Well the ARCA portion of speedweeks 2010 is over and done with. I guess there are lots of ways to look at this, but we got out of there with a couple of whole race cars and that is an accomplishment in itself. Nothing broke, nothing fell off, for the most part, we just had the racing Gods to deal with and a week of teaching our rookie drivers what we can about plate racing. Some stuff you can’t teach, you have to just learn it as you go.
ARCA management went through great pains to have meetings, show videos of what not to do in driver meetings and so on. Not sure what happens at Daytona. It is like we are racing on Friday the thirteenth with a full moon. The things that go on defy logic. I call it a stomach problem. It’s when the drivers feet that work the pedals become disconnected from the brain. Somewhere around the stomach. There is a definite disconnect. Why else would someone drive slam into a pile of wrecked cars?
Lots of torn up race cars, lots of torn up race cars for no good reason. Some of it is just going to happen, but driving into the pile or washing up and pinching folks into the fence or whatever is just plain nonsense. Some of this is just a product of where we are today in racing. We are putting kids out there younger and younger with less and less experience, all trying to be Dale Earnhardt. You know the deal. Everybody wants to be a big team “development driver”. Make no mistake, most of the time, getting to be a development driver comes with a million dollar price tag. Very few kids make it simply on the merit of their talent in this day and age. It cost lots of money to do what we do, even in the ARCA series.
“We will be happy to develop your child Mr. Big Daddy Customer, just sign this little agreement for 1.2 million”.
Think about it. Kids start out in go karts or quarter midgets or whatever at age 5 or 8. They run legends or micros or whatever and do well. Right away they jump to the big cars when they are 16. Just because one guy or another did it and succeeded, the reality is that not everyone is going to make it, it is about one percent. Period. Not every kid is going to be the next Jeff Gordon.
Anyway, we have lots of folks with no experience in racing. In fairness, they have to get it somewhere and that is what the ARCA series is, a development series. Develop the driver to graduate to one of the top 3 NASCAR levels. ARCA gets slammed in the media for the wrecks, but it is a product that people pay to see. Do you really think “most” fans want to see the Daytona 500 go green to checker with no caution? I mean I do, but most are there waiting for “the big one” and you know it.
So lots of cars got torn up. We planned to gas and go on the first stop and go the whole way, same as the winner did. On the first stop we overshot the pit. Rolled the car back and gassed it. Unplugged the gas can. Driver took his foot off of the brake. Gas man plugged in again to pack it full of fuel and literally pushed the car over the line by less than six inches. You see gas and go lots of times with a gas man running with the car. We learned that it isn’t acceptable here I suppose.
We had a couple of judgment calls not go our way. Lost a couple laps. Got them both back with the Lucky Dog. My whole Daytona goal is always to take care of the car until 15 to go, then get on with the race. Somehow, some way, we did just that. Lead lap, lead draft with 10 to go. Had a strong horse with the 1 car. Came from the back of the longest line via the lucky dog rule, drove to the top ten. Had a run on the high side and frankly, I believe we would have run fifth or better. This car IS that good.
Coming off of four on the outside, another car must have lost steering, pushed up, got the wind taken off or just plain ran out of talent and run into the left side of the car. Got a flat and ended up on pit road on the last lap. “Just one of those racing deals” I hate that saying, don’t you?
We tested, we prepared, great power, had decent pit stops (not great), fairly good. At the end of the day, there are just some cars you just simply cant race around. Heck you see it at Bowman Gray or Hickory, or anywhere else. I am even told that some guys “couldn’t race with me” can you imagine?
