The New Worst Race in NASCAR History

I started typing the worst race in NASCAR history, but that title was taken for the Kansas race last year. The new worst race is the debacle (yes Mom, I had to use the old spell check for that one) that was Sunday's Indianapolis 400. Goodyear managed to send a crappy batch of tires, that were wearing right down to the cords after about 12 laps, so what does NASCAR decide is the right thing to do... throw competition cautions, 9 of 'em to be exact. This was terrible for several reasons. 1) Goodyear sucks. This is, I'm guessing due to the fact that they use inferior carbon blacks in their tires. I'm not sure exactly what kind they use, but I definitely know what kind they don't use and Columbian Chemicals' carbon black wouldn't fall apart like that I guarantee!!! 2) If you want to throw competition cautions through out the race then do it so that you don't end up throwing one with 10 laps to go. I would have thrown them until about the last 25% of the race and then I would of let 'em race for the win. The way it worked out there were about 30 cars on pit road with 10 laps to go and conveniently it worked out for Jimmy that he got off of pit road first, and due to the nature of Indy unless your car is just flat out better than the person in front of you or they make a mistake it is unlikely that a pass will occur. It reminded of the first worst race in NASCAR history from Kansas were Tony gambled on fuel strategy and was leading the race when it started to rain and then the rain let up, but rather than just concede that the race day was lost they restarted the race. Shortened the length of the race though, and one of the Hendrick cars ended up benefiting again. Anyway the most disappointing thing about the race Sunday was the comments afterwards from Goodyear when they were asked about whether they could stop a scenario like Sunday from happening again they said, "No." That's a good response. Here is another question, should NASCAR keep Goodyear as the lone tire provider for races? "NO." If Goodyear isn't willing to put the time and effort into have a tire that will hold up and make a good race, then NASCAR has an obligation (to the fans that are still willing to watch a race) to open up the series to competitive tire brands. They should seek a breach of contract with Goodyear for lack of competitive racing and let other tire manufactures in. Sunday was terrible, I'm glad I didn't have to watch the whole thing. And at the end, instead of listening to Jimmy talk I watched the end of the Arena Bowl. Arena Football is kind of interesting when you set down and actually watch it. I like how they keep the games competitive at the end by not allowing the clock to run unless the play nets positive yardage. The teams scored 3 or 4 touchdowns in the last minute, it was hard to keep track with all of the scoring. Maybe someone from NASCAR should watch some arena football so they can learn how to keep events competitive.