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June 12, 2007
Races and Rain
With Mother Nature not playing too kindly with NASCAR races this year, I was wondering what fans thought of NASCAR's rain policy?
Over the years, we've seen races go to barely past the halfway point to races being held on Mondays. There have been times when races were picked up where they left off to starting all over on Monday, depending on how much of the race was able to be run on a Sunday.
How do the fans feel about the rain policy NASCAR has? If rain threatens the possibility of a full race being run, would you rather they run it on Monday and get the whole thing in or do you feel you still get your money's worth if they call it sometime after the halfway point or further? Do you plan on the possibility of the race being run on Monday when you get your tickets for a race or just hope for the best?
There's not much NASCAR can do, you can't really fight Mother Nature, but I'm interested in hearing what the fans thoughts on rain delays and postponements.
June 12, 2007 in NASCAR | Permalink
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Comments
As a former Jet driver I just want to say
STOP pointing fingers at us for kicking up
dust and dirt in your cars and in your eyes.
We are under NASCAR's Command so bitch at Mr.Hoots if you have a problem.Face it guys
without us your just not going to get the track dried near fast enough.At Kansas back in 04 Momma Nature dropped 2.5 inches of rain in 1 hour,we had cars on the track in 40 minutes.Without us you were not gonna see a race that Sunday.
Posted by: Tim | Jul 5, 2007 11:54:55 AM
Real drivers "Europeans" race in the rain.
Not only do they only turn left they cant race in the rain...poor babies.
Posted by: Lewis | Jun 20, 2007 10:12:18 AM
Hey Bill, you are not getting a refund, no way, no how. It is nicely printed on every ticket I've ever purchased. That is called race fan's luck! That said it sure would be nice :^)
Cheers
PS: Kathy, timings everything eh, this is a good topic, if it jumps in the proverbiable handbasket please bring it up again. Thanks.
Posted by: Massracin | Jun 12, 2007 3:13:21 PM
"Hey, thomas:
You won't ever have to worry about complaining about calls going against Jeffy and Hendrick, because they never do! The calls always go in their favor! The Felon has an advantage over everybody- he has money, plus his nose up Brian France's ass. Well, unless you count the slap on the wrist that Knaus gets every season. Or if you want to go back a ways, Nascar did fine Evernham in '95."
May I have your attention please......diaper change in isle 5 please, diaper change in isle 5........
Posted by: Bill | Jun 12, 2007 3:05:56 PM
There's nothing wrong with the existing policy so long as your guy is leading, right Kathy? Then if your guy is not leading you're all for moving it to 3/4 distance, right?
At what point do the sponsors step in and say, "hey, we're getting cheated out of airtime here!"?
At what point should NASCAR refund a portion of what the ticket holder paid them for the ticket? Now, granted, the ticket holder will be the last part of the equation dealt with as they are the LAST group that NASCAR really cares about.
The money will soon get even bigger and the time will come when this existing policy will change. look for it to be pushed to 3/4 distance soon.
Posted by: Bill | Jun 12, 2007 2:59:26 PM
Oh God, well all be sitting in a circle around the campfire singing kumbaya now :^)
Cheers
Posted by: Massracin | Jun 12, 2007 2:34:24 PM
FedEx Guy - you have to wonder if it had already been planted.
Very interesting...
Posted by: racemehard | Jun 12, 2007 2:26:31 PM
Jr to Hendricks .... WOW.
Wonder if that seed was already planted when he jumped into the 5 car after Shrub left the track a few weeks ago?
Posted by: FedEx Guy | Jun 12, 2007 2:24:37 PM
Hey FedEx Guy, Your already getting soaked hanging around the track until they postpone the race. Then your choices are, come back the next day, could be raining again too, miss the show if you can't come back or what? Personally I would like to see some kind of racing as opposed to flushing the tickets. I also don't relish the thought of watching a race in the rain.
