Saturday, March 31, 2012

Commentary: Team Racing Makes Fans A Loser

Kevin Harvick enjoyed every advantage in Saturday’s “Kroger 250” NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville (VA) Speedway.

He had the fastest truck in the field, qualifying on the pole and surging to multi-truck length leads throughout the event. He held the edge in experience, having turned more laps on the challenging Virginia oval than virtually any other driver in the field. And unfortunately, he also enjoyed the advantage of a closest competitor – runner-up Ty Dillon – who showed absolutely no interest in passing him at any time.

Harvick’s Tide-sponsored No. 2 Chevrolet and Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevy are both fielded out of the Richard Childress Racing shops in Welcome, NC. The two drivers are teammates, and as a result, sometimes cut each other a little extra slack on the race track. One of those times came early in Saturday’s race, when Harvick suddenly slowed at the exit of Turn Four and allowed his rookie teammate to pass him on the outside. The move earned Dillon one championship point for leading the race, and he dutifully returned the favor just two laps later, waving Harvick back into a lead he was able to maintain for the rest of the afternoon.

Through seven different restarts over the ensuing 243 laps, Harvick ceded the advantageous low line to his youthful teammate. Each time, Harvick’s blue and yellow Chevrolet surged back into the lead at the drop of the green flag, while Dillon feathered the throttle and allowed it to happen. Even on the final restart of the day with just five laps remaining, Dillon made no serious effort to wrest the lead away from his RCR teammate, coasting into the first turn and allowing Harvick to drive away to an uncontested, .953-second victory.

Technically, neither Harvick nor Dillon did anything wrong Saturday. But it sure wasn't right, either.


Harvick pulls away once again.
We spend a lot of time talking about “team racing” in NASCAR these days. At Daytona and Talladega, teammates routinely pair-up and draft in search of additional speed, pushing each other past the 200 mph barrier. Saturday was not the first time someone has backed out of the throttle temporarily, allowing a teammate to take the lead for a lap or two before returning it to its rightful owner. But what happened late in Saturday’s race went too far, extending the concept of “team racing” far beyond what the sport (or any of its competitors) should be comfortable with.

Harvick confirmed the RCR team’s strategy after the race, saying, “It’s (Dillon’s) job to win the championship, and it’s my job to win races. That’s the way this team works.” He also admitted, “my role was to protect Ty on those restarts by giving him the inside line.”

Third-place finisher James Buescher expressed frustration with the RCR team’s tactics, saying he literally shoved Dillon into Turn One on a late-race restart, in an attempt to get at leader Harvick. Fourth-place finisher Justin Lofton wondered aloud what might have been, saying, “If I could have gotten up there (to the front row), there might have been a race for the lead at the end.”

For the record, nobody did anything illegal Saturday. There is nothing in the NASCAR rulebook that requires Ty Dillon to race hard. There is nothing forbidding teammates from cooperating on restarts, to their mutual benefit. The agreement between Harvick and Dillon paid off handsomely, preventing Dillon from restarting in the slower outside lane and being gobbled up by a snarling pack of drivers intent on actually winning the race.

But between the lines, where the unwritten rules of sportsmanship and fair play are found, there was a lot to dislike about Saturday’s race.


Let the celebration begin!
Instead of securing the 14th victory of his Camping World Truck Series career in dominant fashion, Harvick celebrated in a Victory Lane filled with question marks and asterisks. Could Buescher or Lofton have given him a run for his money in the final laps, without Dillon there to run interference? We’ll never know. Could Dillon possibly have passed his more-experienced teammate to score a career-milestone upset on one of NASCAR’s toughest and most demanding tracks? Again, we can only speculate, since no real effort was made to do so.

What happened Saturday was unquestionably best for Kevin Harvick, Ty Dillon, Richard Childress Racing and their sponsors. But the people who matter most – the fans who laid down their hard-earned money at Martinsville Speedway's ticket booths expecting to see a vintage, bare-knuckled Truck Series street brawl – did not get what they paid for, or what they deserved.

