In an attempt to find someone common ground, let’s have a little Tuesday afternoon brainstorming session.
Here’s the issue: I like the stages and the new format. The stages produce playoff bonus points for the winners (like it), give regular season points that reward consistently good drivers (like it), offer snack and bathroom breaks (like it) and bunch up the field to set up restarts at a point when the races are sometimes blah (LOVE IT).
Those are all great changes, and even the stage-haters seem to concede they like those things.
But the anti-stage people seem to be most upset about something else: Counting the caution laps during the breaks.
It’s important to hear these people. As customers and viewers, they feel ripped off. They feel cheated because by the time the next stage starts, it’s already six or seven laps into it at many tracks (and will be A LOT more this weekend at Martinsville Speedway).
The counter argument to this is the races would be a lot longer if these laps did not count. But the people who feel shorted by caution laps don’t want to hear that.
So this seems like a perception issue, and that means there’s a solution. Let’s figure it out together; we don’t have to fight about the stages!
Here’s one idea: Let’s say there were a set number of caution laps built into a stage break and THEN the next stage would start.
For example: At Fontana, the stages on Sunday were 60 laps/60 laps/80 laps.
Perhaps NASCAR could change it up to something like 55 laps/five-lap caution for stage break/55 laps/five-lap caution for stage break/80 laps.
That might make fans feel better, because the stages would start fresh — with the lap counter at zero. The only problem would be if there was a crash toward the end of a stage and NASCAR needed more time for cleanup, but fans would probably understand those rare circumstances.
Anyway, a small tweak might erase some of the negativity around the stage breaks (which is overshadowing what seems to be a very positive change overall).
Aside from this suggestion, what are some of your ideas to make the stage breaks better?
Each week, I’ll provide some quick analysis through a post called the Top Five — five notable storylines from the just-completed race. Today: Fontana.
Larson no loser
Holy crap, how impressive is Kyle Larson lately?
Sunday really felt like the first of many wins for Larson this season. He’s already the breakout driver of 2017, with finishes of second, second, second and first in the four non-plate races.
You can credit faster cars at Chip Ganassi Racing — and of course, that’s a major part of it — but Larson also isn’t making the type of mistakes that took him out of races earlier in his career. Remember when it seemed like he’d hit the wall at some point every time he had a good car?
Not anymore.
He also seems more willing to try different lines instead of being so committed to the running the wall. Larson made some awesome moves by hooking the bottom of the track during Sunday’s race, and that paid off in a big way at times.
So, about that new package…
I’m officially concerned about the effectiveness of the low-low downforce package.
NASCAR got lucky with late drama at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix that covered up ho-hum races. But Fontana — which got a 90% approval rating in the “Was it a good race?” Twitter poll last year — had expectations to break that trend and provide a great show from start to finish.
Unfortunately, much of the race was rather tame again until Gray Gaulding crashed with 20 laps to go. Then, much like the other non-plate races, a chaotic finish erased all thoughts of the earlier lack of action.
But that trend can’t continue all season. NASCAR wants the action to be compelling throughout the day, lest races turn into the NBA cliche, where only the last five minutes matters.
The new aero package test isn’t passing the eye test as far as compelling races. Why? I don’t know the answer, but I’d like to hear some theories.
Clint Bowyer’s extra effort
In a Saturday roundtable interview with reporters, Bowyer said he had a long phone call with crew chief Mike Bugarewicz on Friday night — something he didn’t typically do in the past.
Then, after finishing third on Sunday, Bowyer revealed he drove to Bugarewicz’s hotel room on Saturday night to pore over data and try to find ideas to fix the car, which didn’t look great in practice.
“I’ve never went to a crew chief’s hotel room,” Bowyer said. “Never done that before.”
It’s clear this opportunity really matters to Bowyer — as it should. At 37, this might be his last, best chance to resurrect his career and get back to the championship-contending driver he’s capable of being.
He’s on the right path. Sunday was his best finish at an intermediate track since July 2013 in Kentucky. Bowyer now can head to Martinsville — one of his favorite venues — with confidence and momentum.
