What do NASCAR and college field hockey have in common?
A progressive attitude toward improving their respective sports. Bravo!
Let’s start with NASCAR.
NASCAR implemented the double-file restarts beginning with the race at Pocono on Sunday.
That was long overdue.
What it meant was that lead-lap cars started up front in a double-file system with the race leader getting to choose whether to start on the outside or inside. The lapped cars started behind the lead-lap cars. Under the old system, the lead-lap cars started on the outside lane in single file with the lapped cars starting on the inside groove.
This is great for the fans and the drivers.
It creates more racing among the leaders instead of watching them trying to maneuver around lapped cars.
It will virtually eliminate the chances of lapped cars getting back on the lead lap, but the Lucky Dog or free pass has been in place for years to reward the driver leading the lapped cars to return to the lead lap on a caution.
This will be particularly fan-friendly at tracks where it is difficult to pass, like the wide tracks (i.e. Pocono and Michigan) and the road courses.
One thing I love about NASCAR is they don’t wait until the end of a season to implement a dramatic rule change.
They have always put the fans first, which is the way it should be.
And in this economy, it is important to give the fans incentive to keep coming to the track. It isn’t cheap going to a NASCAR Sprint Cup race and it would be easy for them to save their money by not going.
People still need sources of entertainment, but they may seek other sources if racing becomes dull and predictable.
As for field hockey in college next fall, when a free hit is awarded to a team for an infraction, the player who takes the hit can push the ball ahead to herself and continue down the field. It’s called a self-pass.
She doesn’t have to pass it to a teammate.
This will help speed play up and prevent the defense from regrouping.
The player will simply have to stop the ball first before pushing it ahead to herself.
Hey, FIFA, how about it?
How about implementing that for soccer?
In soccer, you must stop the ball after a free kick is awarded and you can’t dribble or push it ahead to yourself once you’ve done so. You or a teammate must take the kick.
But FIFA, the governing body of soccer, feels since they have the world’s most popular sport there’s no reason to make any changes.
They’re wrong.
Something has to be done to create more scoring chances.
A sport I love is becoming more and more difficult to watch because defenses are so organized and sophisticated.
The offsides rule has always been a deterrent to scoring…..
On other topics, did you see Kyle Busch smash that guitar after winning the Nationwide race in Nashville?
The guitar is the special gift given to the winner.
That was in poor taste and totally inexcusable.
Maybe he thought it was funny.
It wasn’t.
It was wrong when The Who smashed their equipment 40 years ago.
It’s completely wasteful.
Hey, don’t you find it amusing that they spent $1.5 billion on the new Yankee Stadium and the bandbox is the laughing stock of major league baseball?
Hadn’t they heard of wind currents?