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Humpy Wheeler: How to get fans back in the NASCAR grandstands


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Humpy Wheeler: How to get fans back in the NASCAR grandstands

 

by Mike Pryson, Autoweek

 

 

CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY'S FORMER P.T. BARNUM SAYS SPORT NEEDS LESS AERO PUSH, MORE PERSONALITIES, MORE RIVALRIES

 

MAY 2, 2017

 

Howard "Humpy" Wheeler was rarely, if ever, at a loss for ideas when it came to promotion as former president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Now 78, Wheeler is still passionate when it comes to racing.

 

And, yes, Wheeler noticed last weekend's version of the incredible shrinking NASCAR attendance, this time from Richmond.

 

And, yes, Wheeler's take is worth sharing, as he did Monday night on his Facebook page:

 

The Richmond Dispatch just published a story on the decline of crowds in NASCAR stating as an example that at one time the track had 112,000 seats but bet only 30,000 were sold Sunday in the 400 lapper won by Joey Logano.

 

They further went on to say that just about every NASCAR track was going through a similar decline.

 

To those of us who watch NASCAR this is old news and it would be good to reflect on why.

 

First, what fuels sport is personalities and rivals. You must have both. What would Ali be with Joe Frazier; the Redskins without the Cowboys, etc.?

 

Name me one intense rivalry currently in NASCAR that could compare with Petty/Allison; Wallace/Waltrip; Allison/Yarbrough?

 

Oh sure there are outbursts like the recent Kyle Busch and Joey Logano but they swiftly cooled.

 

The old rivalries came from intense competition for the lead, not third or fourth place, and the reason we don't have (this) is that recurrent disease called the AERO PUSH when the lead car ...

 

Let me explain AERO PUSH. Something about these cars enable the lead car when he gets into open air to continue to take an insurmountable lead. Obviously if Kenseth is not quite as fast and through a daredevil attack passes car B will probably get passed back and then car B will soon have a 500-600 foot lead because he is riding in clear air. Now back where a bunch is fighting for 5th place there is disturbed air and this doesn't happen.

 

This has been going along so long that the late Bill France Jr. and I would talk about back in the early 2000s.

 

NASCAR has attacked this issue for at least 15 years and it is still with us and until it is solved we will continue to have little back and forth passing for the lead when those rivalries begin.

 

But, whatever mystery must be solved to eliminate AERO PUSH it must be done. Granted the racing is better this year because of the segments but due to aero push how many times have you seen drivers fighting for the lead at the end of the segments?

 

Few. Again the culprit is AERO PUSH.

 

Personally, I believe it is because these cars are go-karts in the corner because of the massive springs that go up to 15,000 lbs compared to 600-800 not long ago; the highly sophisticated shocks that require a shock engineer and are about $5,000 apiece compared to the $60 we used just a few years ago and all of other sophisticated equipment that is entirely not needed.

 

By returning to less expensive equipment we could eliminate the AERO PUSH and enable more racers to try the Cup series.

 

I have found out that sometimes you can go backwards and make great progress in racing.

 

Now the question of personalities in racing with the loss of Stewart, Gordon, Edwards and soon Earnhardt Jr., we need a new personality that will galvanize fans the way Richard Petty, Jr. Johnson, Bobby Allison and others did but to do this the sponsors must back off and let the drivers be themselves and not automatons.

 

NASCAR can only do so much with the drivers. It is the sponsors who keep the lid on them.

 

What about that wild man driver in the sagebrush of Texas who doesn't talk right, dress properly with the stringy hair and crooked teeth but can drive the pure wheels off any car he gets in. No way he will make it even though he might become the greatest Cup driver ever.

 

Give that driver a chance. He might be the next Earnhardt Sr.

 

NASCAR is clearly in a period of transition, and it's not necessarily heading in the right direction (see empty grandstands), and Humpy gets it. Let's hope the right people are listening.

