Last Lap: Spring (e-mail) cleaning

Having had no Nextel Cup Series racing to provide searing mailbag fodder this week, and considering that the Busch Series event concluded in yet another scoring controversy (which we've beaten plumb to death), the time has come to rid the inbox of several overdue inquiries.

Consider it a virtual spring-cleaning, if you will.

	Marty Smith

Race fans yearn to know every intricate detail of the sport they so religiously follow, namely the personalities involved. I'm here to help. Call me Jeeves.

Marty: We hear so much about the costs of putting a car on the track. Do you think you could do an article sometime that gives us a general idea of what it costs to put that car out there on the track? Theresa Breymeyer

It ain't cheap, Theresa. Using ballpark figures, it costs approximately $150,000 to build a Nextel Cup racecar. Throw in an extra $100,000 for an engine, $1,608 for a single set of tires (teams go through about 13 sets a weekend, so you're looking at roughly $21,000 in tires in three days) and Heaven knows how what on gasoline. I haven't a clue, but just for argument's sake, let's say Sunoco Racing Gasoline is 10 bucks a gallon. That's $220 per 22-gallon tank.

You're at nearly $300,000, and you haven't so much as paid the entry fee yet, much less transported the car to the race venue or paid your crew.

And people wonder why sponsorship costs so much.

Hey Marty: How do you determine which driver starts in the better starting position if they both qualify with the exact same time? Example: At Atlanta, both Jeremy Mayfield and Michael Waltrip's qualifying times were identical (each with 29.107). Pat Browne

Good question, Pat. If two drivers post identical lap times during Bud Pole Qualifying, they are lined up in the race according the number of owner points their respective teams have tallied that year.

Regarding new rules in the Nextel Cup Series. Rule 1, the freezing the field when the caution flag comes out. Me and a lot of other NASCAR fans don't agree to this rule. Racing back to the line and being competitive is a part of racing, always have been and always will be.

How can there be 2 races in the season where NASCAR was confused about this rule in seeing where drivers in the field was? In my opinion, if NASCAR doesn't do something with this rule, we could be looking at a full-blown strike with NASCAR Fans.

This is a rule that serves no purpose in NASCAR and takes all the competition out of it. Have this rule not been in effect, the outcome of the Nextel race at Rockingham would have not seen Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne finish 1st & 2nd. They would have been a lap down.

NASCAR needs to do something about this situation before it gets completely out of hand. Do you know an address where I can send a petition to NASCAR about this rule? We have started one and have quite a few signatures.

Sincerely, Robert Bauer, NASCAR Fan (For Now)

Marty Smith  •  Email  •  Archive

Honestly, Robert, I couldn't care less whether you or anyone else disagrees with NASCAR's disallowance of racing back to the caution. With that attitude, any effort made to retain you as a fan isn't of the highest priority.

Obviously you have no respect for those driving the cars. The rule is in place as a safety precaution. Used to be guys slowed down when the caution flew, adhered to the gentleman's agreement. No more.

With so much pressure to excel and with such a premium on track position, guys made up every last position on the track, and every last second on the stop watch, that they possibly could.

Subsequently, Dale Jarrett nearly got waylaid last year at New Hampshire. You've obviously forgotten that. Must NASCAR remedy their seemingly endless scoring snafus? Absolutely. But not at the expense of driver safety. Nothing outweighs the importance of safe competition. Come on, man. Wake up.

Send me your petition. I'll use it to start a bonfire.

What is the true size of a Nextel Cup tire? KJBigBlock

According to the Nextel Cup rulebook, Goodyear Racing Eagles must not exceed a maximum sidewall measurement of 13.2 inches when placed on an approved wheel that measures 15 inches tall by 9.5 inches wide. Oh, and for good measure, 60 lbs of air pressure is used during the measurement process.

Don't ask me to clarify, Biggie Smalls, because I can't. That is the absolute extent of my tire knowledge.

BS! I have a choice too, you can tell them straight up, "Mr. NASCAR France Family". I will not be watching any NASCAR races until June 1 when Dale Jr.'s ridiculous probation ends! There was no rule about intentionally spinning.

I know there have been dozens of people do it, I have watched every race for 25 years! And many in person. All he did was admit it. That is more then most drivers will ever do. You take your powerful Oz and stick it where the sun don't shine, UNTIL June 1st. P.O'd and making MY statement!

Jim Mercer,Former NASCAR Fan

PS: Send me the France Family email addresses and I will fill their ears with the same BS they are giving us FORMER fans

Wow. Get a load of this guy. Hate to tell you, Jimmy, but there actually is a rule that states the illegality of intentionally causing a caution. Could just be me, but I'd have to think that purposely spinning out a car falls under that tenet.

Not that you'll read this. Well, at least until June 1, anyway.

Marty, I used to be an anti-NASCAR snob but now I'm hooked. 2 factors leading to this are my 4-year old son, who loves anything related to racecars, and going to my first race at NHIS 2 years ago. This exposure has brought a better understanding of NASCAR, the drivers, teams and strategy.

I'm a season ticket holder at NHIS now. What are your thoughts on NHIS as a venue? Does it face the same challenges as you speak of at Rockingham and Bristol? Are we in any danger of losing one of our races anytime soon? Is it considered a good track by the insiders? I know they had some issues with the surface for a couple of years but I think that's in the past.

Sure would appreciate you sharing your thoughts, Paul O'Connell

Nice to hear you've been converted to the faith, Paulie. Warms my heart. However, I'd be lying to you if I said I liked Loudon. Make no mistake, the Bahre family deserves tons of credit for continually working to improve the place. Two years ago it was atrocious. But last year the racing surface, and subsequently the racing, was better than it's been in quite some time.

In my opinion, you're in no danger of losing a race for two reasons: 1. You're the primary venue in the coveted Boston media market and 2. The track is family-owned. The premise of "Realignment 2004 and Beyond" is that parent companies can move race dates within their respective networks, like International Speedway Corp. did by moving a date from Rockingham to Darlington, and shipping the historic Labor Day date out West to California Speedway.

New Hampshire has no such network ties, so movement of their dates to another track isn't an option. NASCAR would simply have to take a date away, which, again, shouldn't happen due to the gargantuan market it resides in.

Why doesn't NASCAR adopt a plan of "Caution laps don't count as race laps?" Like, say, after 50 laps caution laps no longer count, and the last 50 are guaranteed to be green flag laps only! Tate Berg

This may be the most-asked question over the past couple of weeks. The main reason why NASCAR must include caution laps in the overall lap tally is that the race's advertised distance determines many strategies employed by teams during the weekend.

Whether 500 laps at Bristol or 500 miles at Texas, the stated distance on the official race entry blank is also the official distance in terms of laps and miles advertised. If NASCAR opted not to count cautions laps, it would affect fuel strategy and, therefore, the outcome of the race depending on pit sequencing.

Another factor is the television slot. If there were a large number of cautions and caution laps, television viewers might not get to see the end of the race.

Say, hypothetically, Fox has a three-hour window allotted for the Bristol race, and a large number of cautions forces the race longer than that, the network may choose to show regularly scheduled programming rather than the end of the event. Wanna see ticked off? Give a race fan Bart Simpson when he wants Dale Jr.

Marty: I've been curious about this for a while, but no one has been able to tell me the answer. Why do they call it Happy Hour?

With kind regards, Frank Martin

Okay, so I don't have all the answers. Matter of fact, I haven't the slightest clue what the answer to Frankie's question is. But I do know this: the sport was born out of prohibition. Coincidence? I think not.

The Last Lap appears every Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET. The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.