Racing on rain tires just doesn’t do it for me

By Mike Smith (contact)

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009 | 8:59 a.m.

I was beginning to think that the coverage of figure skating in the Winter Olympics had started early. The final laps of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 from Montreal had more camel spins than a rink full of gold medal winners.

As the rain fell with 16 laps to go, NASCAR mandated rain tires and from that point on it was mayhem on the course as the cars spun repeatedly to produce three cautions in the final 11 laps.

The race had a record 11cautions. There were only four cautions in the 2008 race and five in 2007. The average speed of Sunday’s race was 53.869 mph.

The Nationwide Series is the guinea pig for developing a strategy for racing in the rain. Well, so far I’m not convinced that racing in the rain is working. I would rather see a race stopped and the track dried in order to see a finish where cars have several laps of competition on dry pavement. I hope Mike Helton was serious when he said during a caution that there are no plans to use the rain tires anytime soon in Cup racing. What we saw on the final laps of Sunday's race was Zamboni racing.

OK, I admit that the last lap was thrilling, but I’m not convinced that all the spins, wrecks and subsequent cautions were worth suffering through to see one good lap of racing at the end.

“Maybe when it got to looking like a circus or a demolition derby it was time to call it,” said Kyle Busch’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff. “It’s a great idea to come out here and run in the rain. Everybody puts forth a lot of effort, but it wasn’t working. It wasn’t racing. You couldn’t even make a lap without a caution coming out. Basically, you’re getting to a point where you’re degrading the series. It got to where it was bumper cars.”

A friend of mine took a different view of the rained-soaked finish. He believed that racing on rain tires was better than suffering though a rain delay or having to wait for the race to be finished on Monday.

Those are great points.

In the meantime, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the quality of the racing will improve as the Nationwide Series drivers become more accustomed to racing in the rain

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