Precision driving: NASCAR drivers know precision
As everyday drivers, we negotiate our vehicles through various maneuvers, and drive at numerous speeds, amid threatening traffic. I may be a little picky, but I think we should perform these tasks with thought and precision, for the safety of everyone.
My role models for extreme driving precision are NASCAR drivers. NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, founded in 1948, is the largest sanctioning body of motor sports in the United States. They host three major racing series: Craftsman Truck Series, Busch Series, and the granddaddy, Nextel Cup Series.
Drivers for these racing leagues, like us, negotiate their vehicles through maneuvers, at speeds, amid traffic. The difference? Their speeds top 180 mph, and their traffic is two to four abreast, literally bumper-to-bumper. Their necessary maneuvers include: shutting down from 180 mph to a pit speed of 55 mph or less, making a precision stop in a spot barely big enough for a car, receiving a tank of fuel plus four tires in around 13 seconds, and getting back on the track ASAP without exceeding the pit road speed limit.
I don’t have the time to follow all three NASCAR Series, but have been an avid fan of the Cup Series (was Winston, now Nextel) for many years. During these years, I have grown tremendous respect for the drivers in Cup cars, and I use their models of precision in my everyday driving.
Cup drivers exemplify ability and concentration while driving — the physics of the sport demand it due to a perform-or-perish reality. With the speeds they run, and the immediacy of their decisions, attentiveness and proper judgment must not lapse for even a moment, or disaster results.
Therein lies one of the difficulties for everyday drivers. Unlike the NASCAR drivers, we have many uneventful moments while driving — ones which allow distraction and complacency. The race drivers have no such moments, and can never let down their guard — we should take that lesson from them. Even though our driving emergencies come in waves, we should be ready for them at all times.
Just last weekend, Juan Pablo Montoya, a NASCAR driver who came from Formula One Racing fame, had a moment of poor judgment in the opening lap of the Nextel All Star Challenge. He tried excessive acceleration, while turning, with cold tires, on a “green” racetrack, and ended the day for his and several other race teams.
Success in NASCAR requires perfection, and for the average event, demands it for three to four hours. I don’t think asking that same devotion to the task at hand is too much to ask for street drivers.
Other racing fans I know are, like me, quite serious about their driving. Among us, I believe tendencies are strong to know our vehicles, understand the rules of the road, and practice skillful vehicle operation.
It’s too bad that some people in the state of Washington consider us (NASCAR fans) to be fourth-class. During recent discussions about locating a track in the Northwest, Washington state Rep. Larry Seaquist said of NASCAR fans, “These people are not the kind of people you would want living next to you. They’d be the ones with the junky cars in the front yard and would try to slip around the law.”
Seaquist later backpedaled, and said he was speaking about the International Speedway Corporation (a body lobbying for the track), which is “a terrible corporate citizen.” Sure. Even if that were the case, his attempt at touting his superior sophistication was ill conceived. I don’t think that anyone on ISC’s board is hoarding junk cars propped up on blocks, especially its president, Lesa France Kennedy, who was recently named “Most influential woman in sports business,” by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. Kennedy is also on the Board of Directors for NASCAR.
Rep. Seaquist, I believe that your discrimination toward race fans simply exposed the real party lacking class — you! Slipping around the law? NASCAR as a sanctioning body is famous for exposing and penalizing those who break the rules. They set a stern example in enforcing equipment violations, for example, which should be a model for street law enforcement. I would be pleased if city, state, and county police would issue more citations for things like misaimed headlights, improper exhaust, excessive window tinting, bald tires, and other safety shortcomings.
Legislators have put the kibosh on a western Washington track, and albeit for the wrong reasons, I think that is a good thing. Can you spell rainout? With over 40 annual rainfall inches there, the chance of pulling off a dry three-day event is about as slim as an auto burglar tool named Jim.
If an annual estimated spending of $121 million would be welcome to our area, I might suggest the West Plains area, near Airway Heights, for the facility. If more drivers became race fans, I think we’d improve our collective good driver quotient to boot.