When a struggling or even a thriving business wants to have its operations analyzed, the most objective way to do so is to call in outside consultants with nothing to gain by calling it as they see it.

Then again, most thriving businesses don't have to tell anyone -- or have anyone tell them -- how great they're doing; and many struggling operations attempt to ignore reality by sticking their heads in the sand.

Likewise, when the governing body of a sport wants to have itself judged or have certain eras placed into proper perspective, it's probably best left to others. So when NASCAR recently sent out a news release proclaiming that "NASCAR's Golden Age of Competition is Now," the main premise of which was to declare that "NASCAR racing was more competitive than ever," according to "a new NASCAR statistical analysis," it was met with some skepticism.

Taking into account such statistics as cars on the lead lap, average leaders per race and margin of victory, the news release claimed that racing at what is now the Nextel Cup level "has become more competitive and more unpredictable than ever."

Never mind that there are other numbers that could be manipulated to dispute this claim. The fact is that "Golden Ages" of any sport is about more than raw numbers.

"What does that mean -- The Golden Age?" former longtime driver and current television analyst Rusty Wallace asked. "I guess I would need for them to clarify that for me a little more."

Generally, when someone refers to the Golden Age of a sport, it is in reference to the best times in its history. Using that as a measuring stick, Wallace and longtime racing promoter Humpy Wheeler, who now is president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, were asked if they believe the current era of Nextel Cup is as golden as those who run the sport seem to believe.

They both said no, and then explained themselves at length.

"It's not the Golden Age of the sport," Wheeler said. "If you look at the Golden Age, it's when there was great drama, there was great competition, there was tremendous escalating popularity. And I'm not sure that our Golden Age is not ahead of us. We're sort of in between right now. I think to a certain extent the Golden Age was in the '60s, and that's where things really started going -- and then they took off dramatically in '85 to the 2001 area. If there was a real Golden Age, that's probably when the one or two were.

"You know, the Golden Age doesn't necessarily mean when you had the most people at the races or drew the best television ratings and all that stuff. It's the drama of the races, how they were, the personalities. We may just be in a period now where we're waiting on the next one."

So there could be more than one Golden Age, according to Wheeler. Wallace agreed, at least to an extent.

"The sport to me has changed. It's a wonderful time to be in the sport as a driver. It's a tough time to be in the sport as an owner because it's so expensive," Wallace said. "I would say the glamorous years in NASCAR were 10 years ago. Look at all the different paint schemes, and the merchandise sales going crazy. Now it's a lot more business-oriented; a lot of people are struggling financially.

"The races are really good, and that's obviously important. But things have changed. I don't agree that this is the best time in NASCAR. I think 10 years ago was the best time in the sport, or maybe even earlier."

Wallace went on to explain that because the actual product -- being the races -- still generally is good in his mind (but not necessarily the best of all time), there is no reason that what he sees as the problem areas in the sport can't be fixed. Hence, the second or third coming of a Golden Age, as Wheeler predicts, could still be on its way.

"When you had the [Richard] Petty and the [David] Pearson and Dale [Earnhardt] Sr. going at it, and all hell breaking loose, and all the different paint schemes running around, and all the different parties -- the fun parties and different things going on -- that was when NASCAR was at its best," Wallace sad. "Now it's got so damn corporate and gotten so expensive.

Golden Age?

A NASCAR statistical analysis attempts to prove that "racing since 1970 has become more competitive and more unpredictable than ever." Read NASCAR's contention, then Mark Aumann's opinion in Head2Head -- and weigh in with your take.

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"I just did an interview with the L.A. Times, and they asked me what the one thing I would change right now if I could -- and I said I would try to make everything less complicated. The sport is very complicated right now. Very, very busy and very complicated."

Wheeler said that one step currently being taken that could help make it less complicated is the Car of Tomorrow. Despite the new car's many critics, he's a big fan. He also thinks the COT still needs some time to evolve.

