Out of the Box

Last week there was an article on NASCAR.COM by regular contributor Dave Rodman that caught my eye. I think this guy likes to think out of the box but I believe this idea has merit…

He suggests NASCAR should consider a 69 race Cup season instead of the current 36. How is this possible? Well… On all but three Sprint Cup events he proposes splitting the races in two. The sacred ground to be left undisturbed would be the Daytona 500, the Coca Cola 600 at CMS and the Brickyard 400. Races like the Pocono 500 or the 400 mile Michigan run would become 250 or 200 mile races respectively. The race we just witnessed at Bristol would go from 500 laps to 250. Rodman proposes having Saturday and then Sunday, same weekend races at each track and awarding full points for each race.

What gave Rodman this idea? He’d just witnessed this season’s 50 lap first time
truck race at Pocono. Rodman described it as, “a wham-bam action-packed format” that produced “the best Saturday crowd a number of veteran Pocono observers had seen in years”. The quick race pushes the drivers to a much higher level of competition. Now think about it, don’t you find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat watching these truck races? The end of the race is near, the drivers are right up on the wheel and the action can change the racing order at any time. They’re running three and four wide, bumpin’ and grindin’ all the way. The crowds love it… Just ask Gene Haddock how he felt coming away from the Too Tough To Tame 200 a couple of weeks ago at Darlington.

Check out the article. In it Rodman gives his thoughts on how practice and qualifying could be handled, the importance of having the race distance long enough to insure two pit stops allowing a higher degree of strategy and such things as television slotting and adding first place points to the final 15 races of the season. Rodman also has his ideas about what to do with this wonderful Chase format.

The fact of the matter is these drivers and their teams need to get back that
feeling of urgency. It’s like the will to win has been removed from these guys. The way it stands now we’ve got a bunch of top drivers that have the system (current point distribution and Chase) figured out. They’re doing just enough to make the field of twelve and what do the fans get? Lackadaisical single file performances.

Here’s the link to Dave Rodman’s ramblings:
http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/opinion/08/19/road.ramblings.drodman.schedule/index.html

* * * * * * *

Okay, something Gene brought up recently…

What would the current Cup standings look like if NASCAR’s point system was the same as Formula 1’s? (Awards 20 points for first place, 19 for second and so on down to 1 point for finishing 20th).


Here are all 68 drivers that have strapped in during the 2010 Cup Season. This is where they would rank under the F1 system with their rank under NASCAR’s current point scoring system to the right:

-----Formula 1 Points System----NASCAR
Place Driver -----------Points ----Cup Place
1 Kevin Harvick ---------319 ---------1
2 Jeff Gordon -----------249 ---------2
3 Carl Edwards ----------248 --------4
4 Kurt Busch ------------233 --------10
5 Kyle Busch ------------230 ---------3
6 Jimmie Johnson -------225 ---------9
7 Jeff Burton ------------220 ---------7
8 Matt Kenseth ---------218 ----------8
9 Tony Stewart ---------217 ----------6
10 Denny Hamlin -------216 ----------5
11 Greg Biffle -----------211 ---------11
12 Clint Bowyer --------205 ---------12
13 Juan Montoya -------184 ---------19
14 Jamie McMurray ----175 ---------13
15 Ryan Newman ------168 ----------15
16 Kasey Kahne --------167 ----------16
17 Mark Martin --------163 ----------14
18 David Reutimann ---160 -----------17
19 Dale Earnhardt Jr. --149 -----------18
20 Joey Logano --------145 -----------21
21 Martin Truex Jr. ----140 -----------20
22 A J Allmendinger ----126 -----------22
23 Marcos Ambrose ----107 -----------26
24 Paul Menard ---------93 -----------23
25 David Ragan ---------68 ------------24
26 Brian Vickers --------62 ------------36
27 Brad Keselowski -----58 ------------25
28 Sam Hornish Jr. -----49 ------------28
28 Scott Speed ---------49 ------------27
30 Robby Gordon ------36 ------------34
31 Elliott Sadler --------24 ------------29
32 Mike Bliss -----------23 -----------40
33 Reed Sorenson ------19 ------------41
33 Regan Smith --------19 ------------30
35 Boris Said -----------13 ------------47
36 Jan Magnussen ------9 ------------60
37 Bill Elliott ------------8 ------------42
37 Steve Park ----------8 -------------59
39 Kevin Conway -------7 -------------35
40 Bobby Labonte ------5 -------------31
41 David Gilliland-------4 -------------33
42 Andy Lally ----------3 -------------56
42 Michael Waltrip -----3 -------------51
42 Travis Kvapil -------3 --------------32
45 J.J. Yeley -----------2 -------------46
46 Aric Almirola -------0 --------------57
47 Casey Mears -------0 --------------43
48 Chad McCumbee ---0 --------------68
49 Dave Blaney -------0 --------------44
50 David Stremme ---0 --------------39
51 Geoff Bodine -------0 --------------67
52 Jacques Villeneuve -0 -------------64
53 Jeff Green ---------0 --------------63
54 Joe Nemechek -----0 --------------37
55 John Andretti ------0 --------------65
56 Johnny Sauter -----0 --------------58
57 Landon Cassill -----0 ---------------49
58 Mattias Ekstrom --0 ---------------62
59 Max Papis --------0 ---------------38
60 Michael McDowell 0 ---------------45
61 P.J. Jones ---------0 ---------------52
62 Patrick Carpentier 0 ---------------54
63 Rob Richardson Jr. 0 ---------------50
64 Ron Fellows -------0 ---------------66
65 Scott Riggs --------0 ---------------61
66 Terry Cook -------0 ----------------55
67 Todd Bodine ------0 ----------------48
68 Tony Raines ------0 ----------------53

The top positions are much the same as the current point accounting system… I guess they’re doing something right.

On to Atlanta!

This just came to my attention... It's not a joke. The city of Philadelphia is forcing it's citizens who have reported income from internet based business transactions (including being paid by advertisers) to obtain a business license. The cost is $300 per year. Nice, huh?

Is this where the government is going now?

In case you're interested, here's the link to the newspaper article:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/philly-requiring-bloggers-to-pay-300-for-a-business-license-101264664.html

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