All Star Race: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!
It’s All Star weekend in NASCAR. You know what that means? Twenty-some drivers racing their souls out, tempers flaring, big ugly wrecks, and a million dollars to the guy who gets through it all. You know what else All Star weekend means? The great debate over where the All Star race should be held is back on.
I don’t know whether the lack of printable stories at this time of the year gets to these media members’ minds, or what. But whatever the deal is, it seems like every year around this time, there is a great debate about whether the All Star events should be held in Charlotte, or somewhere else. Now, I am not about to settle the debate, as I am merely one blogger and cannot speak for everybody. But, I can tell you what I think should be done to the All Star festivities. Nothing.
Fans adore All Star weekend. It’s the one weekend out of the year where drivers can just be themselves, and boy, can that create some excitement. But the drivers also like All Star weekend because they get to return home for an extended period of time. If the race is moved, the All Star race would be but another stop on their grueling schedule.
The race should not be held anywhere besides Lowe’s Motor Speedway because, let’s face it, that’s where it’s always been held. It’s one of only a few historic events still held on NASCAR’s schedule. And by renaming last weekend’s race the “Southern 500”, NASCAR is trying to get back to its roots, right? So eliminating yet another historic event would make the heads of NASCAR nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.
Another reason that the All Star race can not be moved is that the truck race is held the night before at the same track. Now sure, they could still hold the truck race at Lowe’s the night before the big race even if it wasn’t held in the same location. But wouldn’t that take away from the thrill of the truck race? Regardless of how small, that truck race is a piece of the All Star weekend, and if NASCAR forces the truck guys to change their schedule to accommodate the Cup drivers, that wouldn’t be right either.
What exactly are the alternatives to running the All Star race in Charlotte? Run it in Daytona? There’s already an All Star race there. I believe it’s called the Budweiser Shootout. What about Talladega? Again, an All Star race is already held on a plate track, so that’s pretty much out the window. Bristol? Please. Just a few weeks ago, everybody was trashing this place because its 43-car race was boring. Imagine half of that. And what if you alternate locations? Then everybody will want the race held at their track, and I don’t even want to imagine an All Star race at a place like Pocono.
The final argument those who want the race moved have is “It’s just another race on an intermediate track”. No it isn’t. They’re racing at “The Beast of the Southeast”. For the record, it has that name for a reason, namely because of the level of difficulty the place is known for. Remember the 22 caution flags they had back in 2005? Those are hardly intermediate track numbers. This place is not just an intermediate track; it’s an intermediate track that thinks it’s a short track.
I don’t even understand why people want the location of the All Star race changed, anyway. The races are always exciting. The format has gone through so many changes over the past few years, and changing the location would just be change overkill. Whoever really wants all this change needs to wake up and realize that change isn’t always good. NASCAR changed the body of their race cars. That change was bad. NASCAR has changed so many rules over the past several years that the drivers really can’t even race anymore. That change has been bad. NASCAR has uprooted itself and moved west. That change has been bad. Do you really want the location of the All Star race changed? Be careful what you wish for.
The All Star race ain’t broke. Do not try to fix it. That’s how I see it.