Weird stats after five races
Two Chevrolet drivers have won races this season — and neither are from Hendrick Motorsports.
The one Toyota winner so far isn’t from Joe Gibbs Racing. And the winner from Stewart-Haas Racing isn’t Kevin Harvick.
So yeah, if you thought Richard Childress Racing would have more wins than Hendrick and Gibbs combined after five races? Well, you’re just lying.
It’s been an odd start to the year. There have been five different winners, but six of the eight active multi-race winners from last season have yet to reach victory lane. That’s a big zero for Jimmie Johnson, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.
Yes, it’s still early, but the regular season is also roughly one-fifth complete. So how much longer is this going to last?
Painful commercials
I was proud of myself for not getting too aggravated with the commercials during Sunday’s race — the first I’d watched from home this season.
They didn’t seem to be as bad as usual. But naturally, I couldn’t make it the whole time without getting irritated.
It remains absolutely maddening to see tweets about a great battle for the lead while we at home are staring at a commercial listing the side effects for a drug named Symbicort.
By the way, some of those side effects include headaches, changes in your voice, mood changes and shaking — which coincidentally also describe the effects on me when there are too many commercials during green-flag racing.
Honestly, NOTHING about the current state of NASCAR makes me angrier or more frustrated than the commercials. It’s no wonder TV ratings are in the toilet.
No other major sport disrespects its fans like this. Even soccer figures out a way to show games — including World Cup games! — without commercial interruption (except for halftime). Most sports fans wouldn’t tolerate a broadcaster cutting away from live game action, but for some reason, NASCAR fans are just expected to shut up and deal with it.
If the TV networks need money that badly, give us a pay-per-view option with an ad-free broadcast. Would you pay $10 for a race with no ads? Personally, I would.
I’m playing DraftKings this season and will be posting my picks here each week. Disclosure: If you want to play and sign up using this link, DraftKings will give my website a commission. Disclosure No. 2: I might be America’s worst daily fantasy player.
Last week’s results: Played the $0 entry Daily Free Contest with $250 payout (because of Arizona gambling restrictions) and finished around 1,800th out of 18,000. Not bad, but still won $0.
Season results: $1 wagered, $0 won in four contests.
This week’s contest: I’m in a state where I can play DraftKings again, so I’m making up for lost time by playing the $4 entry “Pedal to the Metal” contest that pays $50,000 to first and $300,000 in total prizes. Yes, please! I also entered the free $10,000 contest DraftKings is running this week because why not? It’s free.
This week’s picks:
— Joey Logano ($10,300). He didn’t get out to qualify because his car had trouble getting through inspection, so there’s massive upside for a driver starting 35th.
— Jimmie Johnson ($9,800). After wrecking in practice, Johnson had to go to a backup car and didn’t even attempt to qualify. That means last year’s winner is starting 37th. I’m not going to pass that up.
— Erik Jones ($7,700). Fastest in the first practice on Saturday and fastest for 15-lap average for both practice sessions (according to FOX, since NASCAR does not release those numbers). I’ve had him on my team almost every week, and there’s no reason to stop now.
— Jamie McMurray ($7,500). Those Chip Ganassi Racing cars are red-hot lately, and McMurray was second-fastest in 10-lap averages for final practice. You gotta ride the momentum, right?
— Austin Dillon ($7,300). Dillon was my last pick here, but my salary cap dictated I decide between drivers like him and Aric Almirola, I lean slightly his direction, though I’m a little shaky on the pick.
— Trevor Bayne ($7,200). I picked him for exactly one reason: He didn’t get to qualify and has to start 36th. I feel like the positions he could make up during the race will offset what could be a mediocre finish.
This is part of a series of 12 Questions-style profiles of NASCAR fans. All of the people featured here are $25 or higher patrons on my Patreon page, which comes with this profile as a reward.
Name: Steven Lindon Location: Saint Clair Shores, Mich. Twitter name:@sclindon Age: 41
1. How long have you been a NASCAR fan?
Since 2005.
