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Watching Races on TV

For me, watching a NASCAR race is one of the highlights of my week, although my parents are asleep for half of the race. I can’t take a nap mid race. What if something major happened and I didn’t see it? That wouldn’t be good would it? That’s why I stay awake the entire race. Also, there is a balance of pros and cons to watching a race on TV.   I’ll go ahead and talk about some of the cons first, just so I can end on a positive note. One of them is that you don’t get the full race experience. What do I mean by that? Well, you don’t get a view of the entire field of cars. The broadcast might be focused on one driver in particular, or it might be focused in on a pass for the lead, an accident, and of course the finish of the race, but if it’s not time for a restart or even starting the race, they don’t show the entire field. Another con, when Fox or Fox Sports airs a Cup race, is that the commentators sometimes make no sense, or they’re way too dramatic. Personally, I think they are that way because they’re older and still think that most of what applied to racing back in the 1980s and early 1990s still applies today. For example, Darrell Waltrip is known for making up one liners, as well as being overly dramatic. I don’t mind a little bit of throwback, but I do mind a lot. Also, since most of the audience today is a much younger generation, it’s sometimes hard for them to catch on to what older commentators throw out there. That is one of the reasons I look forward to the second half of the season, when races are aired on NBC or NBCSN. Those commentators know much more about keeping it together during a race, making sense when they speak, and doing their job period. Also, they’re relatively newly retired from the sport, whereas Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds retired from NASCAR nearly 20 years ago. NBC commentators know how to connect to the younger generation. And with that being said, lets move on to the pros of watching a race on TV. Although the broadcast only shows a few drivers at a time, it still keeps up with others. For example, when someone has a crash, they might put their interview on one side of the screen and the race on the other. That allows the viewer to see what it’s like on and off the track. Also, whoever is airing the race puts the lap times on the scoreboard so that fans can see how far behind the leader their driver is. Another good thing is that, for the most part, the commentators aren’t biased towards one driver. So when one driver crashes another and there’s a disagreement between the two drivers, the reporters don’t take sides rather than getting input from both sides to let the fans interpret the tension for themselves. I hope you all have enjoyed my blog about being right in a world turning left at nearly 200 miles per hour. It’s been fun talking about the best sport in America.

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NASCAR is a sport that is set apart from the rest of the sports world. Why? Because it is more family oriented. It has a familial atmosphere about it. This applies to both fans and drivers. Although drivers have to race each other, they feel as if they are one big family on and off the track. I’ll give you a great example of that. At Daytona in July of 2015, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was on his way to his second win of the season. When Junior crossed the start/finish line, Denny Hamlin, who finished second, did so sideways as he had been spun out by Kevin Harvick at the finish line. When that happened, Hamlin’s car spun around and hit Austin Dillon’s car, which was a few rows behind him, with enough force to send Dillon’s car in a 270 degree flip and into the catch fence. A massive multi-car pile up ensued after that. When Dillon’s car hit the catch fence, the whole front and back ends of the car came completely off. When it came to rest on the pavement below, all that was left of the car was the cab. Crew members from several pit crews came up to help Dillon get out of the car. In victory lane, Dale Junior told the media that he was scared for Dillon when he saw the crash happen. Even though drivers have to compete against each other, they never like seeing something like that happen. Another way that NASCAR is family oriented is in the race teams. A couple of teams in particular stand out: Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing. Rick Hendrick is one of the most well respected team owners in NASCAR, because he treats his drivers and his employees like family. He believes that the reason that Hendrick Motorsports is a success because of the people that have been involved with the team. Some of Richard Childress Racing is actually family. Austin and Ty Dillon are Richard Childress’s grandsons, and their dad, Mike Dillon also raced for Childress in the early 2000s. Dale Earnhardt wasn’t related to Childress, but they treated each other like brothers. As drivers work together on and off the track, whether they are on the same team or not, they feel part of a brotherhood. While sports like basketball and football are mostly centered around fame and glory, NASCAR is the most family oriented sport in all of America. It represents struggles and successes that American families have and more. That’s one of the reasons why I think NASCAR is the best sport in America. Above is a picture of four generations of the Petty family.

“45 Days until the Daytona 500.” The NASCAR Historian. Photo retrieved from     

        https://thenascarhistorian.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/45-days-until-the- 

        daytona-500/. 7 January 2016. Accessed 16 April 2017.

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Going to NASCAR Races

There is a major difference between going to a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, going to a NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and going to a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. I’ve been to all three and they are nowhere near alike. If you are at a truck race, you have more of a chance of seeing a crash. It’s more intense since most of the truck racers are teenagers. They are young and hungry for fame and glory, so they will do anything to win a race. I went to the truck race at Texas Motor Speedway in June of last year, and there was a moment during the race where William Byron, the eventual winner of the race, and Matt Crafton, a two-time truck series champion, raced side by side for the lead for seven or so laps. Neither truck had an edge on each other for those seven or so laps. You don’t see that in the Xfinity Series often, and never in the Cup Series. I went to both the Xfinity Series and Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend. About a month or two ago, Texas Motor Speedway not only repaved the track, but lowered the banking of turns one and two. Since there was no testing on the new surface after the remodeling of the track, it took a while for drivers to get used to it. During time trials and even qualifying, drivers in both series spun out or hit the wall coming off turn 2. The Xfinity Series race had more action in the beginning of the race, specifically on restarts. For example, they had not even gotten to lap 5 and Daniel Hemric spun out and hit the outside wall coming off turn 2. The back end of his car was destroyed, and for the rest of the race, he was going at minimum speed while all of the other cars passed him. Another incident happened when in turn 3, Darrell Wallace Jr. was spun out by Tyler Reddick due to Reddick’s car being loose after coming off turn 2. Wallace was sent into the side of Kevin Harvick as well as about two other cars. After that incident, the rest of the race went pretty much silent. Erik Jones ended up winning the race. The Cup Series race on the other hand was more action packed. In the past, we saw barely any passing for the lead, which mad the race boring to watch. This race was much more than that. With the new points format, each race of the season has three stages. When a driver wins a stage or finishes in the top ten in a stage, he gets the same amount of points for the position he was in. This changed up the racing in a major way. Everyone was scrambling to get to the front. What made the race even more exciting was that the crowd favorite, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was gunning for the top five as well as the lead. Ryan Blaney won the first two stages, but rather than dominating the race with a huge lead, he was constantly under fire from several drivers, including Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. When Stage 2 ended, Blaney had a bad pit stop and lost a lot of track position. On a late restart, Joey Logano stayed out on older tires while everyone else pitted for new ones, which put him in the lead for the restart. Surprisingly, Logano held his own for about ten laps, but Jimmie Johnson eventually passed him and went on to win his seventh race at Texas Motor Speedway. Going to a NASCAR race and seeing the action live is much more engaging than watching it on TV. It forces you to pay attention to what is going on, because you never know when there might be a crash or a major incident. Plus, you see some interesting characters at a racetrack.

