Vito's Vent: Hot-Button Issues as NASCAR Nears the Quarter Pole

Just eight weeks into the 2008 NASCAR season multiple stories have captured the attention of race fans across the country: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his move to Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Busch and Toyota’s rise to prominence, Carl Edwards’s loose oil tank cover and malleable fenders and Tony Stewart’s hair. Where does one begin to delve into the gripping issues of the day? While all of these are legitimate topics to cover (with the exception of Tony’s coif), there are a few things that have become hot-button issues in this writer’s mind already.

Car of Tomorrow  Michael McDowell’s crash last weekend during qualifying for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway was horrific looking to be sure. However, is it possible that many are making a little too much of the Car of Tomorrow and its role in the impact?

Yes, the new car is certainly safe, but the previous car wasn’t exactly a suicide machine, either. Witness Mark Martin’s similar head on impact into the turn 4 wall at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October of 2006. He got out, hopped up on the window ledge and waived to the fans before ambling to the ambulance for the obligatory ride to the infield care center. How about Elliott Sadler at Michigan International Speedway in 2000, essentially barrel rolling the length of the front straightaway? Does anyone remember Steve Grissom’s graphic wreck at Atlanta in 1997, backing into the wall at Atlanta, fuel cell essentially exploding all over the track? Moreover, how about Jeff Fuller’s crash in a Nationwide Series race at Kentucky in 2006. He hit so hard his car folded up like a 3,300 pound chalupa, yet he emerged largely unscathed, save for a busted pinky and wrist.

Kyle Petty shares a similar view. While McDowell’s crash certainly was spectacular looking, there have been impacts as or more severe than the one at Texas last Friday. Petty should know; he suffered a wreck hard enough to register over 80 G’s in 2003 at Bristol. My question has always been, ‘what happens if, or when, somebody is injured in the Car of Tomorrow? Is all of this change for naught?’

While the added safety of the new car is admirable, much of this could have been achieved with modifications to the existing machine. The cynic in me sees this as a cover for something that has become all too apparent with this car…

A Poor Product on The Track  I’ll be honest, the last few weekends I have caught up on my sleep big time come Sunday afternoon, as NASCAR has devolved into NAPCAR. Thank goodness for the green-white-checker finishes, otherwise we’d really have nothing much to talk about this season. Not only are the cars repulsive aesthetically, they cannot drive properly in their current configuration. The teams have begged for minor concessions in front end travel and downforce to get them to drive properly, but NASCAR, as it has done repeatedly with this exercise in futility, has turned a deaf ear to the avowed experts in their field.

The fact remains that these cars have little downforce and not much more mechanical grip with which to work. They are forced into running cobbled setups that are coil-bound and bump-stopped to the point where the cars drive as if the shocks were 40-ounce Louisville Sluggers. If it’s single-file, follow-the-leader, one groove racing you enjoy, I invite you to awake a few hours early on Sunday morning and tune into Formula One. At least then you can be treated to the sardonic humor and sarcasm of David Hobbs and Bob Varsha, as opposed to….

Broadcasts Boarding on Torture  Forget waterboarding – strap a Guantanamo Bay detainee down in front of FOX or ESPN on the weekend and prepare to receive a windfall of actionable intelligence. Kyle Busch was not too far off when he made the assertion that he, “does not have his own personal cameraman like Dale Earnhardt Jr.”

Jeff Gordon and whoever has acquired a nine-second lead have one as well. Meanwhile, there is rubbing, gouging, scrapping and fighting going on throughout the field, particularly in the mid-teens. Sure that might not be the most prestigious position to be in during a race, but it is worlds more entertaining than watching Carl Edwards cruising around uncontested for half an hour.

Also, how come CBS could cover racing better 25 years ago with three cameras than the networks can today with 10 times that amount? Is it possible that MRN could offer the services of Barney Hall and Joe Moore for just one weekend? Listen to them cover a race while driving sometime; you’ll find yourself gripping the wheel tighter, braking later and sweating after a routine trip to the grocery store.

Memo to the production truck: at the end of the event, unless it’s Mark Martin or Jeff Burton, there are going to be donuts and a burnout. Could you possibly wait 10 seconds to interview the crew chief? I know we have to cut to the Valvoline commercial of the guy changing oil and getting a pizza in the future, but come on already. Speaking of burnouts…..

Unoriginal Victory Celebrations  Donuts. Burnouts. Yawn. Peeling out in a car with nearly 900 hp is not that impressive to me after seeing it done for the last seven years. Tony Stewart’s fence crawl is pretty cool, but Helio Castroneves actually started that Spiderman act years ago, and I’d hate to see him take a header from three stories up. Carl Edwards’ back flips are as irritating as ants at a picnic and I’m afraid somebody is going to pelt Kurt Busch with a beer can if he starts doing those snow angels again.

I want to see the victory celebration that Johnny Benson’s crew was going to do several years ago when he won his first career Cup race at Rockingham in 2002. The crew had planned to run out onto the track after Benson had completed his donuts, flip the car over on its roof and spin it around. Sadly, NASCAR caught wind of this and would not allow the team onto the track. Can you imagine Boris Said flipping his car on it’s lid after a win at Infineon, spinning it around and lighting it on fire while he kneels in front of it like Jimi Hendrix? Tell me that wouldn’t help spark up the ratings a bit.

I guess that’s quite a bit for the season being only two months along. I can only imagine what my mental state will be come the halfway point. It was reported today that the walls for the All-Star race at Lowe’s in May will again be painted yellow. If that is any indication of how things are going to go, I should have another laundry list of complaints in short order.

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