Common Templates, But No Common Sense
By M.L. Morgan
Well, race fans, Mike Helton, King William II's lead henchman, has allowed it to be leaked that Nascar will provide common body templates for use by all teams by the Winston 500 in October. It seems to me Nascar is waving the white flag, admitting their incessant rule changes, ostensibly done in a quest for parity, have failed.
We have no argument with that assumption. We don't agree the common template is the correct solution, but we will address that topic (again) in a later piece.
We think Nascar, in their infinite arrogance, has too long sought to create parity in areas over which they truly had little control, such as these common templates. The car builders are very smart, and each new Nascar edict could be circumvented in a matter of hours. Another example is the many clever ways the engine builders found to skirt the 'intent' of the restrictor plates. By the time Nascar uncovered their "tricks", it was too late.
Let's get to the common sense part of this editorial. One of the sorest, and most expensive spots to every team, each race, is the qualifying procedure. While Nascar has been working on common templates, the current qualifying system has been screaming for attention. We heard - don't know why Nascar didn't.
For those who may not know, we'll explain the current system very quickly. On the first day of qualifying, all teams go out and run their qualifying lap(s) and the 25 quickest cars are in the field for the race. Then there is second-day qualifying. Now, the teams who didn't already qualify can try to improve their times. Or, they can sit on their first-day times. The 36 fastest speeds are usually safe. And then the Provisional Starts, one of our sorest subjects, kicks in.
Race Views, as well as many of the Cup teams, think this system of 2-day qualifying, should be eliminated. It's a bunch of crap. It shouldn't take 2 days for 50 or so cars to qualify. Maybe 2 hours, but not 2 days.
It's an absurd, unnecessary expense to all the teams. And it's time for Nascar to eliminate it.
One-day qualifying will help all the teams who have made the race by allowing them to concentrate on race-day set-ups on Saturday's, instead of the marginal teams trying to qualify and depriving the already-qualified teams of track time in which they can improve their race set-ups.
We happen to think these multi-million dollar teams should come to the track ready to race. These same multi-million dollar teams are ultimately funded by race fans. If you buy a ticket, or buy a box of Corn Flakes, even if it's just for the jigsaw puzzle, you are paying for a first-class product. Two-day qualifying is taking away from what the fans are paying so dearly for.
You already know we don't agree with the provisional's. But we know this will change. Even Nascar cannot ignore fan outrage forever.
One-day qualifying will improve the racing. In an era when fans are forced to pay $175.00 for a seat in the nose-bleed section of Talladega, we think the fans should get the best racing possible.
We'll talk about these insane ticket prices real soon. Trust me.
Mike Morgan
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