It appears that the main reason this system would be adopted by all the NASCAR series is to speed up the qualifying process.  That’s fine, but I didn’t realize there was a problem with how quickly qualifying happened.  This appears to me as something that isn’t necessarily broken, but NASCAR wants to fix it anyway.

Personally, my biggest objection with the multi-car qualifying idea is how fair this would be for everyone involved.  We’ve seen plenty of times in other forms of racing where one driver’s bonzai qualifying lap was ruined by another driver in the name of strategy.  With so much at stake, and the measures that teams go to in terms of finding an advantage, it isn’t crazy to think that this could happen in NASCAR.  Single car qualifying runs eliminate any possibility of tampering by another team.

On top of that, what if a driver blows an engine while qualifying, and the other driver on track drives into the oil left behind and wrecks their primary car?  A team could potentially have their weekend ruined before the race even starts.  How is that fair?  Under the system we have now, this would never happen, because NASCAR has the ability to clean the track in between qualifying runs.

With the current state of the sport I realize that NASCAR is trying to find ways to improve the racing and get more people to not only attend races, but also to watch on TV.  To me though, implementing multi-car qualifying will cause more problems then it actually fixes.

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This week they announced the reorganization of their communications department. According to Sports Business Journal:

Members of the communications team will be embedded in other departments, such as consumer, brand and corporate marketing, in an effort to broaden and help NASCAR’s communications efforts evolve both inside the sanctioning body and with the sport’s teams, tracks and sponsors.

What this means is NASCAR is going to be adding more PR people, what SBJ said could be 20 to the existing department of about 25, and hiring a chief communications officer. Among other things, this will, in theory, allow them to do a better job of shifting and crafting a more positive narrative for the sport. And lets be honest, the narrative has gotten away from them.

Right or wrong, we’re entrenched in a media environment that focuses heavily on the negative. I personally believe this has been the main contributing factor to the malaise among NASCAR fans – as Ed Hinton put it, NASCARmyalgia.

With the amount of negative coverage (and seemingly no coherent communications strategy from NASCAR), fans are just feeling down on the sport. There really isn’t one explanation either.  I refer you back to the Ed Hinton article. Pretty much all of the comments on the NASCAR PR story on SceneDaily.com went a little like this: “The product stinks. We don’t need NASCAR to spin things for us.”  It sounds good to say, but I’m not sure what there is to improve about the product (no one really articulated that). Maybe make the car look better? Shorten races?

I’m really at a loss for what’s so bad right now. I think a lot of people are. I certainly see issues, but I understand there have and always will be things wrong with NASCAR (just like every other sport). Nothing’s perfect. What I think we can improve on is how we talk about the sport.

For all NASCAR hopes to accomplish with this reorganization I think changing that conversation has got to be one of the top priorities. NASCAR is presenting a good product week in and week out, but if people aren’t seeing it, or interested in it, it really doesn’t matter.

We’ll see in the coming seasons whether this actually makes a difference, but it’s interesting to see how NASCAR is trying to improve things.

Oh, and if you need a job it sounds like NASCAR will soon be hiring…

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1. From Anonymous:

Training for pit crews, how is it done? Is UTI the only show in town? By the way great articles, very well written, has given me a much better understanding of NASCAR, and I haven’t watched my first race.

The UTI campus in Mooresville, also known as NTI, doesn’t actually specialize in pit crew training.  They are more about teaching guys to be mechanics.  They do offer a pit crew class as a part of their program, but it is very basic.  Performance Instruction & Training (PIT) in Mooresville does offer a much more comprehensive program for teaching people to go over the wall, as do a few other smaller programs.  Tire changer and TV analyst DJ Copp actually runs his own small program for teaching guys and providing pit crews for example.  Outside of that, some teams will have developmental pit crews they work with, or they will hand pick guys to bring in and train.  The opportunity also exists for some shop employees to come out and learn.  There are really several avenues for learning the skills. – T.C.

2. From Brandon:

Love the site! With the start and park drivers would NASCAR ever consider paying the purse based on laps completed? It seems if a team was only going to get 10% of the purse for running 10% of the laps it may eliminate some of the start and parking going on…

It’s certainly a novel idea. I think the big thing for NASCAR is not penalizing a team who competes every week and has bad luck but discouraging the practice of starting and parking. While this would certainly discourage the practice, as these teams wouldn’t be making much money off of this, it could also hurt a team trying to make a go of things. It’s definitely tough to find a perfect solution for this.- Journo

3. From Peter:

Sorry if this is a repeat question. Why do the gas can carriers always shake the empty can while timing down the balance of the second can?

