The fallout from controversial races thus far this season in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series continues to reverberate. Everyone, be they current or former drivers, crew chiefs, team owners, media and fans all have opinions on what NASCAR should do to curb the problem of road rage-like over-aggressiveness by drivers, whether they’re Cup veterans or young drivers in the Xfinity Series.
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NASCAR Cup driver Zane Smith, who is just 25 years old, shows wisdom far beyond his age. On Thursday’s edition of SpeedFreaks, Smith gave intelligent, astute answers to the issue. No matter who is right or wrong, everyone seems to have an opinion.
But the Front Row Motorsports driver readily admits, “I see both sides of it. Drivers are never going to be happy. That’s something I’ve noticed in our driver meetings, they always want something different (and) it’s never good enough. So it’s super frustrating, but I think we all agree that yes, some things do need to be different. Do I have the answer to that? No.”
Different potential changes, such as a softer tire or giving cars more power, are some of the more common ideas given. But those aren’t easy fixes, either.
“I think a softer tire like we ran at Phoenix was great for the sport,” Smith said. “I wish we had that tire everywhere. I don’t know why we don’t. I think adding more power is an easy answer, but I don’t know the nightmare for the manufacturers, if that is one or if it’s easy for them to do. I feel if it was super easy, why haven’t we done it already, or what’s holding NASCAR back from that? I don’t know.”
But NASCAR tries to be all things to everyone, and sometimes that just isn’t feasible.
“(NASCAR has) to deal with 40 drivers,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of different opinions most of the time. There’s typically one opinion where we all agree, but there’s always going to be that group of guys who say, ‘Oh, I don’t agree with that,’ and so it’s just super frustrating. I try to put myself in NASCAR’s shoes. If you try something and, unfortunately, it doesn’t work, then you look like an idiot.”
“I applaud (NASCAR) for at least trying some stuff. I just wish some stuff would stick a little bit more, vs. than just trying one thing, going to the next, and trying that. Let’s try it, and if there’s gains in it and an overall gain, then let’s stick with it.”
One Way Of Potentially Fixing Things: Tougher Penalties
In addition to the issue we saw in the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville, there have been other instances this season in both the Cup and Xfinity Series that appear to have some commonality when it comes to finding common ground when it comes to drivers intentionally wrecking other drivers.
Smith’s take on fixing that is actually pretty simple and full of common sense, namely, a significant penalty that will make offenders think twice about the wrath they may be contemplating or outright wind up doing.
Said Smith, “I think going forward, just to clean up everything as if there’s any type of right hook, whether it’s a road course, to a short track, mile and a half, a superspeedway, one week off — and I think that just clears all that up.”
