NASCAR - Had Him Right Where They Wanted Him

I wrote yesterday that I don’t pay much attention to the Kentucky Derby, or horse racing in general. I ended up sort of listening to the race because other people in my house watched it. I like the fact that some gazillion-to-1 long shot won. After all, everyone loves an underhorse. Someone told me the horse was a long shot because his jockey rides bareback, but I wasn’t sure whether to believe him. Or whether it was the jockey’s back or the horse’s back that was bare.

But, enough about that. Even though I don’t care much about horse racing, I do follow auto racing, at least a little bit.

I used to watch the Formula One races when they were on in the mornings, but now I think they are on a station that I don’t get with my satellite package. I think Michael Schumacher is the best driver in the world, although I understand that his team is struggling some this year with the new rule changes aimed at taking away his dominance. Those changes must be working.

I also like Indy Car racing and still follow it some even after the CART-IRL split. I’m a big Indy 500 fan, partly just from growing up in the Midwest, and partly from the fact that as a member of the Purdue band, I played in the pre-race ceremonies for four years. It kills me to see what has happened to open wheel racing in this country, but that’s a different column. I do wonder how much longer it can survive on Indy alone.

I like NASCAR racing too. I have a favorite driver, Ryan Newman, who is a fellow Boilermaker.

Newman is a great qualifier. I think I heard them say on the race last night that he wins about one in four poles and has started in the top ten of fifteen straight races. When the race rolls around however, he seems to have something go wrong and can’t win with any consistency. In fact, he hasn’t won all year.

That looked like it was going to change last night. Newman took over shortly after the last round of pit stops (with about 45 laps to go) and had extended his lead to over 3.5 seconds with about six laps left when disaster occurred, at least for him. Mark Martin spun out just a little. He didn’t hit the wall or anyone else, but it was enough to bring out the caution flag.

You would think that would be a good thing for Newman, but it wasn’t. In fact, it pretty much guaranteed that he would not win the race. Even the announcer said, “The worst place you can be in this situation is in the lead.”

That’s because NASCAR rules require at least two green laps to finish the race (if more than two laps are left before a caution). That put Newman in a no-win situation. Either he pits for fresh tires, but everyone else stays out, meaning he comes out of the pits at the end of the lead lap (around 20th place), or he stays out, but everyone else pits for fresh tires, and he has no chance of holding them off, even for two laps.

He stayed out and nearly everyone else pitted. Once the race went green again, Greg Biffle passed the three or four cars that stayed out, including Newman, within half a lap and went on to win. Newman finished fifth.

I don’t know a lot about racing, but I do know this. If someone can say near the end of a race, without fear of contradiction, that “the worst place you can be is in the lead,” then something is wrong. The whole point of racing is to be out in front. If the rules penalize someone for simply leading a race with five laps left, then the rules need to be changed.

Meanwhile, Ryan Newman has to wait another week to try to break his 18-race winless streak.