A Voice for the fans ~ And the bad news just keeps on coming...
4/25/2013
PattyKay
Lilley
I bid you welcome
gentle readers, to a column we know is read by the folks that matter, and a
warm welcome as well to my assigned reader at the Media and Fan Espionage
Center over in the Queen's City of Charlotte NC. I hope you find today's task a
pleasant one. Also, allow me to extend a heartfelt "Good Day" to Mr.
Helton, Mr. Darby and whomever else's desk this might cross this week.
It seems we have an
almost never-ending supply of things about which we can converse this week as
we bid farewell to the Land of Oz and head back to the more friendly climes of
Richmond Virginia, proud Capital of the Confederacy. Oh dear, am I still
allowed to say that? Oh well, no matter... I already did.
First up, let's do a
bit of housecleaning regarding last week's column on the workings and
machinations of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We've all heard the old saying that
imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and I don't need to be given
credit when cited. I don't, however, care to take credit for erroneous statements
made by readers. The point in question is Annie B. France, and my point is, she
was not one of those added to
the list this year. Annie's name was placed in nomination last year, 2012. This
year's additions are Dale Jarrett, Maurice Petty, O. Bruton Smith, Larry
Miller, and Rex White.
Moving far away from
that topic and back to Kansas for a bit, please allow me to address the lack of
penalty assessed on Kyle Busch. Kyle crashed his primary car in practice,
before qualifying; therefore, he was not sent to the rear of the field at the
start. This was the proper and correct application of the NASCAR rules as they
have read since the inception of the "one-engine rule", which I
believe dates back to 2002.
As we all know,
NASCAR keeps their little book of rules pretty much to themselves, but here is
the wording of the applicable rules according to Jay Adamczyk,
or Jayski as most know him. (I've included all
circumstances for future reference)
These are the
reasons for a driver or team to have to start the race at the rear of the
field:
ENGINE CHANGE - anytime during the race weekend [except the Daytona 500, teams
can change once after the Gatorade Duel 150's]
BACKUP CAR - after qualifying, if a
team/driver goes to a backup car, they start at the rear of the field; if
before qualifying and the backup car and engine are presented for inspection,
the driver starts where they qualify.
TRANSMISSION CHANGE - anytime during the race weekend [except the road courses,
new in 2009]
DRIVER CHANGE - once the car is qualified, if the driver changes, then the
driver/car will start at the end of the field before the green flag.
MISSING DRIVERS MEETING - before the race, NASCAR holds a mandatory drivers /
crew chief meeting, ALL drivers must attend.
I trust those rules are easily understood when read. Mr. Helton, Sir, I know it's useless to ask, but life would be so much easier for so many if those rules could only be read by the fans and media rather than guessed at or misquoted by the talking heads and pundits of the TV world.
Oh, and while we're speaking of Kyle Busch, he and several others surely did have their troubles at Kansas last weekend. Not only did Kyle wreck in practice, but during the race he first practiced wrecking, then finally got it right on lap 102 and was out of the race and gone faster than Toto could say, "Arf", taking ex-teammate Joey Logano with him when the two met in a horrendous crash on the apron.
Kyle wasn't the only one stricken with a similar problem. Several others, including teammate Brian Vickers, shared the "Sit 'n spin" experience. No, there was no aero-push to speak of; there was and is a side-draft... that sucking feeling you get when driving next to a big-rig on the expressway... but these instances seemed to occur even when a car was essentially alone on the track. The TV talent blamed the wind. Even though 150 pounds lighter than they used to be, those cars weigh in circa 3250 pounds plus driver weight. My little Cobalt can't come close to that, and it doesn't snap around in a 25 mph wind. My thinking, born from logic, would be that someone ought to be looking at the seams resulting from creating the new graduated banking. The admittedly harder tires, with little give in them, could easily cause a car to skip over an acute seam or rise much like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond. The sheer weight of the car could then cause it to "snap around" as described by several drivers on Sunday. There's nothing like wheels off the ground and a cranked steering wheel to give you that effect when they land.
With all that going on and a race in progress to boot, there was reportedly a lot of profanity staining the airways blue on the team channels last Sunday. In the interest of decency, we'll just skip over that and call it part of racing, but I do want to have a word with Danica Patrick, kind of Grandma to Granddaughter, if you will. Honey, the advice that man gave you on Sunday was good advice. Take it! Next time he gives you grief, don't waste time warning him; just introduce him to the SAFER barrier and go on your way. That will be one less you'll have to pass or contend with. Good luck at Richmond this weekend.
Moving right along without benefit of segue to the world of high finance, how long do you think it will be before we hear a new Series Sponsor announced? A Japanese corporation known as SoftBank has been romancing Sprint for several months, and I honestly thought that deal would culminate sooner rather than later. Then, enter Dish Network, a corporation that bills itself as the #2 Satellite TV provider in the U.S. Um... excuse me, but wouldn't that be #2 out of two? We have a word for that in racing... we call it last place.
In any case, with all joking aside for a minute, apparently Dish Network has money (None of it mine) and proposes to invest some $25.5 Billion with a "B" in taking over Sprint/Nextel, which is the third largest cell-phone provider in the U.S. This puts Sprint in the enviable position of forcing a bidding war for its takeover. Let he with the most money win. Meanwhile gentle readers, there is nothing to prevent us from having some fun with the new series-to-be. The SoftBank thing wouldn't offer too much for us, as I understand they would only call the resulting entity "New Sprint." No imagination there at all. Dish however, offers all sorts of possibilities. Instead of "Sprint Cup Series", how about the "Cup and Saucer Series?" And could we go please go back to having an actual CUP as a trophy? I know what they tell me that thing is, but I also know what it looks like, and I can't print it here.
