I recently gathered Kyle Petty, Jimmy Spencer and Larry McReynolds in a room to discuss the state of NASCAR and other key areas. What was supposed to last 30 minutes went an hour as these three did not hold back on their opinions and even joked afterward that they might be getting a call from NASCAR (or someone else) based on their comments.

 

           Each day through Sunday, I’ll post a segment of the conversation here on my blog. That will coincide with a story that will run Sunday that features comments made in this roundtable discussion. Click here to see Wednesday’s segment on the state of the sport where one of them said: “This sport is in serious trouble.’’

 

           While some will not agree with what they say about the sport or certain drivers or some other issue, their voice remains relevant. They’ve seen the inner workings of the sport. Now they view it differently from their TV jobs but they still retain close contacts to those in the garage and they know what’s going on before most do. They know what drivers and others are really saying even if those people won’t say it to the media.

 

           So without further delay, here’s part of the series. Today’s topic: Debris cautions

      

           Kasey Kahne recently questioned NASCAR for throwing a caution for debris, saying it was all about improving the show and bunching the cars up. What would you think if NASCAR just started saying that it would throw cautions to keep the field close.

            SPENCER: NASCAR has done that their whole life. They’ve thrown a caution for no reason sometimes. There was debris on the track that time so they did cover themselves (in regard to Kahne’s complaint). NASCAR should really look at this now. Our era has changed. We can’t have the drivers come out saying that. Why doesn’t NASCAR say, “You know what boys, at the end of this race, 35 laps to go, we’re throwing a mandatory caution. We’re going to call it a competition caution because the racing is very boring. They see it at Chicago. They see it Kansas. They see it at all these race tracks.

 

            The cars have a problem. They just sort of separate themselves. We need to get something to go on because we’re driven by the fans and TV money. To me, is it the right thing for NASCAR to do? I don’t think NASCAR can do that, but then on the other side of it NASCAR is the sanctioning body, they can do what they want to do. But, they did find the thing. They usually find debris when they throw caution. So 99 chances out of 100, they find debris.

 

 

            McREYNOLDS: You know the debris cautions drive me freaking crazy. They do. But it’s a catch-22. The thing that drives me crazy and Darrell (Waltrip) has said it on our broadcast, we used to race and you maybe have to go down the backstraightaway and dodge something because it was sitting in the middle of the race track. They’re kind of in a catch-22. These cars are very fast, and, you know what, they can’t sit there and debate. Is it something that could cause a problem or not while they’re debating and somebody runs over it and cuts a tire and hits the freaking wall, then you always … I do applaud them erring on the side of safety or conservative or whatever you want to call it with cutting a tire down and hitting the wall.

           

            Do we have a lot more debris cautions today than we used to have? Hell, yeah. I don’t know that we used to have a lot of debris cautions unless it was a huge piece of debris.

 

            SPENCER: You’re right. There’s trouble up in turn 4. We see it, don’t worry about it. Keep racing, it’s out of the groove. That’s what they used to tell us, it’s out of the groove.

 

             PETTY: I agree with Larry on that. The problem is when you see this car go down in the corner lap after lap after lap and that splitter drags and drags and drags and drags, then what’s coming off that thing. Used to, we’d look for huge pieces of metal to cut a tire. Well, carbon fiber and some of the stuff they use now, it only takes a sliver about as big as your fingernail. You can’t believe how sharp some of these exotic materials, if that’s what they want to call it, they’re not exotic any more, how sharp some of this stuff and how dangerous some of this stuff really is.

 

              I always look at debris cautions kind of like holding in the NFL. Call it when you want to because they’re going to find something somewhere up out of the groove, down on the apron. They’ll come to you with a piece and say here it is.

 

              SPENCER: This is the thing you have to realize. You will benefit sometimes with the debris caution and you won’t sometimes. What goes around and comes around.

 

              PETTY: Always.

 

              SPENCER: I think as a driver you have to learn that.

 

              Why not have a debris caution within the last fuel window?

             PETTY: But then that takes strategy out.

 

             Fans say they hate fuel-mileage finishes and that it’s wrong. If you do a debris caution in the last fuel window, you don’t have to worry about that. 

 

             PETTY: So fuel-mileage racing is just as much BS and strategy is as much BS as me lining up in front of you in a football game and not calling the proper defense? I have a defense strategy to counter your offense. I have an offensive strategy to counter his fuel mileage. So, if you’re not going to let me call different defenses in football, if I’m just going to have to react to what that team does, that’s one thing. But that’s part of the game of baseball. Why do you think they take a lefty (pitcher) out and put a righty in when a certain batter comes up? It’s called strategy.

 

             “It’s called game strategy. Zone defense. Man-to-man in basketball. Defensive calls. You see the line shift. It’s strategy. It’s not a fuel-mileage race. It’s a strategy race. 

 

             McREYNOLDS: I’m glad you used the football analogy because one analogy I’ve used is that would be like telling a team you can’t run the clock out at the end of the football game.

 

             PETTY: Exactly.

 

             McREYNOLDS: That’s part of what got there. The problem with the guy that you took the quote from (Kahne) was a very frustrated driver that has had a horrendous Chase and he was just involved in two wrecks in five laps.

 

             But what he said has been said by other drivers in the past.

 

            PETTY: It’s never said from a driver that wins the race.

 

            SPENCER: The best one is they accuse you of throwing something out your car window.

 

            Weren’t you were accused of that one year at Michigan

 

            SPENCER: It didn’t come out my car window.

 

            McREYNOLDS: I thought it was Talladega, rollbar padding.

 

           SPENCER: I did throw rollbar padding out one time. But they did accuse me of it one time because Jeff Gordon said, “He threw something out of his car.’’ I didn’t. I ran over it. But did I throw something out my car? Hell yes. We used to put (stuff) underneath our seats all the time and throw (stuff) out. But at that particular time I didn’t throw it out. He really busted me for that.

 

           PETTY: My point on fuel-mileage races are the cautions that happen at the first of the race, not the end of the race. So to throw a caution at the end of the race to negate something that happened at the front of the race, I don’t agree with that. Now you are playing the ultimate referee and you’re saying, OK with 20 to go, we’re just going to reset the field. That’s not racing.

 

           McREYNOLDS: One thing we can’t do, I believe, because we’re too predictable now, we can’t do nothing else to even make us more predictable. We’re too predictable as it is.

 

 

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           Tomorrow’s segment: The gang discusses Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

 

           So what do you think about what the three said about debris cautions? Are they wrong? What’s your take?