Chaos In Canada – Just Another Reason Why NASCAR Needs More Road Courses

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September 4, 2013

The first 58 laps of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park were fairly tame with a few spins and Coulter nosing it into the tires being the biggest highlights. Then Johnny Sauter stalled, the caution flew and everything got out of control fast. The battle for the win came down to a duel between young guns Chase Elliott & Ty Dillon. Both come from racing royalty and their battle Sunday was somewhat reminiscent of the old days when the red No.9 and the black No.3 battled tooth and nail for victories on a weekly basis. After Dillon sputtered, Chase could smell blood and immediately went on the attack. It ended with Chase tearing through the grass on his way to the checkered flag while Ty Dillon tried to get his truck dislodged from the tire barrier in the final corner as more trucks piled in.

The finish was incredible and the post-race antics were some of the craziest I’ve ever seen. As drivers showed their displeasure on the cool down lap, officials were trying to keep the irate No.3 crew away from Chase Elliott and his team. While all that was unfolding, it took three or four men to restrain German Quiroga as he tried to get to James Buescher…probably to say congrats on top 10, right? Then there were the stars of the day; Mike Skeen, Kelly Heaphy and Max Papis…the feud that stole the show and made that thrilling finish take a back seat in the highlight reel.

That finish and the post-race shenanigans that followed made news headlines all around the country and the controversy in Canada is still a hot topic 72 hours later. This race exemplifies the need for more road courses in NASCAR. I was an advocate for more road courses in NASCAR before it was cool to like road courses. Now it seems like most of NASCAR nation has jumped onto the right turn bandwagon. Every time NASCAR visits a road course, you are guaranteed to either see an angry driver, a wild finish, a big wow moment or all of the above.

There are many reasons why road courses put on such terrific shows. First and foremost, the drivers have to work a lot harder in the car and driver skill suddenly becomes more important than car capability. That’s reversed when we race on large, high banked ovals where powerful engines and the most aerodynamic car you can build within the regulations are a necessity. Also, negotiating 10 to 20 distinctly different turns is much more difficult than negotiating four similar corners but I’m sure Indycar’s Will Power will argue with that but that’s a discussion for different day. One mistake will send you wheel-hopping into the dirt and with so many drivers fighting for the apex of every corner rather than three or four different grooves, there is sure to be some contact. I also love the fact that you can have a car beat all to hell and still contend with it!

Fans want more road courses and NASCAR should definitely oblige them. I personally hope for a day when I can look at the Sprint Cup schedule and see 1/3rd of it on road courses but with the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) owning 18 of the 36 race dates and Speedway Motorsports (SMI) owning another 12; that dream of mine is unlikely. Unless of course Bruton Smith and ISC got the bright idea to build or buy some road courses to appease the millions of NASCAR fans that won’t bother to fill the stands at most of their cookie cutter tracks.

Heck, they don’t even have to leave the tracks we currently race at if they want a road course event. Many NASCAR ovals already have road courses built into the infield such as Daytona, Auto Club, Texas, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Homestead and Kansas. We call them “rovals.” I think it would be a great idea to utilize the infield road courses at some of these tracks; especially the ones that have two race dates. You could have one race be strictly on the oval and the have the other using the infield course to spice things up a little.

More road courses could be integral in NASCAR’s pursuit of increasing TV ratings and race attendance. The action at Watkins Glen every year is unrivaled with the exception of a few short tracks and the plate races. I’m not saying adding more road courses is the panacea NASCAR has been looking for but more of them certainly would help. At the very least, can we please get one in the chase? Maybe Circuit of the Americas? It would give the champion much more credence if they are able to say they out-performed their competitors at short tracks, high banked ovals, flat tracks AND road courses.

Jeffrey Earnhardt 2013 NNS Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Race Preview

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SM Archive

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September 4, 2013

Jason White looks to finish off NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season well

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SM Staff

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September 4, 2013

DSCF9095 — Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

This past weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports, Jason White started off the weekend looking for speed, though got better as the weekend went on. He qualified in the 26th position and said as the race went on, the car got better and he came home with a 17th place finish.

