| There's more to road course racing then just the number of passes for the lead. Some forget, the true roots of NASCARŽ racing really is road course racing. |
Many of the first NASCARŽ "stars" came to the sport with a background of running shine, on the back roads fraught with left-right curves and hills. Only the best survived and some modern fans find it hard to accept their favorite driver can't handle something more difficult then just turning left. As a result we often hear the cry to remove road courses from the NASCARŽ circuit. It would be a true shame to remove what are only 2 races in a 36 race series, the only 2 races that separate the men from the boys. In all fairness, in my opinion, Darlington and Pocono do that as well and we keep hearing rumors of cutting those tracks back to just one race.
There is more to road course racing then only passes. Only one who has witnessed a road course race live can understand. TV doesn't cut it when it comes to road racing. There are sounds such as listening to the drivers shift going down a long straight, paticularly during qualifying when you know who is doing it. It's beautiful when done right and a belly laugh when someone misses a shift. There are views and angles the camera crews rarely capture. Rusty Wallace drifting back and forth through the esses or taking a slide set into a corner. Richard Petty taking a line no one else dared to go, simply trying to find something that worked well for him, something he never really mastered although he did improve a great deal.
Then there was the best, or at least if he had lived would have by now been recognized as the best on the road course, Tim Richmond. He didn't finesse his car through the corner, he threw it in there. This tactic would have relegated most drivers to a trip in the hay bales or tire wall. Tim made it stick. I watched him do it time after time from the outside of turn 8 when Tim won one of his last races at Riverside. Right front off the ground as he bounced it off the inside berm of the off cambered 170° turn 8.
Let's not forget as well, some of the top names of the sport won their first race on the road course. Bill Elliot, Ricky Rudd and of course, Tim Richmond, all won their first W.C. race on the road course. Steve Park was recognized for his potential by Dale Earnhardt for a non WC performace on a road course. Apparently Dale thought those skills demonstrated on the road course meant something.
No,,, passing isn't the whole story when it comes to road racing. Watching the few who are skilled enough to go left and right, to brake hard for a tight corner at the end of a fast straight without getting crossed up, to go up through the gears without exploding the gear box or over revving the engine, to throw a 3200 lb stock car into a corner and come out on top, yeah this is it. To see the drivers who shine on roundy rounds showing how limited their skills are when they can't turn right or shift, watching them slide foolishly across the dirt or grass when blowing a corner, yeah! There's a lot more to road racing and it belongs in NASCARŽ.
Don't forget, NASCARŽ WINSTONŽ Cup represents, maybe only in vague appearance, what we drive on the,,, "Road". They "DO" belong on the road course.
Nevada Walrus
Bob Solesbee (the other Bob)
nevadawalrus@webtv.net