nbap opinion

Do You Really Think There Aren’t NASCAR Team Orders?

NASCAR News and opinion from NASCAR BITS & PIECES on Brusimm.comAn NBaP Opinion piece:

Back at Richmond, there seemed to be a questionable scenario where one driver seemed to be in cahoots with other drivers and spun his car during the NASCAR Sprint Cup event, bringing out a caution which gathered up the field and gave Kevin Harvick the shot he needed to win the race while he was trying to beat Jeff Gordon.  And that other driver is, in a fashion, associate with Kevin Harvick’s team.

At first I wasn’t sure.  But watching the video tapes of radio chatter that we were pounded with during last week’s rain delay, well, it sure does look fishy.  And obviously, the driver forget his code for changing radio channels.

Now there’s an interesting perspective that when J.J. Yeley pushed Matt Kenseth around the track on the last lap at Chicago, that he was running under suggestions from a fellow Ford team.

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The Ugly of the Reality

To be honest, no matter how you cut it, no matter what really happens there’s bound to be things that take place between teams that are in some way, related teams.  Considering there are really, it feels like, only four, five huge entities in the sport and where they’re not in a garage, they’re leasing engines or chassis to other teams.

Plus, I think we get caught up in the spin we are subjected to (That might be too harsh a term), where everyone is, more or less, super nice to the world outside the sport of NASCAR.  It is a family oriented sport, is it not?

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NASCAR news and opinionWell, it is definitely confirmed, but with the repaving and variable gradient turns, Bristol Motor Speedway has been tamed on the NASCAR circuit.  It’s a mixed bag of blessings, that’s for sure.

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On the one hand, the old, flat Bristol Motor Speedway brought with it the absolute need for NASCAR talent and being on top of the wheel every micro-second it seemed.  But with that flat surface came bent up fenders, lots of wrecks and a crazy amount of time spent under caution.

The amount of cautions alone made the NASCAR racing TV telecast tedious at best, even if the racing itself, technically, was fantastic to watch.

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But with the new variable banking in the track surface, the racing is a bit more tame and predictable.  NASCAR races don’t last as long as they used to and now the only real drama comes from the tight racing quarters.

Admittedly, watching Jeff Gordon underneath another competitor (Martin Truex Jr.) and not being able to use the optimal line to pass, was a pure pleasure for me.

No, I didn’t take pleasure because I’m a Gordon hater*, but because I can appreciate the technicalities of the guy in the higher line being able to use the higher rpms of his engine to get the advantage.  Because I could appreciate Gordon’s set-up not quite being able to take advantage of the middle line.  And of watching that if the guy on the outside slipped up even once, then Jeff Gordon would have passed him.

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