Every sport known to man has its share of evergreen arguments--debates that seem to have been going on since the dawn of history and seem destined to continue until the end of time. Some examples: Would baseball be better off getting rid of the designated hitter? Should college football institute a playoff? Does golf really count as a sport?
For you gearheads who found this blog, there's another argument that could go on forever: Should NASCAR be racing on road courses?
For the non-gearheads out there, road courses are those that require drivers to turn both right and left, as opposed to the "oval" courses, which demand turning in one direction only. In the Sprint Cup series, NASCAR uses two road courses: Watkins Glen in central New York and Infineon Raceway in northern California, which will host its annual stock car spectacular on Sunday.
NASCAR is quick to tell you that it has been running road races since the very beginning, and many people enjoy the racing that these tracks produce. Others think that road courses should disappear from the schedule altogether, especially if some teams are going to pull their drivers in favor of road "ringers."
But there are plenty of reasons to keep the roads on the roster.
For one thing, NASCAR's open-wheel cousins have no problem asking its drivers to demonstrate skill on both oval and road (and street) tracks.
For another thing, shifting gears from Michigan International Speedway's 2-mile oval to Infineon's 2.5-mile serpent of a course can't be that much more traumatic than shifting from Talladega's 2.66-mile restrictor-plate special to Martinsville's half-mile "paper clip," as the Sprint Cup drivers will have to do in October during the Chase.
Besides, every reporter who can be cajoled into riding on a road course end up saying things like "This was a thrill like no other."
When was the last time you said that watching a pitcher bat?
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