Stock Car Racing and Conclusions



An anticlimatic ending to the Daytona 500 with rain falling. Saturday's Busch race ended under caution which had about the same effect. NASCAR needs to realize that no one wants to sit for hours watching a race that in the end doesn't really end. The 500 should have started even earlier at Noon when the television viewing began. This would have enabled them to run the whole race. They knew it was going to rain, they moved it up about 15 minutes. They should have moved it up sooner.



On Saturday they made some inane rule that if a caution is thrown in the last five laps the race will end under caution. This after a year of throwing red flags to ensure that the race would end under the green flag. I was no fan of that but it is better than watching cars go around the track behind the pace car and seeing the checkered flag fly.



If they want to keep their fan base large, NASCAR will have to figure out a better way to deal with rain delays and caution flags. Here is an idea--don't count caution laps.