[NASCAR]More laziness for the Daytona cash machine
This week at Dover, Jeff Gordon's minion Jimmie Johnson was penalized for speeding on pit road. When asked about in the post-race press conference on Speed Channel, Jeff Gordon went on a mini-rant about how he didn't understand why NASCAR is still using an archaic method to police pit road speed limits.
I'm no Jeff Gordon fan, but I have to agree with him on this point. It is my understanding NASCAR still uses visual marks and a stopwatch to check pit road speed. Maybe NASCAR ought to be using an hourglass and an abacus. NASCAR is all about tradition.
NASCAR has only been using electronic scoring for the last 25 years. This year, they finally got wise and put more timing loops in the track to settle the issue of setting the field under caution conditions. How hard would it be to put a half-dozen loops in pit lane to finally put the issue of speeding on pit road to bed? It would probably be cheaper than shutting down Rockingham and Darlington.
I'm no Jeff Gordon fan, but I have to agree with him on this point. It is my understanding NASCAR still uses visual marks and a stopwatch to check pit road speed. Maybe NASCAR ought to be using an hourglass and an abacus. NASCAR is all about tradition.
NASCAR has only been using electronic scoring for the last 25 years. This year, they finally got wise and put more timing loops in the track to settle the issue of setting the field under caution conditions. How hard would it be to put a half-dozen loops in pit lane to finally put the issue of speeding on pit road to bed? It would probably be cheaper than shutting down Rockingham and Darlington.
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Darrell Waltrip relayed an interesting story in his book "DW: A lifetime going around in circles". It's been a few months since I read the book, so I may have the specifics wrong. From my recollection, DW is significantly leading a race. He comes in to pit, and a crash causes the yellow to come out. Somehow, NASCAR in it's infinite wisdom picks up Neil Bonnet's car as the leader (DW had lapped Bonnet). Bonnet goes on to "win" the race. DW is hot, but when he voices his complaint in the big red truck, his complains are ignored. DW said that eventually NASCAR conceded that they made the mistake, but didn’t reverse the decision since both drivers were teammates, and Junior Johnson was credited as the winning owner. Lot's of things have changed since these days, but NASCAR, at times, is stuck in the 70s.
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