The irrelevance of Daytona
God bless Ben Blake for his commentary posted over at SpeedTV. This link comes via some other good folks over at fastmachines.com (link on the right).
Ben Blake sums up what I have felt for a long time. As one race, winning the Daytona 500 is tremendous accomplishment with a pretty big payout. However, at the end of the season they don't hold a banquet and give you a several million dollar check for winning the season championship, and they don't confiscate your car for the next year.
Drivers and teams who have their eyes on the prize of the championship should look at the Daytona 500 as what it is, just another one of 28 races. The same comments Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick make about Daytona are the same complaints some open wheel drivers make about the Indy 500. They expend a lot of resources and have to be in Indianapolis for a month for what? One race.
For all the hype, restrictor plate races ought to be put in this perspective. Sadly, they're one step above much-maligned road courses. Four restrictor plate races does not a season make. If I were a team manager prioritizing where to do my testing, I would emphasize Charlotte, Atlanta, and Texas. These three tracks host two races each and are configured similarly. The next most important would be Michigan and California (4 more races), and some of that data should carry over to Las Vegas, Kansas, and Chicago. That's about two months worth of testing for 13 races while they waste one month preparing for the Daytona 500.
Super Bowl of NASCAR, my ass.
Ben Blake sums up what I have felt for a long time. As one race, winning the Daytona 500 is tremendous accomplishment with a pretty big payout. However, at the end of the season they don't hold a banquet and give you a several million dollar check for winning the season championship, and they don't confiscate your car for the next year.
Drivers and teams who have their eyes on the prize of the championship should look at the Daytona 500 as what it is, just another one of 28 races. The same comments Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick make about Daytona are the same complaints some open wheel drivers make about the Indy 500. They expend a lot of resources and have to be in Indianapolis for a month for what? One race.
For all the hype, restrictor plate races ought to be put in this perspective. Sadly, they're one step above much-maligned road courses. Four restrictor plate races does not a season make. If I were a team manager prioritizing where to do my testing, I would emphasize Charlotte, Atlanta, and Texas. These three tracks host two races each and are configured similarly. The next most important would be Michigan and California (4 more races), and some of that data should carry over to Las Vegas, Kansas, and Chicago. That's about two months worth of testing for 13 races while they waste one month preparing for the Daytona 500.
Super Bowl of NASCAR, my ass.
1 Comments:
Sometime I also get that "tiresome feeling" when Speedweeks rolls around.
It almost gets to the point off hitting the off button each time you here Great American Race or NASCAR'S Super Bowl.
BTW I surfed over from Checkered Past and have added you to my blogroll at Full Throttle.
http://cranialcavity.net/fullthrottle/wp/index.php
Post a Comment
<< Home