Most Left Talladega with Disappointed Feeling

I’ve given myself a day to think over Sunday’s Good Sam Club 500 because I may have convinced myself that my initial thoughts of “disappointing, boring and political” might have been overly critical.

Waiting 24 hours has only intensified my dissatisfaction in Sunday’s race.

While not as bad as the 2002 fall Talladega race where NASCAR shrunk the fuel cell to promote pit stops and separate the field, the 2011 iteration featured one of the worst middle sections of recent memory.

The race featured just 72 lead changes, a far cry from the anticipated 100, with many of them coming at the hands of strategy or on pit stops. There was very little dicing for the lead over the first 260 laps, making many of us wonder if the laps should have been ran in the first place.

This is especially true for Chase racers Kurt and Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who were all collected in different accidents while just riding it out at over 200 miles per hour.

The wave may have even broken out around the confines of the Superspeedway, a dainty call for help from the roughly 105,000 who paid the speedway to watch the equivalent of paint drying during in the first two-thirds of the event.

I’m happy for Clint Bowyer who needed a win after recently announcing his impending move to Michael Waltrip Racing. I’m even happier for Clint’s team, a championship caliber squad at risk of hitting the unemployment line if team owner Richard Childress cannot find funding for a fourth team by the start of next season. The same happiness is applied toward third place finisher Dave Blaney and Michael Baldwin Racing who really needed a strong run towards financing a race team with very little funding and backing.

Outside of those three stories there just wasn’t a lot to be excited about leaving the Speedway.

The dissatisfaction began in the closing laps when Jeff Gordon worked out a deal with former Daytona apprentice Trevor Bayne to work together and move towards the front. After a game of counter compromise, the two drivers agreed to work with Bayne pushing Gordon towards the start-finish line.

Despite Bayne’s initial opposition and eventual ‘double-cross’, the tandem made sense. Bayne’s a part-time driver looking to build respect while Gordon is a 20-year veteran hanging onto the fringe of a championship hope with so many Chasers running into trouble earlier in the race.

The genesis of that incident occurred earlier in the week when Ford decreed that Fords should only push each other during the course of the race with no Ford allowed to push another manufacturer. This is a rule Bayne insinuated during post-race media conversations.

Jack Roush, for his part, denies issuing team orders to any Ford driver.

There are just not a lot of answers to be found for either of the race’s primary problems. The love-bug style of racing is here to stay until Talladega and Daytona’s surfaces degrade or NASCAR decides to change the nose and rear wings to not match up while bump drafting.

My guess is that neither will happen for a long time.

Considering the lack of dramatics, the current style of plate racing is just plain safer. While speeds of over 200 mph concern the sanctioning body, the likelihood of the major multi-car accident just isn’t the same as it was in years past.

Both NASCAR and its drivers appreciate the separation of the packs and after the untimely death of Dan Wheldon, it’s an easier sell to the non-racing mass media ravenous for the flesh of North America’s top tier racing series.

In this economy, NASCAR just can’t afford to allow cars to ride for over 80 percent of the race before deciding to chase the serious prize at the end. The lead change cash prize was a shot in the right of direction but Talladega track president Grant Lynch should consider cash prizes at halfway or every few increments of the race to incentivize leading additional laps.

This is even more crucial in the fall when the track doesn’t have the ARCA Racing Series or Nationwide to fall back on. The Sprint Cup race has to maximize the value of a race ticket and it currently isn’t.

All the pieces are in place for NASCAR to make the Talladega Chase race one of it’s marquee events. Now they must fit them in to place.

On to Martinsville.