Quote:
Originally Posted by dirtnonwingfan
I must respectfully disagree with your first statement. This was not a typical USAC CF, it was far, far worse than that. This is my 52nd year of going to races and I have been to a lot of races at a lot of different tracks from coast to coast and I honestly believe the dust at the green flag to start the race was the worst I have ever seen. Anyone who participated in the decision to give the green flag should be fired immediately. It doesn't matter if they don't care for the safety of the drivers or they aren't talented enough to realize what will happen, they should be fired. It was obvious from the dust cloud generated by the pace laps that the start would be a disaster, and it was. The track was better when Dave Allison was running it.
As to the spin, "Extreme heat and deteriorating track conditions" doesn't begin to address why this decision had to be made. This statement is an insult to the drivers and fans.
On a positive note, the drivers once again showed how good they really are. I think it is a minor miracle that they were able to make a lap and get stopped under the horrible conditions without more accidents. If it wasn't for their skill, this could have been a total disaster. We are so fortunate to be able to watch them night after night, week after week. I hope that none of the drivers involved in wrecks were injured.
I only hope that this can be a learning experience which will result in more intelligent management decisions during Sprint Week.
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I'll never understand why they started that race. The large amount of dust that was kicked up just on the laps to get everybody lined up and the wave lap had to give them a clue. Everybody in the stands knew what was getting ready to happen. I saw several people covering things up and many more were already turning their heads the other way, as they headed down towards the green. If I was one of those competitors I'd be saying to USAC what Ricky used to say to Lucy "You got some splainin to do."
I was in Section A of the covered grandstand and literally couldn't see the cars on the front stretch, right in front of me at the end of the first lap. They're just so lucky they didn't have one of those multi-car pileups, like the fog causes on interstate highways, sometimes. It was scary when they were getting off the gas and you could hear a few locking up their brakes. And the crowd had total empathy for the drivers, in this situation.
Jerry