Yesterday NASCAR sent out a short and kind of terse but overall nice statement regarding the return of Tony Stewart to racing. We, like every other media outlet in the known universe got it. Here’s how it went:
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 21, 2016) – “NASCAR received the appropriate medical clearance documentation allowing Tony Stewart to resume normal racing activities. We also have granted the request from Stewart-Haas Racing for a waiver for Tony to be eligible to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. As he begins his final season, we wish Tony the best of luck.”
Smoke is coming back for a final season after his broken ass or back or whatever the hell happened when he was out horsing around with Don Prudhomme and a cast of thousands at Pismo Beach. It is a story like you’d read in the Curtis Turner playbook, complete with the fact that the shenanigans we heard about probably paled in comparison to the actual shenanigans that were going on. Anyway, we thought it was kind of neat.
Then on the same day, NASCAR fined Tony Stewart $35,000 for comments he made regarding a rule change that centers around lug nuts. The most insane thing? What Stewart said was spot on and the fact that NASCAR has not “fixed” this issue is completely insane. The problem is that NASCAR cut the jobs of a bunch of race officials so that means there is not a monitoring every pit box. Because of this, teams are able to get away with some stuff, mainly sending race cars back out onto the track with 4 (or less) lug nuts securing the wheels. Hitting four instead of five saves time and teams have been doing it. Stewart said (among other things) – “With all the crap we’re going through with the safety stuff, and for (NASCAR) to sit there and sit on their hands on this one, it’s not a game you play with safety. That’s exactly the way I feel NASCAR is treating this. This is not the way to do this.”
Read the full story here at the Charlotte Observer website
What happens when you get your nuts in a twist!
It gets even better. At Jayski silly season site a post dated 4/18 desribes NASCRAP VP Steve O’Donnell talking about that very problem on Sirius XM Morning Drive stating that they are aware of the problem and watching it and that it is a safety danger to drivers. The fine for Tony is because the supreme bag of ass holes also known as Brian France thinks he is king of the speech police and can’t stand anyone that tells the truth and says things that are accurate. I am so glad I stopped watching any NASCRAP many, many years ago and hope that they have to continue to remove more seats from the tracks they go to until none are there at all and that dipp shit Brian couldn’t get a job mowing grass if he hadn’t fallen into the grandson position.
Kind of symbolic of the whole NASCAR rise and fall- people quite watching and the wheels come flying off.
It’s comical having NASCAR being an advocate for safety but instead decided to watch their piggyback to save a few bucks getting rid of the pit stall officials.
Classy move.
Sorry “piggybank”. Hate this stupid autocorrect.
N.A.S.C.A.R. ……. needs an enema …..
I agree with NASCAR by not policing the lug nuts. It is the teams fault for putting on only 3 or 4 lug nuts. They are the ones taking the risk. NASCAR doesn’t need the officials out there babysitting lug nuts. If the team puts on less than 5, it is on them.
So what happens when a team decides to only use 2 lugs to save a little time in the pits, and that tire comes off and kills someone?
Make it a rule 5 lugnuts must present, but they are not going to babysit them. If any lugnuts are missing –> dock them points. The teams need to take responsibility for their actions. Treat them as if they were cheating. And they are in order to save fractions of a second in the pi stop.
So let’s pile up a stack of regulations designed to make the cars perform exactly the same, then layoff the regulation enforcers because the result of the sameness is that it’s no longer really racing. It’s boring as hell, people quit watching and our profits are declining, so we can no longer afford the level of staffing required to enforce our boring as hell, downward spiraling taxi cab races. If some actual racers complain about the insanity, that’s a revenue stream. But the prescribed fix to the problem is more of the root cause- uh, more regulation and tighter enforcement, right? Who knew Congress took over NASCAR…….
Just go to a big single nut and pin drive,the team who saved time leaving it loose will show pretty quick.