NASCAR— would you
like your faithful lifelong fans back to attend more races? There is a clue above…
Why NOT race in the rain?
On the surface this would
seem to be an absurd question, but consider that the Daytona Prototypes race in the rain at Daytona routinely. Furthermore,
in Europe similar
sports cars reach speeds of over 220 mph on the Mulsanne Straight at Lemans—in the rain, and again it simply is the
norm.
The usual protestation
is “But those are not Stock Cars, Stock Cars are much heavier”. And while that is true, it is also true that NASCAR
stock cars have ALREADY been to LeMans, in 1976, and driver Hershel McGriff (in a real Dodge Charger) reported that they were
among the fastest down that same straight (200 mph plus) at that time. The cars were prepared to race in the rain, and were
equipped with lights, wipers, and of course had proper tires to run in the rain.
It would appear that
there is not enough marketing equity in rain tires to motivate Goodyear to develop them. “Tire wars” are disastrous
as each brand softens the compound until blown tires are common, but NASCAR could open the door to other manufacturers to
develop a rain only tire. Odds are that Hoosier, Bridgestone, or Toyo would jump at the chance. Odds are even greater that
Goodyear would develop a rain tire and get the contract in short order.
Why is there not a curfew on events?
No one likes a rain delay,
and some of the most lonesome words in racing are “they called it”. Clearly, on tracks that have lights it is
in everyone’s best interest to try to get the event in on the day that it was scheduled.
Still, on Sunday NASCAR
managed to disenfranchise many fans that waited several hours, even more that waiting well into the night, and pretty much
most of their base on the East Coast gave up and did not know, or care, when the event would be completed at some point during
their evening.
2006 StockCar Review.