 

MIKE PRYSON - Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and M-Live Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek as online motorsports editor In 2012. Promoted to motorsports editor in 2015.

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Humpy is certainly one worth listening to. Nick, I am currently reading a book titled "200 MPH Billboard by a writer named Mark Yost. I have not finished it yet, But it is certainly and eye opener.

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nascar reminds me of some of the drivers I knew and know . they get their car handling great running great and then over adjust change something with out thinking what will it do to the other three corners of the car and screw the whole damn thing up and then are lost don't know what screwed the car up for all the changes and revert back to where they started ......how many times have you seen new chassis shows up everyone has to have one only to have the rules change around for lack of cars and the tried and true chassis of old comes out to breath new life ...local racing has always had to reverse its self to old to rebuild a class back up . nascar is going to have to reverse itself in order to rebuild ..they ran the old chassis off .me .you and others with this over adjustments and need to find away to bring us out of the barn .[ OLD TRIED AND TRUE CHASSIS .other wise it will die right along with local tracks ..nascar went after the younger base when the tracks were full AND KEEPS KILLING ITSELF now its getting empty..

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Gotta agree with Humpy on the radical suspension/shock stuff.

 

I have been long opposed to the tie-down shock era we find ourselves in these days and refuse to work on any car using that system to get their car to handle. Setting up the geometry at one particular ride height and taking the springs out of the equation and relying on air to provide the downforce to get the car to stick simply requires money and a good aero guy and a good shock guy. Both those guys cost money and lots of it.

 

I will help anyone set up their chassis as long as it runs 50-50, inexpensive old-school shocks, has springs that are within reason - no huge rated springs, no tiny ineffective springs, no humongous sway bars - and has suspension geometry that is not all jacked up (like some of the four link rear suspension setups you see these days).

 

And I will teach suspension engineering principles to anyone as long as they are running conventional adjustable suspension setups - cars like Sport Mods, Street Stocks, Dwarfs, Legacys, etc., as well as the "lower" class cars with few, if any, legal suspension adjustments ike Bombers, Pure Stocks, Eco Stocks.

 

The stuff that I teach is physics-based and it works because the laws of physics work.

 

I'd rather beat another car with brains, hard work and attention to detail than money any day.

 

Nick

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if you guys had brains you could afford the good stuff. So quit get off of here and go to work so you can buy you some exotic springs and triple adjustable shocks. These boys run $1500/ea purple springs and $1200/ea shocks. You are not going to beat them with Parts Plus shocks and Afco springs and a muncie tranny. These boys are too smart to run junk. If you want to stay in the back, keep thinking your are smarter and you will get the same results. Smart guys always win. Just the way it is. That is why they have money in the first place, because they are smart

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Thing is no one wants to work that hard anymore to do it Nicks way. They would rather , as tim says , work to get the money to buy all the high end stuff that does most of the on track work for them. This is not just a racing thing , it's a sign of the times thing. Technology is such it is making people lazier. As long as there is a market for all the things Humpy says is the cause it will continue. And you can bet these $1500 ea. shock and spring manufactures are not going to let their market go easy.

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toyotatim if you had brains you would realize what is one big racing killer. those who you think have brains .. no common sense thinking with your brain .and what makes you think someone has to go to work to pay for those parts .....you know what I loved the most beating those brains you mention with a lot less .....

 

I want plenty of butter on my popcorn paposse.

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Frankly, there are more racers who think like toyotatim than who think like me.

 

I believe that's because learning and applying suspension engineering principles requires that folks actually learn stuff that is new to them. And it also means that they might need to put aside their pride for a while and admit that they don't fully understand what's actually happens when weight transfers during cornering and how it actually transfers and how that weight transfer can be managed using proven principles. And that's intimidating to a whole bunch of racers. It's hard to admit that they really don't understand all moment arm and roll center stuff. It's a lot easier to just copy what the front-runners are doing.

