Speed Racer
aka "mach5driver"
By Lee Spencer - The Sporting News
Who says NASCAR has an offseason?
It hasn't been a month since I unpacked my bags from the Winston Cup Awards ceremony in New York, and here I am loading up again for testing at Daytona.
My non-racing acquaintances frequently ask, "How are you enjoying the offseason?" My reply invariably is, "What offseason?"
In fact, my friends are lucky to see me at all. From February to November, I make only cameo appearances around my hometown -- out of necessity.
Still, I can't complain. While I watched bowl games on New Year's Day, most Winston Cup pit crew members were hard at work building cars for Daytona, Rockingham, Las Vegas, Darlington and Bristol, the early races on the schedule.
Get the picture?
"I had off Christmas and the day after," says Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet team and driver Jimmie Johnson. "I haven't been back to Illinois, where my parents live, for four years. This time of the year we're all working 12-hour days."
For Knaus, who worked as crew chief for his father's Late Model team when he was just 14, this type of lifestyle seems normal.
"It is normal to me, because it's all I've ever done," Knaus says. "If you want to win, that's what it takes. You have to pour your heart and soul into it."
Knaus has seen the long hours pay off. He worked on the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet team when Jeff Gordon won the first two of his four championships. He sacrificed weekends to get the Dodge program up and running in 2000. And he built a team from scratch last year and led his rookie squad to fifth in the point standings.
But if NASCAR cut the current schedule from 38 races -- including the Bud Shootout and The Winston -- to 30, it wouldn't break Knaus' heart.
Even a pampered NASCAR prince like Rusty Wallace, who is usually the first to be whisked away from the track via helicopter before his crew has even loaded his car, feels that the current schedule is suffocating.
During Wallace's rookie year in 1984, he competed in 30 races. But that number grew gradually to 36 races in 2001. And the repercussions on the teams have been dramatic.
"From an owner's standpoint and a team's standpoint, the biggest complaint that everybody has is that we race too many times," Wallace says. "Thirty-six races is beyond ridiculous and the only reason it was done initially was to grow the sport. And I think it was the wrong way to grow the sport. It turned into major burnout for everyone. It turned into higher salaries because now we have specialists that we have to hire for the road team, backup team and a shop team."
The cost of racing continues to rise and NASCAR continues to lose more teams in the process. Although it was necessary to move into major markets like Chicago and Kansas City, the addition of those races removed two desperately needed off-weekends from the toughest part of the schedule -- the dreaded 20-week stretch to the end.
"I never thought where we would see 20 weekends in a row," Wallace says. "There has to be some way to fix that because there needs to be two breaks between there. The sport needs to go back to 32 races, but I don't see that coming in the near future."
Nevertheless, NASCAR should take a hard look at the schedule and how it affects the teams. It would not be too difficult to move Richmond to the Saturday before Mother's Day, which would free up a date for Chicago or Kansas City in May. NASCAR generally doesn't release the schedule until September, so this gives them nine months to think about it.
Who says NASCAR has an offseason?
It hasn't been a month since I unpacked my bags from the Winston Cup Awards ceremony in New York, and here I am loading up again for testing at Daytona.
My non-racing acquaintances frequently ask, "How are you enjoying the offseason?" My reply invariably is, "What offseason?"
In fact, my friends are lucky to see me at all. From February to November, I make only cameo appearances around my hometown -- out of necessity.
Still, I can't complain. While I watched bowl games on New Year's Day, most Winston Cup pit crew members were hard at work building cars for Daytona, Rockingham, Las Vegas, Darlington and Bristol, the early races on the schedule.
Get the picture?
"I had off Christmas and the day after," says Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet team and driver Jimmie Johnson. "I haven't been back to Illinois, where my parents live, for four years. This time of the year we're all working 12-hour days."
For Knaus, who worked as crew chief for his father's Late Model team when he was just 14, this type of lifestyle seems normal.
"It is normal to me, because it's all I've ever done," Knaus says. "If you want to win, that's what it takes. You have to pour your heart and soul into it."
Knaus has seen the long hours pay off. He worked on the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet team when Jeff Gordon won the first two of his four championships. He sacrificed weekends to get the Dodge program up and running in 2000. And he built a team from scratch last year and led his rookie squad to fifth in the point standings.
But if NASCAR cut the current schedule from 38 races -- including the Bud Shootout and The Winston -- to 30, it wouldn't break Knaus' heart.
Even a pampered NASCAR prince like Rusty Wallace, who is usually the first to be whisked away from the track via helicopter before his crew has even loaded his car, feels that the current schedule is suffocating.
During Wallace's rookie year in 1984, he competed in 30 races. But that number grew gradually to 36 races in 2001. And the repercussions on the teams have been dramatic.
"From an owner's standpoint and a team's standpoint, the biggest complaint that everybody has is that we race too many times," Wallace says. "Thirty-six races is beyond ridiculous and the only reason it was done initially was to grow the sport. And I think it was the wrong way to grow the sport. It turned into major burnout for everyone. It turned into higher salaries because now we have specialists that we have to hire for the road team, backup team and a shop team."
The cost of racing continues to rise and NASCAR continues to lose more teams in the process. Although it was necessary to move into major markets like Chicago and Kansas City, the addition of those races removed two desperately needed off-weekends from the toughest part of the schedule -- the dreaded 20-week stretch to the end.
"I never thought where we would see 20 weekends in a row," Wallace says. "There has to be some way to fix that because there needs to be two breaks between there. The sport needs to go back to 32 races, but I don't see that coming in the near future."
Nevertheless, NASCAR should take a hard look at the schedule and how it affects the teams. It would not be too difficult to move Richmond to the Saturday before Mother's Day, which would free up a date for Chicago or Kansas City in May. NASCAR generally doesn't release the schedule until September, so this gives them nine months to think about it.
