Jamie McMurray is one of the nicest guys in the garage. He’s a family man and gives everything he has to be successful. When he was tagged to replace a retiring Mark Martin so long ago, much was expected of him. It never came to fruition. It has been the same story since moving to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. It’s not that he hasn’t had the talent; it’s more than he didn’t have the talent behind him.
In NASCAR for the last decade, it’s been Hendrick, Roush Fenway, Joe Gibbs, and at times Richard Childress Racing and Penske Racing. They have been the dominant players with Hendrick and Gibbs being the main players. Even though McMurray went to Roush, he was never successful. He signed with EGR and found some success, but in truth, that was short-lived. It’s refreshing to see someone out of the top five organizations do well, even if it was at Talladega or Daytona. Remember that those two tracks are different from the others. Anyone from David Reagan to Michael Waltrip can win there. It’s unfortunate that wins at these two tracks are considered less in the eyes of purists, but it’s true. The restrictor plate tracks are the great equalizers—the one place anyone can win. That is the fault of a sanctioning body that can’t – even tried to figure out what to do with a large speedway with high banking. It’s been a lot of years, and still choking engine to half horsepower is the answer?
I align with myself with David Poole, the great writer of the Charlotte Observer and one of the hosts on SiriusXM radio’s morning shows. I do not consider those races a race. It’s a spectacle that was created and has many fans. You can’t call it racing because there is no give and take unless you have the draft. It’s close race, which many like, but it’s so uncharacteristic of real racing. I watched a race that wasn’t a race on Sunday. I saw people move from the back with ease and only to see them move to the back when they lost the draft. You can’t say anyone “had a good car” because it didn’t matter much. It’s the antithesis of racing where the good car wins. In this sort of racing, it’s only who can get someone to help. It’s the racing version of a crap shoot, and still we are fascinated with it. No wonder so many unlikely winners have emerged from James Hylton to Ragan.
Too many people like this form of racing, I don’t see it going away again and compared to what we see at many races it seems to be a better show, but it’s still a show and not a race. Back in the day, it wasn’t that way, but I’m old and probably irrelevant these days. Whatever happened to the insurance problems with a car going 200 mph in a lap? Looks like a few tracks have that problem and insurance is never even mentioned.
This takes nothing away from McMurray’s win. He followed the rules and won. He should be congratulated, but like I said so long ago, it wasn’t racing. It was the four times a year spectacle. There has to be a solution. I’m not smart enough to figure that out, but surely someone in the sanctioning body can. It’s just too popular to do anything about it.
Plate tracks are a joke. It’s not racing, it’s a lottery. Nascar’s biggest race is a lotto on wheels, the Daytona 500. I still dont understand why they do all that testing at Daytona in FEB, it all comes down to a luckfest green white checker at the end.
Excellent article. I agree. The RP races are exhibitions with a crapshoot ending.
I’d like to replace all 4 of those races with short tracks (or maybe they could be reconfigured to lose the plates).
I’ll have to admit that while I’d like to see them go away, in all honesty after watching so many 1.5 mile, aero races you kind of get starved for anything that gets your adrenaline going. So maybe that’s why so many people defend those races and look forward to them (or maybe they just like the wrecks).
One of the most profound comments that Kyle Petty made, and he doesn’t make many, is that the track ought to be filled with water for a fishing lake.
I agree 100percent!!! I don’t see how it can be peoples favorite track!! Guess they like the wrecks cuz there is very little racing!!!!!!!
The only solution is lower the bankings. Pocono is a 2 1/2 mile track and they race there without plates because there is little banking.With todays computer simulations they could reconfigure the bankings so they could put on a good race without those stupid plates. If NASCAR needs help, Bruton Smith reconfigured Atlanta between the spring and fall race.
I agree, I don’t particularly care for RP races. They are a crapshoot and, in my mind, dangerous, for both drivers & fans. NASCAR used to worry a lot about the cars getting airborne and possibly getting into the stands, but they don’t seem to care about that any more since it seems to happen at every RP race these days. I realize that most of the cars that have gotten airborne have done so because after they start to spin they are hit by another car and “launched”, but consider the NASCAR really wanted those big packs back, there’s not much the drivers can do.