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      Racing in NASCAR is not as easy as some people think it is. There’s more to it than just going fast and turning left. There’s this thing called the draft. The draft is the current of air coming off the back of race cars. The drivers can use the draft to their advantage, and you might say they can also be used by the draft.       Most of the time, drivers use the draft to pass other cars on the track. In a few special cases, they use the draft to keep their track position. For example, if they are racing at Daytona or Talladega, drafting is key to maintaining track position as well as moving up through the pack. When one driver gets behind another, the current of air coming off the leading car functions like an invisible rope, if you will, and pulls the car behind it with it. If a car gets out of line or gets shuffled out of line, it will get sucked further back in the pack. To pass, drivers can do what they call side drafting, where they get close to the rear quarter panel of the car in front of them, sucking that car back and allowing the driver to pass. Again, this happens at restrictor plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega. At other tracks, say Auto Club Speedway near Los Angeles, drafting is not as key as it is at restrictor plate tracks, but nonetheless it is still important. Let’s say a driver is leading the race and he comes up on lapped traffic. Lapped traffic is required by NASCAR to move aside so the leader can come by. However, there are some cases where if a car is about to be lapped, they will start blocking the leader to try to stay on the lead lap. When the leader gets side by side with that car, or gets boxed in by several lapped cars, the current of air from their car is slowed down, allowing the second place car to gain ground on the leader. In another scenario, if a driver tries to go between two other cars to gain a few spots, a move called “threading the needle,” all three cars get loose, and are in danger of spinning out. That happened in the spring race at Kansas Speedway last year, when Denny Hamlin tried to go between Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski, and ended up taking all three of their cars around, ending their race.       Drafting isn’t the only thing important to racing. At each track, there is a certain groove that makes the cars go faster. For example, at Bristol, the top groove up by the wall, while dangerous, is the fastest groove because it gives cars lots of momentum coming off the turns. At Daytona and Talladega, the bottom groove is the best since it gives cars momentum in the turns. When drivers try to form a groove, it wears their tires down and they have to pit for new tires, which loses them track position. It is important that drivers know what groove to use since it helps them pass cars and potentially win the race. Any time there is a race, even minor things like the time of day it is can affect the racing. If it is daytime, the sun is out and there’s no clouds, the track surface is very slick  and the cars get very loose from the moisture of the track. If it is nighttime, tires get better traction on the racetrack. Also, if the track surface is old, no matter what time of the day it is, it is more abrasive on the tires as opposed to the effects of a repaved track surface on tires.       These are just a few things that drivers consider when they get behind the wheel. Although there is a lot more to it than this, you get a better understanding of it if you watch races. NASCAR is actually more interesting than you think.

Bowles, Tom. “Earnhardt’s Daytona 500 victory puts wind in NASCAR sails.”  

      Athlon Sports & Life. Photo retrieved from https://athlonsports.com/nascar/  

      earnhardt-win-daytona-500-puts-wind-nascar-sails. 25 February 2014.  

      Accessed 1 April 2017.