What you are seeing when the catch can man is shaking the can is him signaling to the jackman that the car is full of fuel.  When the tank is full, fuel will run out of the vent tube on the back of the car and into the catch can.  Once the jackman sees the signal from the catch can man, and knows that his tire changers are finished, he will drop the jack and send his driver back to the race. – T.C.

4. From Craig:

With the NFL determined to go to an 18 game schedule, possibly pushing the Super Bowl deeper into February, do you think it will force NASCAR to change to the Daytona Speed Weeks schedule? Possibly going back to the old days when they started the season at another track before speed weeks to avoid a conflict with football?

It’s certainly possible that NASCAR would consider pushing the race back, or trying to accommodate the NFL if they pushed the post-season further into February. From the way I understand it though the NFL is just talking about taking away two pre-season games and starting the season earlier. If that happens it shouldn’t affect NASCAR’s schedule. – Journo

5. From Joe:

Have you heard anything about all of the engines NASCAR took to check for differences in horse power?

I know there weren’t any penalties associated with the check.  And since we haven’t seen any more about it, we can assume NASCAR decided everything was fine.  If they had found one manufacturer had a significant advantage over another, they would have made a rule change to level the playing field. – T.C.

6. From Brian:

With Petty saying this week that there will only be two cars, what was all the “exciting news” Petty, AJ, and Marcos talked about coming at each of there press conferences? What else is in store at RPM? Or is there nothing left to announce?

I’m sure what they were talking about were sponsor announcements. As far as I know they’re just going to be a two car team next season. – Journo

7. From Allen:

I’ve noticed when I attend Cup races if there was a Nationwide or Truck race the day/night before the “official” haulers are still in the infield. You know the ones with the giant Series logo’s on them, is there a reason they don’t leave with the team haulers?

As far as I know the Series haulers don’t generally return to North Carolina after races, so they aren’t in a hurry to leave the track like the teams are. They have to be at the next track early in the week, so they go straight from wherever they’re at to wherever they’re going. – Journo

8. From Michael:

“There was passion (and one middle finger), and boy was there carnage.” Who flipped the bird?

Steven Wallace to Ron Fellows. Here is the video – fast forward to 7:30. - Journo

9. From Michael in SoCal:

During Villeneuve’s last pit stop on Sunday, why was the catchcan kept in the car after the fueling was complete as they finished the four tire change?

Once the car is completely full, sometimes excess fuel will spill out of the vent tube.  Keeping the catch can in until the last minute means less of that fuel ends up on the ground.  Remember that it only takes one spark from a lugnut to set fuel on fire, and the less there is on pit road, the better it is for everyone involved.  Also, spilled fuel is very slippery, so by not allowing spillage, it also aids in keeping the crew members on their feet during the stop. - T.C.

10. From Marcus:

Do you guys know what the state of the new Cup car is? They were really talking about it alot and lately they haven’t said a thing about it. With only 12 races left this season you would think that if they really wanted to implement it they would be designing it and getting ready to test it but all I have heard is that they would like to make changes to the current car to make it look more like the new Nationwide car. Just wondering if you guys have any more info or if you have heard anything in the garage area lately. Thanks.

Changes to the COT have certainly been discussed, but we’ve heard probably not until the 2012 season.  NASCAR and the teams need enough time to properly test any proposed changes, and the teams would need time to implement these changes to their fleets. – T.C.

11. From Red Neck:

What type of coolant is used in NASCAR? Is it plain old water, anti-freeze or a mix?

Teams just use water to cool the engines.  Anti-freeze is not needed because the cars are never driven in conditions that would require it. – T.C.

12. From Mike:

At the near end of the Nationwide race in Montreal, Robby Gordon ran out of fuel. Nascar told him to pull over and park (I believe the grass area in turn 2). Was that a safe move? What if his car would have been hit? Or Robby!

Absolutely. Robby got out of the car. This is actually not at all uncommon in most road course racing series. This is why they have local cautions to alert drivers of an issue in a certain part of the course – this avoids unecessary full course cautions. While NASCAR doesn’t utilize the local caution, this was not a surprising move given there were only a couple of laps left. So to answer your question, Robby was safe and the drivers were all well aware of his car’s position on the track. – Journo

And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close.  Thanks to everyone who sent in questions.  And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!

