COMMENTARY: Cash blurs safe ride to finish line
TALLADEGA -- NASCAR is a caring organization. It listens to its employees and works hard to address their concerns, particularly when safety is at stake.
That is, when there's no money at stake.
If there's no cash on the line, stock car racing's governing body is all about the health and happiness of its drivers. But if it comes down to a choice between driver safety and NASCAR hauling in buckets of dollars, the reply is always the same: "Our hands are tied. You fellas be careful out there."
The position these drivers are now facing at Talladega, and to a lesser extent at Daytona, is almost criminal. The new racing surface, with its firm grip and smooth, bump free ride, keeps these cars packed so closely together that a puff of wind can cause a 20-car pileup.
How bad is it? During his practice run on Friday, Denny Hamlin said he noticed long stretches where he couldn't see the racing surface. There was a car in front of him and one on each side. And they were so close together, he couldn't see the track.
"When a guy is getting close to you, is he swerving into you or are you going down into him?" Denny Hamlin said. "It's hard to know if you're in your line or if you're drifting up or down."
That's a problem. And it was on full display Saturday during the Aaron's 312 Busch Series race. There were seven crashes during the race, but there could've, and probably should've, been twice that many. There were 20 cars involved in those incidents, but there should have been at least three times that many.
In all but two of those wrecks, at least one car went sliding across the track in front of heavy traffic. Only good driving, good luck and the grace of God prevented a double-digit number of cars from piling up in each incident.
There were 30 caution laps (that's 25 percent of the race) and a 16-minute red flag stoppage. The longest green-flag run of the day lasted just 26 laps. It took the 16-minute red flag and two tries at a green-white-checkered finish to get the race in.
And none of that was the drivers' fault.
What's being asked of these guys is almost impossible. Drivers are expected to sit behind the wheel, completely focused for two-plus hours at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour -- separated by inches -- and never make a small mistake. They're expected to bounce off one another most of the way, lean on each other a fair amount of the time and never miscalculate by even a small amount.
Considering that the average American can't drive 20 minutes down the Interstate without doing something stupid, what NASCAR is asking these drivers to do is a tad much.
Look, I'm a big fan of the restrictor plate tracks. I love Talladega and Daytona and think those two tracks provide some of the best, most competitive racing in the world.
But what was on display Saturday was not racing. It was surviving.
And even worse, it was boring right up to the very end. Yeah, there were a record number of lead changes, but you just didn't notice them with all the caution flags.
That's not making the racing better. That's making it annoying. And dangerous.
If it stays like this, someone's going to get hurt, and it might not be a driver. As Kyle Busch's car began it's seven-roll trip down the front stretch on Saturday, a front tire flew off, went about 50 feet in the air and landed on the track about two feet from the wall separating the track from the fans. It bounced once it hit the surface and went high enough to clear the fence. Again it landed just on the trackside of the wall.
Next time, NASCAR might not be so lucky.
But hey, at least it will still be raking in money from its two super-profitable tracks, Talladega and Daytona. And if there's one lesson NASCAR has attempted to teach everyone over the last several years, everything comes second to the bottom line.
