New rule aimed directly at ‘Start and Park’ teams

It was announced earlier this week that NASCAR will now tear down the engine from the first car that drops out of a race that was not involved in a wreck on the track.

Why is NASCAR doing this? In my opinion it is to cut back on the number of start and park teams.

Start and park teams are those that go to races with the purpose of making the race and then parking the car after running a few laps. The reason why teams do this varies, but it essentially boils down to money.

Some teams can’t afford to pay for tires and a crew so they go and make the race, park the car, and collect the prize money and hopefully if they do this enough times they can afford to compete in a future event for the whole race. Or another reason is just to collect the prize money with no intention of re-investing it into the team.

I mean last place for this year’s Daytona 500 paid $261,424 - that’s waaay more than I make in a year (make that waaay more than I make in multiple years).

Start and park teams have been around since NASCAR was formed, this is nothing new but the spotlight has been shining on them lately - especially now since starting and parking has become openly discussed in the media by the drivers. You can even read about it on Twitter.

With television ratings on the decline and sponsors hard to find I can see why NASCAR wants to keep all 43 cars on the track for as long as humanly possible because a race is much more interesting with all 43 cars on the track at the same time. Start and park teams may also give the image that NASCAR is fixing the race by having cars pull off the track in order for certain drivers to finish higher in the standings.

Also, NASCAR wants to be able to attract sponsors for race teams and why would a sponsor want to be on the side of a car that only runs 20 laps before the infamous rear gear goes south. If I were a sponsor I’d want my name out there in front of the crowd and on TV for as long as the race is broad-casted on TV and if I see a lot of cars starting the race and then disappearing why would I want to throw my advertising dollars at these teams or series?

Another assumption about all of this is that some of these start and park teams may be going with an ‘illegal’ oversized engine to get into the show and then pull off to get their prize money without fear of NACAR tearing the engine apart of the last place car, which they don’t regularly do.

So what NASCAR could also be trying to do is catch these guys cheating (or at least keep them honest). One has to to look no further than at a year ago when NASCAR tore Carl Long’s motor apart and found it to be illegal. He got nailed with a $200 000 fine and it was only an exhibition race too.

The punishment benchmark has been set by Carl and NASCAR would look pretty foolish to let anyone off with anything less than what Carl got no matter who the driver is.

I think what NASCAR is doing with this new tear down rule is good for the sport and should be applauded, assuming of course that curbing the number of start and park teams is really their intention.

What do you think?