NASCAR and me

 

An empty victory lane.

 

When there is the prospect of not having to spend much money to attend an event, I’m usually not opposed to attending.  Last weekend was no exception.  Stephanie has a friend from college who works for NASCAR’s primary sponsor, Sprint.  When we were asked if we would like to go with them I didn’t have too many reservations about wanting to go.  I used to watch NASCAR with a friend of mine, but more or less because of the social aspect.

The activity (like my wife I refuse to call it a sport) is impressive from the standpoint of 43 vehicles capable of hundreds of horsepower and hundreds of miles per hour on a track no bigger than a mile and a half around.  The noise factor wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be.  We were 14 rows from the action and didn’t need my earplugs I brought with me in my pocket.  Although it didn’t stop the ingenuity of the gentlemen in front of us from using cigarette butts in their ears to filter out the noise.

Unfortunately, some of the stereotypes are true.  You can’t believe the amount of confederate flags in the field surround the outside of the speedway.  I’m sure most do not agree with what it stood for, but you have a hard time believing everyone there doesn’t disagree, either.  Of course every sporting event has it’s fair share, however it is not on display quite like this.

I did like the idea of being able to bring in my own cooler with my own beer into the speedway.  I have the ability to buy a six pack of beer for the cost of one draft beer at an NFL or Major League Baseball game, which is nice.  The organization does a great job of making the day interactive, but not without a price.  For $49.99 ($29.99 if you are a Sprint customer) you can get headphones and some sort of device which allows you listen in on the communication between driver and crew chief.  It’s creative, but a little pricey for someone not really into the idea of listening to what is said.

The first few laps did have a level of excitement I didn’t expect, but it didn’t last long.  After the initial wow factor, it is cars making left hand turns and making an effort to avoid running into each other, albeit at a very high rate of speed.  For us, it was more about the experience of seeing the sites of a speedway and racetrack up close.  I’ll give a link to my wife’s blog which has more pictures on it, but we did get to walk though a tunnel under the track while the race was going on and walk around the infield.  I will concede being in close proximity to pit lane as pit stops went on was interesting and sorta cool.

A lot of people find NASCAR, and it’s top flight of racing the Sprint Cup, fun and intriguing and I understand why they do.  I’ve made it clear on here I’m not really one of them, so I’ll spare you.  The edge and appeal NASCAR had in the 80′s, 90′s and before has been lost in a quest for expansion.  It has brought stock car racing to the masses, however the drivers and their personalities have been watered down for the most part in the grasp for the American sports fan’s dollar.  For a glimpse into the past, no better article has been written than Tom Wolfe’s piece on NASCAR pioneer Junior Johnson from 1965.  It’s long, but worth the read no matter your opinion of today’s NASCAR.

Real Racing Underway

German driver Nico Rosburg had the fastest time in Friday's second practice session

I have never shied away from making public my feelings regarding the differences between Formula 1 and NASCAR.  For some reason watching cars make left hand turns and drive single file for four hours is not that exciting.

Formula 1, considered by many to be the top form of racing not only in Europe but also the world, kicks off its season this weekend in the Kingdom of Bahrain, displacing Melbourne, Australia as the kickoff event.  The 19 race season will stretch to mid-November ending with the Abu Dhabi Gran Prix on November 14.  The European leg of the season will start in Barcelona, Spain with the Spanish Gran Prix on May 9.

The shake ups from the off season go from teams, to drivers and rule changes so the season should keep even seasoned fans interested.  One major change from a regulation standpoint will be refueling, or the lack thereof.  Teams and drivers will be planning for races on full tanks of fuel which already had an impact on both practice sessions this morning.  Cars were seen bouncing and skidding on the track, bottoming out in some stretches as well.

Drivers and teams will be listed below, but the team Sports Central will be focusing on this season will be McLaren Mercedes.  Drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, both coming off winning the drivers championship in 2008 and 2009 respectively, are both set to be early favorites for the drivers title.  Here are the drivers and teams.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes (United Kingdom) – Jenson Button (UK) and Lewis Hamilton (UK)

Mercedes Petronas F1 Team (Germany) – Michael Shumacher (GER) and Nico Rosburg (GER)

Red Bull Racing (Austria) – Sebastian Vettel (GER) and Mark Webber (Australia)

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro (Italy) – Felipe Massa (Brazil) and Fernando Alonzo (Spain)

AT&T Williams (UK) – Rubens Barrichello (BRZ) and Nico Hulkenberg (GER)

Renault F1 Team (France) – Robert Kubica (Poland) and Vitaly Petrov (Russia)

Force India F1 Team (India) – Adrian Sutil (GER) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)

Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italy) – Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) and Jaime Alguersuari (ESP)

Lotus Racing (Malaysia) – Jarno Trulli (ITA) and Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)

HRT F1 Team (Spain) – Karun Chandrok (IN) and Bruno Senna (BRZ)

BMW Sauber F1 Team – Pedro de la Rosa (ESP) and Kamui Kobayashi (Japan)

Virgin Racing - Timo Glock (GER) and Lucas di Grassi (BRZ)

Knockout qualifying will be early tomorrow morning (for North and South American audiences) which will give way to the Gran Prix Sunday.

Number One Aussie

Mark Webber in the dirt.

The weekend saw veteran Formula 1 driver Mark Webber capture his inagural Grand Prix. For me, someone who has been a fan of the sport for several years now, it was a great pleasure to see him not only grab the checkered flag, but start from pole as well.

What is more astonishing is fron the start Webber bumped Brawn GP driver Ruebens Barrichello before turn one on lap one which was later reviewed by the stewards.  About a dozen or so laps into the race, Team Red Bull was forced to have Webber do a drive through on pit lane which is typically a death nail in a drivers day.  Webber still prevailed which made for a nice change of pace.

On the other end of the spectrum, last year’s drivers champion Lewis Hamilton made a strong push off the start but damaged his car going a little wide on the first turn.  I can’t impart on how much I enjoy watching Hamilton relegated to the back of the pack week after week.  The team he drives for McClaren, along with Ferrari, for the past few seasons (and in the case of Ferrari about a decade) have dominated the F1 scene.  This year everything has been turned on it’s ear and it makes race weekends more enjoyable.

Barrichello had good pace in his ride, but ended up off the podium along with teammate and leading drivers point champion Jenson Button.  This was the first non-Brawn GP podium of the season which was also nice.  However, this wasn’t the most notable item to come from team principal Ross Brawn’s camp.  Barrichello, who wanted to switch from a three stop to a two stop race strategy, had no nice words for his team after the race.

One more race one the docket before the summer break.   On July 26th, Formula 1 will travel to Hungary where drivers will try to earn some more points at the Hungaroring.