2. How many races have you attended?
I’ve attended 15 Cup races, six or seven Xfinity races and six or seven Truck races.
3. Who is your No. 1 favorite driver?
Jeff Gordon, although I’ve adopted Chase Elliott as my new favorite.
4. What made you a fan of his?
My brother was a big fan of Gordon’s and he took me to my first race in 2005. I like who (Gordon) is as a person and he was a great driver.
5. Who is your most disliked driver?
Kyle Busch.
6. Why don’t you like him?
He’s arrogant and cocky and a dirty driver.
7. What is your favorite track?
Good question. I’ve only actually been to two in person. Michigan is my home track, but sometimes those races get boring. I really enjoy Martinsville and hope to see a race there someday.
8. What is one thing you would change if you were in charge of NASCAR?
I’d make the races a little shorter. They should be three hours or less.
9. What is one thing you would keep the same if you were in charge of NASCAR?
The fan access. No sport gives you the fan access that NASCAR does.
10. How often do you yell at the TV during a race?
It depends where my driver is running. At least two or three times, but if the 24 is in the mix, it can go up exponentially.
11. Do you have any advice for other fans?
I would recommend going early enough to go to a tweetup. It’s very cool to meet other Twitter users who love NASCAR.
12. What else do you want the NASCAR world to know about you?
I’m married, we have a 14-year-old and I’m left-handed — just like Dale Jr.
Steven Lindon with me at the 2015 Homestead tweetup. (Photo courtesy of Steven Lindon)
I’m not at the racetrack this weekend, but I’m watching the news conferences anyway via NASCAR.com’s live feed and…oh my gosh, I am so sorry I did this.
This week’s Social Spotlight interview focuses on the always-entertaining Spencer Gallagher of GMS Racing. You can follow him on Twitter @23SpeedRacer.
It seems like you choose your spots when you tweet. Sometimes, you only tweet every few days but try to unleash a gem. Is that your basic strategy?
I’m all about quality over quantity, you know? Twitter is full of enough noise as it is, so I try not to add too much to that. If I’ve got something valuable to say, I’ll say it. But I just try not to let people know what my breakfast was every single morning. I find most people find that boring. So I’m the kind of guy that tries to focus on having a real thought. When I have something to contribute to the conversation, that’s when I speak up.
So are you not on Twitter all the time? Or do you look at it and decide not to chime in?
I check somewhat sporadically, but I will say I’ve gotten more frequent with its updates. It really is my source of NASCAR news. So I get on there and I check it, but you know, opinions are kind of like elbows — everyone has them and they’re all really awkward. (Laughs) You like that that was a good modification, wasn’t it?
Yeah, you really saved that there.
Thought I was going somewhere else with that, didn’t you?
We could have bleeped it out if you needed me to.
That’s actually a good idea. What the hell am I saying? You run your own independent site; you can do whatever you want right now, right?
But I try to check often. Whenever I feel my opinion is going to be valuable on a subject or I can contribute some insight, that’s when I try to chime in. I don’t need to tell everyone what’s on my mind at all times, because usually it’s as much nonsense as the rest of ‘em.
What type of reaction do you typically get from your Twitter followers? Do you read all your replies?
I do. I try to go through every single one of my replies and give back to the fans. That’s the real strength of Twitter. That’s why I like it a lot as a platform — it lets you have a direct connection to the people who are putting their butts in seats to go watch you race around on a Saturday. So that’s something I like to do.
Everyone loves seeing that little notification come up. That’s that little hit of dopamine in the arm, when you see that notification come on that someone has touched one of your tweets in some way. It’s really cool. That’s why I like it — it lets you talk to the fans in a very direct way. I think that’s a really cool thing.
That’s a very good analogy. You get that little notification and you’re like, “Ooh, somebody wrote back!”
