In just a few weeks, it'll be time for NASCAR's fall swing to Atlanta Motor Speedway. It'll also be about a year since Unadilla's David Ragan was not cleared to compete in the Nextel Cup Series race, despite running numerous Truck Series events and two Cup races beforehand.
That decision came back up this past weekend when the normal procedure of having a driver run smaller tracks in preparation for bigger ones was seemingly tossed out of the window at NASCAR's biggest track - Talladega Superspeedway - with Jacques Villenueve.
Villenueve was allowed to compete in Sunday's Cup race after just one other NASCAR start - Saturday's truck race.
That's a very big difference from how new drivers, like Ragan, have been handled in the past, when NASCAR has required drivers to log track time in either smaller series or at smaller tracks before being approved for larger tracks. For example, a driver needs to be approved to run a track a half-mile long before being approved to run a 1-mile facility like Atlanta.
That, apparently, didn't apply to Villenueve at Talladega, which is probably the worst place to make a first start with its drafting, large packs and high potential for big wrecks.
In Villenueve's defense, he avoided causing a catastrophe. In a very classy move, he dropped to the rear of the field prior to the race and avoided trouble throughout the race. He silenced a lot of critics, that's for sure. But the thing is, he shouldn't have had to deal with critics, as no driver needs to make his first start at Talladega, even if he is the reincarnation of Fireball Roberts.
Villenueve racing in NASCAR wasn't the problem at Talladega. The fact that he was allowed to without the experience that has been required for other drivers is.
Sure, Villenueve has a lot of racing experience under his belt. But any time a driver switches from one form of racing to another, there is a difference. By allowing Villenueve to race at Talladega without going through the usual channels, NASCAR has said that it is willing to make it easier for a driver with an open-wheel background to get into a car than someone who has come up from the local short tracks.
If giving a driver a free pass just because he or she has run lots of laps in other forms of racing is reasoning to approve a driver to run NASCAR's biggest and most volatile track, who's to say that there's a problem with approving a driver who's a three-time national champion in legends cars? They have plenty of seat time too, right?
Having drivers from different backgrounds without a doubt makes the racing more interesting. Plus it at least gives those TV ratings a chance at getting off life support.
But when the rules are either bent or broken to bring those drivers in when so many others have had to take more steps to get into NASCAR, it's not a good thing.
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