Q: It was asked in the last Mailbag if there was a replay of the St. Pete race on YouTube. Well, I saw at least twice it was replayed on FS1/FS2 and probably more. Also, they showed last year’s 500 in the week before the race. One of the best things back in the day when ABC had the 500, the week before the race ESPN would show archived races, some going back to the mid-’60s. It sure would be nice if FOX could work out an agreement to be able to do the same.
Tom, Waco
MP: I remember what a thrill it was in the late ’80s and early ’90s to see the Indy 500 replays pop up at odd hours on ESPN. It would be great for a new generation to have the same experience on FS1.
Q: Is there a problem with the France family and the way their organizations run races?
According to what I read recently from Carl Edwards, NASCAR throws cautions to make racing more exciting. So much for the best car and team winning.
In IMSA, could this be why they seem to always throw a full caution? Maybe I am wrong, but it’s like if an incident happened in WEC it would be a local yellow. Do you guys think they are manipulating races?
David Tucker
MP: Huh? So the France family owns NASCAR, and IMSA, and Mr. France owns the Action Express Racing team, which competes against many other GTP teams, including Roger Penske’s Porsche GTP team.
And Roger also owns the rival IndyCar series, which IMSA is working hard to try and overtake. And so to manipulate the races, the France family throws full-course cautions so his GTP rival and racing series rival Roger Penske could win January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona? And threw those manipulating cautions last year so Penske could win four of the nine GTP races and win the championship? While his own team won zero races and finished a distant fourth in the standings?
How’s this: If this is race manipulation, it’s the sorriest job I’ve ever seen.
Q: With regards to tires, in F1 four come in a set – LF, RF, LR, RR – and can only be changed together to another set of four. I know NASCAR can do either side or all four; but can they do only one? Are they in a set of four or can they mix and match? Lefts/rights/front/rear assigned?
What about IndyCar and IMSA?
Shawn, MD
MP: IndyCar teams are not required to change set for set. If a driver has a punctured left-front, the team can replace that left-front on its own. It’s the same for IMSA.
KELLY CRANDALL: Well, I guess technically NASCAR teams can change one tire but it wouldn’t make any sense. When teams are given their allotment for the weekend, they have it down to a science in terms of what they are looking for, how they will work them, and making the perfect left and right side sets.
Q: My understanding of professional sports is that it should be entertainment with fair rules.
In Formula 1, the DRS one-second rule is bad, because drivers can’t defend and different drivers can have more or fewer activations in the race. Instead, F1 should copy IndyCar, with a limited number of activations (say 15-20) and no gap rule.
In NASCAR, the infinite two-lap overtime rule may make sense in ovals, but not in road courses, where there should be a single-lap, single-time overtime. Also, pit stops at stage breaks are boring. How about this: after a stage ends, drivers must stop within the next four laps (two in road courses), and only then they deploy the yellow flag?
In IndyCar, when there’s an early caution period, several drivers in the backfield make a stop to refuel and swap out of the undesired tires. I like strategy gambles, but this is not it. Instead, drivers should not be allowed to refuel before the race leader has completed 15% of laps.
Ignacio, Uruguay
MP: As I noted last week, let’s not overreact based on St. Pete being a snoozer for 90 or so of the 100 laps. Let’s talk after Barber, the fourth race, and see if more boring races emerged or if St. Pete was a storm in a teacup.
KC: The stage breaks aren’t necessarily there for entertainment, although the belief was that it would make teams compete harder with points on the line. Nor are they there to make pit stops fun. One of the biggest things around stage breaks is they were put in place for television purposes. By knowing there are set cautions and pit stops, the broadcast partner knows they can get commercial breaks in under caution and allow everything to reset. I also don’t think NASCAR wants to get into the business of deciding pit cycles and mandating when a team needs to pit, as you are suggesting.
CHRIS MEDLAND: It’s not the first time someone has suggested giving all drivers freedom to use DRS but only for a limited number of times during a race, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea. But I also don’t think it necessarily improves things, either. It’s an imperfect tool, like pretty much any overtaking aid is, but the whole point of it is to negate the impact of dirty air on such aerodynamically sensitive cars.
The one-second rule exists because it’s only meant to be usable if you are clearly quicker than the car ahead, so have caught up to within a second. In the past it was very tough to overtake because dirty air would cost you so much performance. I agree it’s bad when it just allows a driver to cruise past in a straight line – I hate that – but when it is correctly set up for a track it should allow a driver to stay close enough to attack but also mean the lead car has a chance of defending, too. I think this is the crux of the issue, and it would be deemed good if it never allowed an easy pass between two cars that have similar performance.
If you gave everyone a limited number of uses, there would be times it would be great and create a scrap when both drivers are choosing when to use it, but at others it would make life easy for the defending car if it had been able to save its allocation. Also, both using it at the same time or neither having any left could create a stalemate that DRS was designed to try and discourage.