Is it time for road courses to hit the road?

Those ignorant of the skill required to pilot a Winston Cup car assume it's as simple as drive fast, turn left.

Obviously there's far more to it than that, or the 10,000 belligerent armchair crew chiefs that threaten me weekly with bodily harm would be behind the wheel of the Sunshine Grits Ford, not the counter down at the local Texaco.

As is customary, I digress. Racing an oval requires a unique combination of Mr. Goodwrench (absurd car sense), Chuck Yeager (absurdly heightened senses), Bobby Fischer (absurd concentration) and Jabba the Hut (an absurd supply of guts).

And the boys in Winston Cup are second-to-none at it.

Road courses, on the other hand, have long reduced some of NASCAR's greatest legends to glorified driver's education instructors.

Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin have always fared quite well, but for the most part these days it's the Jeff, Robby and Tony show, with sporadic cameos from "specialists" who've never done anything overly special in Winston Cup competition.

Precision braking is a must in the tedious quest to pass on the sinewy course. Precision shifting is required at all times in order to preserve equipment.

And, of course, there's the right turn thing.

Contact Marty  Don't like his opinions? Like his opinions? Got a suggestion for a future Last Lap topic? Drop Marty an email!

One mental slip, you're off the course engulfed in a Styrofoam blizzard. (Ask Jimmie Johnson. He'll tell you). It's intense, calculated competition for hundreds of kilometers.

And many fans hate it.

There's not much passing and unless you're watching it on TV, you see little of the action.

Hence, some feel Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International have worn out their Winston Cup welcome.

I wholeheartedly disagree. I adore road racing and am unwavering in the opinion that it belongs in NASCAR's elite division. It adds a daunting obstacle in the quest for the Cup.

Should NASCAR eliminate road course races from the Winston Cup schedule?

GoEighteen: The beauty and challenge of the current NASCAR schedule is its diversity.

You have superspeedway ovals, restrictor plate races, short tracks, 1-milers, the road courses and of course Pocono.

Even the length of the schedule - 36 races with only a handful of weekends off - adds to the mix. By season's end, the newly crowned WC Champ has conquered all these different types of tracks and this grueling schedule.

The road courses are key to this formula. Anyone can win Michigan, Vegas or Texas. But typically, it's the seasoned veterans that take the road course wins.

	Credit: Autostock

True, Bobby Labonte, and here's why. Veterans have the necessary seat time to properly judge braking, entrance and exit angles in the corners and shift points.

Plus, younger drivers are often overzealous.

Seat time is crucial everywhere, but inexperienced drivers can get away with slight over aggression on most ovals.

Not road courses. Get a bit over aggressive on a road course, it's lights out. See: Jimmie Johnson comment above.

Jburton_rule: YES!! It is BORING!! It creates quite a burden on the teams to have to have a "road course car" plus to have to go and do "road course" testing.

We have enough tracks wanting a piece of the action. (Plus, this could open up a couple of more dates on the circuit for some newer OVAL tracks.) NASCAR is oval racing, not road course racing.

If you want to see a road course race go watch "Gran Prix Racing" or some other circuit that covers the right turns. Leave the left turns to NASCAR.

This response is ludicrous, mainly because it's founded on the argument that building specialty cars adds extra burden to teams. Hey Burton, ever heard of a speedway car?

	Credit: Autostock

You wanna talk about a burden? The wind tunnel time alone used on cars run at Daytona and Talladega is double the average yearly salary, as teams search desperately for any area of aerodynamic improvement.

These things are slicker than Patrick Swayze's hair in Dirty Dancing. And the engines? The cost to build and test even one restrictor plate engine could buy your house.

And probably your neighbor's, too.

Building and setting up a road course car isn't any more burdensome than that, certainly.

And for the record, it's called Grand Prix.

gandalf: Yes, please remove the road courses. If I want to watch "follow the leader," I'll watch F1.

Hey Alf, ever seen a Winston Cup race at Chicago? So scintillating was last year's event that one of my colleagues slept through virtually the entire event, and would have remaining comatose were it not for the audible reaction to Kevin Harvick's slide through the grass.

Some fans have similar reactions to plate competition:

dupont242003: I personally don't think they should remove the road courses from the schedule because it is a nice change from the oval tracks.

They are challenging to the drivers and interesting to watch. If anything should be removed from the schedule, it should be one of the dates at the plate tracks.

Those races have become so boring that I doze off during them.

.Speaking of monotony, many of you voiced the opinion that dates should be taken away from some 1.5-mile "cookie-cutter" speedways in favor of adding more road courses.

Others of you argued that eliminating road racing from Winston Cup would open up two valuable dates for expansion - namely to Kentucky Speedway.

