Of late, there has been discussion run rampant on the Message Forum about bumping and banging and questionable driving tactics that have seemed to proliferate our sport. Thursday morning at the Magic Mile, I asked the six champions, current and past of the Whelen Modified Tour three questions. Maybe this will give us all a little insight.

Question 1: "We’ve seen an increase in the amount of aggressive driving techniques including bump and run, slide jobs, wheel shots and pinching. How do you feel about these techniques?"

Jamie Tomaino: "The techniques are really not racing when you’ve got to bang somebody. We used to go around people when you went past someone you didn’t run into them. Unfortunately, one of the key factors is every car is basically top-notch equipment. Every motor is basically top-notch equipment. We all basically have got IROC cars. The cars are very, very equal. There used to be a difference in the cars. Because the cars are more equal today, that makes the aggressive driving even worse, because it’s so hard to pass."

"In the past, when you went to Thompson, I could never remember Richie Evans giving someone a slide job and just keeping his foot in it until the other guy ran right into the wall. For some reason back in the 80’s and early 90’s we didn’t see this type of driving. For whatever reason, why it’s happening now, a couple of guys are getting away with it and NASCAR’s not doing anything. It’s just going to continue until there is actually something done."

Rick Fuller: "I think these guys need to start driving each other with a little bit more respect."

Todd Szegedy: "You’re not kidding about that. If they are getting done to you it’s not fun. I tend not to do that. I’d rather not have it be done."

"The competition is getting so tight and so tough that to pass you’re going to rub. You don’t have a car that’s a lot faster than the other guy to get by them in one shot. I don’t think we’re meaning to be bumping and pushing each other. Everybody’s so equally matched. You’ve got fifteen cars that can win at any given time."

"In the beginning of the races it is way too aggressive. Instead of guys just getting single file and waiting until their cars come to them, they’re GOING! I think that’s where there is a problem."

Jerry Marquis: "I guess this is the "New Wave". There’s aggressive driving and then there’s Enduro driving. It has a tendency to (expletive deleted) people off. It’s one of those things you’re going to have to deal with because that the way that I feel the younger generation has been brought up."

Tony Hirschman: "I try not to do it. I expect the same [from others]. If I don’t do it to somebody, I shouldn’t be getting it. But we’ve been getting it. Guys are dishing it out. There’s only a handful of guys that are doing it. There’s no need for that. If they want to slide and stuff like that they should be dirt racing."

Mike Stefanik: "It makes me feel glad that my career is closer to the end than the beginning. It used to be not like this. I guess we’re in the entertainment business because there’s not a heck of a lot of racing involved in those types of maneuvers. There’s still plenty of guys out there that are very enjoyable to race with and then there are some that you just cringe when they’re behind you or around you. Its’ always kind of been like that but it seems as though it has gone to the next level."

Question 2: "What do you think should be done about it?"

Jamie Tomaino: "They should be pulled into the pits. Sat there for four or five laps, enough to take them out of the race completely. No Lucky Dog stuff. If you get a penalty, there should be no [free pass] of any sort, no matter what. That’s the only way the guys are going to learn."

Rick Fuller: "It’s kind of a tough question because I firmly believe that the race shouldn’t be dictated from the tower [by the race director]."

Todd Szegedy: "If people start getting wrecked because of this, the penalties are going to have to be stiffer. Kind of like what they did to Ted last week. What happened to Ted probably wasn’t his fault, that time. They’re probably going to have to start parking cars. If they’d park cars for two or three laps and it takes them the whole race to get their laps back, then maybe they’ll think twice about hitting people and smashing people and slide jobbing them at the beginning of the race."

Jerry Marquis: "NASCAR’s got to do something about it. They’re the ones that are referees. They need to do something about it. If they don’t handle it, then the drivers are going to start handling it. And what’s going to happen? You’ll have a bunch of wrecked racecars."

Tony Hirschman: "Start penalizing people for doing this stuff. Nothing is being done."

Mike Stefanik: "Obviously its’ got to start right at the top. Its’ got to start on Sunday [at the NEXTEL Cup level]. The big man has got to start making some calls. Not sending the drivers that just can catch a car and shove them out of the way to Victory Lane. They need to address it on Sunday and then I think there would be a trickle down affect for all of the series and all of racing. If they don’t do anything about it on Sunday, it seems very obvious that it’s just going to continue."

Mike was the only driver that short-circuited my third question. It shows the kind of grasp that he has of the subject. It also shows the wisdom and patience he has for the interview process.

Question 3: "NASCAR hasn’t enforced this at the national level, even in their Cup Series. What would make anyone feel that the sanctioning body would enforce things like this any differently on the regional level?"

