NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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SPENCER: Fix For Fuel-Mileage Races
Slowing down Sprint Cup Series cars would go a long way toward eliminating fuel mileage races...
Jimmy Spencer  |  Posted October 19, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Points leader Brad Keselowski had the best car last Saturday night at Charlotte but he and his team made a mistake when he ran out of fuel just before pitting with 57 laps remaining. (Photo: Getty Images)
I, like a lot of NASCAR fans, don’t really care for fuel-mileage races like we’ve seen lately in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

More than any other time I can remember in recent history, you can almost guarantee a race on a mile-and-a-half or larger track will be decided on fuel conservation and strategy. Clint Bowyer won at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend on fuel mileage, and there’s no reason to think fuel mileage won’t play a huge role this weekend at the newly-repaved Kansas Speedway.

Well, I have my own little strategy to combat this trend, and it doesn’t involve throwing a caution flag every set number of laps (although I’d rather see NASCAR’s version of “timeouts” than fuel-mileage races). It is as simple as slowing the cars down to foster better competition, which in turn might lessen the importance of fuel mileage.

Slowing the cars down to take fuel mileage out of the equation sounds like something a crew chief would tell his driver when he’s trying to buy a few more laps on a tank of gas. But I mean it in a different way, and I’ve been preaching this for a few years.

The cars are going way too fast, so fast, in fact, that drivers can’t pass each other. This is especially true at mile-and-a-half or two-mile speedways. If we shaved 20 miles per hour off going into the corners like we had just five years ago, we’d see drivers driving more aggressively and taking more chances on the track. As a result, we’d probably see them getting into each other more often and going for a few more spins on the race track, which will produce more caution flags. When the caution flag comes out more often, fuel mileage usually goes out the window.

But drivers don’t want to take that risk barreling into the corner at 200 miles per hour, as Denny Hamlin was clocking when he crashed Thursday in the test at Kansas Speedway. I don’t blame them. But if they had 20 miles per hour less speed heading into the turns, they’d feel more comfortable and confident in their race car and in their own safety.

I talked to several top drivers last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and each one agreed the cars are going too fast. This isn’t about being a wimp who’s afraid to go fast. These conversations and thought processes are about the desire to create better competition on the track, which should help alleviate fuel-mileage situations.

However, I’ve expressed my concerns to NASCAR several times in recent years that the cars are too fast, but they tell me that’s what separates the good drivers from the great ones. Wait just a second. We have 43 Cup Series drivers in any given race. How many drivers are there in the United States? Thousands and thousands. So, I know we have 43 of the best in this country. The rules are the problem. It’s the vehicles. They have become so aero-dependent that drivers are only along for the ride. When David Pearson, Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and those guys raced, they succeeded because of their ability behind the wheel – not necessarily because of their car. Nowadays, though, everything is highly dependent on aerodynamics and the car itself and much less on the driver’s ability.

The car has become 90 percent of the equation, and I think that’s bad for the sport. It was bad for the IndyCar Series, and it doesn’t bode well for NASCAR either. I blame technology for these issues, but this is a problem that can be fixed simply by slowing down the cars … if someone would only listen.

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on NASCAR Race Hub on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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