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So far this season, Kligerman has only seven starts in the Nationwide Series although he has attempted ten races.  He’s driven for underfunded Smith Ganassi Racing and gotten a few starts in Penske equipment masked as K-Automotive #26 Dodges.  While the three early season DNQs certainly don’t look good on his resume, his last four starts (Daytona, Chicago, Bristol, Montreal) all turned into very impressive runs.  After finishing 13th at both Daytona and Chicago, Kligerman has cracked the top ten in his last two races with a ninth at Bristol and an eighth at Montreal.  Not bad considering he was up against Cup regulars at Bristol and a slew of road course aces at Montreal.

Kligerman signed on as a Penske development driver for the 2009 season, and then spent the rest of the year dominating the ARCA RE/MAX Series.  He brought home nine wins and lost the championship battle to Justin Lofton by only five points.  His very good ARCA season earned him the opportunity to run two races for Penske in the Nationwide Series towards the end of ’09, and Kligerman again didn’t disappoint.  In his first ever NNS attempt, he sat on the pole, led laps, and brought his car home with a top 20 finish.

For 2010, Kligerman has been running a limited NNS schedule on very little support, but he is starting to make a very solid case for why Roger Penske & Co. should find a more permanent home for his future.  The young driver from Connecticut has been overshadowed this season by his Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Justin Allgaier, who currently sit first and fourth in the NNS championship standings, but his future appears to be no less bright.

Let’s hope a full slate of Nationwide races in a fully supported Penske car await Kligerman for 2011.

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What we saw Sunday in Montreal is why we all enjoy watching racing. There was no anointed winner, leading the most laps led to disaster, and the best funded team didn’t win. There was passion (and one middle finger), and boy was there carnage.

What really got me excited though was the large and passionate crowd. Our friends to the north love NASCAR and I’m starting to think they deserve more than just one Nationwide race a year.

NASCAR entered the Canadian market in 2004 and has since expanded with the acquisition of the former CASCAR series (now the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series), and the staging of that one yearly event at Circuit Gilles Villenueve in Montreal.

Unlike their four year foray into Mexico, NASCAR’s Canadian event has remained quite popular. And it’s no wonder given the occasionally strange, and always entertaining events Circuit Gilles Villenueve produces.

Some last week were calling for NASCAR to bring a Cup Series event to the track. And I say why not? Given the Nationwide races we’ve seen at the track I’d love to see what kind of hijinks the Cup cars could get into on the 2.71 mile road course. But honestly I’d be fine with a Cup race anywhere in the country. I thinks the fans have earned it – I think they deserve it.

Have you heard about the proposed Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie, Ontario (near Buffalo, N.Y.)? It’s nothing more than an idea right now, but the developers are working with Jeff Gordon and they’re in talks with racetrack architect Paxton Waters to build the one mile tri-oval. They’re still a ways from anything being built, but the potential is interesting.

In the meantime we have a perfectly good (or as I should say, exceptional) facility with a group of people who can’t get enough stock car racing. I’m always an advocate for bringing the sport to people who want to see it, so why isn’t NASCAR doing more?

As we just wrapped up the scheduling for 2011 and saw what could have been pretty big changes turn into some cosmetic moves, we got a front row view of the politics involved.

NASCAR is privately owned by the France family. The France family is the majority shareholder (with 70% of the voting stock) in the publicly traded International Speedway Corporation. And then we have Bruton Smith and his publicly traded Speedway Motorsports Inc. Those two control all but three of the tracks that have NASCAR Cup Series dates and neither is giving up one of their very valuable dates anytime soon. Ask Jerry Carroll how hard it is to get a Cup date.

Still, Canada is a market NASCAR should be more involved in. We’ll see in the future if NASCAR thinks so. I just hope Canadian NASCAR fans get the respect they deserve.

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Pit road is getting safer, but it’s far from safe in a NASCAR race

NASCAR sponsorship proves a boon for Nationwide Insurance

Time For ESPN To Reinstate Randy LaJoie

Wal-Mart to climb aboard Gordon’s car?

Reutimann admits to feud with Busch

Vintage Insiders

The Anatomy of a Pit Stop

A NASCAR Career Isn’t For Everyone

**Remember if you have a NASCAR blog or website and would like a recent article you wrote featured in this section email me and you could be part of next week’s NASCAR Week That Was. Please only send stuff you have written.**

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This is something I was thinking about today as I saw the announcement that Regan Smith had re-signed with Furniture Row Motorsports through 2012. The Denver, Colo. based team has fielded a car in NASCAR since 2005.

Now don’t get me wrong, I write this not to bash the guys at Furniture Row. They certainly are able to do a lot given the difficulty of their situation. The fact is though, being in Denver is not ideal for any part of the operation of a NASCAR team.

