NASCAR SPUTTERS TOWARD FINISH ON TROUBLED SEASON
NASCAR saw its TV ratings dip amid culture of cheating, DUI-fueled change at chairman.
HOMESTEAD, FL A .— NASCAR’s season of doom and gloom sputters toward the checkered flag with a stout championship fi field but the inability to distance itself from everything that’s gone wrong in this trying year.
Martin Truex Jr.’s team is closing after the race because his primary sponsor is leaving the sport. Kevin Harvick’s team was caught cheating, then justifified using an illegal spoiler because other teams were doing it fifirst.
Fans hope the four championship- contending cars are legal but won’t know for sure until the cars have been inspected, long after the champagne celebration is over, because the culture of cheating in NASCAR hasn’t gone away. Television ratings hit a low in 26 events this year, and the cumbersome rulebook, a vulnerable inspection process and NASCAR’s officiating has received far toomuch attention of late.
NASCAR may or may not be for sale — the France family doesn’t often speak publicly and their intentions remain private. But the August drunk- driving arrest of Brian France forced a change at chairman and a defifinitive shift in NASCAR leadership. It was Ben Kennedy, the 26-year-old great grand son of NASCAR’ sf ami ly, who represented the series during the Truck Series celebration.
Next up is the Cup title race today at Homestead-Miami Speedway that pits reigning series champion Truex against Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in a winnert ake-all fifinale. It’s the strongest fifinal four since NASCAR adopted this format in 2014 — the four drivers combined to win 22 of 35 races this season — but the on-track action has been overshadowed time and again by offfffffffffftrack problems.
“The racing has been unbelievable this season,” Truex said. “A lot of action, a lot of big moments on the racetrack. I don’t really worry too much about the stuff that happened away from it. I think the sport is in a good place and heading in a good direction.”
It’s a sound endorsement from a journeyman driver who hit the jackpot when paired with single-car Furniture RowRacing, a mid-level team based in Denver that defified all odds and won last year’s Cup title. But that title wasn’t enough to keep the team’s main sponsor from leaving, and Furniture Row will close after today’s race rather than try to compete on the cheap.
Truex and crewchief Cole Pearnwill joinJoeGibbs Racing next season, and today is a fifinal opportunity for one last celebration with the Furniture Row team.
“You can imagine how sick you feel when you see it coming to a close,” said FRR President Joe Garone, who like T ru ex distanced the team’s closing as an indictment of the overall health of the sport. “NASCAR is still a place to be for corporate sponsorship. There’s no question about it.”
Truex, a four- time winner this season, is trying to become the first back- toback champion since Jimmie Johnson won his fifth consecutive title in 2010. He’s part of the so-called Big Three alongwith Busch and Harvick, winners of a serieshigheight races each this season. But Harvick’s winning car was deemed illegal after twoofhiswins, most recently twoweeks agoatTexaswhen NASCAR found the spoiler on the Stewart-Haas Racing entry was not fromthemandatory vendor.
“The fifirst question across my mind was, ‘How long? How long has that been going on? What else are they doing?’” Busch wondered.
Busch and Harvick have matched each other winfor-win all season, and even though NASCAR penalized Harvick’s team, Busch is not alone in wondering if the entire season is tainted.
Harvick thrives in times of controversy.
“For me, there’s always some incentive in proving to people that you can do something that isn’t what they think you should do,” Harvick said. “Last week it was (said) ‘ This penalty is going to slow them down.’ The mentality of the race team is to always push the limits. When they back you against the wall, make it better than it was before.”
He’s racing without crew chief Rodney Childers, who was suspended for the fifinal two weeks of the season for the illegal spoiler. Childers is expected to be somewhere on the property at Homestead today. He’s forbidden from being in the garage, but NASCAR will allow him
to celebratewith his team if Harvick wins the title.
Harvickhasmade thefifinal four every year but once since 2014, the year hewon the fifinale and the championship. Busch won in 2015, Truex last year and a second title for any of The Big Three would give NASCAR just its second active driver with multiple championships. Johnsonhas seven, andnone of his currentpeers hasmore than one Cup title.
Logano is seeking his fifirst championship. He was on track towin the title in 2015 but a feud with Matt Ken seth contributed to Logano being locked out of the fifinale. He fi finished second the next season, missed the playoff ff ff ff ff ffs last year and used a late- season push to grab a spot in today’s race.
Logano thinks he’s the favorite based on how well his Team Penske crew has been running, but Busch thinks a Logano championship would spoil this season dominatedbyThe Big Three.
“He’s been there. He’s been consistent. He’s been good. He hasn’t necessarily performed to the level of The Big Three, and that’s no shake on themat all, it’s just the fact of the matter,” Busch said. “So if he wins the title over the rest of us, then that would certainly be a little bit more disappointing.”
It’s a possibility, though, because all four drivers excel at intermediate tracks like Homestead. The Big Three has combined to win all but four races on the tracks between 1.33 and 2 miles, and Logano has an average fifinish of fififth on the interme- diate tracks in these playoff ff ff ff ff ffs.
This format was designed to award the first playoff contender across the finish line the Cup title, and the champion the last four years has also won the race. The contenders believe that will be the case again today and hope the race itselfwill be good enough to send NASCAR into the off ff ff ff ff ff season on a high note.
Representatives fromthe four championship teams held a news conference at Homestead and insisted the sport is moving in the right direction. There has been a sense of calm since Jim France replaced his nephew as chairman and CEOfollowing BrianFrance’s arrest, but there’s alsouncertainty about long-termplans. Reports have indicated the France family wants to sell some or all of NASCAR, and last week NASCAR made a move to buy allpublic shares of sister company International Speedway Corp.
It’s also going to be a rocky off ff ff ff ff ff season with NASCAR rolling out new rules next year in an effffffffffffort to improve the racing. The inspection process continues to be finetuned and Harvick’s illegal spoiler has forced the sanctioning body to take a hard look at how it can curb the rampant cheating that teams do under the guise of “pushing the envelope” or “fifinding gray areas” of the rulebook.
The championship race maybe fantastic and perhaps enough to temporarily forget all of this year’s issues. Even if it doesn’t, team owner Joe Gibbs believes everything will smooth itself out.
“I think NASCAR is working extremely hard,” Gibbs said. “I think we’re certainly working hard from Jim France on down. It’s exciting.”