where do we go from here?
Today is Wednesday and while I don't want to beat a dead horse, I am intrigued by all of the different opinions of the current state of superspeedway racing. Some people love it while other people hate it and then there's the people that are just in the middle. I don't really love or hate the fuel saving aspect of things but when it's time to go 100%, that is where the real problem lies. As summed up best by Kyle Busch "ride in line and finish where you are, pull out to make a pass and finish last". The cars don't really allow for much moving around in the pack when going 100% which has made track position mean more, even if it means gaining a few tenths on pit road. While it wasn't as extreme as Daytona, this type of strategy at the super speedways seems to be the new normal in comparison to the days of train racing single file, but the overall product still leaves a lot to be desired. So where do we go from here?
First off adding more stages doesn't fix the issue if it's still hard to pass and go anywhere when going all out. A guy running in 10th will have to push until something massive happens to mess up one of the two dominant lines so they then have to engage in a strategy call to get track position. That just puts a band aid over the situation. Same thing with shortening the races by 100 miles because that eliminates some aspect of fuel saving but the car and package is still how we got in this situation in the first place. Could the issue be horsepower, could the issue be drag in the cars or in the package? Who knows but that's what needs to be the focus instead of further manipulating the package.
Also the next point is if it wasn't this fuel saving strategy then we would probably see train racing which people also complained about, but one would at least know that moves could be made towards the end of the race and the lines wouldn't be so clamped together like how the last 30 laps of the Gieco 500 were. Both packages have their complaints while both being anastetically pleasing at different times during the race as well. If you were to ask me I would rather have the train racing because the package at least allowed you to move around more, however seeing 72 lead changes isn't bad either even though the cars were running 20 mph under.
The main issue with what we are seeing with these superspeedway races now is that the drivers and crews don't like it, the fans don't like it, lifting and coasting around these race tracks just feels wrong and almost everyone is sold on the idea that the car is the problem, so what does NASCAR think they should do to fix it? Back in February NASCAR said they would investigate the situation with the teams as far as strategy. I don't think the strategy is the issue but the foundation that this strategy was built on which is this car has made track position just as important now than ever before. NASCAR seems to not want to change anything about the car though so with all of this being said , it's their call but everyone is hoping that NASCAR makes the right call. So that's where we go from here.
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