Cheers
Posted by: Massracin | Jun 12, 2007 2:21:24 PM
Jon2 - Rumor has it he is going to Hendrick! They are letting Kyle Busch out of his contract and bringing Jr. in. The article in on Thatsracin.
If this is true, won't that be something!
Ironman/Jon - ya'll aren't gonna like this!
This is from the article:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will announce his Nextel Cup plans for 2008 and beyond Wednesday, and it appears he will join four-time Nextel Cup champion Jeff Gordon and defending series champion Jimmie Johnson to drive for Hendrick Motorsports.
Earnhardt Jr. has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Wednesday at his JR Motorsports headquarters in Mooresville to announce his plans. The news conference will be carried live on Speed and on Sirius Satellite Radio’s NASCAR channel.
Sources told the Observer on Tuesday that Earnhardt will join Gordon, Johnson and Casey Mears on the four-team Hendrick roster in 2008.
Kyle Busch, currently the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolets for the team owned by Rick Hendrick, will be released from his contract and free to sign with another team.
Posted by: racemehard | Jun 12, 2007 2:20:56 PM
Hey, thomas:
You won't ever have to worry about complaining about calls going against Jeffy and Hendrick, because they never do! The calls always go in their favor! The Felon has an advantage over everybody- he has money, plus his nose up Brian France's ass. Well, unless you count the slap on the wrist that Knaus gets every season. Or if you want to go back a ways, Nascar did fine Evernham in '95.
Posted by: Ironman | Jun 12, 2007 2:12:59 PM
Seems to me it would really suck sitting in the stands out in the rain watching them crawl around on rain tires.
Posted by: FedEx Guy | Jun 12, 2007 1:59:06 PM
Part of the problem with the old rain tires was that they dragged them around from race to race and they didn't have to use em, they just plain got old. I find it hard to believe that Goddyear doesn't posess the technolgy to make it work.
The drivers on I95 seem to go faster when it rains :^)And they drive "stock cars".
Cheers
Posted by: Massracin | Jun 12, 2007 1:37:22 PM
We could always prayer a prayer Ricky Bobby started and we can finsih...
Dear Lord baby Jesus, or as our brothers in the south call you,jesuz, we thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Dominos, KFC, and the always delicious Taco Bell. I just want to take time to say thank you for clear weather.....Shake and bake"
Posted by: Tony | Jun 12, 2007 1:12:10 PM
Junior's gonna announce tomorrow at 11:00am what he's gonna do.
Posted by: Jon2 | Jun 12, 2007 12:58:23 PM
they dont need to start a 5 hour race with 3 hours of daylight,and for the money you spend, the seats at the track suck try to put a 38in as@ in a 18in seat it does not work.nascar does nothing for the fans it is about the money
Posted by: larry | Jun 12, 2007 12:50:50 PM
Rain tire racing isn't much to watch besides driver control. Drive the track and limp home without crashing. Also, realize Indycars, F1 cars, and the such weight 1600-2000 pounds. The rain tires are soft compounds so a 3400 pound car would burn them off in 5 laps so NASCAR and Goodyear have given up on that it seems.
Far as the half way and done procedure it has to stay or they could be there forever the way weather can be. Every driver who's won 30,40 or 100 races has won and been robbed due to weather. It's life!
Posted by: Scott | Jun 12, 2007 12:44:40 PM
First all tracks should have lights to even get a race.
If I had tickets I want to see the race run on Sunday if it didn't rain all night, but if I'm watching on TV and I don't work on Mondays, either way if fine with me, but I never like it when the race is called early, even when my driver wins
Posted by: DonB | Jun 12, 2007 12:42:57 PM
When F1 runs in the rain, the tailspray of the cars is huge. The amount of spray and mist coming off 43 stock cars might hamper visibility a tad...
What is strange is that they tried so hard to get in half a race at a gigantic track with no lights, and sometimes they call races and move them to Monday at tracks with lights. There are also times when rain is forecasted late in the afternoon and they could move the green flag time up an hour or two...the TV is already there and they've already sold commercial time for an hour to an hour and a half of mindless pre-race coverage.
