It’s easy to criticize, all you need to do is turn on talk radio, or read a blog or two for that matter. Like many others, I have also criticized the country’s largest and most important racing sanctioning body, Nascar. Having said that, unlike many, I have some possible solutions to some of the most onerous bones of contention that seem to be sticking in some folks throats, as well as some thoughts as to how Nascar could both improve the races in ways that both the fan and the racer would appreciate. Last column I said I would address some, so without further ado:

About those double file restarts…”shootout style”. Mercifully Larry McReynolds and the gang stopped using that horrifyingly hackneyed phrase fairly early after Nascar, in a blatant attempt to “liven up” its races, decided that the cars needed to be bunched up on a steady basis. Nascar has gotten it into their collective heads that its racing should be “Days of Thunder” all day, all the time. Apparently the powers that be think that what the couch potatoes want to see is crashing cars. But that system, as it is currently used now, is part of Nascar’s problem. Because if crashing its stars was what people really wanted to see, the attendance and the TV audience would have taken a jump up, because wrecking the field on a regular basis has now become business as usual. My personal take on this is two-fold, that’s exactly what the modern ‘ fan’, and I truly am taking liberty with the term ‘fan’, wants to see. But, that is balanced out with the many real fans of the sport who frankly are sick of Nascar’s tinkering and tune out many races nowadays. Besides the fact that track promoters across the country are aping big brother with this nonsense, thereby decimating their already economically battered car counts. This may not be a huge problem area, but issues do exist with it that need to be addressed. Here is a workable solution.