Back and Running (through Weepers) at Near-Empty Fontana
We're back in business, a day later.
Just went green a minute ago after a red flag that lasted 15 hours, 49 minutes and 54 seconds.
It just seemed longer.
Weird atmosphere here.
Well, basically, no one is here. Which perhaps is no surprise, considering most NASCAR fans seem to have jobs and lives ... which might require their attention on a Monday morning.
Even a big chunk of the media is gone. People with plane reservations last night of this morning, I'd guess.
It was a bad crowd on Sunday, because the weather was so miserable ... but today it's just nonexistent. I'd guess maybe 5 percent of the stands across from the start-finish line are occupied. Maybe less. Certainly not more.
It strikes me as something like a makeup baseball game. Moved to a Monday morning late in the season. I mean, this means something ... as much as any of the other 35 races ... but it's hardly being noticed.
f we look at Sunday as little more than a 174-mile exhibition race ... aside from the six guys who fell multiple laps behind because of wrecks or engine problems ... what we have now is a 326-mile, 163-lap event. That is, a really short race, for an oval.
Could be over in two hours.
That is, if the weepers don't rise up and bite someone. Jimmie Johnson was telling Fox just now that he still sees the lines of water in the turns ... the groundwater percolating up from beneath the track and leaking through the seams in the pavement.
The sun is out, but it's not bright, and it's not warm, so the water isn't going to evaporate with any sort of rapidity.
The first 20-25 laps should tell it. If the drivers can get around without slipping and sliding through the weepers ... it could be a quasi-normal race.
Other than it's Monday. And nobody is here.
Comments
5 percent capacity? So NASCAR will announce attendance of 40,000?
Posted by: Bill | February 25, 2008 10:43 AM