The Camping World Truck Series has built a reputation over the years as the division where drivers will shank their grandma to win a race. That makes them special in our eyes; a throwback to way NASCAR used to be before multi-million dollar sponsors and multi-car teams made things so damned complicated.

There is likely nothing NASCAR can do to prevent what happened Saturday from occurring again one day. But that doesn’t mean anyone should be particularly proud of it.

30 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:24 PM

    Agreed. Was going to send tweet that the race track should be torn up because the race wasnt good. This is the first race where I really felt that it wasn't fun to watch. I'm surprised that harvick said those things. It shines a bad light on that team and I would be surprised if people are more willing to use their bumper to move those guys. I feel bad for Ty. This is going to make him look bad and he was just doing what he was told.

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  2. All anyone had to do was pass Dillon and this doesn't happen the entire race. Nobody fault but the 30 some other drivers in the field.

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    1. I agree. “The winner ain't the one with the fastest car its the one who refuses to lose”, DaleSr. They can say all day "If I could get to him"..you can't blame other drivers or team driving on your inability to get around the guy in front of you. Restarts, short runs, long runs, if you have the will to win, you will find a way. So I'm not sure it was only team driving that kept the others in the pack from taking the chance and making moves that could have either ended in disaster or a win. I think maybe everyone settled for position in order to acquire points for the long haul. Maybe it's time the Trucks and NNS series moved to the same point format as the Cup guys where a win has value again.

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    2. Anonymous11:56 PM

      I agree. Complain all you want if there is obvious blocking on faster trucks but any truck coul have started 2nd in that race and wod have had nothing for the 2

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    3. If you remember, Timothy Peters passed Ty Dillon in the 2nd run but couldn't catch Harvick, who eventually had an 8 second lead.

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  3. R duffy8:32 PM

    Thank you Dave. I couldn't agree more with your comments. The only racing worth watching was behind them. Do you think he will hold this win in hi regard

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    1. Anonymous9:02 PM

      You're talking about Harvick .. I have no doubt he's proud if the win .. I kept rooting for someone to dump Ty since he wasn't going to try and race Harvick for the win .. at least I know Harvick's cup teammates wouldn't put up with that .. if harvick was going for the title at the end of the season, I could see it .. I'll so love it if Ty finishes 2nd in the standings this year by the points he gave away by letting harvick take the win .. I don't think much about Childress if any of his drivers .. but I do like a couple of them, hate most, including the team as a whole

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  4. Anonymous8:38 PM

    Though I agree for the most part, everyone had 200 laps to get around Dillon and couldn't and that's not Harvick's fault.

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  5. Seems like RCR is starting to be known for tactics like this. Richmond last year with Paul Menard and the flat tire.

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  6. I totally agree Dave! I'm a fan of Kevin and RCR, But this was the ultimate definition of "Stinking up the Show"!

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  7. Parain Moody, You said a mouth full,

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  8. Anonymous9:23 PM

    Perhaps now you will have something interesting to talk to Harvick's wife about this week. Since she no longer owns a team that segment has become such a baby bore. But not this week !? If you ask the right questions. Thanks in advance, Mike from New Brunswick

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  9. Anonymous10:03 PM

    AND WE WONDER WHY NASCAR IS LOSING FANS??????

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  10. Anonymous10:34 PM

    The truck series reputation as a "shank your grandmother to win" series was thrown out last year when Kyle Busch was parked for dumping Hornaday (who, I still maintain, #1 hit Kyle first and #2 didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the championship) Horn knocked Kyle out of a chance for the owner's championship on, I believe, team orders from Harvick. But NASCAR ignored that, just like they ignored Childress taking off his watch and beating on Kyle. No such thing as a fair playing field anymore.

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    1. Anonymous11:51 AM

      I agree. Says a lot about the folks who cover NASCAR for a living that your analysis of what happened between Bush and Hornaday has never been said out loud.

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    2. Anonymous12:14 PM

      love is blind

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    3. Never been said out loud? Seriously? You must have missed Sirius XM Speedway for about three weeks after it happened!

