A Cautionary Debate

Currently, there is a debate going on in the NASCAR world of whether the sport needs more cautions to make the racing exciting, and why there are fewer cautions. As far as why the races are not exciting for the fans I think is summed up best by Jimmie Johnson. He said, basically, that you need to be a half second or at the least a third of a second faster than the other driver to pass. If you're .1 or .2 faster, you can't make the pass. NASCAR has, for the most part, been running the same car since 2007, almost five years old. While not as bad as how long IndyCar ran their same car, it is pretty apparent that the teams have pretty much figured out these cars.

NASCAR has gone a long way in recent years with making the point system easier to understand, and the Chase a little more exciting for those in the 10-20 ranks in points. As with ABC and ESPN having a terrible airing of the first 2012 IndyCar race, it is possible that a race, for fans at home, can be boring solely because the broadcast station is doing a piss poor job. However, for those who watch DirecTV's HotPass, the reality is that the racing really is more boring.

In the case of Dale Jr. in the past couple 1.5 mile tracks, the last thirty laps or so were incredibly boring. A major factor was there was no one around him. There was no cars within sight, and the spotter was telling him the #5 car was a full straightaway back. Essentially, Dale Jr. was riding around waiting for the checkered flag to fly.

Cautions do make races more exciting, but side-by-side racing can be boring too. The key is proximity. Races are AutoClub speedway in California are incredibly boring because there's five car widths separating supposed "side-by-side" racing. Bumping someone out of the way is not really fair, and it may create drama for pay-back, but as shown recently in the K&N and Nationwide races at Richmond, you can have a side-by-side, bumping and banging, leaning on the other driver, kind of finish that is exciting without tearing up the car much and definitely not knocking the guy out of the race.

So fans, like myself, do not want to see crashing at Bristol, we just want to see some close proximity. Sometimes the thrill and risk of a wreck is better than an actual wreck. If the case with Jimmie Johnson is true, we may not see exciting racing until 2013 when the newly designed cars take to the tracks.