The appeal on those now infamous Penske penalties is scheduled to be heard on May 1, which sounds far in the future until one consults the calendar and realizes it's next Wednesday. Unlike so many others, I never like to speak until I know what I'm talking about. It had been my understanding all along that the parts themselves had been approved by NASCAR, not as an assembled unit but three individual parts. Sorry, but if I knew which parts, I'd be a mechanic, not a journalist.
According to Roger Penske, who really ought to know, I was right on the money. Associated Press quoted Penske as saying on Saturday at the IndyCar race in Long Beach that the parts taken from the rear-end housings of both Fords last week in Texas had been approved by NASCAR. Penske says NASCAR has accused the team of modifying the parts after approval. It is his contention that the team was not cheating, but working in the grey area of the rule book. Being an almost life-long fan of Smokey Yunick, the greatest innovator ever to enter racing, I understand that perfectly. The entire rule book was written over the years to counteract the innovations found in those grey areas. In short, the reasoning states, "If there is no rule against it, then it's not cheating."
Again, according to Penske, the team owner, the #22 of Joey Logano had already passed inspection, but was called back for a closer look when NASCAR found something not to its liking on the #2 of Keselowski. According to Richard Petty, who really has no dog in this fight that I can see, other than representing another Ford team, someone had to have snitched on the Penske cars.
And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... here came the other shoe... I know, mixed metaphors. Forgive me, but it's around 12:45 on Wednesday and I just read the penalties handed down from the throne in Daytona Beach to Sunday's winner, Matt Kenseth and team owner, Joe Gibbs. For those that thought NASCAR overreacted to the Penske affair, how are these new penalties affecting your appetite?
From nascar.com:
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --
Penalties have been handed down to the No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team as
a result of rule violations discovered in the post-race engine inspection April
23 at the NASCAR Research and Development Center.
The No. 20 car was
found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing);
12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that the race equipment used in
the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20-5.5.3 (E) (Only magnetic
steel connecting rods with a minimum weight of 525.0 grams will be permitted;
connecting rod failed to meet the minimum connecting rod weight) of the 2013
rule book.
As a result of this violation, NASCAR has assessed the following penalties:
• Crew chief Jason Ratcliff has been fined $200,000 and
suspended from NASCAR until the completion of the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series championship points events (a period of time that also includes the
non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race) and placed on probation until Dec. 31.
• Car owner Joe Gibbs has lost 50 championship car owner
points; the first-place finish from April 21 at Kansas Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the
accumulated aggregate car owner points total after the completion of the first
26 events of the current season and will not be credited toward the eligibility
for a car owner Wild Card position; has had the owner’s license for the No. 20
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car suspended until the completion of the next six
championship points events, therefore being ineligible to receive championship
car owner points during that period of time.
•
Driver Matt Kenseth has lost 50 championship driver points; the Coors Light Pole
award from April 19 at Kansas Speedway will not be allowed for eligibility into
the 2014 Sprint Unlimited; the first-place finish from April 21 at Kansas
Speedway will not earn bonus points toward the accumulated aggregate driver
points total after the completion of the first 26 events of the current season
and will not be credited toward the eligibility for a driver Wild Card
position.
•
The loss of five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer Championship points.
>> Ran one more check before sending this to press and see that TRD has issued a statement accepting the entire blame for the erroneous... or is that anemic... connecting rod. Three grams? Really?
"During NASCAR's
routine post-race tear down of Matt Kenseth's race-winning car and engine from
Kansas Speedway, one of our engine connecting rods weighed in approximately
three grams under the legal minimum weight of 525 grams. None of the other
seven connecting rods were found to be under the minimum weight. We take full
responsibility for this issue with the engine used by the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing
(JGR) team this past Sunday in Kansas -- JGR is not involved in the process of
selecting parts or assembling the Cup Series engines. It was a simple oversight
on TRD's part and there was no intent to deceive, or to gain any type of
competitive advantage. Toyota is a company that was built on integrity, and
that remains one of the guiding principles of the company. The goal of TRD has
always been -- and will continue to be -- to build high-performance engines
that are reliable, durable and powerful, and within the guidelines established
by NASCAR."
Also, here is a statement from Joe Gibbs Racing:
Joe Gibbs Racing
Statement: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is aware of the penalty issued by NASCAR
today regarding the engine in our #20 car used in last week's Sprint Cup Series
race in Kansas. It is our understanding that one of the eight connecting rods
on the engine was ruled too light. We are working with our partners at TRD on
this issue. In the meantime we will plan to appeal the penalty.
And there we have it... I think. Of course, I also thought this article was a wrap several paragraphs ago. Now, having read of these new and extremely severe penalties on yet another team, I'm as close to speechless as I get, and possibly bordering on anger. Just have to decide with whom to be angry. Is this another case of "snitching?" It wouldn't seem possible in this instance. Who takes off and weighs a connecting rod... other than NASCAR? I'm pretty darn sure you can't see 3 grams of anything with the human eye. Nor do I think that 3 grams in any sort of application could be the reason that the #20 won on Sunday.
I know they hold and inspect the winning car along with the second place car and a car randomly selected from the field... Kenseth, Kahne and Labonte, but isn't that usually accomplished at the track? I was under the impression that a trip to the R&D center was reserved for something really bad, yet I'm thinking that there is no way possible to "see" 3 grams of weight missing from 1 of 8 connecting rods. Now I want to know why that car was ripped down to the extent of taking out engine parts and weighing them. This simply cannot be a "normal" post-race inspection. 3 grams... 3 grams... 3 grams... Walks slowly away, head shaking from side to side.
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay