How about trying it my way?
But still, I kind of chuckled the other day when I heard someone talk about the drivers complaining about their cars and they said that NASCAR can't fix their cars.
Why not? They were the ones that built it.
NASCAR is going to have to be part of the solution. Again, they built it and gave it to the teams and said "Go race it." So NASCAR can fix this car.
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There are a number of things I would try before I got too carried away. We hear the teams week in and week out saying "Well, we haven't figured out the coil binding," "We don't have the shock packers exactly right," or "We just can't get it to ride on the bump stops." Folks, these are toys. They are tricks. They are things that should never have been on a race car in the first place. Whoever started that years ago has made a mess for everyone else.
The easiest solution is to get rid of all that. When you go to Daytona or Talladega, they issue you the rear springs. They are a certain weight of spring — one for the right and one for the left. NASCAR gives them to you and you put them in because they don't want the back of the car dragging the ground. They want to hold the back of the car up. So why not apply the same philosophy to the front?
Make a rule. Come up with a number for a total spring rate for the front. For example, let's say it's 2000 lbs. You put a 1000 lb. spring in the left front and the same in the right front. Or you can do a 1500 lb. spring and a 500 lb. spring, but you have to have a total of 2000 lbs. in the front and you can put it in there anyway you want to.
Again, I am just using 2000 lbs. as an example. Naturally you would have to do some testing and come up with the right number. It wouldn't take long to do and it would keep the car off the ground. Again, it would just be a minimum. You could add more if you wanted to.
I am just saying get rid of all the tricks. As the saying goes, tricks are for kids. Using all those tricks is too complicated and expensive. Get rid of it because it's ridiculous and it will level the playing field. Put it back to basics. Again the old saying: Keep it simple, stupid!
Some people are saying they should get rid of that front splitter because it's the issue since you have to keep it off the ground. I don't see us making those kinds of changes to this car. I wouldn't be opposed to it but would want a different nose configuration than we had in the past.
I like the rear wing. I have seen the advantages to the rear wing. Yes, it's odd looking on a stock car, but the side force and car control it creates has turned out to be a good thing. Honestly, the rear wing is nothing more than a great big rear spoiler with side plates on it. With the rear wing sitting so low on the car, air is not going under it. The air is going over it and that is a good thing. It helps keep the car pinned to the ground. Plus, I have seen the advantages of it when drivers get their cars sideways. It seems to help control the car and keeps them from spinning out a lot of times. So that's what I would do on the Cup side.
But wait, there's more
NASCAR should listen to me and do it.
What I don't understand is with all these Nationwide teams struggling financially to survive, how can they be expected to throw away all their old cars and build new models for next year? As far as I know, that plan is still moving forward. I just don't see the need for it in the Nationwide series. The cars they have now are working well and it's a good place to run the car we have had in the past.
And then we go back to California in the summer time when its 120 degrees. Folks, right there is the biggest mistake ever made schedule-wise, by moving the Southern 500 to California. Listen to what I am telling you. Put that race back at Darlington where it belongs. The Southern 500 is a NASCAR tradition. Put it back at Darlington, especially now that the track has been revamped. Give that Lady in Black the respect that she deserves. If you aren't going to do it, then quit calling it the Southern 500. Call it the California 500 or call it whatever you like but that name and that race belongs at Darlington.
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So you need three different kinds of drivers, not three different kinds of cars. But here's the other problem: When you go test, if one guy is on bump stops, he has a different feel from the guy who is on shock packers, which is different yet from the guy who is on coil bind. I think that is one of the things that are screwing up these tire tests. You have three majorly different kinds of setups that people can run that make the car feel totally different. That's a concern I have and I don't know how you fix it unless you go back to what I said earlier and do away with all that stuff.
If you hold two tickets to the Texas race in your hand and you walk into a hotel in Ft. Worth, for example, and you are there for a NASCAR race, well by golly you should get a NASCAR discount. You don't get some jacked up rate simply because its race weekend. You get a NASCAR discount on your hotel room and at restaurants because you are there for the race. You are not there to be taken advantage of or be ripped off. You are there to have an enjoyable race weekend. It's ridiculous that these places can jack up their prices just because there is a race in town and treat the fans like a cash cow.
I think there is something that can be done there and I think it should be done a lot sooner than a lot later. I think NASCAR and the tracks need to get involved because when you show up to come to our races, you should be treated with respect and treated as a guest. You deserve to be treated as someone special.
Oh, by the way
I am in Phoenix and had a great night with the 2008 U.S. Business Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Nashville. What a great experience! I was honored that they asked me to be the MC of the show. Some of the nation's leading business men and women were there. Big Bill France got inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame. His grandson J.C. France, who races Daytona Prototypes in the Rolex Sports Car Series, accepted the honor on behalf of the France family. Also inducted were USA Today founder Al Neuharth; Thomas Frist, Jr., M.D. Chairman Emeritus, Hospital Corporation of America; Robert L. Johnson, founder and chairman of the RLJ Companies and the Black Entertainment Network; John E. Pepper Jr., retired chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble; and Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay.
Each inductee received the Flemke medal, named for Karl Flemke, who served as president and chief executive officer of Junior Achievement from 1982 to 1994. It really was a great night!
Oh, by the way too
I know there is a lot of heartburn about what Aaron Fike has come out and said about using drugs while he was driving in NASCAR races.
There have been questions raised about what else is possibly going on and about drug testing. My opinion is that drug testing needs to be handled by an outside source. It needs to be someone outside of NASCAR that conducts the tests and analyzes the results. I would do the testing once a month or every few races. Then NASCAR could take the necessary steps if any are required once the results are in. I really don't think there is that deep of a problem. Our athletes are all upright, clean guys. In order to eliminate any doubts or questions, however, drug testing needs to be handled by a third party.
That's how I would do it to keep the credibility and take care of all the people involved.
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