So-called cookie-cutter tracks allow for both stock car racing and open-wheel competition.

That's why so many have been built. More types of racing means more races, hence more butts in the seats and quicker exhaustion of the debt garnered by building the venue.

	Credit: Autostock

And being that the newer ones are in major markets like Chicago and Kansas City, NASCAR is more than willing to grant them a Winston Cup date.

Believe me, Kentucky is an awesome facility and the Cincinnati market is none to sneeze at, but it's virtually the same market that Indy rests in.

Moreover, Winston Cup teams love being able to test Kentucky without being docked a test date.

They're already limited to five official tests in 2003, down from seven in years past. It's the most beloved testing facility in NASCAR and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

As for the notion of eliminating road courses from the schedule to open up dates, I certainly hope this doesn't happen.

And it won't happen in Sonoma. Bruton Smith has dumped a significant supply of cash into upgrading the track in recent years, and title sponsorship from Infineon ensures they will continue to do so.

Watkins Glen, on the other hand, could see such a fate. Though in New York State, it's truly not in the New York City market - Pocono is by far the closest track to Manhattan -- and is owned by International Speedway Corporation.

And after last week's announcement that Rockingham is losing a date in favor of the larger Los Angeles market, it's obvious ISC has no qualms with such decisions.

CarolB: NO! Don't remove the road courses...for two reasons! One, as Mike Helton stated this weekend, we need to reach wider markets, and Infineon is the only track in Northern Calif., and the only one close to the Northwest.

And believe me, folks do drive down from the Northwest to watch the race. Last year, we met a family that had driven down from Alaska to watch the race!

Second, competing on a road course does test the drivers skill level beyond making left turns, which does make for interesting competition, and the 'other' racing leagues can't point their wicked little fingers at our racing heroes and say "They can only turn left."

Tell that to the F1 boys still in awe of Jeff Gordon's performance in Juan Pablo's car last week.

Nascar2dozen: Not just no, but hell no. The Winston (Budweiser/Coca-Cola/Nextel/McDonalds) Cup is intended to be given out to the guy that has the most consistency through the entire race schedule - no matter the course, rule changes or anything else NASCAR throws out.

If you are a car owner that picks a driver that can only turn left, that is the chance you have to take.

The road courses are the great equalizers for the teams/drivers that are good/great on big ovals, but not so good other places.

The best driver SHOULD win the championship and this is a big test. If every track was a mile and a half tri-oval, then the law of averages would win the championship - not driver skills or talents as the way it is today.

Besides that, nothing beats 43 cars fighting for the last 2 turns at Sears Point. Hello chrome horn.

Well done, Kiefer Sutherland. Watching the field scream down the straightaway into the hairpin turn at Sonoma never lacks drama, regardless what road course detractors say.

ChrisYoung: Let me put it this way; if you're going to plan a vacation or travel overseas and be forced to miss a race, this is the time of year to do it.

Hard to fathom how the dark forces at the Daytona Death Star could move the Southern 500 and take away a date for Rockingham but still keep the twists and turns through wine country.

They should have given the Infineon date to Fontana. I've never been to a road course event but I can't see how it's worth watching; it's certainly uneventful on TV. Maybe you have to have a glass of wine to enjoy it.

	Credit: Autostock

Well, if that's the case then I'll save my case (of beer) for the next oval/true stock car event. Road courses are for the yukkittie yuks and open wheelers...and wine should only be consumed when you take the wife to the fancy eatin' place cause you let the family rottweiler track the house up. Lets keep it that way.

A couple of weeks ago I was a yak. Now I'm a yukkittie yuk. I'll consider that improvement. And Youngblood, NASCAR couldn't move the Infineon date to Fontana. SMI owns Infineon, not ISC.

ColForbin: Personally, I love the road courses. First of all, I like the cars driving through the splendor of nature, instead of the concrete jungles that are the ovals.

Secondly, I like that it gives some of the second tier drivers and teams a chance to win every now and then.

Seriously, who wasn't rooting for Nadeau and the 44 car last year at Infineon? I think they should add a third road course race and I think it should be the road course at Daytona.

Combining the high banks w/ the road circuit would test both driver and mechanic. And I think the argument against the "specialists" is (unfair) because the top tier drivers always race the road courses and if I'm the owner of a floundering team and can bring my sponsors and team some exposure by bringing in Boris Said or Ron Fellows for a race to be competitive, then I'm all for it.

Ah, the splendor of nature. It's always nice when Bill Walton weighs in. I could handle seeing a third road course, but not at Daytona. We spend enough time there. How about Virginia International Raceway? I know, I know. I'm biased.

And I'm late for a wine-tasting get together. And my dog has tracked the house up. See you other yukkittie yuks in Sonoma.