Dover Dozing!
Let me kill something before it starts.
Because you know the media and fan frenzy this week will be the Cup event at Dover was BORING and only 6 cars finishing on the lead lap will be used as “evidence.”
Roll the tape: (Or DVR if you live in the modern world)
2007 Dodge Dealers 400 Sept. 23. Edwards won with only 5 other cars on the lead lap.
2007 Autism Speaks 400 June 4. Truex won with 12 others on the lead lap.
2006 Dover 400 Sept. 24. Jeff Burton won with only 8 others on the lead lap.
Lets go back a decade.
1998 MBNA Gold 400 Sept. 20. Mark Martin won with only 8 others on the lead lap.
1998 MBNA Platinum 400 May 31. Dale Jarrett won with only 3, count’em THREE others on the lead lap.
And another decade.
1988 Delaware 500 Sept 12. Bill Elliot won with 4 staying with him on the lead lap.
1988 Budweiser 500 June 5. Bill Elliot won and formed a TRIO of those that remained on the lead lap. Other “members” were Morgan Shepard and Rusty Wallace.
For those not counting that’s an average of 6.1 finishing on the lead lap spanning 20 years and the eight events I selected at random.
I since a pattern here, and it has nothing to do with today, the “car of today,” or the fact that 21st century NASCAR racing is “boring.”
Get it, got it? Now lets get on with todays event. The event turned out to the the Biffle & Busch Show.
Greg Biffle dominated the first half picking up the most laps led (164) bonus but when push came to shove it was Kyle Busch leading the second most laps (158) on the day and cruising to a plus four second win over the Roush-Fenway Racing #99 of Carl Edwards with Biffle third, Kenseth and Jeff Gordon filling the top five.
More later as the quotes roll in and the points are calculated, with so many in the top 12 being closer to the tail of the field vice the front the standings should see a shake-up….
Cup races have always been ‘boring’ at Dover, and was 100 miles more boring when it was a 500 mile race.
That being said, there is much ‘racing’ going on the track, only it does not translate to TeeVee very well though.
The monster Mile does have a place on the Cup schedule and requires the driver to ‘race’.
Well said, and something that can be said of much of the idiot-box coverage.
Unless some network institutes some type of multi-box-inset coverage with various cameras showing action through-out the field it will always be better at the track than in front of a box.
The reason I thought that this race was boring was because there wasn’t alot of racing going on for other track positions. The average track time between positions 1-5 was 5+ seconds and it didn’t seem like anyone was in much of a hurry to push it because sixth place knows that seventh hasn’t got a chance of catching them. Maybe there was some better jockeying going on farther back, but the broadcast did a lousy job of showing it. Plus, when that many drivers are a lap plus down it really takes the interest out of pit stops and race strategy. Like you said, I think this had more to do with being a typical Dover race than any kind of “racing is boring” idiot argument.
The Dover race was one of the types of NASCAR races that most watchers don’t like. Had the early wreck not taken out half a dozen of the potentially best cars, maybe it would have been better, but probably not noticeably. I like this kind of race. I like variety. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for making a race like this seem more entertaining than it is though. Fox did as well as they could, I think.
The number of lead lap cars was not what made it boring. It was the fact that the only passing was done in the pits. The top 5 didn’t change for 240 laps. Dover definitely has a place and not every race has been this boring.
To all, the reason I wrote this as I did is because there is a fairly large segment of the fan base that claims all races are boring.
They blame everything from the new car to Brian France’s choice of suits and just about everything possible as a reason for “boring racing.”
It’s just crap, every race can’t have 43 cars in a photo finish every week.
Just as every NFL games is not a barn burner. I blame Roger Goodell’s suits too!
You blame Goodell’s suits. I blame the league having far too many wife beaters, drug abusers and general all-around asshats for the boredom.
But that’s just me.
Marc, I’ve got your back on this one … I’ve been overly critical of some of the racing these last couple of seasons myself, but I don’t blame any of it on the new car or the NASCAR suits, etc. There’s just certain tracks that don’t appeal to me and I wonder why in the world they were ever given not one, but TWO races (ie, Fontana, Texas, Michigan).
I didn’t think the race at Dover was great by any means, but I’ve definitely seen far worse. At the end of the day I wasn’t excited, but I wasn’t asleep, either.
Thanks Tim, it’s just the way it is. There’s never been any point in NASCAR history that has as many close finishes as todays version.
Some say it’s contrived by “fake caution flags,” but I’ve as yet not seen a single proof via a memo or other documented proof of that conspiracy theory.