The declared "rain-out" of Cup qualifications at Watkins Glen reinforces the notion that either NASCAR is lazy, or that they view maintenance of the status quo as their priority.
Despite the near certainty they could have qualified the Cup cars today (Saturday), NASCAR chose to declare qualifications to be "rained-out" yesterday and assigned starting positions based upon Cup point standings. Smaller teams and road race specialists brought in for races such as this one, drivers/teams who would have to compete for the eight non-guaranteed starting spots under normal conditions, are in the haulers and on the way home today. "Drivers had sponsor appearances to make" is the most often quoted response to the question "why can't you just qualify on Saturday?". Total face ####.
NASCAR finds itself a bit backwards with regard to their approach to qualifications, and would do well in the eyes of race fans to revisit the notion that qualifications are a mere formality leading up to a predetermined showcase of familiar drivers and sponsors competiting for the win in this weeks show.
I believe the common race fan finds this quite distasteful, and would be most satisfied to see NASCAR restore qualifying to its full glory, ... or more (see F1, and how they reinvented qualifications - you think NASCAR couldn't one-up F1 in this regard if they put their minds to it?).
dave your blogs of late have been outstanding. you have left me wishing to have seen you in the final 16 for the sports writing thingy. anyway your spot on about the subject again. i mean look at the busch series, they Q it up an hour before the race starts. its not impossible nor even difficult. i tell you it made it exciting to be at the track last weekend when the french canadian put it on the pole. that was the loudest ovation of the day.
I just checked the event schedule at Watkin's Glen for today, and it seems to me that, if they wanted to compress things a little, they could've started qualifying around 9:00 a.m. or so and probably had it completed before Busch qualifying began. You're right, they could have squeezed qualifying in.
Although I'm not quite sure what Rob Van Dam has to do with it (sweet pic though).
May not be at the top of the heap of problems, but further illustrates how far astray NASCAR has fallen from what seems correct/fair from a fans perspective. (They're still wildly successful, ... but showing signs of being too big to sustain their success)
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on August 11th at 1:06 PM.
I was born down the road from Watkins Glen. I would love to see that race as I think it would be awesome. By the way...I just saw your message. Do you still need some help with that? If so, let me know.
Yeah Tez, and Danica didn't help her rep any with the spin coming out of the pits. Didn't see the race, but there's video on Indycar.com - did she hit a safety truck while spinning?
Those guys REALLY don't like that, and give drivers who even come close all sorts of guff for quite some time. The only person who got away with it, although not entirely, was Mario when he plastered the back of a safety truck (I think in Detroit) about a decade ago. She's already not too popular with many drivers and track workers - another step backwards ...
Danica's problem was a cut tyre....she came around turn 2 (quite fast to catch up to the tail of the field) and it blew out on her. She then spun around a couple times before smacking the outside wall and sliding backwards along the wall.
She missed the saftey truck by a good few inches....the guy driving it might need to invest in a new set of underwear however.
I keep reading from you and keep learning. Nascar has it's problems and being the newbie, it still seems some problems are easy to fix. I've been the supervisor in the suit, Aviation, and a regional Manager of a Large ( Gannett ) media outlet. While I never was a writer in the organization, I've learning your same need to vent. That's why I get so stupid about things. I'm too serious at work.
Take that suit off some more and vent. I'll keep coming back.
Dave - Very good points. I never understood the "driver appearances" reason - if it is rained out, couldn't they do it during the rain out? Do you think a crowd won't gather if Jr is there Friday instead of Sat?
Why wasn't that the logic when they rescheduled a race during Thanksgiving weekend in 2001? Drivers really grumbled about losing their vacation to accommodate a big wig's daughter's wedding.
