NASCAR Napping at Fontana
I remember the first Southern 500 I saw on TV. The year was 1980. As the leaders took the white flag, none of them realized that a young Kyle Petty had lost an engine and oiled down what used to be turns 1 & 2 (now 3& 4). As the threesome of Benny Parsons, David Pearson and the daring young Dale Earnhardt reached the middle of the corner, all three slid up to the wall in unison, wrecking and scattering across the track. The only one of them still running was Pearson. In a scene reminiscent of his 1976 win at Daytona, he limped his battered car, this time a Chevy sponsored by Hawaiian Tropic, slowly around the track in search of the checkered flag.
And then it happened.
At the last possible moment, the former fourth-place runner, a youngster by the name of Terry Labonte raced up and caught Pearson at the line, winning what would be his first race while simultaneously denying the Silver Fox his eleventh win at the track “Too Tough to Tame”.
That was just another in a long line of Labor Day weekend classics brought to you by NASCAR and Darlington Raceway. Unfortunately, I suppose it will be a long time before we witness anything like that exciting finish again on a Labor Day weekend .
The reason? The Labor Day weekend race traditionally held at Darlington is now held at the most boring track on the circuit, California.
I know it’s old news, but since Roger Penske opened his big market palace in Fontana in 1997, we have yet to see a fendered race there worthy of note. The track is too wide, too fast without enough banking. The resulting aero conditions make passing difficult, which leads to long spells of green-flag racing. Can you say “Fuel mileage racing - Oxymoronic yuck!”
To put it bluntly, California was a track perfectly designed for the afternoon “NASCAR Nap”.
Now, let’s be fair to Penske. I don’t think he really built this track with NASCAR soley in mined. The idea was a compromise so that open wheelers from CART and now the IRL could race there. In fact, there have been some simply AMAZING open wheel races at Fontana, side by side finishes separated by fractions of a second.
But for NASCAR racing, this track simply sucks. That is, unless you’re wetting your beak with some of that $5 million-plus purse.
Things may work out to where my rant here may prove to be an embarrassment and we could have a three-wide finish on Sunday. Yeah, sure, and Kyle Petty will lead the most laps, too. My bet is that I’ll be napping, dreaming of Darlington Raceway.
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