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Darlington

      The Daytona 500: the biggest race of the year. The Coca-Cola 600: the longest race of the year. The Brickyard 400: well, that needs no introduction. All of these races are crown jewels in NASCAR, coveted by everyone. But the fourth and final crown jewel race of the year has outlasted all three of the previously mentioned races: the Southern 500. What makes this race so special is the track it is run on. Darlington Raceway is the second oldest track on the NASCAR tour. It is a track that makes fans reflect on the sport’s past. It is the first track in the history of NASCAR to be paved. But for drivers, Darlington is one of the toughest tracks on the NASCAR circuit, if not the toughest. It is known as the track “Too Tough To Tame” as well as “The Lady In Black.” When drivers make any slight contact with the wall, they receive the “Darlington Stripe” for the mark left by the wall on the side of the car. They say that if you don’t hit the wall at least once at Darlington during a race, you haven't tried hard enough. Guys like Yarborough, Petty, and even Earnhardt gave Darlington the respect it was due. Cale Yarborough, who grew up literally down the road from the track, has said many times that he favors his wins in the Southern 500 more than any Daytona 500 win because it was so special to him to win at a track that was so tough. If you ask any NASCAR driver which track they would rather win, besides Daytona, they would probably pick Darlington.       One of the best finishes in the history of NASCAR happened in 2003 in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington. Although Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led the most laps of the race, it was Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch battling it out for the win at the end. In the final couple of laps, Craven, who was three seconds behind Kurt Busch, had caught up to him. As both cars were hitting each other and hitting the wall, they still maintained their momentum. In turn four on the final lap, both cars got loose and got into each other, and both cars “traded sheet metal” as they raced for the checkered flag (motorsport.com, para. 1). When they got to the finish line, it was Craven’s car ahead of Busch’s by 0.002 seconds, the equivalent of roughly one quarter of a foot according to the naked eye. At a track whose future was in question, the finish of the race said that Darlington still had some fight left in her.       In 2011, a huge upset happened when Regan Smith won the Southern 500. During a yellow-flag caution period with five laps remaining, leader Carl Edwards pitted for two fresh tires, while Smith, 2012 series champ Brad Keselowski, and three time series champ Tony Stewart did not pit. This put those cars in the lead for the restart. One lap after the restart, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer got 3 wide, side by side by side, which resulted in Harvick getting into Busch, who was sent into Bowyer, who spun out and hit the inside wall. During the caution period that followed, Busch turned Harvick in turn 3, which led to flared tempers after the race. Meanwhile, on the final lap, Smith, who was on old tires, got loose and into the wall coming off turn two. Subsequently, Edwards had cracked the throttle in his car, which gave Smith “the break he needed to drive his No. 78 Chevrolet to victory” (SPEED SPORT staff, para. 6). This was his first and only victory to this day, as well as the first victory for Denver, Colorado based Furniture Row Racing.       In 2015, 10 years after the Southern 500 was replaced with other races for Labor Day weekend starting in 2005, NASCAR returned the Southern 500 to its traditional race weekend. To spice it up, Darlington announced a throwback theme for the race weekend. Most of the NASCAR drivers put throwback paint schemes from on their cars, such as the 1980s red, white, and blue Valvoline paint scheme that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. used to honor legends like Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker. Carl Edwards won the Southern 500 in 2015. In 2016, seeing that the throwback weekend was a roaring success, NASCAR and Darlington did it again. This time, they recognized drivers from the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as the paint scheme used by Jimmie Johnson to pay tribute to Dale Earnhardt when he used that scheme to win his first championship in 1980. Martin Truex, Jr. went on to win the race in 2016. This year, throwback weekend will celebrate the late 1980s, since that was a time of growing success for NASCAR.       Along with the suspense that goes along with races at Darlington, this track gives fans and drivers alike an opportunity to look back on the history of the sport and think about how it was instrumental in getting the sport to where it is today.

“Craven wins wild finish at Darlington.” motorsport.com. 17 March 2003. Web.   

        22 March 2017.

Speed Sport Staff. “UPSET CITY: Regan Smith Wins Southern 500.” SPEED  

        SPORT. 8 May 2011. Accessed 22 March 2017.

The Associated Press. “Craven, Darlington and that finish to remember.”  

        Portland Press Herald. Picture retrieved from http://www.pressherald.com/  

        2013/05/08/craven-darlington-and-that-finish-to-remember_2013-05-08/.  

        Accessed on 24 March 2017.

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The Brickyard 400

The oldest speedway in the United States is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There are two major races run there all year. One is the Indianapolis 500, and the other is the Brickyard 400. The Indianapolis 500 is like the Daytona 500 of IndyCar. The Brickyard 400 is the second biggest race on NASCAR’s schedule, trailing the actual Daytona 500. It is also the hottest race of the year, so drivers have to hydrate more for this race than they do for any other race. Nevertheless, to win at Indy automatically makes a legend out of a racer. Only one driver has won both the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500, and that was AJ Foyt. There is a tradition at this track that anyone who wins a race at Indy pays tribute to the history of the speedway by “kissing the bricks” at the start finish line. This tradition was started by NASCAR champ and two time Brickyard 400 winner Dale Jarrett in 1996, and has been carried on ever since (Yard of Bricks, para. 5). Only nine times has a NASCAR driver won the Brickyard 400 and the championship in the same year. The drivers to accomplish this are Jeff Gordon (twice), Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson (3 times), and Kyle Busch. Only three drivers have won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year: Dale Jarrett in 1996, Jimmie Johnson in 2006, and Jamie McMurray in 2010. Jeff Gordon has won the race the most, with five victories. But there is no one that wants to win here more than a driver from Indiana. Although Jeff Gordon was born in California, he spent most of his life in Indiana. At first, he wanted to drive in the IndyCar series, since he grew up racing sprint cars. However, since there were no more opportunities to go open wheel racing, he decided to try NASCAR out. In 1994, he won his first NASCAR then-Winston Cup race in the Coca-Cola 600, then backed it up by winning the inaugural Brickyard 400. But it was like Indianapolis came easy to him. It meant a lot more to Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart was born and raised in Indiana. Since he was a little kid, he has had a huge passion to race. He is not only a champion in NASCAR (2002, 2005, 2011), but also in IndyCar (1997), Sprint Cars (1995), Midget cars (1994-1995), and Silver Crown Cars (1995). There is nothing he can’t win. He had raced in the Indianapolis 500 as an IndyCar driver, but never won it. But the Brickyard 400 was a different story. He won the race in 2005 and 2007, and when he won it the first time, he and his pit crew climbed the outside catch fence between the track and the grandstands. It meant a lot to him to win that race. The next Indiana native to win the Brickyard 400 was Ryan Newman in 2013. It could not have come at a better time. Just a couple of weeks before, Newman found out that he would not be returning to the Stewart-Haas Racing team in 2014. He was looking to make a good impression on the other team owners. He did just that by winning at the Brickyard. Although he never made the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2013, he came close to winning his way in. That caught the eye of Richard Childress, who was the car owner for Dale Earnhardt, as well as his replacement Kevin Harvick, who would again be a replacement driver for Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing. Newman has not won a race since his brickyard win in 2013, but finished second in points behind Kevin Harvick in 2014. Although this race is not as major as the Daytona 500, it ranks a close second. Nonetheless, winning at Indy makes a legend out of a driver. For a lot of drivers, this race has been one that makes or breaks their drive for a championship, so they take this race very seriously.

“Yard of Bricks.” Indianapolis Motor Speedway.   

      https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/at-the-track/yard-of-bricks- 

      pagoda/yard-of-bricks

Pistone, Pete. “Jimmie Johnson Wins Fourth Brickyard 400.” MRN. 29 July  

      2012. Retrieved from http://www.mrn.com/Race-Series/NASCAR-Sprint- 

      Cup/News/Articles/2012/07/Johnson-Wins-Fourth-Brickyard-400.aspx? 

