After Charters Comes Relegation

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

I’m willing to admit this might be a knee jerk reaction to a real problem. But I’m starting to think something needs to be done about drivers who hang on and keep fresh talent from a big stage like NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series.

For example, in the English soccer leagues, teams are relegated to lower divisions when they don’t perform successfully in the English Premier League. That’s the highest form of soccer in England.

They can come back but performance needs to be the criteria in a merit based world.

In today’s Daytona 500 there were at least four of the forty starters who haven’t won in five years of racing. At least two haven’t won in 13 years. And one, Michael Waltrip, has only won four times in 31 years. That’s 781 races.

That kind of futility needs to be addressed no matter how many sponsors want him in there. When does good-ol’-boy become an impediment to improving the brand?

We have Charters in NASCAR. Maybe we need some relegation.

Peace.