Newman Captures Season Opener

Well, the first race of the 2001 ARCA RE/MAX season is over, and Ryan Newman took the checkered flag for his first victory of the season and 4th out of 6 ARCA races in his career. Now, it seems, young Ryan is being given a Winston Cup ride by his boss, Roger Penske. Is he too young and inexperienced? Can he handle the increased speed of a WC car over the ARCA machines?

In answer to the first question, yes he's young, and yes he's inexperienced, but he also has driven against some crafty veterans and learned from them. I have the feeling that he'll do the same when he gets into a Cup car. I don't think Ryan will be trying to bump Dale Earnhardt coming out of turn 4 at Talledega or anything like that. I think he'll hang in the middle of the pack and learn. If he does, he should do well, since he's a fast learner. Maybe in two or three seasons, he'll be championship material. Until then, he's a rookie and luckily for Ryan, he knows it.

The second question is one that really confused me when I started checking the stats. What faster speeds in the Winston Cup cars? Bill Elliott was almost 4 mph slower than the pole sitter for the ARCA race, Kirk Shelmerdine, and in fact the first 18 positions for the Discount Auto Parts 200 were faster than the Daytona 500 polesitter. So much for too much speed.

Restrictor plate racing has taken Winston Cup down to a level of speed that the ARCA cars are running, and while it does give more equal racing, it lacks the excitement of the past. Now, if you want to see speed, head for an ARCA race near you. Overall, it's getting to be more exciting than NASCAR, and that's what the fans want in a race, excitement.

It seems to me that until NASCAR gets rid of this artificial equality that they've put in with restrictor plates, wind tunnel tests, and the like, the racing there will be less than spectacular. Why is it that the speeds 20 years ago were faster than today? Isn't the idea of racing to see who can go the fastest? So what if a Dodge is more aerodynamic than a Ford and goes faster. Isn't that the whole idea. It seems to me that ARCA hasn't forgotten this concept, and wants speed. If I want equality, I'll go to IROC, that's true equality. Until NASCAR realizes this, I'll stick with the little guys who aren't earning the big bucks. I'll stick with ARCA.

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