It is, man! Honestly, that’s why I try to kind of limit my social media usage a little bit, because I see people getting sucked into that a whole lot, and I think it can be a very addicting process. That’s a little piece of noise that sometimes I try to keep out of my life a little bit, but it’s a very valuable thing, and you’ve got to have it. But no lie: Whenever you get that little notification, whenever that little red circle comes up, it’s like, “Ooh! Piece of candy! What have I got now?”
So how do you deal with the negative side of it? Do you have haters? Do people take shots at you sometimes?
Oh God, yeah. Listen — if you’re going to be in the public eye, there’s going to be someone out there that doesn’t like what you’re doing. But I’ll be honest, my way of dealing with it? I remind myself tomorrow I’m going to wake up and drive a race car and they’re not. That’s how I avoid getting too mad about it.
If you get mad on the internet, you lose. So I’ve developed a couple strategies for being very zen about my interactions. Everybody is always going to have an opinion and not everybody is going to like you, and that’s life. But at the end of the day, I still get to do what I love. So how much am I going to let their opinion affect me?
Do you ever go with the block button?
Honestly, no. Because most times, I make it an exercise to find the entertainment in someone like that. That’s my way of helping myself stay zen. If it’s getting really out of hand, then yeah, the hell with you; I don’t need to hear from you anymore. Honestly, most times, I get a laugh out of it.
Do you ever mute people, particularly those who you follow but don’t want to offend by unfollowing?
I think if the mute function had been around when I was following Kenny Wallace, it might have gone onto him. But no, honestly. If I don’t have the inclination to see what you have to say, I don’t need to follow you. I don’t care about hurting feelings that way.
Let’s talk about some other platforms. Do you not have Instagram at all?
I keep that one pretty private. I like to keep a couple platforms just for friends and family. I think that helps you create more meaningful moments and more intimate conversations with the people around you. I do post some public stuff to Instagram here and there, but that’s something I try to keep between my friends and family and my close circle.
Do you treat Facebook the same way?
Yeah, I’ve got an alternate Facebook account (to his fan page). I post sometimes to the public one, but Facebook is the social media platform of record, if you will. So that’s somewhere where I like to be at home, in my loafers — not out in the public eye, so to speak.
I get that not everyone likes that. People love overexposure, but that’s something I really do try to avoid in my life. I like to keep my public things public and my private things private. But don’t get me wrong: It’s a great platform for communicating with your fans. But I think a lot of drivers do that, because honestly, dude, you don’t know how many random requests and, frankly, creepy things get sent over Facebook. I think a lot of drivers keep alternate, private profiles — whether they’re willing to admit it or not.
Like on Facebook, even if you’re not friends with someone, they can slide into your DMs, essentially. You might not look at your messages every day, but you look at it eventually and you’re like, “Whoa!”
Yeah, “Who the hell are you?” Facebook can be a real deluge of people trying to get in contact with you. And a lot of it, you need to reply back to, because it’s a fan legitimately and earnestly reaching out for some communication — and a lot of times, all they want is a card, so I try to get that sent out whenever possible. Some people are a little more obsessive, and that is when they go in the trash bin. But hey, that’s the nature of what we do. You’re a public figure. You’re going to get that kind of exposure.
Where does Snapchat fit into that for you?
Snapchat is friends and family right now. I’ve considered making it public — I’ve gone back and forth on it. I’m really more of a passive Snapchat user; I just love seeing what my friends are doing at any given time. And I do love recording some moments and sending it out.
But as a person, I’m a very in-the-moment kind of guy. I go to a concert and I see all these people holding their phones up, recording, and I’m like, “What the hell are you doing?” You’re missing the whole show because you’re looking at a screen. As much of a nerd as I am, I’m really kind of a technophobe. It’s weird — I know that’s a contradiction — but I’m someone who believes this is a short life and our number of experiences in it are limited, so I try not to experience it through a screen when possible.
I’m making up terms here, but essentially you’re a “soaker” — you want to soak everything up — instead of a “sharer,” where you think, “I want to show this through my phone and share everything that’s going on.”