      SubSeriesID=3. Accessed 8 March 2017.

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The Daytona 500: The Super Bowl of NASCAR

If there is any race that NASCAR drivers want to win more than any other race, it is the Daytona 500. In anticipation of the 59th annual running of the Daytona 500 this Sunday, I want to celebrate by writing about some special moments in the big race. This race is the biggest race of the year, and to win it does not just make your season, or even your career. It stays with you for your entire life. While every other sport has its biggest event at the end of their seasons, the Daytona 500 is the very first race of the season. It is also the hardest race to win, even for Richard Petty, who has won the race seven times. Tony Stewart never won the race in 16 years of trying. Mark Martin never won the race in almost 30 years of trying. It took Darrell Waltrip 17 years to win the race. It took Buddy Baker 18 years to win the race. But the most publicized dry spell in the Daytona 500 was that of Dale Earnhardt. For 19 years, Earnhardt had won everything else there was to win at Daytona, which was a total of 30 times, but he had never won the Daytona 500. He finished in the top 5 and top 10, crashed, ran out of gas, and even blew a tire so many times. He had come so close to winning several times. In 1998, he finally snapped the 20 year drought and won the race. When he came down pit road on the way to victory lane, every man on every pit crew lined pit road to shake his hand because they knew how hard he had tried to win it. The Daytona 500 has also produced some unlikely winners in its 59 year history. Most recently was in 2011. Trevor Bayne was making only his second start in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. He had just turned 20 years old the day before. During the race, every driver wanted to draft with him because he had one of the fastest cars in the field. However, he was prepared to push someone else all the way to the checkered flag. With a couple of late race restarts, Bayne found himself in the lead with only two laps to go. Although he was the pusher the whole race, he was being pushed to the win, and thats exactly what happened. In only his second start, he had upset the entire field and won the biggest race in NASCAR, becoming the youngest winner of the Daytona 500. There have also been some exciting finishes in the 500, particularly when there is a last lap pass for the win. This past year was the most exciting. Two time winner Matt Kenseth had been leading for nearly 20 laps when the white flag flew, signaling the final lap of the race. As the pack of cars drove down the long back straightaway, Kenseth’s corporate teammate, Denny Hamlin, was getting a lot of momentum of speed towards the front. When they got to turns 3 and 4 of the track, Hamlin was already up to second place and challenging Kenseth, and Martin Truex, Jr., for the lead. Hamlin drove under Kenseth and bumped him out of the way and drove side by side with Truex all the way to the checkered flag. The result: the closest finish in Daytona 500 history with Hamlin emerging as the race winner by the length of a front bumper. I will say this. When I saw what was unfolding on TV, I jumped off of the couch and started shouting for Hamlin to win. It was a very intense finish. Another Daytona 500 that produced a last lap pass for the win happened in 2007. Mark Martin, who had never won the 500 before in nearly 30 years of trying, was in position to win it for the first time. On the last lap, however, Kevin Harvick came out of nowhere with a huge burst of momentum coming into turn 3 and 4. Coming out of turn 4, Harvick was already side by side with Martin and stayed that way to the finish line. While every other driver crashed behind them, Harvick and Martin crossed the line side by side, in that order. I have mixed emotions about that one. Excited that it was an intense finish, but not happy that Kevin Harvick won. If there is ever a favorite every time there is a race at Daytona, it is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was the master at racing at Daytona, and his son is no different. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has won the Daytona 500 twice, most recently in 2014. He has won at Daytona International Speedway a total of 17 times in his NASCAR career. In 2001, although the race was plagued by the death of his father in a last lap crash, Dale Junior finished a close second. Three years later in 2004, he passed Tony Stewart at the end of the race to win it for the first time. In 2010, Junior came from 10th to second in the final two laps only to be beat by Jamie McMurray. In 2012, he barely finished second to Matt Kenseth. In 2013, he came from outside the top five to 2nd on the last lap only to lose to his teammate Jimmie Johnson. In 2014, Junior dominated the second half of the race, and when the race came down to a green-white-checker finish, when there is a restart with just two laps remaining in the race, Junior had a big chunk of bear bond, or as I like to call it, duct tape for race cars, stuck on his air intake. When the race went back to green, Junior only had three laps until his engine blew up from overheating. He only needed two laps to win the race. That’s exactly what he did. Like the 2007 Daytona 500, there was a huge crash behind the leading cars, but Junior went on to win the race, 10 years after his first win in the race. However, since I can count the number of times Junior won a race between 2006 and 2013 on one hand, this win meant more than his first Daytona 500 win because it meant an end to his winless streaks. This Sunday, Junior is starting on the front row in second for the Daytona 500. What makes it even better is that he is getting back in the racer for the first time in half a year, getting over a huge concussion. Apparently, his “time off” hasn’t phased him yet, so I’m not counting him out as the favorite to win. As former NASCAR driver and current Fox Sports color commentator Darrell Waltrip says at the beginning of a race, “Boogity, boogity, boogity. Let’s go racin’, boys.” By the way, the picture above that shows Dale Earnhardt, Jr in victory lane after winning the 2014 Daytona 500 is foreshadowing to Sunday.

Bruce, Kenny. Dale’s day: Earnhardt, Jr. wins Daytona 500. 23 February 2014.   

         NASCAR. Retrieved from http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news- 

         media/articles/2014/2/23/dale-earnhardt-jr-wins-daytona-500-results- 

         standings-wreck.html. 24 February 2017.