While Furniture Row gets their chassis and engines from Childress, they are at a distinct disadvantage being away from the geographic center of NASCAR. They don’t have the pool of personnel to draw from (heck, even Petty Enterprises, in late 2007 moved closer in to Mooresville, NC because of difficulty in finding/retaining quality help willing to commute to Randleman), and they aren’t close to the equipment suppliers. Perhaps most importantly, they don’t have easy access to the technical support (the wind tunnels, k-rigs, shaker rigs, etc.) that all of their competitors do.

That said there are a couple of relative success stories.

Orleans Racing operated out of Las Vegas for years. Brendan Gaughan, driving for his family owned team, scored eight Truck Series wins and came very close to winning a championship in 2003. Though the team didn’t have as much luck upon Gaughan’s return in 2005 (they shut down in 2007), they ran a tight ship and maintained solid equipment. Still, the Gaughans spent a lot of money keeping up with their counterparts back in North Carolina.

Another relative success story is Thorsport Racing out of Sandusky, Ohio. The team has fielded a truck since 1996. While they haven’t been prolific in victory lane (they have just two wins in 464 starts), Matt Crafton has finished in the top-10 in points in four of the last five seasons (including second in 2009).

Still, running in the Truck Series is vastly different than running in the Cup Series. Thorsport gets a lot of technical support from Kevin Harvick Inc. and the Gaughans have a lot of money (thanks to the Coast Casinos, Southpoint and Boyd Gaming) – not to mention the length of schedules and lower budgets across the board.

Even with stable funding, I think there is a limit to how successful a team can be when they’re not in the area. You’ve got to hand it to Barney Visser though he is committed to making his race team work.

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At Bristol, even though Jamie McMurray finished third, it was a tough night for his guys.  After one round of pit stops under caution, McMurray had to bring his car back to pit road because the rear changer knocked off lugnuts.  Meet tire changer deadly sin number one.  When a new tire gets hung on the hub, the lugnuts sit on the end of the studs and wait for us to come back and tighten them up.  On your way to getting them tight quickly, it only takes a small miss to knock one off.  And sometimes the jackman is paying attention and sees you knock one off, so you can fix it without coming back to pit road.  There are plenty of cases though, where a changer knocks one off, the official sees it, and the jackman sends the car.  The team has just bought their driver a return trip to pit road.  These situations aren’t exactly conducive to job security.

What’s interesting to note though, is that there are actually a lot of cases where a lugnut gets knocked off but the official doesn’t see it, and the car heads back to the race with only four.  Things happen so quickly during a stop, that if a changer knocks one off, but is a good actor, the official won’t notice.  Often times the official only knows a lug is missing because the changer was fumbling around.

The next deadly sin will also ruin a race for a team, and could cost the changer his job.  This sin is usually predicated by a short radio message that goes like this: “I’ve got a vibration.”  Those are words dreaded by every changer on pit road.  Why?  Because that can mean loose lugnuts.  There are a ton of reasons why lugnuts could be left loose or come loose, but in any case, it’s really bad when they do.  The vibration comes from the fact that the loose wheel is now wobbling on the hub, destroying both the wheel and the studs.  And every changer has had those pit stops in his career where when he got done, he said a little prayer and thought “wow, I hope those are tight.”  You then spend the next 60 laps praying that the car makes it to the next pit stop without hearing that dreaded message.

The other two sins I will mention here will kill pit stop times, but unless they are repeated over and over, probably won’t completely ruin a race.  They are hanging lugnuts, and hitting more then 20 during a stop. 

Hanging lugnuts means you hit all five off, but for whatever reason, one (or more) doesn’t come all the way off the stud.  It’s a horrible feeling to grab a hold of the wheel to pull it off, only to be jarred by a stuck lugnut that won’t allow the wheel to come off.  The next course of action is to either pick the gun back up and hit the offending nut off, or try and spin it with your fingers.  And we will call attempting to spin the lug with your fingers deadly sin 3-B.  Crew chiefs and pit crew coaches alike will chew some ass over that tactic because sometimes the lugnut might be stuck and your fingers aren’t strong enough to spin it off.  Or maybe it took 10 turns to get the lug off.  Either way, you just killed the stop.

In practices and at the races, we are always told to “just hit 20.”  Only hitting 20 lugnuts is what we all strive for.  Sometimes though, that just doesn’t happen.  Instead of hitting five, it’s not uncommon for a changer to hit six, or seven, or eight off.  There are again a million reasons why this could happen, but every extra hit means the pit stop is longer by two to three tenths of a second.  So if I miss one time during each pattern, that’s four extra hits for the whole stop, which just cost my team one second in the pits. 

