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closeObservations | What's up with AP's racing stats?
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
Some observations on racing from the Charlotte Observer's David Poole:
• The Associated Press is sending out the results from this year’s NASCAR races without listing the money each driver wins. That has been replaced by “driver rating,” a statistic that NASCAR manufactures using an undecipherable formula and that has no relevance to fans.
The NASCAR public relations office is pushing this “loop data” lunacy. The fact that the AP is going along with something so inane is beyond belief.
• Don’t be surprised later this year when there’s talk about California and Atlanta eventually switching their fall Sprint Cup race dates.
Atlanta might do better on Labor Day weekend instead of late October, both with weather and because that won’t be so deep into college football season.
Labor Day has been unkind to California, too – temperatures were well over 100 degrees for the races there in September 2007.
• At long last it seems that reunification of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car is a done deal. If open-wheel racing can eventually mount any kind of challenge in marketing, ticket sales and fan attention that could force NASCAR to focus on doing the part of its job that involves “selling” the sport to fans. That’s a win-win for fans.
