Feud of the Week: Chase ratings; J.J. Dover edge; Hamlin-Keselowski
CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
We welcome your question submissions. If you have a question or hot racing topic you'd like to see discussed, post it here .
| Pete Pistone | Brian De Los Santos |
| NASCAR chairman Brian France says he's not concerned about dwindling TV ratings for the Chase. Should he be? Is there anything that can be done? | |
| Ratings were on an upswing during August and into early September with numbers besting last year's audiences. But they crashed when the Chase began at New Hampshire and were off some for last week's stop at Dover. I think NASCAR shouldn't panic but it's something that certainly needs attention. The move to standardize start times, which will come in 2010 when the majority of races will take a 1 p.m. ET green flag, will help. But there needs to be more done, especially when the Chase rolls around and the playoff portion of the season should generate more attention. A weeknight prime time Chase start would jump ratings and even a shift of dates and tracks within the 10-race schedule could help NASCAR attract a larger television audience. | There's an ebb and flow to the ratings, so in that respect I can see why he'd be unconcerned. And NASCAR officials are no dummies -- though I know many of you believe they are. You don't have to be a genius to realize some of the reasons for the decline. A large part of the NASCAR audience is NFL fans. And a large chunk of the NASCAR audience is also Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans (sorry Earnhardt haters, but it's true). Earnhardt is uncompetitive. Therefore Earnhardt fans don't have much reason to pay attention. Click. Hello NFL! Is there anything NASCAR can do to turn the tide? Well, it wouldn't hurt to have Earnhardt in contention for wins week in and week out, but that's out of NASCAR's hands (without breaking any rules that is). It appears NASCAR is going to move up start times next year, that might help. But what would really help is not going head to head against the NFL on Sundays, at least early in the NFL season. There's so much excitement around the start of the NFL season and Fantasy Football, it's hard for NASCAR to compete against that stampede. |
 COMMUNITY GUEST 'HardToBeat20': I think France is smart enough to know that with the NFL under way, MLB coming to an end, and the NHL about to get started, that NASCAR's ratings are bound to fall off. France should be slightly, but not overly concerned. NASCAR's season has always overlapped the other major sports, so why would this year be any different. The fact that NASCAR has grown to the sport that it is today while competing with the other major sports for so many years is a huge accomplishment. Unlike all of the other major sports where your team has a 50/50 chance of winning or losing, in NASCAR you've got a 1 in 43 chance of winning and a 42 in 43 chances of losing. The odds are with all of the other major sports. | |
| Some drivers felt Jimmie Johnson's involvement in a Dover tire test over the summer gave him an unfair advantage in Sunday's race. A legitimate gripe or sour grapes? | |
| Here comes the annual anti-Johnson whining we hear about this time every year from those who don't want to see the 48 team have the kind of success during the Chase it has enjoyed the last three seasons. There was nothing unfair about Johnson taking part in the Goodyear tire test at Dover a few weeks ago that gave him an advantage last Sunday. Johnson has been one of Dover's most stellar drivers and had won there four times before he picked up Sunday's checkered flag. He and his team are doing what they do best and that is to rise to the occasion when the Chase begins and outperform everyone. Now I'm not ready to hand Johnson the championship just yet, but you cannot argue with the fact that he and that team are one of the best to ever come along. | Can it be both? For starters, a tire test is just that, a session to test different tire compounds and tire setups for Goodyear, which turns around and uses that information to build its tire. It's not necessarily the same exact tire used during the testing. So there's only so much information to be gleaned by a team from a tire test. Yeah, Johnson participated in the test and won the pole and the race, but Kyle Busch tested as well, and he had an abysmal weekend. So in that respect its sour grapes to say Johnson had an advantage simply because he participated in the test. He's just good at Dover. Period. That said, it does seem rather unfair that only a select few drivers get invited to each session. Perhaps NASCAR could turn tire test periods at these tracks into full test sessions open to all teams. |
| COMMUNITY GUEST 'HardToBeat20': Any form of testing that does not include every driver is/should be considered an advantage. Saying that it's 'unfair' is much harder to justify. If you have teams with stronger testing programs performing the tests then they will leave the test with way more information than those that do not have equivalent testing programs. The whole process is a catch 22. Goodyear needs to have driver(s) who can provide them with solid feedback perform the test so that the tires that are manufactured and brought to the track for the race are safe and durable, this benefits all drivers. For Goodyear to invite the smaller less advanced teams they themselves would lose out on getting quality feedback from the test. | |
| Denny Hamlin was livid with Brad Keselowski for a late wreck in the Nationwide race. (Watch video: Hamlin vs. Keselowski). Who do you think was to blame for Hamlin's accident? | |
| What is it about cars or trucks with the No. 88 that get everyone so worked up? I saw the Keselowski-Hamlin deal at Dover very much the same way I saw the Matt Crafton vs. Todd Bodine then Ron Hornaday Truck Series battle at Gateway a few weeks ago. To me it looked as if Keselowski was simply trying to pass for a position late in the race with a daring move that just didn't work out. I can understand why Hamlin was upset when he was ultimately taken out by the contact, I just didn't see anything done intentionally and thought the postrace fireworks were a bit overblown. But it made an otherwise ho-hum race a bit more interesting, I'll admit that. | I think they both share equal blame. I believe a large majority of the time, Keselowski would have backed off and given the driver room to get back in line. But the fact the driver in front of him was Hamlin, with whom Keselowski has a bit of bad blood dating back to a run-in last year at Lowe's, likely played a large part in him staying on the gas. But Hamlin is no mere innocent victim. It was the closing stages of the race. At that point, drivers are scratching and clawing for every spot they can get, Hamlin should have expected a little extra aggressiveness from Keselowski. |
| COMMUNITY GUEST 'HardToBeat20': After watching it a couple of times, I'm thinking they could share the blame. If you keep your eyes on the asphalt/concrete line on the inside of the track Keselowski's car wavers up the track a little, but that's well before the contact. Just before the contact occurs you can see Keselowski's car hold the line and Hamlin coming down. Keselowski definitely closed the gap up rather quickly and maybe faster than Hamlin expected. I would classify this wreck as 'one of those racing deals.' It's only a blame-game issue between Keselowski and Hamlin, because those two have had a previous encounter. | |
| Previous Feud of the Weeks: Aug. 5 | Aug. 12 | Aug. 18 | Aug. 25 | Sept. 1 | Sept. 8 | Sept. 15 | Sept. 22 | |
