Are the little guys gone for good?

By DAVID GREEN

Bill France was more than a decade into building his stock car racing organization, and things were going pretty well. But, there were problems, of course.

Some of the more successful team owners were badgering France to jack up the prize money. Eventually, France came to the conclusion that his critics were right. The purses needed to be bumped. So, he did just that.

"But," remembers one of the more successful team owners, "he put all the extra money at the back of the field. He didn't add any for the winner."

Walter "Bud" Moore, whose cars were driven by Joe Weatherly to the Grand National championship titles in 1962-63, was never shy, so he went to France to demand an explanation for this outrageous decision. "What the hell are you doing, giving more money to those back-markers?!?" Moore raged.

Big Bill stuck a finger in Moore's face and replied, "Because you sons of b-----s need somebody to pass!"

France understood that a race among only the six, eight, or however many cars that were truly capable of running at the front of the field on a consistent basis would not make a satisfactory show for the fans. Part of the spectacle was a crowded racetrack, not just a handful of cars, with a measure of competitive cars and enough "back-markers" that the leaders would have something other than a clear track with which to contend.

"He was right," Moore acknowledged.

NASCAR racing today seems to be possessed of the conviction that there can truly be absolute and complete parity, that it's theoretically possible for all 43 cars in any given race to finish in a dead heat if only we had a track wide enough for a 43-wide formation.

Not only do I reject that theoretical possibility, I wouldn't want to see such a race if it were possible.

The truth is that we are not that much closer to absolute parity than we have ever been. Oh, we can make arguments based on statistics and real-world observations that we usually have closer, more competitive racing than we often did in the old days.

Everybody (yours truly included) has trotted out the example of Ned Jarrett winning the 1965 Southern 500 with a margin of victory of 14 laps over the second-place finisher; such a thing is completely unthinkable nowadays. And, in theory anyway, yes -- there are a good many more entries that have a better chance of victory when the green flag drops on a race nowadays compared to the 1950s, '60s or '70s.

The fact is, though, we've had only an incremental increase in the number of different winners in a given season, and that number is not likely to grow much larger. Most races come down to two or three drivers with a real, honest-to-goodness chance to prevail. The 1965 Southern 500 example notwithstanding, a good many races in the '50s, '60s and '70s ended up much the same way.

The problem is that corporate NASCAR has generated the notion that every team can be a winner. It has to be that way, because what right-thinking corporate sponsor would willingly funnel its cash into a team that had no chance of success?

The select group of what Big Bill France would call "sons of b-----s" still need, and still have, somebody to pass. It just costs a whole lot more for the "back-markers" to play that role nowadays.

In the final analysis, a handful of team owners dominated the sport in years past, just like the handful of "mega-team" owners are dominating it today.

What's the best way to ensure that there will always be a full field of competitors -- to allow the mega-teams to grow ever larger, and count on them to provide some back-marker entries of their own, or restrict expanded ownership and depend on privateers to participate, knowing in their hearts they have no chances of competitive success?

I don't claim to have the answer. Personally, I like any sport better when there is some opportunity for the little guy to get his foot in the door. Occasionally, David scores a hit on Goliath's forehead, and when he does, it makes for great drama -- real drama, not the contrived drama of the hippodrome.

Like Derrike Cope winning the Daytona 500, or Alan Kulwicki capturing the Winston Cup. Like Morgan Shepherd driving Cliff Stewart's Pontiac to victory at Martinsville, and then hauling the winning car home on an open trailer behind a stake-bed one-ton truck.

Maybe my thinking is outdated. Maybe those days are gone forever. Time will tell.