Quote:
Originally posted by Driver
I was thinking about this on the weekend as well. What about close the pits the first lap the safety car comes out and then open it?
Also, isn't this what Champcars do?
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This probably the smartest suggestion of all and the fairest ... it means you are not severely penalised for green stops - you, in fact, may gain track position. It allows different strategies to come into play.
But let's dispel a few myths about the race:
1. SBR chose a risky strategy with the early stop. It worked once (by fluke) with Bright in 98 and they seem to be obsessed with it. Its dumb - you should always go with the conventional 33 lap stints and use the safety cars when they are near your window.
2. The safety cars made no difference to the result at all. Lowndes had to keep filling up the oil (so he HAD to use the SC periods) and, from the smoke billowing out of it at the end, I doubt he could have gone much further without another stop.
Ambrose car was chewing its tires and the during the last stint the car just was not fast enough (because they had to finish).
Bowe's car also developed a problem and he had to back off it a bit too. The SBR cars were shot and Bargs only looked quick because the others were so slow (he was only running 2:11's).
The problem with the Fords is that they had to wheels driven off to stay in touch early.
3. If you look at the times during the last stint, Murphy ran 14 laps under 2:10, including 9 in a row. None of the Fords were in the same ballpark as this - and it's quite likely he could have gone faster still ... he looked to be cruising.
4. In case anyone has forgotton, Murphy led for 100 of the 161 laps, 79 of the last 100 and the entire last 28. He had 33 laps under 2:10 for the race, 14 in the last stint. The next best Ford was Lowndes (18 laps under 2:10 but only 4 in the last stint).
Quite frankly, Murphy could have started that last stint behind all 6 Fords and still won - he had way more pace than any of them.
If Ford fans keep dilluding themselves that they can keep pace with Holdens (when nothing goes wrong for either), then we have no hope for a fair contest.
Apart from Frosty's spin with Tander and Jones getting punted by BPB, the Fords ran as reliably as they could, nothing went wrong and they were superbly driven. Only one Holden ran reliably, nothing went wrong and it was superbly driven ... and we know the result!
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