TIMMINS - Like a lot of my readers, I follow many other sports aside from hockey.
As a kid, I fell in love with racing. My favourite form has always been Nascar. I guess having a dad that was an avid stock car racer first put me on that path.
Even though I never miss a race I have had a distaste for Nascar's “chase” system to crown a champion. Now I'm not going to get into the whole 16 playoff drivers whittled down to four for one last race system, but I wanted to share a little of why I dislike the system. This past weekend's race provides an example.
Martinsville is probably Nascar's most historic and tradition-steeped race. The iconic short track continues to define what Nascar is all about. Sunday's race was also the cutoff race to set the final four drivers for next week's race in Phoenix to decide the 2024 season. And if you think the track's traditional short track beating and banging are something, the cutoff race is even more so when you have drivers who need to win to get in or have to finish in front of other drivers.
That's the good part. The bad? Let's just call it what it is. Cheating. Nascar calls it “race manipulation”.
Late in the race, Ryan Blaney has a good lead and will race himself into the final four, which he eventually does.
William Byron (in a Chev) cannot afford to be passed by any car or he will fall one point shy of making the final four. Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon (also in Chevs) are about to pass Byron when they suddenly slow and settle in two abreast behind him. Subsequent radio chatter reveals the two are informed Byron will be out if they pass him. I don't fault the two drivers as they are just following team orders. Chastain/Byron/Dillon are not teammates, but somebody decides a Chev can't get eliminated. In the meantime, Brad Keselowski in a Ford has led a race-high 170 laps earlier and is trying to pass Byron, but can't with the other two Chevs blocking the narrow track. Race manipulation.
Behind all this, Christopher Bell in a Toyota needs to pass as many cars as he can to move ahead of Byron in points for the final spot in the final four race. With two or three laps to go Bell is closing on Bubba Wallace in another Toyota when Wallace is told Bell needs one more point to advance. Wallace responds that he thinks he has a tire going down and suddenly slows just as Bell tries to stuff a pass, going into the corner and ends up scraping the wall for some distance. But he gets the extra point. And he and Byron are tied in points for the final spot. Bell holds the season tiebreaker so he should advance. But hold on. Nascar is conducting an investigation into the final results.
When Bell rode the wall after passing Wallace, Nascar felt he used the wall to accelerate past cars. Two years ago Chastain used the move to advance and Nascar banned any future use of the move. So after about a half hour, it is announced that Bell has been disqualified and Byron advances instead.
But should Byron be advancing with the manipulation of other Chev teams aiding his advancement? Myself and many other fans don't think so.
Keselowski, a former champion under the old system, has joined with some other drivers calling for the current system to be scrapped. It's gimmicky and does not reward consistency. It also leads to desperation moves to attempt to advance.
Nascar announced Monday they are looking further into race manipulation at Martinsville.
It's a shame also because the racing itself was so darn good.
The only reason I think Nascar doesn't or didn't disqualify Byron is because he just kept on driving. He was falling backwards but I don't think he was aware of what was taking place behind him. That may be what saved him. Bell on the other hand stayed in the gas while riding the wall contrary to the rule.
If Byron should win the championship next weekend in Phoenix it is sure to be a flashpoint for debate.
I expect Nascar to levy fines and or suspensions soon to the other three teams involved.
A bunch of my Leaf fan buddies are concerned about the team's play of late. They have the exact same record as last year. I think Coach Berube is trying to change the culture of responsibility and accountability in the club for better long-term results. But that's just me.
Every time I walk down to my office in the basement I pass an old wood stove passed down from my great grandparents’ farm that they built on the northwest corner of Cowboy Lake. They sold the farm in the late 1960s but the wood stove has stayed in my mom's family since then.
On that old stove is a picture of my dad and his friends from 1962 from a Daily Press story about a new racetrack being built by them.
Now I remember how one of my first columns for TimminsToday spoke about how small the hockey world is when we ran into some hunters 60 or so kilometres down Pine Street South who were local hockey fixtures. And once again that smallness was on full display.
One of the people in the picture I mentioned above was Ron Gervais. After my column last week on the Mac one of the many calls I got was from … Ron Gervais.
Ron was a fixture in local hockey circles as well as racing in the 1960s. But Ron Gervais is a subject to be further explored in an upcoming column.
So the hockey story I wrote last week put me in contact with a former friend of my dad's and a lifelong hockey buff from Timmins. And a picture I've had since I was a kid showing me a Ron Gervais finally has an answer to who he is. I look forward to filling you in very soon.
And I know some of my astute and sharp friends are thinking, “But Mike, hasn't that picture been damaged by being on the stove?”
So before you ask me — the stove is not hooked up. It is strictly ornamental. An early 1900s wood stove is not something I'd relish firing up today.
Later Skater.
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