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The Six Generations of Cars in NASCAR

Throughout NASCAR’s near-70 year history, there have been many changes when it came to the way the race car was built. There have been a total of six generations of car frames and designs. This is not just because of the changing of the times, but because the safety of the drivers through the ages has become more paramount. Lets start at the beginning, shall we. Gen 1 (1948-1966): The first generation of NASCAR race cars was known as the “strictly stock” generation. The cars raced in this era were factory built cars, with all of the accessories of the normal street versions of those cars. ESPN author Ed Hinton pointed out in his “Six Generations of NASCAR Cars” that ‘Many cars were actually bought off showroom floors and raced.’ Although there has been a lot of folklore to come out of this generation of cars, it was mainly tragic and few and far between. There just was not a lot of actual racing going on since the margin of victory was, for the most part, multiple laps. In other words, the winner of the race lapped every other racer several times over, which made it hard for those people to win a race. I wish I could say this was the worst thing that happened in this generation of race car. Two of NASCAR’s staple drivers were killed in crashes in 1964: Glenn ‘Fireball’ Roberts and Joe Weatherly. In the 1964 World 600 at Charlotte, Roberts was involved in a three car crash on the seventh lap. While Roberts was helped out of his burning car and survived the initial affects of the crash, he died of his burns six weeks later. That led NASCAR and Goodyear to develop a stronger fuel cell. Later that year, at the now defunct Riverside International Raceway in California, Joe Weatherly was in a crash in which his head went through the driver’s side window and hit the wall. The crash killed him instantly. This led NASCAR to mandate a “roll cage” which protects the inside of the car where the driver is. NASCAR also started looking into window nets in order to keep drivers’ heads inside the cars. This was effectively the end of the Gen 1 car. Gen 2 (1967-1980): Although the set up in this generation of cars was different, it was much safer. It also promoted much better racing. In terms of safety, the roll cage held strong in huge crashes, and it gave drivers more room to move around inside the cars. Also, the steel bumpers decreased the force of the impact felt by the drivers in crashes. This was the car that Richard Petty found his dominating streak in. In 1967, the first year that this type of car was driven, Petty won 27 races, 10 in a row. David Pearson won the majority of his 105 victories in this type of car. This was the type of car that earned NASCAR so many fans. When Bill France, Jr. succeeded his father as NASCAR president in 1972, TV networks began to take an interest. ABC had filmed part of the Daytona 500 for five years in 1978. In 1979, when the entire east coast was blanketed with snow, CBS showed the Daytona 500 from start to finish. This particular Daytona 500 was one for the books, due to the last lap crash and brawl between Cale Yarborough and brothers Bobbie and Donnie Allison. A total of about 16 million viewers watched the telecast of the race (Fielden and Hallman, 215). Towards the end of the 1970s, however, NASCAR decided to make a move from a full size cars to a smaller, more efficient cars. Gen 3 (1981-1991): Two words describe this generation of NASCAR’s race car: fast and tough. This car proved its toughness oh so many times with Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel. He would do anything from bump someone out of the way to even wrecking them, although he denied intentionally wrecking anyone. Earnhardt won four of his seven championships with this car. On the other hand, the car was stupid fast with drivers like Darrell Waltrip and “Awesome Bill” Elliott behind the wheel. Darrell Waltrip, although extremely cocky, was the definition of a speed demon in his heyday. He won his three championships in this car. In 1987, Bill Elliott set a qualifying record of 212.809 mph at Talladega Superspeedway, or as I like to call it “The world’s fastest junkyard.” During the race, Bobby Allison’s car went airborne and almost into the grandstands. This particular incident signified the last unrestricted race at both Daytona and Talladega. In 1988, NASCAR mandated the “restrictor plate,” a device between the carburetor and the air intake made to slow the car down at these tracks (Bonsor and Nice, pp 2-4). The restrictor plate promotes pack racing at Daytona and Talladega, which is why fans gravitate to those races every year. At those races, if someone is entered into the race, it does not matter if he has the worst car out there. He can still win the race. But there is also the “Big One,” or the multi-car crash that is the standard operating procedure at every restrictor plate race. When one car gets turned around, usually several other cars get taken with it. This intensity is why races at Daytona and Talladega are my favorites. We never know what’s going to happen. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Detroit manufacturers wanted to change up the body style so that they could sell the new brands of cars on the market. This brought a new generation of cars to NASCAR. Gen 4 (1992-2007): This was the generation that effectively took the word “stock” away from “stock car racing.” These cars were the most fine tuned aerodynamically that one touch from another car sent another one spinning. The only relation these cars had with Detroit manufacturers was the logo on the front of the car. And sure the number of fans rose, but not because of the cars. It was the drivers who gained NASCAR more fans. These cars actually did more harm than good in their early days. In 1994, while practicing for the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt’s close friend Neil Bonnett was killed in a crash. In 1996, at Talladega, Earnhardt himself suffered a broken sternum and fractured collarbone in a 20 car crash. In 2000, two drivers named Kenny Irwin, Jr, and Adam Petty were killed in practice crashes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The next year, on the final lap of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a head-on crash into the outside wall. This crash began “NASCAR’s slippage from peak popularity,” said Ed Hinton in his “Six Generations of NASCAR Cars.” It is only because of safety innovations that took place in the wake of the accident that there has not been a NASCAR fatality since that of Dale Earnhardt. For seven years, NASCAR was in the process of coming up with a new car design that would be safer for the drivers. This car was dubbed the “Car of Tomorrow.” Gen 5 “Car of Tomorrow” (2007-2012): Although this car is the most bemoaned by the fans, it was actually the safest car NASCAR had used up until that point. How? It kept drivers extremely safe during crashes, especially those at Daytona and Talladega. The worst crash in this car actually didn’t come at those tracks. It came here at Texas in 2008 during qualifying when Michael McDowell’s car pounded the outside wall and flipped corner over corner several times before coming to rest on all four tires. Miraculously, he got out without injury. This car was more of a throwback to the Generation 2 car in terms of safety. Drivers could hit and bang on each other’s cars and still keep going. It was that tough, and drivers took more risks with this car on the track for that reason. Unfortunately, NASCAR had to park this car and introduce a new car, which is the type of car they use today. Gen 6 (2013-present): This car brought back the brand identity that fans had been wanting for the past 20 years. However, this was not the only change that NASCAR brought with the Gen 6 car. The downforce, or simply the weight, that was on the previous generation of cars was cut in half with this new car, which made this car harder to handle. With this move, NASCAR had intended to give the racing back to the drivers and crews. They wanted to improve racing on intermediate sized tracks such as Texas, Charlotte, and Atlanta. They also succeeded in bringing back pack-racing at Daytona and Talladega. In the years before 2013, NASCAR had allowed the two car tandem at those two tracks, where two cars hooked up nose to tail and the rear car pushed the front car, giving that pair a massive competitive advantage at Daytona and Talladega. With this car, NASCAR did away with that. I still say they need to let the drivers feel the consequences of doing that—in other words, wreck—instead of putting penalties on them for doing the two car tandem. This car is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of safety and racing in general. The only thing that would make the racing better is if NASCAR put less restrictions on drivers and let them race. This year I think that is bound to happen, since there is a new points system that promotes harder racing. I think this year is going to be pretty intense to say the least.