When I go to a race weekend I always take Monday off for the rain risk (that and the inevitable hangover ;), especially in the spring and early summer.
Posted by: cale | Jun 12, 2007 12:35:26 PM
Massracin,
I've heard that they will only use the rain tires at road courses, if at all. Not sure how much testing those tires have had though.
Posted by: Kathy | Jun 12, 2007 11:55:05 AM
Hi Kathy, I think that Nascar and Goodyear ought to bring back rain tires and then the deal is done. The racing will be slower but that could as be more interesting. No more rain outs.
Cheers
Posted by: Massracin | Jun 12, 2007 11:40:34 AM
umm... I've heard rumors the "SUPRISE" was "rain". Biffle on Monday said he thought nascar called it a lap too *late*, Newman said he made that dash at Gordon because he knew the caution was about to fly as he had rain on his winshield the lap before.. Gordon said he slowed down because the track was wet in the area previous to where newman went for the pass.
Is there a single Driver who thought they should NOT have gone to caution when they did? I've heard several say it should have been sooner, I've heard none say that they didn't wait long enough. Not a Conspiracy, not a bias.
If it was the 24 catching the 12 and they had waited until the 24 had passed to call the caution would you be claiming nascar did it right? Really? Would you be upset that they robbed the 24 if they had called it like they did on sunday? Really? I promise to say the same thing when it goes against the 24.. Really :)
Back on topic....
The rain policy has evolved to what it is over the years and its not great but I'm not sure what you can do to make it better.
I do wish they would be more honest with those of us watching on TV about when they intend to possibly race so we don't wait around for hours thinking its "just about to go green".
Posted by: thomas | Jun 12, 2007 11:39:49 AM
Rick Hendrick would prefer to leave the policy as is.
Yes, Newman was closing in on Jeff, but remember Jeff let up big time when the rain started pouring, thus eclipsing very quickly the distance between him and Newman. If rain hadn't entered into the scene then it would have probably taken Ryan 2-3 more laps to pass.
They made it halfway, night would have onset even if the track for the second time had been dried, it was the right call by NASCAR.
It appears that with the onset of Al Gore's Global Warming, NASCAR teams should consider hiring weatherpersons as part of their staff.
Pocono is boring anyway, and quite frankly watching half of it wasn't so bad. I can't believe this track has two sessions.
Posted by: Jon2 | Jun 12, 2007 11:24:52 AM
I agree with you Ironman about Daytona a few years ago - they called it way too early that time. Now I consider that HANDING a race to someone, they had plenty of time to finish it up. As for Sunday, I don't think Pocono has lights and they had tried all stinkin' day to get it going and like you said it looked like they at least tried and appeared to be trying to dry the track. As to when the caution came out, who knows - it's Nascar when do they ever do anything that makes a whole lot of sense.
Kathy - Newman will get at least one win soon - wouldn't surprise me if it isn't this Sunday.
Posted by: racemehard | Jun 12, 2007 11:23:48 AM
Kathy,
It's been pretty frustrating to see Nascar call races off when they've had time to dry the track and/or they had lights at the place. An obvious example of this would be when Mikey Waltrip won his second Daytona 500; here is Nascar's premier race and they called it off in the middle of the day. My best friend lives in Daytona and he said it was sunny down there an hour after the race!
However, I think Nascar had no choice but to call it off this past Sunday. Thankfully they at least TRIED or APPEARED to be trying to dry the track. At least I felt better when they at least attempted to get out the jet blowers.
Regarding your previous blog, I understand the frustration you feel about Nascar's call. Like some of the more sensible anti-Gordon fans on your blog, it seems fairly biased that Newman was closing in on Jeffy and SURPRISE! out comes the caution flag. Just my opinion.
Ironman
Posted by: Ironman | Jun 12, 2007 11:02:31 AM
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