So one of the long-time race chasers in our little group, Dickie Coleman, has checked out for the last time. Dickie, we had some good trips together, good conversations around the fire pit, gonna miss you. Carry on.
Meantime, ARCA, now a subsidiary of NASCAR, continues to struggle as do so many things that affiliate with NASCAR. For those unfamiliar with it, ARCA is a very old race sanctioning body, and its drivers historically ranged from young folks making their way up, to older drivers making their way down, to drivers who spent most of their careers competing in ARCA events. Well-known folks such as Frank Kimmel, Bill Venturini, Andy Hillenburg, and Tim Steele were fixtures in the series and usually successful in the hunt. Even in the eastern series, formerly known as the NASCAR North Series, the division attracted fields of 44-46 cars and had its own cast of well-known stars in the series; folks like Dave Dion, Mike McLaughlin, Kelly Moore, Mike Stefanik, lobsterman Dick McCabe and the seemingly-timeless Stub Fadden all spent much of their careers in that highly entertaining series.
But, friends, no more. I attended a ARCA K&N East Series event, the heir to the NASCAR North series, at Dover (DE) Speedway a couple weeks ago and let’s just say the car count was…underwhelming. Fifteen cars made the trek to Dover and the resulting race was equally underwhelming. A third of said cars were lapped in the first 10 laps or so and only six or seven finished on the lead lap, with even that number aided by some of NASCAR’s-now-ARCA’s planned caution periods. Every other race they have run so far this year has attracted the same number of entries but for Nashville, which pulled 16 entries. To be frank though, one of those didn’t start the race.
What on earth has happened to that series? I would expect that NASCAR asks the same question now and again, but I also expect that they don’t stress over it either. It has been repositioned, I believe, as a ‘driver development’ series and as such there are a small number of tremendously-funded teams that comprise the field and run away with most of the spoils. Think large NASCAR organizations, like Gibbs and Childress, and you get the idea. It’s their version of ‘American Idol’ (disclosure: I have never watched that show, so I may be misguided in that statement), or a NFL Combine (disclosure: ditto) a place to try out some potential talent at a relatively little cost. Well, relatively little compared to launching a youngster in a high-dollar Cup car, that is.
Of course, a development series is by definition someplace where a driver has no intention of staying for any length of time. For most it is hoped just a brief but needed stop on the road to Greater Things. And because of that, there are no ‘names’ in the series, no longtime fixtures, no particular characters, no villains. It’s the vanilla yogurt of racing, where the drivers largely look, act and talk the same as they perfect their 30-second TV interview skills, which will be as much-needed in their next career stop as the ability to muscle a car around.
So that’s it, I think. The series is utterly devoid of personality. It is populated largely by drivers who don’t want to be there for very long, and who have no definable fan base. You don’t see people cheering particular drivers on, wearing ‘their’ driver’s colors, or engaging in long conversations about the last race, who hit whom, and the like. Heck. I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable race fan and I cannot say or remember most of the drivers in the aforementioned ARCA East race I just attended. There is no passion to be found in the series, not the kind that race fans are used to experiencing. Even locally, we all have our favorites that we will follow and defend, as needed, and can share stories around the fire about great finishes, controversial moves, and the like.
You don’t get that from vanilla yogurt.
In no particular order 