He agreed with Wallace that what fueled the early days of Cup racing were the great rivalries between the likes of Richard Petty and David Pearson or Bobby Allison. He said that is missing today.

"Until we can get back to consistent side-by-side racing, those rivalries aren't going to happen like that again," Wheeler said. "Rivalries come about because of side-by-side racing. This [current] car that we've got now is almost incapable of continual side-by-side racing. Now once they get the Car of Tomorrow figured out, we'll see a return of that side-by-side racing that made the Golden Age what it was.

"We have a lot more competitive cars now than we did then. It's just that it's difficult to run side-by-side. So how are you going to build a rivalry when you can't do that? You can't build a rivalry when a guy is leading a race and the second-place guy comes up to him and passes him, and immediately gets 400 feet ahead. The next pit stop he may have a chance to get back in first, but that's about it."

That's not the way it was when Petty dueled with Pearson, he added.

"The great rivalries were built on the cars that were able to run side-by-side," Wheeler said. "That's why I'm so enthralled and interested in this new car we have. It hasn't come into itself yet, but it will -- because people are figuring it out and some of the tracks that they run it on. And Goodyear has got to figure out what tires work best with it. Everybody's got a learning curve with this car. But by the middle of next season, you'll start seeing better racing. I think you'll see a dramatic difference in the racing at Daytona, at Atlanta. At the bigger, faster racetracks, you're going to see a dramatic difference with this car.

"You always wonder why in the world Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Sr. didn't have one of the greatest rivalries in the sport -- like Petty-Waltrip or Petty-Allison. It never happened. Why didn't it happen? Well, they couldn't run side-by-side continuously. Earnhardt was certainly capable of having a rivalry; Jeff is combative, but he's not a conflict racer like, say, Bobby Allison was. But it had a lot to do with the type of car that they were racing."

The COT could eventually simplify life back at the shop and in the garage at racetracks, too -- which Wallace thinks needs to be done.

"I mean, who would ever have believed that we would go to the racetrack now, and a two-car team would have to have 300 employees? It's incredible the amount of money that's being spent right now, and it's very, very tough on a lot of people. There is a lot of pressure," Wallace said.

When he first got into racing at the Cup level in 1984, Wallace said his team had a total of 14 people on the payroll. That might cover the accounting department on some modern-day teams, but that's about it.

"I went to Team Penske the other day and asked how many people they had. They said, `Three-hundred and seventeen.' I said, `Well, what the hell do they all do?' They've only got seven of 'em who jump over the wall. You gonna tell us it takes another 300 to build the damn car? What are you guys doing?" Wallace said.

"I propose that to everybody. It's kind of like monkey see, monkey do. If this guy's got 300, I'd better get me 300. Why do it? And I'm not old-school in saying that [crap]. I'm not. I think it's gotten overcomplicated and I think it's gotten out of hand."

Wheeler said that the sport's popularity has flattened out recently for obvious reasons. There is little more growth that can take place within America's borders, he said.

To solve that problem, he added that the answer is simple. Take it outside the borders of the United States on some level -- a strategy that has been tested to a limited extent with Busch Series races being held in recent years in Canada and Mexico.

"It could explode internationally," Wheeler insisted. "That's going to take more [Juan] Montoyas coming into it. A lot of people disagree with what I say about this thing becoming international. But you have to grow -- and if you look at what the major stick-and-ball sports are thinking about and doing, it makes sense. Look at the emphasis the NFL has put on Europe and Mexico. ... The NBA has a terrific European program. Major-league baseball has made a lot of advances in the Pacific Rim. So how do you grow as a sport without growing it through TV? How do you grow TV programs when you're confined domestically? You don't. You can't.

"That's why the Olympics is so big -- because they raise interest all over the world. Even though the athletes aren't known, usually, when the Olympics start. Soccer has that international TV following. So I think, sooner or later, our sport will morph into an international sport."

And ultimately history will be the judge of all Golden Ages -- past, present (if possible) and possibly future.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.