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Perhaps the "hottest" gossip subject of the season thus far, has NASCAR dictating that NO TOUR DRIVERS SHALL COMPETE IN EVENTS OUTSIDE THE NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR.
This rumor is to only be in effect during the actual Tour season, and would not effect the New Smyrna "World Series", the Concord "North/South Shoot-Out", or the new "Mason-Dixon Meltdown" at South Boston.
While I find this to be a harsh decision, if true, I can also understand the reasoning. The drivers and teams of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour need to support their own. The event at Holland (NY) Speedway had the lowest car count of the season due to drivers skipping the event for the "Tom Baldwin Memorial " at Riverhead, and drivers who competed at Seekonk (MA) Speedway's "Modified Madness" not making the trip to Holland.
Tour teams compained about a small schedule, yet teams are skipping events ? I can somewhat understand with the "Tom Baldwin Memorial" THIS RACE NEEDS TO NOT BE CONFLICTIVE WITH A WHELEN TOUR EVENT. NASCAR is at fault here. they need to have a CONCRETE schedule announced during the winter. Riverhead (NY) Raceway had their race scheduled WAY before the Tour race at Holland was added. Can NASCAR really blame drivers for paying homage to one of their own ? But, to compete at an "Open" event the same week as a Whelen Tour event, and not show up for the Tour event is wrong in my opinion. Although, many teams made plans to run at Seekonk before NASCAR added the Holland date. Many teams just do not have the budget to compete twice in the same week.
I do not think banning drivers from competing in other events is the answer. I think GREATER REWARDS should be made available to drivers who attempt qualifying for ALL Whelen Tour events. These drivers should be GUARANTEED to start EVERY race. Let the part timers worry about earning the remanining spots in the field. Even if a part-timer is higher in the point standings, a guy who tows to EVERY race should GET THE SPOT over someone who picks and choses where to race.
NASCAR must also address the situation of drivers towing to tracks, just to go home empty handed. With the abundance of "Official" this and that's of NASCAR, there MUST be a company to sponsor some type of "Tow Money" program. They could at least have a program where if you fail to qaulify, you and your team do not pay to enter the next event. Hoosier should also take some type of consideration for these poor teams who spend money on tires for a two-lap time trail run, fail to qaulify, and go home. They award free tires to the top-twenty in points, those guys do not need more rewards, they are the ones making money back each race. The poor guys who spend the same amount of money only to go home do. Sunoco should also consider the drivers who fail to qualify. They had to buy your fuel just like the guys who will make money back by racing. I am not saying the drivers who qualify are making money, but they are at least getting SOMETHING back. What do the guys who fail to qualify get ?
If NASCAR, Sunoco, and Hoosier look at the problems from this perspective, perhaps we will not see drivers abandoning the Tour.
These are just my opinions. Take them for what you will.
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
If the rumor is true that Nascar was none to happy about team's running a non Nascar sanctioned event I personally think that it's BS.
Racing in my opinion, is all about pleasing the fan's because without them showing up an paying the freight either the track the competitors are racing on, or the series their involved with will eventually cease to exist. And it seem's the only succesful event's ( both fan attendance, and car count wise) that are being held these day's are special open style show's and non Nascar touring series races.
If a WMT team has the budget, and the ability personel wise to run both an open show an the next WMT event they will do so as some did, (Seekonk then Holland) if they don't and they choose to run the open show over the next WMT event and Nascar is that worried about it as our own WMT stated in his post they need to look at way's to make it to attractive to skip a WMT event.
Allright, I did a little researching. Alot of people think drivers are defecting from the Whelen Tour to these "Open" shows for money. So I checked into some money points.
The Whelen Tour event at Holland (NY) Speedway had a purse of $75,953, the "Modified Madness" event at Seekonk (MA) Speedway was almost $32,000. The big draw to me, was the $10,000 to win. The Whelen Tour event paid $7,400. I think if the Whelen Tour had a different purse structure, where the races paid $10,000 to win, you would not see much defecting.
Another thing I noticed, Seekonk Admission $18 , Holland $29. I can in a way way see the justification here. I realize tracks need to pay out more money when the Tour comes to town, but if you keep raising the prices, are people going to come to watch. Twenty dollars should be a maximum ticket price for any Tour event in my opinion, bet you won't see many empty seats then.
Once again these are just my opinions. Thanx for reading -WMT-
-- Edited by WhelenModifiedTour at 23:06, 2006-07-31
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
While you guys have made some valid points. Let's look at the Seekonk Open Comp show.
Here are the Tour "Regulars" who ran the Seekonk show and their info from that race. 4. #79-Chuck Hossfeld, Ransonville, NY, $2,000 7. #73-John McKennedy, Chelmsford, MA, $850 8. #5-Chris Pasteryak, Lisbon, CT, $700 13. #00-Ted Christopher, Plainville, CT 18. #03-Dennis Charette, Southington, CT 20. #46-Dick Houlihan, Bridgewater, MA 22. #11-Rob Summers, Vernon, CT 24. #3x-Eric Beers, Northampton, PA 25. #66-John Blewett, Howell, NJ DNQ: Donny Lia, Jimmy Blewett
Looks like they did ok there in terms of 'defectors' supporting the tour stuff. Blewett I believe was at Wall going after the track title. Chris Pasteryak was supporting his own SK efforts at Waterford.
Wow, my first thought was payoff differences, but it looks like the Konk paid more to win but less down the line. Travel costs & admission are also concerns and for many going to Seekonk may have been cheaper. Another thing to consider is where you as a team feel your best chance of winning would be.
As for banning teams or drivers, well you would need someone more knowledgable of corporate law to settle that one. In my industry companies wanted a no compete clause and it is commonly said they would not win in court because it restricts a persons ability to make a living. The WMT teams may have a NASCAR license but did they sign any such contract restricting them?
What about the Cup drivers invading the Busch series and restricting many Busch teams from a race spot? NASCAR doesn't restrict their Big Name Cup Drivers from running other series. They have done very little for the WMT guys lately it seems. What about the TV coverage that never happened? If Edwards & Stewart didn't run at NHIS then no one outside New England would even know they raced there.
Sounds like a lot of hot air and if it happened I bet NASCAR would end up in court being sued.
I was just thinking that the Tour had more than the 28 cars scheduled to start show up at Holland (NY) Speedway. The track management actually decided to add the two cars that did not qualify to the field. But at many events on the Tour several cars go home. I am just playing with numbers here, but does it make sense for NASCAR to expect 45 cars to show up for 28 spots when there is NO tow money or Last Chance Race for the guys who do not qualify. Seekonk (MA) Speedway at least paid tow money.
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
