What do you expect from an organization that fields the most archaic and outdated machines in big time racing? They say you can't argue with success, but face it, NASCAR "stockers" are carbureted antiques that, under the sheet metal, bear little resemblance to the cars fans drive to and from the track.
Jerry Bonkowski, a NASCAR columnist for ESPN.com, last week pointed out another anachronism the racing organization is hanging on to ... scoring by hand. Cars running in Nextel Cup, the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series all carry transponders. A transponder is an electronic device. They also are used in Formula One and the Indy Racing League, with human backup. NASCAR relies on human scorers and uses the electronics for backup.
The way they work is, a centralized device sends a radio wave query to the transponder, asking it its identity and location.
The transponder (for transmitter and responder) answers back. They have been used for a long time in airplanes. When a transponder in an airplane "hears" a radar signal, it answers back with a number that identifies the plane. The number pops up on the radar screen controllers are watching.
In racing, the devices easily indicate the speed, lap times and location of each car.
So, as Bonkowski asks, why the reliance by NASCAR on human scorers?
Without offering details, he cites scoring errors that he says occurred this season already at Dover and Pocono that could have been prevented with reliance on electronic scoring.
He blames the stone-aged procedure for problems with placing cars near the ends of several earlier races, when the cars' positions in the field were "frozen" at the moment the caution flag flew. Bonkowski questions human scorers' ability to accurately determine the instant the caution situation is displayed and the relative positions of the cars at that moment.
Electronics, he says, is the answer.
Maybe so.
There certainly is no question that NASCAR is reactionary in its approach to new technology.
Bonkowski claims that fans are upset with the situations that have occurred related to human-eyed scoring. It remains to be seen whether it will keep them home.