These are all deadly sins because if done enough, they will all lead to a changers demise.  And trust me, having to explain why you just screwed up a race is not exactly a fun conversation.  No race can ever be won in the pits, but it certainly can be lost.

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1. From Justin:

Thanks for a great site. Have you heard anything about why Scott Wimmer cannot get a decent ride in the Nationwide series? He has a lot of success in the past. What is the knock against him if any?

Thanks Justin! I think Wimmer’s problem is not so unsimilar to a large number of racecar drivers. He’s getting older, his performance was never spectacular and he doesn’t have funding. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not bad, you certainly know what you’re getting with Wimmer, but he’s not necessarily the kind of driver big teams are going to be willing to take a risk on at this point. – Journo

2. From Dave:

Does the first start and park team still face the rigorous “just
because” tear down process that some cars went through at the start of the season?

Yes, NASCAR continues to tear down start and park teams like they were doing earlier in the year.  This week, the #55 of Michael McDowell was the first car out of the race and NASCAR took their engine back to the R&D center. – T.C.

3. From Jamie:

You guys tweeted free beer at RCR. So do one or both of you work for RCR?

You caught us… Just kidding. I’m not sure where you saw that tweet, but it wasn’t on our twitter feed. Because of the nature of the site we’ll never disclose where we work, and we certainly wouldn’t be that obvious. – Journo

4. From Dan:

Hey Guys, According to the results of the Saturday night Bristol race the #48 car was listed as running at the end of the race with 415 laps completed. Why would Johnson stay on track after he couldn’t gain any more points? Hamlin who finished one position ahead had 58 more laps completed. Johnson was well ahead of Conway, who finished behind him, with only 212 laps completed and no threat to Johnson losing a position. Seemed odd considering it was Bristol, since a lot of chaos can go on there nearing the end of the race.

Well first, you never retire from a race if you can help it, because you never know what may happen.  Johnson was involved in the wreck around lap 260 or 265, which means there was still half the race in which something could go wrong for somebody else and he could gain more points.  Second, even once you mathematically cannot gain any more spots, you keep running for pride (for lack of a better word).  You don’t want that dreaded DNF on your record and you never give up, even when you know it’s over.  And finally, sponsors are paying your team to get exposure for them, and that can’t be done with a car loaded on the hauler.  I personally commend them for running until the finish. – T.C.

5. From brotherflounder:

What do you think of Kyle Busch winning the triple?

I thought it was a cool moment, certainly something historic. Is Kyle winning in the Nationwide and Truck Series much of a feat? Not really. But still, to be able to do all that in one weekend is nothing to sneeze at – which is why no one has done it before. – Journo

And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close.  Thanks to everyone who sent in questions.  And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!

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There is nothing like a crowd at Bristol displaying their like, or in this case dislike, for a driver. Their opinion is deafening. And honestly, it was fantastic.

No matter your feelings toward Kyle Busch, chances are you aren’t indifferent about him. And he’s exactly what NASCAR needs right now – a polarizing figure who can win.

For all the improvements NASCAR has made to the sport in the last several months, there really isn’t anything they can do get moments like that – most especially, there is nothing they can do to cultivate drivers like that.

Ed Hinton wrote a great column last week about his search for what plagued NASCAR fans. His determination? NASCARmyalgia. You all have aches, but no one really knows for sure what the problem is. It’s funny, but it rings so completely true.

I think moments like Friday night are a good remedy, but we need more guys like Kyle Busch – that is more guys who are willing to express themselves and relish the position they have in the sport, and then back it up with wins – to do that on Sunday. Fans desperately want and need drivers they can cheer for, and against right now.

Thankfully for us NASCAR is allowing drivers to show a little personality on track, which is translating to personality off the track. While the action this weekend was unfortunately on Friday night (and Wednesday night too), the conflict was still apparent on Saturday night. Did you hear the driver intros? Awesome.

Right now Kyle is injecting a little bit of spice into a sport that desperately needs it. While I think it’s hard to disagree that the racing is some of the best its ever been, it’s hard to say, personality wise, things are as good as they could be.

Though things aren’t perfect right now, and they really never will be, these moments of dogged fight, and boiled over frustrations really make it all worth while.

Thank goodness we’ve got a guy like Kyle Busch to help bring some drama into our beloved sport. Now where is everybody else?

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