| The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Racing at Daytona: A historical look at the original road course
NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton and 100-year-old Juanita “Lightnin” Epton, a longtime Speedway employee, talk about beach racing in Daytona Beach.
Daytona International Speedway
HEY, WILLIE!
I like your idea of putting all three NASCAR divisions on the track at the same time for the Busch Clash.
But there are a couple of things I hate — one is the stage racing and the other is the point system. If you start 40 cars and first place gets 40 points and last place gets 1 point, won’t that determine the true champion at the end of the season?
RAPID RICK
HEY, R.R.!
Yes it would and, many years, the championship would be more or less clinched by Columbus Day. Good luck selling those final handful of races to potential ticket buyers and TV viewers.
As a public service, let me recall one of the charms of the pre-playoff points system. A race winner got 175 points and second place got 170. You got five bonus points for leading a lap, which naturally takes the winner to 180 points.
However … oops, I mean HOWEVER, you also got five bonus points for leading the most laps, which leads us to a little more math: Let’s say the Daytona 500 runner-up led the most laps, which could and did happen, he got his 170 for finishing second, five for leading a lap and five for leading the most laps.
Shortly thereafter, the winner of the Daytona 500 — the Daytona 500, mind you — would head to Rockingham only TIED for the points lead. They eventually remedied that just a bit and over the past 17 years eventually landed on today’s system: 40 for winning, 35 for second, 34 for third, 33 for fourth, etc., plus the stage-racin’ bonus points.
Listen, I miss lots about the old ways, too, and would love to see Sterling Marlin in the yellow No. 4 Chevy and Jimmy Means in the No. 52 Pontiac, but I would still think the old points system was lacking. And no, I don’t think the current playoff format is the best way to determine an overall season champ, but I’m not trying to sell a multi-billion-dollar TV deal to NBC and Fox.
HEY, WILLIE!
I need your opinion on something. Joe Biden passed an executive order recognizing transgenders and others who identify as another sex.
With that, do we need women’s sports? Very, very serious question. Everything about women’s sports will be meaningless, because their sport could, and will, be infiltrated by biological males who identify as female.
Seems to me that liberal women from days of old can’t have it both ways. They demanded Title IX, got it, and now their domain has been infiltrated by males.
LARRY
HEY, LARRY!
Infiltrated? I highly doubt that. I think it’s best to see how this shakes out over time before presuming the doom of girls’ and women’s athletics.
Under state-by-state authority, I believe only Connecticut had some furor regarding biological males dominating a girls’ high school track meet.
Opponents of any policy, on both sides of the fence, offer worst-case scenarios routinely on “social” and broadcast media, which feeds Twitter and cable news the raw meat they crave.
Deep breaths, Larry, deep breaths. And maybe a Budweiser.
HEY, WILLIE!
While I agree with you when you say not to doubt a Tiger Woods comeback, the listed injuries tell me he has a lot to come back from.
Yes, any other sport and it would be a hard no on the comeback, though even golf forces more demands on the legs and torso than people would think if they only watched us old-timers raking the ball across the course.
But they could allow Tiger to use a cart, right?
MIKE
HEY, MIKE!
There you go, making an interesting point. Competitive golf organizations are required to make provisions for competitors with genetic disabilities, but could that ever be expanded to golfers with non-genetic disabilities?
If, say, the biggest audience draw in the sport’s history could compete at a high level if his damaged legs were allowed to get from shot to shot via cart, would the PGA Tour consider? Let me suggest a definite maybe.
There have been plenty of comparisons to Ben Hogan’s injuries and his comeback in the middle of the last century. But while Hogan was broken in multiple places after his 1949 car crash, his long-lasting issue were blood clots and ensuing circulation problems in his legs.
Hogan never again played more than five or six tournaments in a season, yet won six of his nine majors, 11 of his 64 Tour events and, if not for the limited schedule, would’ve surely blown by Sam Snead’s 82 career victories, which is where Tiger also currently sits.
For what it’s worth, in 2009, before Y.E. Yang, the fire hydrant and everything that followed, we were all certain Tiger would someday surpass 100 Tour victories and probably 25 majors. Yes, certain.
Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com.