Sports fans know that sometimes you get a great game from start to finish, sometimes a boring game gets good at the end, and sometimes it's a blowout from the opening kickoff. The same thing should happen in NASCAR - except for the fact that the powers that be insist on trying to manipulate the competition to ensure every race is a classic.
Johnson did hold on to win after a couple of late twists in the Pepsi 500 - not to mention a huge wreck that never would have happened if not for a phantom caution. One has to wonder what officials like David Hoots and John Darby think about the Indy Car race at Homestead, which went green-to-checkered caution free. Dario Franchitti averaged over 200 miles per hour to win, and he did it through pit strategy by savig fuel to make one less stop than Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon. Imagine that! A race where drivers had to adjust they way they drove based upon actual strategy!
Quit with the phantom yellows. Ensure every call an official makes - whether it's a loose lug nut, too many men over the wall, or debris on track - is backed up by actual verifiable proof. Otherwise, all NASCAR is doing is evening the score. We wouldn't accept it from the NFL, NBA, or MLB, so why should we accept it from NASCAR?
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NASCAR has become the WWE and Soap Operas ugly mutated offspring....The Top 35(what sport doesnt let the fastest run.?)The Chase, the lucky dog, phantom cautions, vanilla cars and drivers....shall i continue.?
ReplyDeletethey had to call that caution...jj is making a mockery of the level playing field...lose six spots on pit road and then make them up and a 7 second lead? all on a track where passing was minimal and usually took a whole lap..why else were the others running four wide?
ReplyDeleteIf there is something on the track that could cut a tire (the rubber is lees than 1/8 of an inch on these tires) They have to throw the caution. Do they have "phatom cautions0 ? I dont thinks so but i dont know and nither do you!!!
ReplyDeleteto the previous poster. at the daytona 500 in 2007 there were cars wrecking everywhere. clint bowyer was on his roof and there were guys still going almost 200 mph racing to the checkers. you throw a caution that is out of the groove for a piece of rubber but you don't throw one when you have a car upside down? how about allmendinger a few weeks ago at loudon? the guy is stalled sideways off of turn 4 and nascar refuses to wave the caution until the very last second in the name of an exciting finish. again... they throw the yellow with 15 to go for a small piece of rubber out of the groove.
ReplyDeleteit's sickening to be honest. and what makes it worse is they try to insult our intelligence by pretending they are throwing these bogus cautions in the name of safety. maybe they should just come out with another rule for entertainment purposes to go along with all the other made for tv rules they have come up with. at every race throw the yellow with 20 to go. this way they don't insult us with these fake yellows and we all know it's coming.
Kasey Kahne's interview is on Nascar.com and he said the debris caution was bogus and they are bogus. Curious to see if he even gets fined. He probably will, but its a joke how obvious its become. I remember watching Michale Waltrip on the Speed review show saying he likes the breaks they provide and how it never bothers him because he isn't ever in the lead. The other panelist just chuckled. There is a guy in my race pool that named his team "Rimsky Korsakov" as a joke. The Russian composer wrote a book called "Principles of Orchestration." I'm sure Mike Helton read it.
ReplyDeleteNASCAR has always helped whom ever they wanted but this has gotten to be absurd. We quit attending in 2004 and haven't missed it a bit. Not to mention how much money we have saved.Oops I just spotted a piece of rubber on my keyboard, Time for a rest period,I mean caution.
ReplyDeleteThese are affecting the outcome of the races for a lot of drivers. If there is not something in the racing grove, then let it be and let them race. Right now it's Welcome to WWF-NASCAR!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI wrote a letter to both U.S. senators from my state last year, after the manipulated ending to the Talladega race (Regan Smith vs. Tony Stewart...race sponsored by Subway...Tony sponsored by Subway that day...Regan cheated out of a win). I complained about the ruling---inconsistent, given NASCAR's previously stated last lap policies in similar deals---and that I thought that NASCAR had manipulated the ending of a sporting event in WWE style. (It is interesting to me that, a year later, people are still making the WWE comparison.)
ReplyDeleteOne of the two senators didn't respond. The other responded by blowing me off, saying he knows Mike Helton per$onally and is certain Helton would never allow an unfair manipulation of the outcome to take place. (I'm not buying that explanation, but I at least respect the fact the senator or his office took the time to respond.)
