Full Throttle

Fitting title isn’t it? I’ve been waiting to couple “Long Pond” and “Cesspool” together since the start of my weekly NASCAR Cesspool. Unexpectedly, Pocono didn’t produce the number of feces divers envisioned. None the less there are some notable entrants:

The impound rule takes a dip this week. Generally I agree with the rule and understand the reasoning behind it but two things stand out. One is the cost benefit. Only a team manager who crunched the monetary numbers can actually state with any certainty what that benefit is. And that would only be valid after the entire season was reviewed. Secondly, and most important to me, is how the rule is implemented. Pocono saw Series Champion Kurt Busch qualify and place the #97 into impound. Race morning the crew discovered a puddle of brake fluid accumulating under the car. The resulting repairs forced Busch to start at the back of the field. My understanding of the impound rule is to prevent changes that improve a cars performance over what was achieved during qualifying. Repairs related to safety shouldn’t result in a penalty being assessed! For that reason NASCAR, and by proxy, the impound rule, is relegated to a weekly swim in the cesspool.

Next entrant are all the NASCAR drivers that don’t read Full Throttle! Hey you stupid, see that sub-title, “Hitting the rumble strips so you won’t have to,” take heed. Stay the hell off of them, let me bounce, jounce and otherwise rip my tires to shreds! Yes you’re all crying about Goodyear and the soft compound. So what! The same compound has been in use for 13 races going into Pocono. The track has had rumble strips in place for a number of years. Until this event most failures, and complaints, have been on the right front exploding like a cheap circus balloon. Their may very well be a problem with the current compound, that debate is still being addressed by NASCAR and Goodyear. If you continually try the same thing - bouncing over the strips - expecting a different result some believe it’s the first sigh of insanity. Well, welcome to the rubber room boys… and don’t trip over the tire cadavers laying about the floor.

All of which points me in this idiots direction. Ryan Newman on his and the crew chief’s decision to stop for fuel only with thirty plus laps on the tires and nearly thirty more til the finish.: