Las Vegas
Dateline: 3/9/99This week NASCAR sent both the Busch Grand National and the Winston Cup drivers out west to make good on their unfulfilled promise of great racing from last year. After this weekend's great side-by-side racing, both LVMS and NASCAR can hold their heads up a little higher.
Last year the Winston Cup drivers put on a yawner as Team Roush drove away and hid from the rest of the field in a race that featured very little actual racing. But this year NASCAR has tossed out the "5 + 5" rule that had made the cars harder to handle and allowed the teams to race with a higher spoiler and a larger front air dam. This made the cars significantly more stable and resulted in the great side-by-side racing that we witnessed this weekend.
NASCAR can be a little slow in understanding how to fix the problem, but they usually do the right thing.
A Question Of Desire
What ever happened to dedication and determination? Tenacity? Overcoming adversity? Ricky Craven parked his Winston Cup car and settled for a 39th place finish just because the power steering pump failed. Sure, power steering is a nice feature that makes your life easier, but it is certainly not a requirement to driving the car. This total lack of dedication and desire explains why Craven lost his Hendrick ride and is just barely hanging onto the sport.
On the other hand, at Richmond recently Mark Martin had the power steering go out on his car. But instead of parking it he continued to wrestle the car around the tight three-quarter mile track. He crawled out of the car at the end of the race sore and exhausted, but he had salvaged a decent finish and gained a great deal of media and fan attention.
If you are a sponsor looking to dump millions of dollars into a team, who are you going to sponsor?
Think Craven did the right thing? Think that the "5 + 5" rule should be reinstated? Stop by the bulletin boards and let the world know what you think.
