I’m not a gear head.
Maybe that’s a strange statement for someone who covers auto racing to make but I’m not ashamed. While I understand the rudimentary workings of a combustion engine and some of the peripheral nuts and bolts around stock cars, nobody will ever mistake me for Smoky Yunick.
But my job is to understand as much as possible about the technical rules and regulations that govern auto racing and convey the information to those who follow the sport.
Which brings us to the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR rules package announced this week. You can read for yourself all the details of what will be done to Cup cars next season with the new engine specifications and subsequent aerodynamic modifications that will accompany those changes. It’s not an understatement to call the decision to head down a path of reduced horsepower, slower speeds and potentially new drafting capabilities a drastic change. Certainly there is still an element of the fan base interested in by what means NASCAR hopes to achieve those goals.
See Also: NASCAR Reveals 2019 Rules Package
However I can’t help to wonder if there is an even larger group of fans in this day and age that don’t care so much about the technical nuances as much as about the kind of competition that takes place on the track. You know, like the actual racing?
All of auto racing is trying to find a way to reinvent themselves if need be in search of more relevancy. NASCAR, still the largest and most successful form of racing in this country if not the world, is not immune.
Take last week’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Only a handful of years ago the thought of someone building a hybrid road course-oval track at an existing facility like CMS, which has hosted NASCAR stock car racing for half a century, would have seemed ludicrous. There were many doubters when Speedway Motorsports Inc. announced its plans to go forward with the idea and some critics were still out in full force heading into last weekend.
Then the races happened and it created a buzz around the sport that has been in short supply in recent years. The Roval accomplished a number of things but most importantly put freshness and entertainment in the spotlight. It was a thinking outside the box idea that struck a chord around the sport – warts and all – and provided something different.
In many ways the 2019 Cup rules package is attempting to do the exact same thing. Does it really matter if tapered spacers, smaller radiator pans, different spoilers and aerodynamic ducts are used if it creates entertaining and compelling racing? Racing “purists,” that increasingly rare breed of motorsports enthusiast who thumb their noses at anything they feel creates competition “artificially,” are already crying foul at the rules. It’s their prerogative but I have yet to have anyone be able to show or explain to me a “pure” form of auto racing in 2018.
Several drivers have voiced their concern about this path including Brad Keselowski who said it will force drivers away from NASCAR. “They’ll pick a different sport,” Keselowski said last summer when discussion of implementing such a package was broached. “That won’t happen overnight. That will happen over time. I think that would be a tragedy to this sport because the best race car drivers want to go where they can make the biggest difference to their performance. There’s no doubt that you make less of a difference in that configuration.’’
Drivers are entitled to their opinions and no doubt they will help shape the minds’ of some fans.
Slowing down cars for the sake of better racing isn’t a foreign concept but one that appears to be the main reason for opposition to the new rules. But while speed matters and always will, the difference between 195 mph and 175 mph is not discernable to the naked eye. If the end result is closer racing, tighter fields and perhaps less dependency on “clean air” – the true four letter word for so many fans, so be it.
And as NASCAR officials stated Tuesday if the direction attracts new manufacturers who currently are not willing or able to pony up the outrageous dollars needed to develop an engine around the current somewhat prehistoric engine parameters all the better.
There will be a lot of hand wringing, testing, conversation and development before the new rules debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway next February. It’s not possible now but it would be a very interesting experiment if the 2019 rules package was implemented without any prior announcement or explanation to the fans and simply what took place on-track and the kind of racing produced was the sole basis for judgement.
If the product is good and entertaining why should it matter how it happens?
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Motor Racing Network.