 

In the asphalt world that tech involves purchasing very expensive, custom-built, professionally engineered tie-down shocks and springing combinations that are the norm in most upper-division asphalt these days. In many cases the springs are only there to get the chassis back up to legal ride height once the race is over. Several prominent teams have been DQ'd for ride height infractions over the past few years due to a slight miscalculation by the shock guy on how long it takes to get the springs to overpower the tie-down shocks. Have you happened to notice that most front-runners will stall as long as they can before arriving at tech?" So, how do you get the car back up to legal ride height after it's been running around down on the pavement for the past umpteen laps? For the right amount of money, there are folks who will show you the way and sell you the stuff you need to try to keep up with the guys getting the stuff getting even better stuff than you're getting.... just economics 101.

 

On dirt, the technology is not quite as expensive, but it does involve a bunch of geometry gimmicks to quickly load and unload certain corners of the car under acceleration or deceleration. The modern-day four-link stuff on the upper division classes is the latest in an unending parade of "trick-of-the-week" stuff that everyone feels they just have to have to keep up. Altered right front frame rails, latest front end geometry (changes every other year, or so), etc. etc...

 

And the key phrase here is "keep up." The guys with the big bucks will always have stuff that is one step more advanced than what is available to the rest of us even if we're told we're getting the latest. Only a very few have access ot the latest stuff - which, of course, they will sell to you next season after it is already nearly obsolete.

 

Thanks why I like classes that actually use conventional suspension setups. I teach it and I know it works. It's physics and physics works in a race car or if you're jumping off a three story building. Splat. It works. And all it costs to learn this stuff is the willingness to learn, some quality time and effort (and $300 in my case).

 

All this talk has got me all fired up. I think I'll offer the suspension seminar again this fall.

 

NIck

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More with less can happen. Rick Rapp comes to mind.But like Nick says you have to apply yourself. This is where asphalt struggles. With dirt the track can vary from one extreme to the other.You have guys that run great on a tacky track and others on a dry slick.And generally they don't do well when they don't have "their" kinda track.More of an equalizer.Like at STS this past week Hunter won with a car that has been around awhile.Asphalt tracks don't have that wide a variance ( at it seems).Therefore you get racing that there is very little passing. Humpy is right on. Smart or not so smart asphalt has to be put back into the drivers hands like it is with dirt.

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I can just see it now. tech inspector says "I have no clue why you thought this would be legal. Put this pack on the trailer." toyotatim "but I haven't taken it off the trailer." Tech Inspector " even better." lol just messing with you Toyotatim

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Tim the tech pad on iRacing doesn't count.

 

I would be willing to bet that 10% of your starting field in yesterdays race could actually build a shock, build a motor, setup a racecar or hell even build a racecar. The only one that really comes to mind is Kasey Kahne. I watched him at Gator when he was running with the outlaws and he did a lot of his own stuff. After he got involved in a wreck he got towed off the track and jumped out of the car and started rebuilding the whole front of his car with 1 crew guy there to help him. He even at one point jumped on the 4 wheeler went to the trailer and came back with a new shock and some other parts and then continued fixing the car till other crew showed up at which he jumped back in the car as they were pretty much finished and got pushed back out onto the track. Kahne rode in the hauler from Charlotte to the three races in Texas. He instagrammed it and it was actually neat to see him being like an average joe racer.

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The top level of Nascar is all about the money. Who cares who knows how to build shocks, motors of the car. Sell enough sponsorship to you dont have to do it. You pay professionals to do it. It is about selling sponsorships, not showcasing your mechanical skills. Get the cash and you can buy all of the shocks you want and use the junk ones for the dirt track. Like it or not, nerds are making these cars fast before they ever get to the race track with all of their computer simulations. Bubba the mechanic is now washing the haulers for the big boys while Carlton the Crew chief brings his Ipad to the track to fine to the car.

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I give up, Tim you have all the answers. I would say go work for NASCAR but in your dream world there's nothing wrong with NASCAR and they are doing everything correct.

 

I'm still waiting to see your racecar.

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