Posted on 05/09/2003 1:24:20 PM PDT by TomB
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Controlled chaos, NASCAR style.
The commotion in the NASCAR control tower begins 30 minutes before the race. Phones are ringing, radios tested, replay monitors checked and rechecked.
When all the equipment is working, the command is given for the national anthem to begin. Shortly thereafter, it's time to race.
"Tower to flag stand," Winston Cup director John Darby radios down below him. "Let's rock and roll, boys."
From a small booth high above the race track, NASCAR's leaders settle in to call the race. There are six voices often yelling over one another, an occasional moment of confusion, and a whole lot of weather checks.
After a string of controversial calls last month opened NASCAR to criticism over its varying enforcement of the rule book, the sanctioning body opened its control tower to The Associated Press at Richmond International Raceway for a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how a race is called.
On this night, the notion of NASCAR president Mike Helton commanding the race like a dictator was false. So was the idea of the competition committee sitting around in a circle picking favorites.
Instead, there were nine officials with varying responsibilities. At the center is the "router," a monitor with access to every television camera on the track and capabilities to replay everything frame by frame.
Mike Phillips dispatches the emergency vehicles and cleanup trucks, and Steve O'Donnell is race control liaison. Darby has an open line of communication to the 43 officials on pit road and reviews all technical aspects of the race.
When one competitor complains about another's driving, Darby immediately calls for a replay.
"I need a wider angle," Darby shouts when the image on the portable DVD player in front of him doesn't yield enough information.
Moments later he gets a second view and decides Kevin Harvick did not pass Matt Kenseth to the left on a restart.
"Nope, there was nothing wrong with that pass," he said, quickly returning his focus to the track.
David Hoots is the voice of the control tower. He's one of the first to arrive, settling in to individually radio every NASCAR official in an equipment check.
He's the voice heard on NASCAR scanner frequency, calling for the yellow flag during cautions -- "Put it out," he calls as the flag waves and the caution lights begin blinking. He also relays all messages to the teams.
Hoots also keeps a keen watch over the cars, asking Dale Earnhardt Jr. to move up near Ryan Newman's bumper so he and Darby can monitor a leak coming out of Newman's Dodge from Earnhardt's in-car camera.
A scorer sits next to Hoots, marking down every car number as it crosses the line on every single lap without ever taking her eyes off the track.
Kevin Triplett, the outgoing director of business operations, is another set of eyes and ears in the booth. He also randomly times cars with a stopwatch as they travel down pit road looking for speeders.
Twice he catches the same car on consecutive trips.
"Tell him if he speeds one more time, we're going to hold him a lap," someone shouts.
Then there's Helton, who has final say over everything.
On this night, he was focused on an approaching storm with the weather radar on the DVD player in front of him and a local sheriff behind him giving constant updates on the rain.
"Is (the storm) behind us?" someone asks after a light rain subsides.
"No, it's right over us and its great-grandaddy is 30 miles behind it," Helton replied.
Rarely are they all watching the same thing at the same time. After an accident, Helton is watching the monitors to see how a driver has responded.
"He hit pretty good, Mike, as quickly as you can move," Helton tells Phillips, calling for quick ambulance response to Steve Park's accident. "He's moving, he's moving."
There's confusion when driver Casey Mears pits before he was allowed to. Hoots and Darby call him back in for a penalty, but the message apparently does not reach the crew.
"We need to find out how that happened," Triplett barks. "Who is the official in that pit?"
Hoots gets the message delivered and Mears falls back into the pack as punishment.
"The 41 car is where he needs to be," Hoots says.
They are race fans -- Darby gives a hearty laugh when Bill Elliott uses a slide to get past Jeff Gordon for the lead -- and spend the night charting pit strategies. Every competitor is referred to by his car number.
The only controversy comes near the end. When Helton sees a storm "the size of Utah" quickly closing in, the officials grow nervous about rain washing out the finish.
With 20 laps to go, it gets harried. A caution comes out and the officials are eager to accelerate the cleanup process and resume the race.
"Let's go, let's get those trucks off the track," they press.
With rain falling, another caution comes out with six laps to go. Hoots can't get the pace car out before the field passes and everyone starts yelling. Two phones are ringing and Darby juggles them both.
Helton tries to slow down the pace car to give the trucks more time to clean up without losing laps. Compounding the problem, the wreck is in the center of the track with little room to squeeze the cars through.
"Bring them down pit road," Helton demands. "Then slowly bring them around the back. Stop them back there. Let's go guys, I don't want them sitting there with their engines running. Let's go. Let's go."
But by the time the track is clean, the rain is falling harder. Helton tries to wait it out.
When they "lose the track" -- rain soaks it and makes conditions to dangerous to resume -- Helton dejectedly sits back.
"Let's go ahead and unplug it," he says.
The headsets come off, the cars drive toward the garage, and NASCAR calls it a night on another race.
First, the "journalist" seems to be confused by simple technology. I sincerely doubt that the race officials were watching "DVD players" to get current information. They probably all had LCD screens connected up to a central board that could connect with replays, live cams and weather info. (OOOOOH, that'd be nice to have on raceday :) )
Second:
I'm sorry, but you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. I get a headache just thinking about it.
UNLESS, they were watching the previous week's race.
;-)
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