NASCAR's New Car Makes for New Racing Game

The National Stock Car Commission has denied the appeal by DEI to overturn the penalties issued to the Bass Pro Shops team at Daytona. No surprise there.

NASCAR has proven this year that they don’t want you messin’ with the Ugly Little Toad, that is the New Car.  It’s the France Family toy and they will decide how you play with it.

But that fact really changes a big part of what auto racing is all about.

Last Tuesday, one of our guests on INSIDE ARCA was Shawn Umphries, trackside services representative for Mr. Gasket and Mallory Ignitions. 

During a break, Shawn, Steve, and I were talking about what we would discuss with Patrick Donahue, our next guest on the show who is the crew chief for Scott Speed’s Red Bull Racing Toyota in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.

Patrick’s car had gotten nailed for a height infraction after winning last weeks race at Kentucky Speedway—an obvious topic to get into.  Shawn has twenty plus years with his company and has been around racing a lot.  He made the point that as a team owner, or sponsor, you want the guys running your teams to get caught pushing the envelope sometimes.  It means that they are doing their jobs.

Jeff Hammond, in his blog on FoxSports.com today, said this…

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I love bending the rules, don’t get me wrong. When I came into the sport, that was the nature of the beast. But now you can’t mess with the beast because it’ll eat you every time.

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So the game of stock car racing at its highest level has been changed.  NASCAR has taken something basic away.  It kind of makes it less interesting.