Why is Juan surprised?
08/04/12 A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, Why is Juan Montoya surprised he is on pole at Pocono after being slow as a turd in practice? NASCAR has been computer generating grids for years and when a driver or sponsor needs some positive PR, they win the pole. Montoya and the Ganassi team have had a horrible year and NASCAR needs to make sure Target does not leave the series. Week in and week out there is a reason for the who is on pole in NASCAR. I think the fans are wising up to NASCAR's managed racing and are leaving in droves. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leading the point standings this year? Why is that? Because they are losing fans at an alarming rate, and even though Dale Jr. is a wanker, they have him up on top. It's so transparent it's disgusting. Mordichai Rosen, LA, California
Dear Mordichai, It's always interesting to hear your perspective on things. Some interesting conspiracy theories, but we have no facts to prove your theory. NASCAR does have transponders in their cars. In fact they have a very sophisticated timing and scoring and officiating system so they do know within 1/1000th second accuracy the lap times of the cars. It is the same scoring system that is used by INDYCAR.
NASCAR does not distribute the full data stream that INDYCAR does, but they do provide electronic scoring results in real time to TV and the teams so they do not need to rely on their stop watches. They only get the basic single line scoring feed so they get lap counts and lap times. The back-end system available to the race officials is much more sophisticated and includes many more timelines around the track to help with the freeze the field officiating.
This does not preclude them from manipulating the results of course as one can always send out whatever data one chooses and if it’s within 1/10th of a second, most people won’t be able to tell and if it’s within 1/30th of a second even video won’t be able to tell. Mark C.