NASCAR Jumps The Shark With Caution Clock

Remember when the hit TV show Happy Days crossed the line of sanity by having The Fonz jump the shark? Well it appears that NASCAR has followed suit with the caution clock.

It doesn’t take a rocket science to grasp that the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is losing money and lots of it. Not that the product is lacking, no. The CWTS has some of the best racing product in NASCAR, regardless of rules or regulations. Nine times out of 10, it’s the best driver that wins the race, something that makes sense because sn’t that supposed to be how racing works?

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During the State of the Sport address today by Brian France, some of the most brainless, undeveloped ideas and nonsense was spewed forth. Nothing so meager like France calling Chase Elliot “Casey,” or averting Bob Pockrass’s questions regarding the SAFER barriers (although that really isn’t that meager). but instead stuff like instituting a Chase format in the Xfinity Series and the CWTS, and of course…putting a caution clock in the truck series. That’s right…a caution clock. Nothing so sensible like what they did in the 90s’ with a halftime. Nope. A caution clock. Does that make sense to you in any way, shape, or form?

Here’s the gist of France’s caution clock:

The 20-minute clock will begin when a driver takes the green flag on a start or a restart. When that clock runs out, an automatic caution is thrown.
If a caution happens during that 20-minute run, it’s reset on the restart to the beginning.
20 laps to go, the caution clock is turn off.
Fortunately, the caution clock won’t be used at Eldora.
At Mosport and Pocono, the clock will go off with 10 laps to go.

It’s a clear-cut, articulate plan. All the bases have been covered, it seems. But that doesn’t mean it makes sense. From a competition standpoint, it trashes the product. Any fan worth their salt knows that a natural product is preferable to a manufactured product, which is what France is shooting for. He isn’t trying to help the series get it’s own identity back. Instead, he’s bent on manipulating it into something unintelligible. Instead of the best team/fastest truck winning, he’s leaving it to a game of chance. It’s foolish to try to fix a product that isn’t broken to begin with.

If an incident happens during the 20-minute green flag period, the caution clock is reset. /

Financially speaking, it’s worse. A sponsor who wants to be seen on camera wants to be seen on the track in the midst of competition – not on the pit road. Sponsors want to be seen being maneuvered in the midst of competition instead of idling on pit road getting worked on. There’s no allure there. But on top of that, it just takes one sponsor to get fed up having their driver handed a bad hand so many times before they step out. Then beyond that, a team steps out. Sure, this seems like a “slippery slope fallacy,” but it isn’t unlikely.

Very rarely does one of France’s bad ideas turn into something fruitful, like the Chase system. That is France’s crowning achievement, bar none. Also, other events, like the 2015 Kentucky event and last year’s retro Darlington event were also plus marks in his portfolio. That being said, don’t expect this nonsensical, redundant, miserable excuse of an “idea” to last.

It’s simple. A caution clock derives fans, drivers, and teams of any glory from finishing well or winning in an honorable fashion. It manipulates one of NASCAR’s last vestiges of good, true racing and turns it into a mockery of it’s former self. Granted, if it was something concerning heat races, that’s be fine. That’s make sense.

More racing: NASCAR: Keeping Up With 2016 Sponsor Changes

Instead, we’re looking at a product that is as processed as sliced cheese. This isn’t exciting, no. It’s absurd, and it’s another half-cocked idea by Brian France that’s destined to fail. It’s maddening to know that someone who has zero idea regarding racer mentality is coming up with and instituting such pointless rules.

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