[Racer Duck]

Well, Ryan Newman appears to be a little more outspoken than I gave him credit for. He's writing a weekly column for Yahoo and he wasn't kind towards the fiasco on the Left Coast. Here's some excerpts from this week's column.

In my opinion, I thought there was a lack of preparation going into Sunday’s race. Instead of waiting until 21 laps into the race to try to fix the weepers that were seeping water onto the track, they should have cut a drainage groove on Saturday afternoon. They knew then it was going to rain all night, and they knew they had a problem with weepers, but they didn’t even bother to cut the track to try to fix the problem.

Bottom line is, we could have gotten to the halfway point before the rain came and we could have been home on Monday and we could have had the race over with. It was a cluster all the way around...

And then he commented on drivers, professional race car drivers, that is.

When we started racing, the track was okay. It was wet. There were some places that had seepers and weepers, and there was water on the track, but we’re not there as an organization to stop for a couple of drivers who can’t seem to drive when there’s a little water on the track.

When you’re driving down the highway and it starts to rain or snow or whatever, and the conditions change, you have to adapt to those conditions. And everybody, as drivers, should have been able to do that. Some of them did and a couple of them didn’t.

No matter what kind of car you’re driving, you have to adapt. There were only two cars that crashed out of 43. So those two guys couldn’t get it done.

I think in that last one he was talking about the 2 who crashed because of water on the track Sunday.
You can read the whole article at Hello, Newman: Averting disaster - NASCAR - Yahoo! Sports

[wingkey1]

Good and thought firing post Duck. Brought some thoughts we had during the LONG weekend to the fore.

Lemme ding Mr. Newman first with what could be taken as opposing viewpoints/comments:

"In my opinion, I thought there was a lack of preparation going into Sunday’s race. Instead of waiting until 21 laps into the race to try to fix the weepers that were seeping water onto the track, they should have cut a drainage groove on Saturday"

followed by

"When we started racing, the track was okay"

So - it was okay, but they shoulda known it wasn't. Yeah. Well ahhh --- when you get that down in your own life, give us a call.

************************************************** **

Then there is our segment that is in more complete understanding and agreement with Mr. Newman.

"but we’re not there as an organization to stop for a couple of drivers who can’t seem to drive when there’s a little water on the track"

and

"And everybody, as drivers, should have been able to do that. Some of them did and a couple of them didn’t"

But for some reason this seemed only to include two. Hamlin. Mears. There should have been more. At least one. Certainly any who might comment to the effect (parapharsing) - "we should not have been out there", "the track was dirty", "we rushed in to this".

In contrast, in addition to Mr. Newman, there were a number who indicated that with simple adjustment to lines, styles, power application, etc., - it was manageable by the professional.

Telling.