NASCAR seems snake-bit in California

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FONTANA, Calif. -- Jeff Gordon was close to NASCAR officials on Sunday night when there was vigorous debate about the race-worthiness of the California Speedway track, particularly after several crashes on the wet and weeping asphalt."In NASCAR's defense -- I know it didn't look like the most brilliant idea -- but I give them credit for doing everything they could to get this race in, if they could," Gordon said. "But they couldn't. They just couldn't get it dry."I think they did the fans a favor, by doing their best to get it in. If they could have gotten the track dry, they would have probably started it back at 3 a.m."But I will say the track needs to do a little bit of work (on the seepage). Without that seepage, they probably could have gotten the race in Sunday. I've never seen people wait that long.... I know they were upset. But I remember the look on Mike Helton's face when he had to make the announcement...."NASCAR is balancing a lot of different things. Would you rather be up till 4 a.m. Monday morning ... or risk not having anybody around on Monday afternoon?""We know it might not be the best for the audience, but it really surprised all of us, NASCAR's efforts," Jimmie Johnson said of Sunday night.So what really led to the weekend debacle of the weeping track, where water was seeping up through the asphalt and creating dangerous wet spots that led to several crashes?The official line had something to do with dew points and difficulty in getting the water to evaporate.The jet dryers and emergency rigs whirled around this two-mile track for maybe five hours late Sunday night in a vain attempt to dry the asphalt. In fact the jet dryers apparently ran out of fuel around 2 a.m., and track officials had to send over to the nearby airport for more. At that point, however, NASCAR executives called it a night.However the real problem apparently was created Friday, when, in a rush to dry the track, someone manning a jet dryer turned the heat up too high and burned off the protective polymer asphalt sealer.Whether simply slathering more sealer down will solve the problem or if a bigger engineering project is needed, one thing again seems clear now -- there is something fundamentally flawed about the dynamics of California Speedway. In the four years since a second Cup date was added, crowds have been too thin, despite mammoth marketing and promotional efforts.Solving the enigma that California Speedway has become will take more than just bulldozers and hydraulic engineers. It will take more than just some better weather. Something here isn't working.One journalist questioned the track's report of 36,000 fans for Saturday's Truck race, saying that the only way that many were here was if there were 12,000 women pregnant with twins.Sunday's crowd was reported by the track at 70,000, perhaps a bit on the high side, too. Yesterday's crowd was reported at 25,000, also quite generous.Maybe the France family wants this place to be something it isn't. Just as Chicagoland Speedway isn't Chicago, Fontana isn't Hollywood. Is that part of the problem -- image?Is the target audience here really well defined?Actually, maybe Gillian Zucker, the track president, is indeed going down the right paths. Much of the talk at Hollywood's Kodak Theater surrounding Sunday's night Oscars actually concerned this NASCAR race and how it might affect TV ratings for the Academy Awards. Clearly there is a dynamic there, which Zucker has been working hard at exploiting.However, if NASCAR had momentum going for it after Daytona's Speedweeks, it may well have stalled out here, in debacle and farce.Clearly there are some technical issues to be resolved with this track before NASCAR returns. Such severe weeping isn't good business. If the asphalt sealer was all that has protected this surface the past few years from such a worst-case scenario, then it's time to bring out the bulldozers and put in some French drains, or something to cure the wet.On Sunday the race was first delayed 2-1/2 hours from its scheduled start because of rain. Then, after 87 fitful laps, NASCAR spent nearly five hours trying to get the track dry enough for racing to resume. But at 2 a.m., NASCAR abruptly postponed the race until later Monday.Sunday's problems forced every team to change plans, some minor changes, some major. Crews were already having to haul out separate cars for Las Vegas. Now teams have lost more than a full day, on both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide sides. And NASCAR missed a golden opportunity to mix it up with cross-promotions at the Sunday night round of partying after the Oscar ceremonies."We missed a couple of Oscar parties Sunday night, and I'm missing some snowboarding in Colorado right now," Gordon said."But the important thing is we're trying to get our guys to Vegas earlier now. These guys are working on very little sleep....""It seems like we've been here a month," Johnson said wearily. "When I woke up this morning and saw the sun I said 'Heck, yes. We're going racing.' I can only imagine those crew guys coming in at 6 a.m. and not leaving till midnight. In this sport you get used to rain delays. But it is hard to turn your brain on and off like that." (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)