Sincerely
Rod Wells
Running backs Coach
Bear RIver High School

First, it’s superstars accessible to the fans. Richard Petty won seven NASCAR championships and 200 races, 95 more than the second-leading driver David Pearson. He made it a point to sign every autograph after a race no matter how long it took him. Drivers have followed his example. This is unparalleled in sports. I doubt A Rod, Kobe Bryant or Randy Moss spend as much time courting their sports fans as do Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart.

Secondly, it’s the strategy and nuances of the sport. The person who doesn’t know American football finds it hard to see the facets and nuances of the game. Cut and dry as it sounds, football is simply where you either hand off to a back or pass the ball to a receiver on offense and tackle on defense. You and I know there is a lot more too it.

Racing is the same way. There are a thousand ways to set up the car for a race. And, when the race goes from sunlight into the nighttime hours, the crew chief is faced with the issue of setting the car up for the early part of the race, when the track surface is hotter, or the latter part of the race. If you are two laps down by the time your set up comes in, it does you no good. But, if you are running up front in the daytime part of the race but find it difficult to maintain pace in the nighttime part of the race, you haven’t done any good either. Do you take two tires, four tires or none — and what do you set the air pressure in tire at? How do you run your shocks? Do you make the car tight so it can get looser as the run goes on or loose so it can get tight as the run goes on? How do you set your camber? For the driver… which line do you run around the track? When you make your move, do you go inside or outside the driver in front of you, or do you feint one way and go the other. Early in the race, do you challenge the pass or do you let the guy go? And, I could go on. There is as much strategy in a NASCAR race as their is in football and chess.

And, when you realize that the difference between the first car and the 43rd car is a fraction of a second per lap, you start to realize how vitally important making the right decisions is. One wrong move by the driver, the crew chief or the crew can not only cost a win, but can result in a finish outside the top 20.

Thirdly, the skill of the drivers and race teams. Juan Pablo Montoya won seven races this decade on the F1 tour. In his first year in NASCAR, last year, he had one win, three top 5s and six top 10s and finished 20th in the season standings. This year, he has no wins, two top 5s and three top 10s and is 25th in the standings. It isn’t because he is a bad driver or has bad equipment — he drives for the primary car in Chip Ganassi Racing. It’s because the drivers and race teams are really good throughout the NASCAR field. Montoya said the biggest difference between NASCAR and F1 is the depth of the field. In F1, he says, there are three or four teams, and five or six cars, that have a chance. The rest are making parade laps. In NASCAR, he says, you have to race as hard to maintain 25th in the field as you do to maintain the top position.

NASCAR crew chiefs know their stuff. And there are few things more entertaining than watching a crew change four tires and put in 22 gallons of gas in under 14 seconds.

Fourthly, it’s close racing .Unlike F1, which too often turns into a parade with little or no passing, NASCAR features an abundance of passing throughout the field and for the top slot — even on the road courses. And, for pure excitement, there is nothing better than Talladega, where all 43 cars run within a quarter-second of each other at speeds close to 200 mph and, because of the banking in the corners, the only time the foot comes off the throttle is to pit. In two or three laps, a car can go from the front of the field to the very rear and then back again.

Fifthly, fans can really see themselves driving in NASCAR. I know I can’t pass like John Elway, run the 100 meter sprint in under 10 seconds, well, under 60 seconds, or swing on a Nolan Ryan fastball before the catcher is throwing it back to him. But, I can drive a race car. No. It’s not NASCAR. But stock car racing is not JUST NASCAR. Look at the area short tracks, hundreds of people show up to watch. Perhaps the only game similar in this aspect is golf. You go out to the links and shot an 80. Thinking back over your game, you realize you could have shaved a stroke here and stroke there, one putted two holes instead of three putted, and should have shot a 68. That’s what they do on the PGA. It’s the same thing with racing, particularly NASCAR whose cars bear a superficial look to the cars we drive.