But then, back in January when the fellows were testing over at Daytona International Speedway, the Toyotas came out in full force. They ran up top for the most part, and that’s what turned my head. How they could go from downright lousy to top testers in less than three months was very intriguing. I found myself wondering if that was a fluke or what. And here we are, just four races into the season and look what we have, Toyota’s first win in the top series in NASCAR…a pretty good day for those fellows. Is it just the beginning? Well, I don’t expect them to go backwards from here, let’s just say that and move on to Bristol.
Last week we found out that Carl Edwards and his cohorts got whacked a good one, a very expensive one. It was doled out as a result of the oil lid thingy sliding off, flying off, or dropping off, and it seems it was never taped, screwed or bolted down while they were California, resulting in a very big penalty. It cost them big, lots of money, points and perhaps the worst part of the deal was that other drivers came out and vocally expressed their doubt that it could have in any way been an accident…ain’t no way, no how. So the fine will be paid, the points taken away and the actual pain of the penalty will be fade. But those jabs and accusations by the other drivers and whispers and pointing fingers will take much longer to drift away. They may never be fully forgotten.
Yeah, I know, everyone cheats, or so I’ve heard. But this was a big one, a blatant one, and one that put a burr under the shirts of more than a few folks. And unfortunately it shows me that as much as I’d like to believe that there are teams that play fair in this game of speed, I am beginning to see that my rose colored glasses are starting to get very blurry.
Then there was the tire issue…well heck. It was too hard to get good grip out on the track. At least that was a big issue according to the drivers, a huge issue. After listening to the driver’s fuss, the Goodyear fellows defend themselves, and the drivers fuss some more, the best I can figure is what the drivers are trying to say in many different ways is that we went from a super soft tire to a super hard tire, and is there not a handful of adjustments that could have been tried between these two measures? That’s the part that has me puzzled.
I believe Goodyear is a top notch manufacturer, has been for many, many years, so I am not questioning their reputation. What I am wondering about is how come we went from a soggy, floppy, grip filled tire to a stiff as a board, stuffy, don’t expect me to stick tire…that’s one heck of a big difference don’t you think? Do you think maybe they made several in between type tires and tested them somewhere else and didn’t like how they performed so they just skipped all that mess and went to this hard one? There’s got to be some kind of logical series of events that led to this huge difference in tires.
Or…what if the teams were under inflating the previous tires so much that they gave the appearance of being excessively soft? So as a counter measure, these new ones were made really really hard so that they wouldn’t turn into mush no matter how the guys adjusted the air? I’m just saying…it could happen couldn’t it? Ah…you see how a mind can wander when there doesn’t seem to be a logical answer?
Well, let’s see what Bristol is going to give us to talk about…a lot I’m sure. We’ll leave this little mess behind us, well; sort of…you know that tire thing is going to come along with us. And the shaking heads will still follow behind Carl and his entourage as they go by. Although, I must say, when I saw Carl’s engine blow up in Atlanta, my first thought was… “Is that oil? Do I see a cloud of oil burning as his engine dies??” It sure appeared to be…yep, a big oil cloud. Then my thoughts wandered a little further… “Dang, I sure hope somebody didn’t sabotage his oil thingy…that would sure stink wouldn’t it?” But nah, no one would do that….would they?”
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