The Tallageda race was the last one I watched in 2008. I started watching again some this year after Mark Martin (Harry Gant 2.0?) started doing well. I was interested by that surprise turn in his career. But I've been consistently bugged since I started watching again by NASCAR's inconsistencies, phantom calls, favoritism, etc.
They just need an independent officiating crew at this point because they have totally lost credibility with so many fans.
A fan above said "NASCAR has always helped whom ever they wanted but this has gotten to be absurd." I couldn't agree more. This manipulates the process of a SPORTING EVENT, not an ENTERTAINMENT. If those tracks are getting money from the government, and some do in the form of tax breaks and other dealings, then they ought to be investigated for corruption.
Charles, if you even have to ask the question, doesn't that tell you something about the credibility of the sport?
ReplyDeleteBrian France has ruined this sport, its too (PC)
ReplyDeleteNASCAR now and has for a long time set the result. I will not watch this crap anymore, Ican tell you straight up everyseat at Rockingham would have been full for both Races this past Weekend and ABC wouldn't have to set up special angles of the stands to hide the empty seats. Good Luck JJ on your 4th. FN Cheater
hey want a good show for the fans? Stop letting Hendrick bring illegal cars to the track might help.
ReplyDeleteIt's awfully funny how their cars are "not illegal...but don't bring them back to the track"
Johnson is really stinking up the chase, that's for sure.
ReplyDeletePhantom cautions are NOT ruining the integrity of the sport. NA$CAR management is! The phantom cautions are just a very visible symptome. My favorite oxymoron is NA$CAR credibility.
ReplyDeleteIf NA$CAR were a public company they would be ripe for a hostile takeover. I don't see things getting better until management changes.
Since when did NASCAR have any integrity? From its artificial points system to its first Hall of Fame class populated by felons and cheaters, NASCAR has NEVER had any integrity. Get over it. It pro wrestling on a racetrack, always was, always will be,
ReplyDeletePlease, all of you phoney Hendrick/Johnson haters. If your sorry driver was winning, he wouldn't be cheating! He would be a hero in your blind eyes. Get over it. If you don't like the outcome of these races, or the way they're run, go watch something else. Or, better yet, start your own racing league. Most of you sound so brilliant, that I'm sure you would run Nascar out of business in one or two races.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't think it's manipulated, just look and see how all the races seem to end 5 to 10 minutes before the TV coverage is scheduled to end.
ReplyDeleteOh, c'mon mistclay.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what happens to a non-hendricks team that plays in the grey area of the rule book? Hears a hint. When was the last time a car that completed a race was listed as a DNQ?
If NA$CAR hasn't buried that statistic, it was a Busch Series racing team (Dodge IIRC) that asked NA$CAR if their carb modification was within the rules. They were told that there was no rule against it. After the race the carb was ruled as a violation of the rules. The Owner and Driver were docked points, the car was removed from the finishing order and field (even though they ran the whole race), and they were not paid the prize money for their finishing position.
What happens when a hendrick team makes a shock modification, or their left fender falls off of a bolt (on two cars that finished first and second), their offset is "just inside the limit" (on two cars that finished first and second)? I could go on... They get told to not do that again.
Sure. Everyone that isn't a hendricks fan is just jealous. We don't really care about the integrity of the sport that we love.
*Your right Anonymous. JJ and CK are very selfish. They should get all the other crew chiefs together and let them in on their cheating secrets. That way, they all could be better cheaters. It's just not fair for those two to be so selfish. They should back off and share the spotlight. Then everyone would be happy. That's what it should be all about, everyone being happy. One big happy family. Share the wealth so to speak. Also, I will let you in on a big secret that hasn't hit the media as of yet. JJ, isn't human. He is an alien. Now, I will admit, I don't know if he's legal or not. But, none the less, he is an alien. And that my friend is just un-american. It's just not right. Rick Hendrick, if he knows this fact, should be banned from the USA, and deported to the country of his choice. That would put an end to all this drama once and for all.
ReplyDeletemistclay you are a dumb a**
ReplyDelete