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  11. Anonymous10:35 PM

    Thank you for saying this Dave. I paid my money to watch my first truck race today and because of this, it will be my laast. NASCAR and Martinsville can thank RCR,Harvick and Dillon for that. I expected better.

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  12. Anonymous11:52 PM

    Anyone could have passed Dillon during the race if they think they could have passed Harvick for the win. Buescher also was not upset with RCR at all because his team did the exact same thing at Daytona. But good effort at trying to create drama Moody. A for effort haha. Also this race was very consistent with what the recent Mville truck races have been and the attendance seemed to be about the same so yeah. Good try

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  13. Tell us how you REALLY feel Moody!!! Lmbo...SPOT ON as usual

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  14. Anonymous8:49 AM

    All they had to do was pass Dillon to get to Harvick...
    I guess y'all are just mad because RCR had the two fastest trucks in the show???

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  15. Anonymous9:09 AM

    I have to disagree with you on this one Dave (and this is a first), but there was plenty that the others could have done throughout the race. They could have had a better pit stop than Ty, they could have passed Ty, they could have wrecked Ty, etc. Any of those would have put someone else in the #2 position and they still would not have had anything for Kevin. It was a dominant RCR win.

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  16. There's no doubt that Harvick had a dominant truck yesterday. And if people are OK with a runnerup who had no interest in passing for the lead, so be it. I just think it goes aganst what the sport has always been about.

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  17. Anyone of the other trucks had the same opportunity to pass the 2 RCR trucks either in the pits or on the track. Don't blame them for team racing when they had the dominant trucks. They took advantage of having strong trucks. EVERY truck played by the same rules and if they were slower, that is their problem, not NASCAR's, not RCR's, not anyone's fault but the other competitors!

    Sorry Dave, can't agree with you on this one!

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  18. Brian Turner10:42 AM

    I agree with you Dave. Ty should have wanted to win at the end and raced him hard. Kevin should have taken the inside lane, knowing that Ty wanted to race, but alas, it was not the case.

    I also agree that 34 other drivers had a shot to move up and get pass the 3 truck, but couldn't do it, so what do you do? Team orders are fine, etc, and it was his first trip to Martinsville, but all orders should be off and every man for himself with 50 laps to go.

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  19. Man! Formula-1 has a truck series now?! Was that a Ferrari 1-2 finish we saw, or am I just confused. F1 has its place in the world, I'll give them that. However, that place is not Martinsville, VA. The trucks were as close as we could get to our local short tack races, and the "big time." How depressing to see so much of that luster gone. Nelson Piquet Jr. must have been having flashbacks yesterday, thinking to himself... "Hey! This NASCAR stuff isn't as different from F1 as I thought!"

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  20. Anonymous11:57 AM

    Greaat article. Kevin is a real Superman when there is zero competition. The harvick win is comparable to the Seinfeld episode when Kramer won the Karate championship beating up a class of 12 year olds. Vetern cup driver takes a mega milion dollar cup backed truck and beats all the lesser equipped teams and drivers. WOW!!! how impressive.

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  21. Anonymous4:05 PM

    Just a snapshot of part of the reason Nascar is headed the way it is. Nothing really wrong, but nothing really right either.

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  22. No, Dave you are totally right. I was wanting Ty to race him, and realized about midway through that wasn't going to happen. I'm tired of greed in major sports (NASCAR, since the other sports suck). Paul Menard was full of crap in Richmond, and the 10 in the Cup race today...was absolute bull man I'm so mad about this. Reutimann can defend all he wants, but he only would have lost 1 point to Kyle Busch and he just stayed out there for his own selfish and greedy reasons...it's really annoying. This aint racing anymore (probably hasn't been for YEARS), it's all about the Benjamins. That's the sad state of things all around I suppose, people all about a piece of paper with a dead guy on it.

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  23. Anonymous5:52 PM

    Remember Edwards and Stenhouse beating and banging on each other last year in Iowa. same situation but no team orders. It was a hell of a race!!!! Someone should tell Dillion that Second Sucks!! I don't think Skinner and Dale Sr would of been happy letting the other win. Dave thanks for speaking your opinion even though it might ruffle some of your fiends feathers!

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