Yeah. And you know, I don’t want to pass value judgments, but I see a lot of people getting sucked into their screens. I just try to be present in the moment, man. That’s just me.
If you keep parts of yourself off limits, does it create more interest in you? Because you’re not completely out there as much to where people are like, “Yeah, we get it.”
I think it certainly could. When you never shut up about yourself on social media, eventually people get tired. You kind of said it right: It’s supply and demand. When you oversaturate people with information from yourself, you can turn them off. That’s why I try to keep my postings to things I think are valuable and insightful. Because when I speak, I want my voice to be something that provides clarity, something that provides a laugh or entertainment. It’s easy to ruin that by sharing too much. It’s easy to ruin that by oversaturating the people that are listening.
As you’ve moved up to Xfinity, I feel like you’re getting more TV exposure. Are you seeing a rise in your replies and more people trying to interact with you?
Definitely. The other week, I was on Twitter and I posted something and it instantly got like 10 retweets and I said, “Oh my gosh. Well, would you look at that? I actually have a little following. That’s nice!” It’s one of those humbling things that comes along with rising in the ranks, that people are really looking and listening to what you’re saying — which is again another reason to make sure what I say is valuable.
How much do you get in trouble — if ever — for your tweets? Do you ever get slapped on the hand like, “Spencer, you shouldn’t have tweeted that” from your family or PR people? For example: My mom doesn’t like it when I retweet drivers’ curse words from the radio.
I’ve been lucky enough that recently, I haven’t been slapped on the hand for any of my social media escapades. There was a time there when I was, dare say, a little more adventurous. Certain people in the room (his PR people) recall an incident involving me saying something about Tony Stewart covered in chocolate sauce wearing a banana hammock. (PR people laugh nervously)
But no, I’ve kind of learned where the line is and isn’t. And if I think there’s some fun to be had on the other side of it, I ain’t scared of it. But that’s one of those things you save for few and far between.
So would it take to get you to do some public Snapchatting?
Actually, I have to say, I feel a little guilty about not using my Snapchat more publicly, because I’ve got a pair of the Spectacles that were gifted to me.
Oh my God, what a waste!
I know, I know. Hate me, hate me. I don’t blame you. But I really need to start incorporating those more. It’s just one of those things: I leave them on my desk and I forget about them. But they’re so cool when I use them. I really need to start getting more (snaps) out. And Snapchat is a great platform for that, honestly. They’re cool, little disposable snippets of life that you can share. So you’re right: Guilt me into it, everybody. I need the encouragement.
You seem like an old soul, but you’re still a Millennial, and they say Millennials are down on Twitter and less of them are using it. Do you think there’s a future for Twitter still? And what’s the future for social media overall?
I guess I am an old soul, apparently. I rather enjoy Twitter still. I find it an informative, instant platform. It’s a great platform for news, for public conversations, for people to air their thoughts out in a very public way. I like the openness it has. I hope it’s got a future. Apparently the Silicon Valley class to disagree a little bit, but I’ll hope against hope that it keeps going.
As far as the future is concerned, Snapchat is trying to get on strong, but man, Instagram is trying to steal their thunder real hard (with stories). It’s becoming more and more difficult to deal with the juggernaut that is Facebook, if you will.
I think you’re going to see a continued evolution toward more integrated messaging. There was a grand experiment in network design that really Twitter sort of founded where everybody wants things public, right? I sort of see a little bit of a reversal of that trend; people are trying to bring it in, make it more private circles, more intimate content. I think that’s kind of what Snapchat is bringing along, and Instagram, to a certain extent.
Why do you use the @23speedracer name? Did someone already have your name, or did you just think that was cool?
Apparently there’s a Spencer Gallagher that’s in the technology industry over in the U.K. I never have contacted him; I really should. We should have a Spencer Gallagher meet-up. Once I saw that wasn’t available, I’ve always like the “Speed Racer” moniker. It speaks to me a little bit, just my career and how I’ve come to be here. So I took it and ran with it. 23SpeedRacer — it’s distinctive and it’s as good as any name, so use it.
