The Frontstretch: What's the Call : Road Course In The Chase? by Tom Bowles and Ren Jonsin -- Thursday August 17, 2006

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What's the Call : Road Course In The Chase?

Tom Bowles and Ren Jonsin · Thursday August 17, 2006

 

Welcome to this week’s edition of What’s the Call? Each week, two of your favorite Frontstretch writers will duke it out in a debate concerning one of NASCAR’s big controversies. Don’t let us be the only ones to speak our minds, though…be sure to read both sides and let us know what you think about the situation in the comment section below!

This Week’s Question: Should a road course race like Infineon or Watkins Glen be moved to the 10 race Chase for the Nextel Cup?

True Champion King Of All Types Of Tracks
Tom Bowles

All too often in other professional sports, teams will win a championship only to be haunted by that nagging, unanswerable question that causes nothing but controversy. It’s the two words no self-respecting head of the class wants to hear about their accomplishments: “What if?” A No.6 seed will win the title in the NHL, for example, but be told they’re not the “best” because they never played No. 1 or No. 2 seeds that were upset in previous rounds. Until recent years, a college football team would go undefeated and be called “champion,” yet never play the No. 2 team in the rankings, leaving the trophy on their wall but their respect open to interpretation.

In NASCAR, though, you’re not just racing fellow drivers for the championship, you’re racing the track…and it’s just as important to be racing the best of both in any playoff that determines an overall champion. As far as the best drivers, the sport has it covered…the Top 10 in points usually consists of the best drivers Nextel Cup has to offer for that season, as it’s nearly impossible to lead the most laps all year or have the most wins and still fail to make the Chase if you are running all the races (yes, Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne could change that theory this year…whole other story there).

As far as tracks go, though…well, let’s just say that’s a major weakness in this championship Chase. These drivers and teams are not being faced with the biggest challenges the series has to offer. Of the ten tracks in the Chase, five of them are 1.5 mile ovals. That’s incredibly cookie cutter, considering how NASCAR runs on all sorts of different other tracks from .5 miles to 2.5 miles in length, including the two road courses. Yet, only one of the tracks in the Chase is less than a mile (Martinsville), and only one is greater than two miles (Talladega). Each of those different lengths offers a different type of challenge for both driver and crew alike, altering driving styles, setups, pit strategy, among other things.

It’s already bad enough the 10 race sprint is oversaturated with one type of track, but NASCAR doesn’t even have a type of track in the playoff…a road course. Yes, the sport only runs two road course races per year out of 36. But that’s still over 10% of the schedule, a unique challenge of making both left and right turns that has many owners hiring specialists to teach their regular drivers the ropes.

That alone should tell you the importance these teams place on the road course races. They’re as much of a part of the schedule as a Kansas or a Charlotte…so why aren’t they included in a championship Chase that’s suppposed to test every level of a driver’s ability? We know Kasey Kahne can win at Texas and Atlanta…but can he go back to Infineon and learn how to drive that track good enough to challenge for a Top 5? THAT would go a long way to helping to determine how well a team has performed overall this season, whether they can withstand the pressure of a championship…and making right turns.

That’s not to say there aren’t other tracks that shouldn’t be involved in the Chase. But replacing one of the cookie cutter 1.5 milers with a Watkins Glen or an Infineon would go a long way towards beginning to write a wrong in what otherwise has been a very popular playoff.

Keep The Road Courses Out
Ren Jonsin

NASCAR is traditionally an oval course series. Of the 22 tracks that the Nextel Cup series visits, only two are road courses. The rest are composed of mostly one to two mile ovals, with a couple of short track and restrictor plate speedways thrown in. Oh, yeah, there’s Pocono too.

The last ten races, the ones that will decide the Nextel Cup Champion, should be run on tracks that are similar to the majority of the tracks run during the first 26 races. The common denominator in all the tracks, except for the two road courses, are go fast and turn left…enough said, right?

It’s not fair to subject drivers to the variables at the road courses that don’t come into play at the ovals. Quirks like right turns, opposite pitting, and increased driver error shouldn’t be included in the Chase, and shouldn’t be the reason a team is taken out of the hunt for a championship.

The tracks in the last ten are, and should be, all ovals. Right now, they’re one short track, one restrictor plate, two mile courses and six cookie cutters, pretty proportionate to the ones that make up the majority of the tracks. There’s no reason to include the gimmickry of a road course race in something as important as the Championship.

So, who do you think won this week’s What’s the Call? Vote and tell us what you think at www.frontstretch.com/board/.

 

©2000 - 2008 Tom Bowles and Ren Jonsin and Frontstetch.com. Thanks for visiting the Frontstretch!

Robert Isaacs
08/18/2006 06:55 AM
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It’s this simple. If you want to call the NASCAR champion this best in the world then he needs to be able to run and be competitive on a road course. A road course is much more representative of a drivers skill than any other type of track not that ovals are not a test mind you.

RI

sal
08/18/2006 07:13 AM
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If you have to run well at 2 road courses to make it to the top 10, you should have to do it to be the champion.

chris
08/18/2006 07:55 AM
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While I think they should replace a 1.5 miler in the chase with a road course (as long as it’s not Texas, mind you)...and a “representative sample” of tracks would be better than alot of similar tracks: 2 is not “over 10% of the schedule”. Nascar runs on 22 tracks,which makes the road courses 9.09%. Nascar runs 36 races, which makes the 2 road courses 5.55% of the full schedule. Nascar runs 26 pre-race chases, which makes the 2 road courses 7.69% of the Race to the Chase.

I’d like to see a road course race in the chase. I’d also like to see one of the Pocono races moved from it’s place into the chase. Just not Infineon. there are so many good racetracks, and I don’t really consider that one to be so great.

smyler
08/18/2006 08:57 AM
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Terry Bradshaw said, before he won his fourth Super Bowl, “You gotta beat the best to be the best”. I think it’s pretty weak to say that the teams shouldn’t have to deal with the variancies that road courses cause. Are these guys the best there is or not? We need Darlington, Bristol, Daytona or Talladega, Charlotte and at least one road course.

M. B. Voelker
08/18/2006 09:42 AM
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Nascar should think more intentionaly not only about which tracks belong in the Chase but which tracks belong in the schedule.

Since Nascar’s claim to have the world’s best drivers in the Cup series rests on the fact that they race on a greater variety of tracks than any other top series the Cup Champion should prove his mastery of every track type.

IMO, because both road courses and plate tracks call for special skill sets outside the normal bounds of oval racing the number of plate tracks on the schedule and the number of road courses on the schedule should be equal and one of each belongs in the Chase.

Bill
08/18/2006 10:35 AM
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Absolutely there should be a road course in the Chase. I don’t think NASCAR had taken the schedule into consideration when establishing the Chase. The Chase should include a representation of all of the types of tracks on the circuit to help show who is the best on all of those types. A road course truly shows the skills of the driver and should be included.

C.R.
08/19/2006 07:25 AM
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This weeks topic makes us look at the foundations of our sport.

For the same reason the “family sedan” was Bill France’s center piece of competition,road coarse venues have been on the “Cup” schedule since the earliest days. Why?...the “average man” on the street can relate to them both. The competative lifes blood of our greatest champions, past and present was fed by outrunning the county sheriff, state trooper or federal revenuers on back roads. Turning left, right and “jamming gears” is at the heart of stock car racing. From the legends to the current champion, all kick-ass on “the road”! NASCAR, bring this vital part of our sport to the Chase!!

More Side by Sides!