Fielden, Greg, and Bryan Hallman. NASCAR the Complete History. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2010. Print.

Hinton, Ed. “Six Generations of NASCAR Cars.” ESPN. 16 January 2013. Retrieved from  http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8848213/nascar-gen-6-cars-us-look-back-previous-cup-cars. Accessed 16 February 

Six Generations of Speed: The Evolution of Stock Car Styles. ESPN. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8848213/nascar-gen-6-cars-us-look-back-previous-cup-cars

[chasechapman20-blog]

Jimmie Johnson Era and the Focus on Safety

Throughout the 21st century, NASCAR has put much more emphasis on safety. With the deaths of Richard Petty’s grandson Adam, Kenny Irwin, Jr, and then-Craftsman Truck series driver Tony Roper in 2000, NASCAR became a little more aware of some impending changes in safety equipment. The death of Dale Earnhardt made it clear that safety of the drivers is the number one priority. One of the new features NASCAR made mandatory is the head-and-neck restraint, or HANS, device, as well as a full-faced helmet. The cause of death for the previously mentioned drivers was a basilar skull fracture and/or a broken neck—Earnhardt had both. The reason behind the injury was that their heads and necks were not restrained from whipping back and forth in the event of a crash. Because of this NASCAR made the HANS device mandatory (Fielden and Hallman, 443). Just as the Petty era passed the torch to the Earnhardt era, the latter of the two would pass the torch even further. Jimmie Johnson is from El Cajon, California and, believe it or not, grew up racing on two wheels instead of four. His entire NASCAR career has seen nothing but success. He has never gone a year without a win. In 2004, he was in pure domination mode. He won 8 races that year, 4 of them in a span of 5 races. From 2006-2010, Johnson won five consecutive championships. He has won the Daytona 500 twice, the Brickyard 400 at Indy four times, the Southern 500 at Darlington twice, and the Coca-Cola 600 four times—three of them in a row. He is one of the only drivers to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year, and both times he won Daytona, he won the championship at the end of those years. In the 2011, he only won two races and struggled, but in 2012, he tied two other drivers for the most wins. In 2013, Johnson won both Daytona races and four others to win his 6th championship. In Early in 2015, Johnson looked like an early contender to win the championship. He won four races in the first half of the season, but the second half was dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing. Yes I mean the Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. That team won the championship that year with Kyle Busch, or big-eared Busch as I call him. 2016 was an up and down year for Johnson. Although he won twice early on, it took him seven months to win a third time. When he finally did win, he advanced himself to the next round of the Chase, which is NASCAR’s version of the playoffs. When the next round started, he won at Martinsville, making him eligible to race for a seventh championship. Who else has won seven championships? Only Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. The race that would decide the championship was in Miami, of all places. all throughout that race, it looked like Jimmie did not have a chance at winning. He started at the back of the starting grid due to an unapproved adjustment on his car before the race. Although he passed the majority of the cars in the field, his car just could not pass the other three championship contenders. That was until there was a restart with 10 laps to go. On that restart, one of the contenders, Joey Logano, was trying to pass below Carl Edwards, and Edwards, with the intention of blocking, moved down and accidentally made contact with Logano, which spun him out and wrecked him. This resulted in the big crash known as the ‘Big One,’ and a red flag that lasted about 30 minutes. This meant Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch were the only legitimate championship contenders left. But on the restart, Johnson got ahead of Busch, and after another restart, took the lead on a two lap green-white-checkered flag finish, and went on to win the race and his seventh championship, tying Earnhardt and King Richard for the number of championships. Whether you love him or hate him, Jimmie Johnson is truly the best driver of this generation of NASCAR drivers.

Fielden, Greg, and Bryan Hallman. NASCAR the Complete History. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2010. Print.

“Victory Lap: Homestead Miami Speedway.” Richmond International Raceway.  23 November 2016. Retrieved from https://frontstretch.com/tag/jimmie-johnson/ Accessed 8 February 2017.

