Fan Thoughts Going Into Bristol
8/23/13
Kevin Abraham
This week, the Sprint Cup series heads to Thunder
Valley, Bristol Motor Speedway. There
are a few things that are bouncing around in this fan’s mind concerning NASCAR
today,. Some of
those things in my mind are Bristol racing, the Gen 6 cars, to Silly Season
surprises and thoughts. Let’s take a
look at each one of these things below.
The race this weekend at Bristol is a critical race
for those who are trying to make the Chase.
Tempers will boil over, cars will crash, and fingers will be pointed,
all in the name of a driver trying to be one of the lucky dozen who will have a
shot to compete for the Sprint Cup Championship after the race in Richmond. In
the past Bristol has shown itself to not play nice with Chase contenders, but recently
this track has had its bite removed. Two
things happened in 2007 that took away the Bristol had. One of those events was the introduction of
the Car of Tomorrow in the spring of 2007.
Kyle Busch famously stated in
Victory Lane after winning that “this car sucks.” The other event was Bruton Smith adding
progressive banking between the spring and summer race at this track. These two changes caused attendance to
decline so fast that Smith decided to remove some of the progressive banking in
the summer of 2012. This made the track
a one grove track again, but it moved the grove to the top of the track, making
it a miniature Darlington in that aspect.
As this weekend approaches, one has to wonder if the track will somehow
revert to its former glory and cause drivers to have their cages rattled, or
will see a 500 lap single file parade?. We will find out the answer to this question
Saturday night.
Speaking of changes that have been made in the last
few years, every week, those that are paid to promote NASCAR will say that the
Gen-6 is the best car to ever race on the track. They claim the faster speeds and track
records being set weekly are good and what the sport needs. With the Gen 6 car still having the front
splitter, and large spoiler on the back of the car, it makes the car easier to
drive fast through the corners. With NASCAR also making the rules strict in the
car building process, there is little room for innovators to improve on the
current model. Goodyear does not help
with this matter either, by making a tire that does not wear down as the run goes. In the past four tires was the only cure to
fix a car, especially at tracks like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro, however
those tracks no longer host a Sprint Cup race.
Changing gears, as far as Silly Season goes, this
year is quickly getting very silly, very quickly. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen that
Juan Pablo Montoya will not be re-signed with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, and Brian
Vickers was named as the full-time driver of the No. 55 car for 2014. The
biggest surprise in this year’s Silly Season news cane this past Sunday
evening, where it was reported on Twitter that Stewart-Hass Racing had made an
offer to Kurt Busch to drive a fourth car next year. Stewart-Hass Racing later
confirmed that they indeed made this offer to Kurt Busch. If you are Ryan
Newman you have to feel like the bride left at the altar. Not only was he told there was not enough
resources to start a fourth team, a month after being informed of this, he is
informed that the biggest hothead in Sprint Cup Racing was offered that
position that was not available for you.
Hopefully Richard Childress Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, or another
team signs Newman next year and runs circles around SHR.
Speaking of Silly Season, many are pegging Kyle
Larson to move to Sprint Cup to drive the No. 42 car after one season in
Nationwide. Would this be a good
idea? Past history with Joey Logano,
Casey Atwood, among others suggests this is not a good idea. The best solution would be to sign Mark
Martin to a 20-25 race schedule and run Larson in the rest of the races, along
with have him contend for the Nationwide title next year. Since Martin does not run the short tracks,
road courses, or superspeedways (except the Daytona 500), this would be an
ideal situation. Martin drove for Dale
Earnhardt, Inc. before they merged with Chip Ganassi
Racing in 2008. Dale Earnhardt Inc.
purchased Martin’s race team at the time, Ginn Racing,
in the middle of 2007. Earnhardt Ganassi
Racing could enter a third car for Larson to start the Daytona 500 with no
issues as well due to all the partnerships it has with existing sponsors, and
allow Larson to get the experience he needs.
A final thought for this week. When was the last time a sponsor changing
teams revealed what their old team was planning to do in the future? This week, we saw AdvoCare announce they were
leaving Richard Childress Racing to sponsor Trevor Bayne next year in the Nationwide series.
Most times this would not be newsworthy to Sprint Cup fans, except for
this little detail mentioned by the sponsor:
“AdvoCare served as the
sponsor on the #3 car of Austin Dillon the past two seasons. With Dillon making
the move to full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing in 2014, the organization
began the process of diligently seeking out its best option moving
forward."
Most everyone expected Austin Dillon to move to
Sprint Cup next year; however AdvoCare confirmed that rumor with their
announcement this week. It was also
announced this week that Ty Dillon will be driving the No. 3 in the Nationwide series next year, leading everyone to wait for an
official announcement from Richard Childress Racing about Austin’s future. The
big question is will be what car number Austin will drive in Sprint Cup next
year. Will Austin end up driving the No.
3 in Sprint Cup, or another number?
What do you all think? Do you think Austin will be in the No. 3 Sprint
Cup car next year? We know from this
week’s Fan’s Eye View that Tweety hopes Dillon does not drive the No. 3 in
Sprint Cup, but what do you think? What
are your thoughts on the other topics mentioned this week?
Please share your thoughts below.
I can be found on Twitter @kevdogg329