Kyle Busch won his 200th race across NASCAR's three national touring divisions. Valtteri Bottas won the Australian Grand Prix in a Mercedes 1-2 finish and every time a team has scored a 1-2 finish the winning driver has gone on to win the World Drivers' Championship... so congratulations to Valtteri Bottas on winning the 2019 World Drivers' Championship. The FIA World Endurance Championship returned to Sebring and it got sunny weather while IMSA got rain. Team Penske continues to win races. Jonathan Rea continues to finish second. Spring starts in a few days. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Another Intervention
I was going to write about something fun involving Formula One and the United States but that has to wait because we have to sit NASCAR down again and have it face its problems.
Friday's Cup qualifying session from Fontana was a disaster for the series. With the final five-minute session underway, 12 race cars sat at the end of pit lane for four minutes before the 12 left simultaneously, all jostling for position, some on the apron, others on the racetrack but each looking to get around the next. With the clock ticking down the race was to start a lap. No one made it. The round two speeds determined the starting order of those 12 cars.
Too many laughed. Too many ignored the issue. The scripture writers were adding it to NASCAR lore, something that for people to talk about for the decade as a "golly, remember that time nobody completed a qualifying lap" moment. This isn't a laughing matter. This isn't lore. This is a byproduct of a bigger problem and one NASCAR needs to address.
It became clear that the altered aero package was going to emphasis drafting in qualifying before the season started. It became even clearer at Las Vegas when Kevin Harvick won pole position but the cars of Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman ran faster laps only to have them not counted because neither driver made it to the start/finish line before the clock hit zero. The final cars in line were going to be in a prime spot to take the top spot. The cars at the front of the line are in a disadvantageous position. Those drivers know from the time they take the green flag there is nothing they can do to prevent themselves from start tenth, 11th or 12th. They can't lift and drive to slot back in line. They can't out run the pack. They are at a loss from the start.
NASCAR did nothing. It failed to be proactive once again. It needed to learn the hard way to make a change. Only it is still going to make mistakes. It is going to address the issue in the wrong way.
NASCAR is an addict. Similar to people who need another hit of heroin, crack or sex; NASCAR needs drama to stimulate its brain. It keeps chasing "game seven moments," last lap passes, stunning results. It doesn't want to be a racing series. It wants to be an outrage series. It wants people saying, "Did you see that?" The series thinks that is the answer. People will keep tuning to something more absurd than the next but that is farcical.
It is never satisfied and like every addict it takes more and more to achieve the desired high. Everything needs to be bumped up. It is why the aero package changed. The series needs to make the racing closer. It is why we had the qualifying session we had on Friday. The series needs every moment to leave people in awe, including qualifying. It is why we have stages. We need moments inside of moments and damn it soon that will not be enough and NASCAR will need to increase its dosages but it doesn't know how much it needs. It doesn't know the limit.
Someone needs to get NASCAR under control. Someone needs to say it is ok if qualifying isn't jaw dropping. Someone needs to get NASCAR back to the basics. Qualifying has changed in part because of television and no network is going to give NASCAR two or three hours for single-car runs. NASCAR still has to get its session complete within an hour or an hour and a half. The multi-round format may have to remain but an alteration could be made. In the early rounds, there are plenty of cars involved that cars are going to get laps in but when it comes to the final round that might be when NASCAR needs to return to single-car runs, similar to what Supercars does with its top ten shootout.
The problem is NASCAR is going to fuck this up. It is going to head in the wrong direction. NASCAR is not going to make the simple change. It is going to punish teams if something like this happens again. NASCAR is never at fault. It is going to punish a team if it does not complete a lap in a qualifying round. Instead of doing something fair for teams it is going to make teams play Russian Roulette and then complain when there is blood on the floor. It is the same thing NASCAR did with the lug nut penalty. It was once something monitored on pit lane and if a team got a way with four lug nuts then fine, then it stopped regulating it, the teams wanted regulation and NASCAR decided it would be punishable and could cost a team a crew chief at subsequent races. It could have reasonable but it went for vengeful.
The same increase in strictness is likely to happen when the qualifying amendment is announced sometime in the near future.
It doesn't have to be that way though. A sensible change is needed. NASCAR could do something simple and not have to undercut the teams in the process. More importantly, not only does the change need to be sensible but also it needs to be done once and then left alone. Qualifying should set the field. It should be procedural. It is ok if it only fulfills the basics of setting the field. That is fine. People would understand.
This is a chance for NASCAR to address its problem and start the process of coming back to earth and be a racing series. If there is one series that needs less drama it is NASCAR. It has been exhausting trying to keep up with NASCAR. It seems like every decision has been made knowing it could piss people off and NASCAR has been ok with that. It has been ok with pitting people against one another. It is ok creating grudges during qualifying of all sessions! It is constantly stirring the pot in hopes more combativeness will lead to more attention but if all we ever hear is bickering people will tune out.
The bad news is NASCAR's search for drama, for rivalries, for anger has hurt its fan base in the process. NASCAR pretty much says every time it makes a change it is for the fans and it is bullshit and it could not have been made clearer that is bullshit than Friday in Fontana when the system provided a qualifying session that decided pole position where no laps were completed.
It is time for sensibility to take over. It is time for NASCAR to admit it has a problem and get back to the basics of a racing series. It is time for rehabilitation, restructuring life to achieve basic daily tasks without reaching for the poison that causes the series to stray from the path and finding joy in accomplishing the little things each day.
Or NASCAR can continue to feed its addiction and become even more unrecognizable from the series we once knew. We all know how this ends for an addict that cannot get enough.
Death.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Kyle Busch and Valtteri Bottas but did you know...
The #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #911 Porsche of Nick Tandy, Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet won the GTLM class, their second consecutive Sebring victory in class. The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca of Cameron Cassels, Andrew Evans and Kyle Masson won in the LMP2 class. The #11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen won in the GTD class, its second consecutive victory of the season.
The #8 Toyota of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima won the 1000 Miles of Sebring. The #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of David Heinemeier Hansson, Jordan King and Will Stevens won in the LMP2 class. The #91 Porsche of Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni won in GTE-Pro. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer and Christian Ried won in GTE-Am, their fourth victory of the season.
Scott McLaughlin won three of four Supercars races from Melbourne. He did not start the third after an accident on the reconnaissance laps. That handed a victory to Chaz Mostert.
Álvaro Bautista swept the three World Superbike races from Buriram.
Cole Custer won the NASCAR Grand National Series race at Fontana.
Marvin Musquin won the Supercross race from Indianapolis.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar will have its first race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
NASCAR has a short-track race at Martinsville.
Formula E is back in the People's Republic of China and in the tropical location of Sanya.
Supercross makes an earlier trip to Seattle.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
