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 The rain-shortened race at the Michigan International Speedway won
by Kurt Busch was the fourth in the last eight Sprint Cup races that
have been interrupted, curtailed or postponed by the weather.
But that's not been the only bummer of the spring and summer.
At Michigan, for example, Kyle Busch crashed and hit a SAFER barrier
in Turn 4, but it was too little, too late. His accident was a
reminder that the sport's safety was called into question due to the
absence of SAFER barriers in critical locations during Speed Weeks
when Busch hit an unprotected wall at Daytona, breaking a foot and
his lower leg. Soon afterward, it became clear that other tracks had
"gaps" in their wall coverage, despite handsome TV contracts that
kept those tracks profitable throughout the Great Recession.
The result of this ongoing oversight was that NASCAR lost one of its
biggest stars and most interesting personalities for 11 races.
Now, after finishing 43rd at Michigan, Busch's comeback effort will
be a steep climb if he hopes to break into a Top 30 position in the
points needed to get to the postseason. Most likely, the Joe Gibbs
Racing driver will miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Jeff Gordon's farewell tour, meanwhile, is starting to look less
like a glorious good-bye. After starting the season as if his car
still had those flames painted on the side, four-time champion
Gordon has led only one lap in the last five races, has bickered
with his crew chief via radio and is still looking for a victory
that will qualify him for the Chase even though his teammates have
won five times.
Like rain, the sanctioning body can hardly be blamed for one star
driver's competitive slump. The behemoth in the room for NASCAR has
been a tepid response by drivers and fans to reductions in
horsepower and aerodynamic downforce for the Gen 6 cars. The cars'
lap times are just as fast due to less drag on the straights, but
they don't generate enough of the anticipated overtaking.
During the rain delay at Michigan, any viewer dropping in on the
coverage of the IndyCar race in Toronto saw plenty of overtaking
among drivers in a new generation of cars despite the narrow
concrete canyons of the street circuit. These cars also worked well
with their oval kits during the Indy 500 when it came to overtaking
after some serious safety issues were addressed during practice. The
excitement about this year's Indy race - reflected by TV ratings -
was a turning point in the judgment on NASCAR's own
less-than-successful efforts to introduce more overtaking.
The current plan according to a variety of sources and public hints
from NASCAR is to reduce aerodynamic downforce even further without
radical physical changes to the cars. The bellypans underneath and
behind the front bumpers will be reduced as well as the rear
spoiler. The new regulations are expected to be introduced at the
Kentucky Speedway in the second weekend of July, but the question
remains when this configuration might be used after the Kentucky
race. Will it be used on all intermediate ovals between 1.0 miles
and 1.5 miles?
At Michigan, the rain meant there was never enough consistent
running on the 2.0-mile oval to judge how well the lower downforce
cars worked during this year's first visit to the Irish Hills. Kyle
Busch, who was not available for comment, appeared to lose the
handle on his Toyota midway in the corner after scoring a victory in
the Xfinity race the day before. It's difficult to imagine less
downforce at Michigan, where multiple grooves have often led to
side-by-side racing and overtaking, being useful.
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What about Goodyear and its tires? Drivers were expecting softer
rubber and some "give up" as stints went along to play a role in the
ebb and flow of races this year. But Goodyear has stuck with
conservative compounds, perhaps wisely declining to have the success
of the series rest squarely on its ability to get tire compounds
close to unsafe without going over the edge.
Give NASCAR credit for devising a method for adjusting the front and
rear to keep cars balanced while dropping roughly 1,000 pounds of
aerodynamic downforce for the Kentucky race. And it deserves credit
for its willingness to test and implement a course correction in
midseason that doesn't require extensive tire development or a lot
of physical testing by all the teams.
The current cars are problematic because the rules induce "momentum"
racing; there's just enough downforce for drivers to keep the power
down all the way around the track. That leaves little in reserve for
overtaking, which now usually takes place on restarts with fresh
tires or because a driver loses momentum due to a mistake.
The team owners have invariably played their hole card in this high
stakes poker game, complaining about the costs of rule changes. But
they continually test in the three wind tunnels in the Mooresville,
N.C., area and run computer simulations whether there's a rule
change or not. The only difference might be the wind tunnels have
recently been running more cars during the overnight graveyard
shifts.
The team owners and drivers do have a fair argument when it comes to
the lack of transparency by NASCAR about where, when and for how
long the rule changes will be in effect. As usual, the sanctioning
body reserves the right to change the rules at its own discretion
and publicly commit to its intentions on its own timeline.
If this is an effort to somehow avoid looking arbitrary, it's not
working.
Overall, the Busch brothers' family saga continues, with Kurt and
Kyle hitting the highest of highs and lowest of lows - this time on
the same day at Michigan. Older brother Kurt earned the victory by
being fastest and was lucky a pit strategy by Kyle Larson, who
stayed out of the pits in hopes he would be leading when the final
rains came, didn't pan out.
Given that Kurt looked as if he might not race this season due to
domestic abuse allegations that ultimately lacked credible evidence,
he is on top of the pursuit of a second championship after becoming
only the third driver this season to score multiple victories.
Younger brother Kyle won his first race of the year on Saturday and
then lost much hope of a Sprint Cup championship on Sunday due to
driver error and likely a lack of familiarity with this year's car
configuration.
There was a time when the fates of drivers and their varied
personalities loomed largest among fans interested in NASCAR. Not as
much these days. That's due to a focus on the lap-by-lap
entertainment value of races that arrived with the omnipresence of
TV.
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