“Car really came around today,” he said after the Clarington 200. “We started off really tight but it came around real good and near the end, we were only about half a second off the leaders. We were just waiting for a green-white-checkered, which I guess NASCAR decided we didn’t need so pretty disappointed in that. All in all, car got better throughout the weekend and we gained 10 positions so we’re pretty happy with that.”

NASCAR decided against a green flag finish when the caution flew with nine laps to go because the Canadian Tire Series cars were at their allotted time limit in NASCAR’s attempt to keep the Camping World Truck Series event on schedule.

The race, though, mirrors White’s season so far as he has had some good finishes including a fifth at St. Eustache, while having some not so good finishes. So far this year, White has finished in the top 15 in each race except this past weekend and currently sits eighth in points.

“It’s been up and down,” the driver of the No. 21 A&W/Bowers & Wilkins/Thermal Technology Dodge said. “We’ve been getting better and we’re just trying to keep the car on track. when we do, we run pretty well so we’ll finish off the last two races and see if we can get up to seventh or sixth in points.”

Heading into the final two races of the year at Barrie Speedway and Kawartha Speedway, White is only 38 points out of sixth and two points out of 12th.

“We have to finish both top 10 both times to have a good points finish so we’ll just have to see where it goes,” he commented. “Barrie should be interesting and Kawartha is the last race of the year so we’ll see what happens then.”

White hasn’t had the best of luck at Barrie Speedway the past five years, failing to finish three of the five races and having a best finish of 13th in 2010. Meanwhile at Kawartha Speedway, White has two top 10s in six starts. If the British Columbia native can stay out of trouble both races, though, look for him to be in contention for a solid finish.

Matt Crafton survives chaos in Canada to keep points lead

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SM Staff

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September 4, 2013

DSCF9422 — Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin

The key for Matt Crafton going into the weekend was survival. All the driver of the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra wanted to was get through the weekend in one piece and keep the points lead.

“That’s all its about,” he said coming into the weekend. “Definitely you want to be fast, but at the same time, you want to keep all four tires on the black stuff. If you stay on the road and you’re there at the end, you’ll contend for the win or a top five without a doubt.”

Crafton did just that as he escaped the wrecks on the last lap to finish 10th, now holding a 47 points lead over James Buescher.

One of the problems that the ThorSport Racing team dealt with was a lack of speed during the race due to tuning back the motor for fuel-mileage reasons.

“I’m glad it’s over, to tell you the truth,” crew chief Carl Joiner said on CTMP’s pit road after the race. “We didn’t have a lot of speed in our truck because we gave up a little bit of power in our motor to get better fuel mileage and it wasn’t a fuel-mileage race for us, after all. I don’t believe I’ll ever do that again because our Triad motors have plenty of horsepower every week, and we need to use it.”

Even with that said, Crafton was proud of not only himself but his team for how the weekend went.

“I enjoyed this racetrack and felt like the more laps we ran, the better we were getting,” Crafton said. “What my ThorSport guys did to improve this truck is what we’ve been doing all season. We’ve just got to get a little better, yet.”

“We worked our tails off, I can tell you that — as bad-to-the-bone as our guys always are,” Joiner added. “We rebuilt virtually our whole Menards Toyota Tundra, from the suspension up. We’ve just got to start getting better through the whole weekend. We had good speed at Michigan and Bristol but we’re going to hit our stride right here because we’re coming to some tough racetracks, but they’re good for us.”

With the road course out of the way, you have to think that the ThorSport Racing team is confident heading into the second half of the season after their first half. Crafton has yet to finish outside of the top 10 this year with a win earlier this year at Kansas.

Going into this weekend, the confidence is even higher as Crafton has finished no worse than ninth in sixth starts at Iowa Speedway, including a win in 2011. He finished sixth there in the spring.