Top Row Seat - Martinsville
Dateline: 04/21/98NASCAR Trigger Happy?
It has always been NASCAR's policy to make every effort to get the race in on it's scheduled day. This weekend at Martinsville Speedway NASCAR officials officially postponed the race a half an hour before the scheduled start of the race. If this policy had been in effect at the Brickyard in 1995 we would never have seen the race that day. But NASCAR insisted that they would make every effort to get the race in and they did.
I understand that canceling the race early makes it easier on the television network that is covering the race but what about the fans? There were 80,000+ people at the racetrack who had paid good money to see the race. It was raining and I understand that that's the risk you take, but it would be a lot easier to swallow the ticket prices (although Martinsville is quite reasonable) if I thought that NASCAR was going to make an honest effort to get the show in.
I wasn't in Martinsville this weekend. But I feel sorry for those who didn't even have the possibility of seeing the race because NASCAR pulled the plug way too quickly.
Monday Morning Domination
I can't recall a race in recent NASCAR history where there was so little doubt about who was going to win the race. Right from the green flag Bobby Hamilton was awesome and he never looked back. One minor miscue in the pits only served to underline his dominance as Hamilton was able to move from 14th position right back into the lead in less than 50 laps.
The race was very exciting all day long from second place on back but there was never any doubt that this was going to be the day that Bobby Hamilton returned to victory lane.
Monday Morning D'oh!
I wish ESPN had stayed after the race long enough to interview Mark Martin. In case you missed it, during the race the caution came out while Mark was running near or in the top ten. Mark started to pit and realized too late that the pits were closed. He jerked the car back towards the racetrack but was too late, clipped the end of the pit wall and ruined his race day.
So what happened? Did Mark not realize that he was the only car headed for the pits? Did he think that no one else wanted to pit after the long green flag run they had just had? Where was the spotter?
It's mental mistakes like these that can be the difference between winning the Winston Cup Championship and finishing second.
Want to strap me to Ernie Irvan's front bumper? I'm available in the chat room every Wednesday night at 8pm Eastern to answer questions and defend my opinion.