Jamie Tomaino: "Until they do it at the NEXTEL Cup level, which they didn’t, when Tony Stewart tried to kill Matt Kenseth at the Daytona 500, in front of millions and millions of people, I mean people who don’t even watch racing said "Look at that, he could have just killed that guy!" nothing was done at all. So until they do something to the kingpins, they sure aren’t going to bug us Modified guys."

Rick Fuller: "I disagree. I think NASCAR has many times been forced to on the national level. Unfortunately, I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum where the tower does absolutely nothing, which I don’t think is a bad idea. Then I’ve seen where the tower runs the race and dictates the outcome. They’re in territories where they don’t belong. They think they saw something and it never happened. I don’t believe that a lot of these officials, with all due respect, ever sat behind the wheel of a racecar. They can think they saw whatever they want but it might not have happened. That’s why it’s a bad idea for them to dictate the outcome."

"It’s really simple. You drive somebody the way that you want to get driven. A lot of these guys don’t want to drive nice. They don’t play nice with others."

Todd Szegedy: "I think there should be a penalty for weaving and blocking on the straightaway. Tracks like here [New Hampshire] and at the higher level like Daytona and Talladega, the weaving and swerving and blocking, I think blocking is wrong in racing. If you want to block and go to the inside of the track, then you have to make the corner on the inside. [Szegedy’s thoughts come from his background in go kart racing where blocking rules are enforced.] There’s no weaving to try breaking a draft. That’s how the big accidents happen here and at Daytona and Talladega [for the Cup competitors]."

Jerry Marquis: "They’re probably not going to. It shows you right there. If that’s what NASCAR wants to portray or [demonstrate] how their shows are run in that fashion. I’m sure they must have thought about it."

Tony Hirschman: "They preach at the national level about all of this stuff. But then they let this go, like the bump and run there. You got these other guys watch that on TV and they think that if they get away with it there, it’s fine. We’re a lesser division and we can do it or do it more or harder and get away with it. And they are getting away with it."

"You’re up at this level here there should be no excuses. You’ve raced enough years to get to this point. You’re not a beginner. Even if you’re a rookie, you’ve been running around on racetracks for quite a few years before you got here and you should be all over with that stuff. There’s no need for it."

I decided to ask these questions in the wake of a brief interview with Tony Hirschman after Modified Mania. At that event I was also asked some very pointed questions about this subject in the press box. As if I was supposed to have all of the answers.

My feelings on the subject matter haven’t changed. As long as the drivers in NASCAR’s national series are allowed to beat and bang, no one should expect any driver to behave differently in any other NASCAR racing series. That includes any touring division and the weekly series.

When did this all go wrong? When did the balance get upset in the enforcement of aggressive driving tactics? August 26th 1999.

Where were you when Dale Earnhardt spun Terry Labonte to win the Goody’s 500 on the last lap? Why didn’t NASCAR throw the black flag over Earnhardt’s car when it came to the stripe like they did to Ricky Rudd on June 9th of 1991 in Sonoma? My guess is that they couldn’t stand to have Jimmy Spencer in Victory Lane.

That was when the gates were crashed. That’s when racing became "entertainment". That’s the day stockcar racing, the way we knew it, began to die.

Had there been controversial calls before that? You bet. There have been more controversial calls in NASCAR racing than frustrated fans in South Carolina since the Southern 500 was taken away from Darlington.

Controversy is fine. Wrecking cars is expensive. At the Cup level, racecars are improved at such a rate that the loss of a car is not all that significant. New racecars are always in the pipeline as the next greatest thing is always being built. It is a part of their budgets. Some of the top Cup teams will debut more new cars in one season than most Modified teams will own in their existence.

At the Whelen Modified Tour level, the same can’t be said. Although there are some teams with cubic dollars that have multiple cars, that is a rarity. The cost of a single chassis repair could be the difference between whether a team continues to race at all.

NASCAR has told several of the WMT car owners, "This is your golf game." In other words this is supposed to be a hobby for them. I wonder how the folks in Daytona would feel if someone came up to them while they were playing golf and destroyed a few of their clubs.

Big Bertha driver, $399,
New front clip, $1300,
enjoying your favorite hobby, priceless.

TG Racing had to skip Modified Mania because of the damage they suffered at Martinsville. This is a team that had the resources to buy another chassis, they ran out of time. In fact, they made it to Loudon with a new car for Rob Summers, sans the paint.

Even that wouldn’t have happened were it not for L.W. Miller. Chassis Dynamics didn’t have a car to sell. L.W. Miller had ordered a car and allowed the TG team to take that one.

The single car that Tony Hirschman has campaigned for the Kehley’s to two consecutive Whelen Modified Tour crowns hadn’t even been clipped until this week. That car had been the same for three and a half years. The team wasn’t finished with the repair until after midnight Wednesday night.

Are we entertainment? You bet. Is this entertaining? That depends on who is asked. Is it expensive? It is more expensive than most people will ever realize. We do need to stop wrecking cars for the entertainment value. That’s the bottom line.