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| | Friday, March 3 | |||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||
| OK race fans, you're not going to believe this one.
The Winston Cup parade is on its way to Las Vegas. You know what that means. Gambling ... bright lights ... gambling ... fantastic shows ... gambling ... all-you-can-eat filet mignon for 87 cents. And more gambling.
All you really hope for on this trip is a little good luck, and 87 cents. That's all I wanted when this trip began Wednesday -- a little luck. So far, I'm in the hole. And we haven't even crossed the Smoky Mountains yet! Before we get to the racing, let's examine how I made my way to Las Vegas for Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400. First, the airline screwed up my seat assignment on the outbound flight and has no record of my seat on the return flight, which conveniently is scheduled for 1:55 dark time Monday morning.
Unfortunately, I got a middle seat, 8E. Fortunately I was seated next to my producer, Pam Surbaugh. Unfortunately, on my left, was Matt Yocum (oh no, all that motorcycle talk, remember?). Fortunately, Pam is tiny and offered to take the middle seat. Cool! Unfortunately, none of these seats recline because the emergency exit row is behind us. Remember that in the event of a water landing ... a water landing? Now, that is clearly a contradiction in terms. The right support arm on my tray table (isn't that redundant?) is busted. So my laptop computer is positioned at a 33 degree angle. Kind of like typing while sitting on the track in the middle of turns one and two at Bristol. Oh yeah, and the guy in front of me -- well, his seat DOES recline! So, I'm actually typing this column leaning hard to starboard, holding my computer in place with my chin and typing with my nose. And they say pit reporters are one dimensional! Oh, one more thing, Yocum just got bumped up into first class. Oh brother.What does all this have to do with Winston Cup racing? Give me a minute. I'll think of something. Oh yeah, it all goes back to that luck thing. Do you make it? Earn it? Find it? Lose it? What exactly is racing luck? Ask Michael Waltrip. One of the world's nicest guys has the worst luck, or the best luck, depending on how you look at things. He's a broken air gun away from who knows what.It's Saturday at Daytona and Waltrip is tumbling through the air when he's supposed to be racing in the Busch event. Of course, Michael emerges from his crumbled car without a scratch. Later Saturday afternoon, the media can't wait for Happy Hour to end to get Michael's blow-by-blow, certain to be creative and colorful. But before Happy Hour is over, Dale Jarrett gets his Ford roughed up in a high-speed fender-bender. Now Jarrett is Page One. After Happy Hour, the crowd of reporters around Jarrett's hauler in the garage is eight-wide and five-deep. So who comes strolling by? Michael Waltrip. Noticing the crowd, Waltrip climbs a few rungs on the ladder leading to the top of Jarrett's hauler and peers down over the crowd to see what's going on. After surveying the situation, Michael climbs down and walks away shaking his head. "One little bump in Happy Hour and I'm old news," Waltrip said with a grin. Bad luck on the race track. Bad luck in the garage. If the comics were on Page One, Michael would be in the headlines everyday. He could be a headline story soon, though. But the big story this week is not what's in the air, but what's cutting through the air. Frankly, I don't believe the first two races have produced great racing. Actually, that's up to the fans to decide. Of course, I am a fan and I have made my decision. And I'm not overly optimistic about a great race in Las Vegas this weekend. Why? Some say it the alleged aerodynamic imbalance between the three manufacturers. Other point to the talent on the individual teams. But what about luck? Should the sanctioning body be calling the Psychic Friends Hot Line?Probably not. The Queens of Swords might be lying. Besides, right now the answer to this multiple-choice question is all of the above. You could assign percentages, but for now, let's not. Clearly, it has become too difficult, too tedious and too expensive to find an aerodynamic balance between three different makes of cars. Four different makes if you count the approaching debut of Dodge. Different body styles are going to perform differently at different tracks. Still, some teams have earned an "A" on their homework. They have studied, tweaked, tested and re-tweaked. The result is a good race car that competes within the rules. Chevrolet is taking a beating on the track and from the stands for the 2000 Monte Carlo. The new version certainly appears to be inferior to the previous model. But is Chevrolet to blame? Not totally. The sanctioning body gives the manufacturer an aerodynamic target to hit. Chevrolet finally found the target, but they didn't hit the bull's eye. Dale Earnhardt drove a Chevy to a second place at the Rock. But that's Earnhardt. Pontiac has proven the Grand Prix is a great racing machine. Wider is better. But having Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart is even better than that! Four of the last five Winston Cup races have been won by a Pontiac driven by Labonte or Stewart.In the first two races of the year, many people have been bullish on the Ford Taurus. But look at the lineup of drivers in the Ford fleet. Jarrett ... Mark Martin ... Jeff Burton ... Ricky Rudd ... Rusty Wallace. Ford has won all four front-row spots in the first two races. Is that a tribute to the talent or the templates? Teams are scrambling for solutions and success at the same time. And that's a hard mission to accomplish. Some teams are already making personnel changes after just 900 miles. Heck, the trip to Vegas from Charlotte is 2,200 miles. Does that mean we should change pilots over Kansas City if the first half of the flight is a little bumpy? I hope not.NASCAR is scrambling to perfect an imperfect art form -- auto racing. The discussions have included "aero-matching," everyone competing in a common body style. Meanwhile, the races, and the season, roar along. No one seems to be certain if the best team is winning each week, or just the best car. Are the good guys getting lucky or are the lucky guys just good. I believe we will find an answer, I just hope someone fines it soon. Because, while this is stock car racing, it's time everyone stopped running around in circles. | ALSO SEE Franchising a bad idea for NASCAR CarsDirect.com 400 Breakdown Furr: Putting the excitement back in NASCAR Weber's mailbag Ask Bill Weber AUDIO/VIDEO   Bill Weber checks in from the Las Vegas strip to preview this week's races.RealVideo: | 28.8  | |||||
