Kahne's signing: Good or bad?
How telling is it that Kasey Kahne would rather wait until 2012 to drive for Rick Hendrick than start immediately for anyone else next year.
Now onto the mailbag:
Kahne to Hendrick: Good or bad?
Jay, nice comparison of Gordon vs. Earnhardt Sr. to help drive your point on watering down NASCAR. Sounds like the many other complainers out there who wine about Jimmie Johnson winning every week.
It seems that writers like yourself have so many things to complain about NASCAR, why don't you try to help NASCAR fix things to make it better? More specifically, lets call this 'Jay's Ways' or 'Hart's Starts'. Give us 5 realistic moves that you think NASCAR can make, right now, to make it more competitive, or at least NASCAR can do to make the sport better.
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Then once you give your 5, let's see what the fans come up with, send it all in to the France family and hear what they have to say. They gave us double-file restarts last year, at least they can make one thing better. Good Luck!
Jeffrey B.
Ashland, Ohio
Challenge accepted. So here are five changes I would make:
1. Eliminate satellite teams. I don't like the idea that one team is affiliated with another. Competition only works when there's an opponent, and satellite teams cross the line between friend and foe.
2. Make the cars more stock, which I talked about in last week's mailbag.
3. Trim the schedule to 30 races. The season lasts way too long, stretches too far into the fall where it can't compete against football, and by the time it reaches its supposed climax, has lost the interest of a lot of fans. Eliminate one race from Atlanta, Fontana, Michigan, Pocono, Phoenix and New Hampshire or Dover – neither deserves to lose a race, but someone has to – start the Chase at Bristol in early August and wrap it up by the first week of October in … Las Vegas.
4. Give a 50-point bonus to the winner of every race, which I've campaigned for ad nauseam.
5. Using my above suggestion of giving race winners a 50-point bonus, seed the drivers at the start of the Chase according to the standings, not wins. The way the seeding process is set up now is flawed, as I've also talked about before.
Jay, Although I think Kasey moving to Hendrick isn't a good thing for the sport, I think you missed a bigger issue. You said "...a sport with no competition is no sport at all." but I'll ask, what kind of sport allows for someone to be hired 5 weeks into a 36 week season for the NEXT season?
Think of if Donovan McNabb was announced last September that he was going to play for the Redskins in 2010. How would that go over with the Eagles or their fans? Would anyone really trust him or work with him? The same goes for Kasey. How does he work for a team that's he's leaving in a year?
Tim Madigan
Fairfax, Va.
While your question is a good one, this is one of those situations where NASCAR is just different than every other sport. Teams and potential sponsors can't afford to wait until the offseason to establish relationships for the following season; these negotiations have to be in place long before November.
So while yes, signing a contract with another team midway through a season creates an extended lame-duck situation, there's really no way around it.
The Kahne situation is unique in that he's not signing for next year but for the following season. This might be familiar to old-school NBA fans who remember when the Boston Celtics drafted Larry Bird a year before he even entered the draft. The league responded with a rule that essentially states teams can only draft players who have declared themselves eligible.
In terms of NASCAR, the governing body has no say in free agency because teams and drivers are all independent contractors.
Instead of whining about how "unfair" it is for Hendrick Motorsports to sign Kasey Kahne (hope I spelled his name correctly), how about wondering why no other team has the courage, foresight, and the ability to do what Rick Hendrick did?
We need to emulate those who are successful, not whine and try to punish them. It should be a call to arms for the other teams.
Chris Dube
Woonsocket, R.I.
No one's trying to punish or even criticize Hendrick, my Dube brother. You're exactly right – it's on the competition to step up, not on Hendrick to step back. That said, in my opinion Kahne signing with Hendrick is not good for the entertainment value of the sport. This isn't me whining; it's just an analysis of the situation. If you want to disagree, do so on that point.
Jay just keep in mind Hendrick now has two of the best drivers and two of the most overrated drivers. Kasey has never been happy where he has been and it has always been equipment. Sounds like Junior?
Ray Nardo
Ambler, Pa.
Ouch! I wouldn't call Kasey overrated. It's a pretty good bet that we haven't seen what he's fully capable of. This isn't to say he's capable of winning a title, but he certainly wasn't going to win one where he was. Let's give the opportunity before we start bashing him.
Everyone is talking about Kasey Kahne going to Stewart Motorsports, a satellite team of Hendrick Motorsports. Has anyone thought of the possibility of Mark Martin starting his own Hendrick satellite team? It makes sense for him to start the team while he is still driving for Hendrick. He has said he may still want to drive after 2011. He can't drive forever, can he?
Roger Bravo
Albany, N.Y.
The most interesting thing Mark has said since the Kahne signing is that he's interested in ownership. He will be racing beyond 2011, and while he's said he enjoyed the part-time deals he had before signing with Hendrick, I'm not sure he'd want to drive for a subpar team after what he's experienced the last few years, meaning a Hendrick partnership would seem about right. And I'm not so sure Mark can't drive forever.
Your last comment on "a sport with no competition is no sport" also applies to tires. Let's get some Hoosier, Firestone, BF's etc. in there. Heck, we've let Toyota in there, why not foreign rubber as well?
They can give me the safety crap about the tire all they want. However, you and I have watched event after event with millions of dollars worth of damaged equipment because of Goodyears BAD tires.
John
Leon, W.Va.
First off, the tires have been pretty good this season.
As for the "tire wars," they've tried that before, back in 1994, and it didn't go so well. Here's what Jeff Burton had to say about it: "I have lived through the tire war. … We saw more failures because the manufacturers were forced to put more emphasis on making the cars drive a certain way. I drove on Hoosiers. By no means is it my opinion that we would make Goodyear step up and do a better job if we had two manufacturers here.
Firing up the fans
Jay, I finally have the solution for NASCAR to get its fire back and unlike anything I've read so far, It's not a sarcastic solution. I propose that NASCAR splits the season (8 races per) into 4 quarters with the top 3 in points after each quarter moving on to the 4 race chase at the end.
If the same driver reaches the top 3 in another "quarter" then the next driver in the points gets the nod. This will ensure that people will tune in to the 5th race, 12th race etc. Viewership would jump sky high. No more testing for the chase. It would be go time every race.
Lynnette Haynes
Jacksonville, Ark.
I like your thinking, Lynnette. I don't know if traditional fans would go for it – they already think the Chase strays too far from a "season" champion – and it's a little too contrived for my taste. But I don't doubt for a second it wouldn't drum up interest.
Fantasy land
Hey Jay, I see that Busbee, Beaver, and you are playing along on the Yahoo Sports NASCAR Fantasy League and you are kicking ass. Are you playing the same fantasy game as the rest of us rednecks? And by the same game I mean "are you also limited to 9 starts per driver for the entire season?"
Dominus de Duglas
Daleville, Ind.
We play by the same rules you do. And with that, here are my weekly picks:
A Group:Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart
B Group:Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray
C Group:Travis Kvapil, Scott Speed
Last call …
Isn't it funny how rain always seems to follow NASCAR? It's like the cartoon of the down and out kid with a little black cloud over his head. Or maybe that's just a higher power's response to Kahne future move.
Kevin Soto
San Diego
