Why the sad face? It is because there is no racing this weekend that’s why. Oh I’m sure there will be some kind of racing this weekend, maybe something that resembles sports car racing but there is no stock car racing this weekend. What is that you said? Nascar is racing at Watkins Glen this weekend? I say Nay Nay! That is not a Nascar race, at least not in my book! It is no secrete that I loathe road course racing, to me it is just a wasted weekend. These cars were not designed and built to run on a road course and doing just that is a joke in my book. With only a hand full of races left before the cutoff to the chase this is a serious waste of money. I don’t care how many people show up there in New York state to watch a bunch of oval track drivers try to turn right. Where were they when the IRL was there or how about CART back in the day? I am tired of Nascar propping up road courses that if it weren’t for our sport would have closed a long time ago. People are just not all that interested in open wheel racing anymore unless it has to do with sprint cars and such.
I know that the track management at Watkins Glen will tell you that they had over 100,000 people there this weekend. It is my opinion that track promoters inflate their attendance figures so they can look better in the press so take 25 to 30 percent off that. It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t count competitors as well. Wow am I being hateful? Not really, just real. There will of course be your usual road course ringers there this weekend. You know, the likes of Boris Said, Ron Fellows, Dan Gurney and so on. What this ordeal is all about is sometimes when a team has a young driver that doesn’t have any road course experience, they throw him out of the car for the road course weekend and put a “Road Course Ringer” in the car. These guys specialize in road course racing, usually in Grand Am cars or The American Sports Car series. My question is, how does a young driver get any experience on a road course if you are dumping him out of the car on these weekends? And when was the last time that you saw any of these so called “Experts” win a Nascar race on a road course?
I can’t remember one ever winning one of these, there is a vague image of maybe Boris Said doing it once and only once but for the most part these guys usually don’t finish in the top ten all that often. Hell your “Ringers” for Nascar are our own drivers here lately. Guys like Kurt Busch, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon as well as Robby Gordon. If I had to put a road course ringer in my car you can bet money that I would pay him on a percentage of where he finished. In that case I wouldn’t be out much.
I’m working today so if I was inclined to listen to the Nationwide race today it will be on satellite radio. At least that will be broadcast on MRN radio, those guys might be able to make it sound somewhat exciting. Dave Moody could make snail racing sound wild! When I get home Sunday morning I’m not wasting my time watching the cup race. I’m going to an auction to see if I can pick up any tools cheap.
I could put up with this kind of racing if it were to be only one weekend in the early part of the season. Get it out of the lead up to the chase and you can keep it. As for me? As long as they run these tracks I’ll be looking for something else to do on those weekends.
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