[chasechapman20-blog]

The Earnhardts

When the name Earnhardt comes to mind, you might think of the words ‘outgoing’ or ‘intimidating.’ Well, none sticks out to me more than just plain ‘tough.’ He was one of the toughest, if not the toughest, race car drivers that ever lived. You think Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty are tough? Think again. When Earnhardt came on the scene, even Yarborough and Petty were intimidated by him. But lets take a look at how he became that way. Earnhardt was born in 1951 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. His father Ralph was a legend on the dirt tracks around the Carolinas. He was aggressive, bumping people out of the way to try and win races. Now some people might ask why. Well, because it was either win races, or work in the local textile mill. Either way, he was desperate to provide for his family, and he didn’t want to work in a mill that had horrible temperatures and wages that were too low to feed a mouse. Dale was the same way, except all he wanted to do was race. In 9th grade, Dale dropped out of high school simply because he wanted to race. He ended up working in the mill for the next couple of years. It was after that couple of years that Dale started racing on the dirt tracks. But he also had another dilemma. He, like his dad, had a wife and son to provide for. And he was not even 18 yet. Nowadays, its not even legal to be married under 18. Due to the fact that he was not making enough money to support his family, Dale’s marriage fell through. Not long after that he married again. This marriage produced two children, one of whom, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is now a two-time Daytona 500 winner and 14 time consecutive most popular driver. Unfortunately, this marriage ended the same way the last one did, and for the same reason. I can count the number of times Earnhardt started a NASCAR race from 1975-’78 on two hands. But in 1979, he was hired to race full time, and from then on, the rest is history. The first two years in his full time career, Dale was a rookie that raced like a veteran. Although he only won a single race in 1979, he still won Rookie of the Year. Only a year later, he won his first of seven championships. To this day, he is the only driver to win Rookie of the Year and a championship in back to back years. He was very cocky, like most racers. From then until 1985, Earnhardt struggled. Why? Another driver named Darrell Waltrip was in domination mode. He was also extremely cocky, even more so than Earnhardt was. However, over the next decade, it was almost like Earnhardt’s career turned a full 180 degrees. In 1986 and ’87, he won his second and third championships, and no wonder. When he moved to Richard Childress Racing in 1984, the odds turned in his favor. Earnhardt’s driving style was too rough, so Bill France, Jr told him to take it easy. Nevertheless, the sight of his black #3 car in the rearview mirror still scared other drivers. He became known as “The Man in Black” and most famously “The Intimidator.” In 1990, ’91, ’93, and ’94, Earnhardt won the rest of his seven championships. He was the obvious favorite to win at every track. In a 1990 Charlotte Observer article, Ron Green pointed out that “More and more wear his color, black. It was inevitable.” With Richard Petty’s inevitable retirement nearing, “The fans have found a man to fill the void being left by the aging Petty (Charlotte Observer, 114).” But his track statistics were not the only reason he was loved by the fans. He, like Petty, was a man of the people, and even more so than Petty was. He truly represented the working class, because he was a part of the working class, and he never lost connection with that class of people. He liked working on his farm, and was an avid outdoorsman. I love hunting, so I can connect with that side of him. Earnhardt’s driving style was too rough in the 1980s, so Bill France, Jr told him to take it easy. Nevertheless, the sight of his black #3 car in the rearview mirror still scared other drivers. In a 1991 Charlotte Observer Article, Tom Higgins, who had covered Dale’s career from the beginning, claimed that “‘The Intimidator’ is becoming one of the most widely used nicknames because of his charging, aggressive driving style (Charlotte Observer, 125).” Although he had been told to take it easy, Earnhardt was still a little aggressive, but he knew how to control that aggression. Dale Earnhardt might have won seven championships and a large amount of races, but there was one race that seemed to get away from him every time he raced it: the Daytona 500. The Daytona 500 is the biggest race that NASCAR does every year. It was also the first. Earnhardt had won everything there is to win at Daytona, and countless times at that. But he’d never won the Daytona 500. It’s not that he had never won it that concerned him, but the fact that he had come so close so many times, only to be overtaken by someone else late in the race. That went on for 19 years. In 1998, he had a different mindset. For one, he was inspired by John Elway, who a couple of weeks before the 500, had finally won the Super Bowl for the first time in his career. He, like Earnhardt, had won everything in football, except the Super Bowl until 1998. That was the case for Dale Earnhardt in the Daytona 500. He had run out of gas. He had cut a tire on the last lap. He had crashed towards the end of the race. He had finished second several times. It seemed like every time it was his race to lose, that’s exactly what happened. Not in 1998. This time, Earnhardt showed no signs of wilting under pressure to win it in his 20th try. With 2 laps to go, there was a wreck on the back straightaway, which meant they had to race around to the white flag and caution flag. That just about sealed the deal for Earnhardt. After 20 years of trying, Dale Earnhardt had finally won the Daytona 500. What made it better was the ovation he got from every man on every pit crew. On his way to victory lane, all the pit crews lined pit road to congratulate him on finally breaking through. That still gives me chills to this day. The next two years, he didn’t slow down. And even better, he let his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., race for him. In 2000, Junior won his first race here in Texas of all places. And he won NASCAR’s All Star race as a rookie. I’m still in shock that he didn’t win rookie of the year that year. The senior Earnhardt finished 2nd in the points standings, so he was an automatic favorite to win the championship in 2001. That never came to be. In the 2001 Daytona 500, while his drivers Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr. were racing for the win on the last lap, Dale Sr. got turned sideways in turn four of the speedway. He collected another car and went head on into the wall. Although Michael Waltrip won the race, his first ever, he was only able to celebrate for about 30 minutes. Earnhardt was pronounced dead an hour after his crash, although the crash killed him instantly. While fans mourned his death throughout the next few months, the healing was just beginning for a few drivers. Just the week after, one of Dale’s drivers won the race at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. A few weeks later, Earnhardt’s replacement driver, Kevin Harvick, in only his 3rd start won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a side-by-side finish with Jeff Gordon. But in July of that year, NASCAR returned to Daytona. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was the favorite to win the race. He did not disappoint the fans. In the final 6 laps, Junior looked more like his dad as he was charging towards the front. Within 2 laps, he had taken the lead, and he never looked back. When Junior won the race, a sense of healing swept over the NASCAR community. Finally the fans were able to move on. Dale Junior went on to win several more races in his career, including two Daytona 500s. For the past 14 years, he has been voted most popular driver. But no one has left as big a mark on NASCAR as Dale Senior has. He’s still as popular today as he was while he was alive.

Charlotte Observer. Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror. Sports Publishing Inc.,  

          2001.

"Dale Earnhardt." 2017. The Famous People website. Feb 3 2017, 02:00

          Retrieved from http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/dale- 

          earnhardt-4715.php#hCk9R5XcHAX2XxiT.99

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Humble Beginnings and the Petty Dynasty

There are some people who say that all NASCAR is is going fast and turning left. At least, that’s what they say to me. Well I say there is a lot more going on behind the wheel of that race car than that. I like to think that the reason that people think that is either because they used to watch NASCAR and got bored with it, or they tried to get into it but not enough. Maybe if they had a better understanding of what NASCAR is all about, they would view NASCAR differently. Did you know that some of the first NASCAR drivers were bootleggers? Yes. I mean those people who made and smuggled illegal moonshine. That’s what life for these guys was like during prohibition up until World War II. What made these people different was that they had cars that could go breakneck speeds, usually to try and avoid revenue agents and cops. But if I was one of them, I would think, “Hey, we got fast cars. Why don’t we race them?” Well thats exactly what they did. Several bootleggers across the southeastern US started racing their cars. Eventually, a man from Daytona Beach named Bill France got wind of this and decided to stage his own races (Fielden and Hallman, 8). That is, until December 7, 1941. When Pearl Harbor got attacked, everything factory and business in America was used to help the war effort. “Big Bill” had to put the racing business on hold for four long years. That must have been hard for him. I know it would be hard for me. I’m extremely competitive, and when I can’t compete in something, I get bored. But he also loved his country, and I can’t say I blame him. Most of his drivers were overseas in Europe or Asia fighting the Japanese or the Nazis. He didn’t have anything else to do so why not help America win the war? Well, when the Allies did win the war, it was time to get back to racing. It wasn’t even two and a half years after the war ended, and Bill France was already drawing up plans for NASCAR. In December 1947, he and a group of his friends and drivers got together and formed NASCAR in Daytona Beach. Now, many of the tracks they raced on back then were not concrete or asphalt. They were dirt tracks (Fielden and Hallman, 9). It was all about winning any way you could. In 1948 and ’49, a World War II veteran named Red Byron won the first two NASCAR championships (Fielden and Hallman, 19-21). And he was crippled. During World War II, in the Battle of the Bulge, his aircraft was shot down. In the hospital, he made sure the doctors didn’t amputate his leg. I don’t blame him. I would still want to keep my leg, especially if I was going to race when I got home. How else would I gas the car? Although he was the star of the show those first two years, a small town man from North Carolina named Lee Petty, the father of “The King” Richard Petty, would dominate NASCAR throughout the next decade. Lee Petty was the man to beat all throughout the 1950s. He won 54 races and 3 championships. He is best known for the way in which he won the first Daytona 500. But we’ll get to that in a second. Lee Petty didn’t win all of those races by being passive. He was extremely competitive, which he passed down to Richard Petty. When Lee felt like he was being cheated, he would let you know about it. He fought for what was his, especially when it came to race wins. Now, lets talk about that Daytona 500 he won. In 1959, the 2.5 mile Daytona International Speedway opened for business. Although the race was wreck free, the finish was still intense. It was between Lee Petty and journeyman Johnny Beauchamp, who crossed the finish line side by side. Since there was no immediate footage of the finish, Petty wasn’t declared the official winner until a few days later, when Bill France got a hold of a picture of the finish taken from the track’s infield (Fielden and Hallman, 120-121). That same year, Petty won his third championship. Two years later, Petty and Beauchamp were involved in a crash that sent both cars over the guard rail and out of the speedway. Beauchamp was just fine, but Petty was left half-dead, which meant the his racing career was pretty much done. That didn’t mean that the Petty family was done racing. When you think of Richard Petty, you think of pure domination. Domination was Richard Petty’s middle name, because he won 200 races, seven championships, and seven Daytona 500s to name a few. Most of the records that he set have still not been reached, and likely never will be. Only two other drivers have reached their seventh championship: Dale Earnhardt and as of last November, Jimmie Johnson. Petty earned his nickname “The King” by winning 27 races in 1967, 10 of which were in a row. On the other hand, when he was off the track, he was a man of the people. I don’t know if I will ever get the chance to meet him, but it would be amazing to get the chance. It is said that he had an ability to make every fan feel like the greatest Richard Petty fan alive. In a 1992 New York Times article named “Auto Racing; Petty’s Subjects Show Appreciation,” Joseph Siano included a quote from him that said, “When a fan’s stood in line a couple of hours, you gotta take a little time with him.” I don’t like long lines, but I think if I was in line to meet Richard Petty, its worth the long wait. One of the most defining moments of Petty’s career in my opinion is when he got his 200th win. The context of the day could not have been better. It was Independence Day of 1984, and just like every year, NASCAR was back in Daytona that weekend. But this particular race was pretty special because US President Ronald Reagan was going to be there. Reagan was also supposed to be the grand marshal for the race, but he gave the command to start the engines on Air Force One on the trip to Daytona. If I was a race car driver and I got wind that the President of the United States was going to be at the race, not only would I be nervous, but I would want to do well. That’s exactly what The King did. He beat fellow driver Cale Yarborough to the line in a photo finish. Two milestones were celebrated in victory lane that day: Reagan being the first US president to attend a NASCAR race, and Richard Petty getting his 200th win (Fielden and Hallman, 326). After that, Petty never won again, and in 1992, he drove his final season in NASCAR. He now owns Richard Petty Motorsports. It would be cool to meet him one day, just so I can say that I met King Richard.

Works Cited:

Fielden, Greg, and Bryan Hallman. NASCAR the Complete History.  

          Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2010. Print.

Siano, Joseph. “Auto Racing; Petty’s Subjects Show Appreciation.” New York  

          Times. 10 November 1992. Web. 25 January 2017.

“By the Numbers: Most wins per track.” Nascar.com. 2016.  

          http://galleries.nascar.com/gallery/712/by-the-numbers-most-wins-per- 

          track#/7 Accessed May 2006.