ARCA Needs More Competiveness

 

            On August 11, 2023, the ARCA Menards Series raced at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a .688-mile racetrack that takes between 23 and 24 seconds to complete a lap. By the time the leader had crossed the start/finish line for the tenth lap there were already five cards one lap down. These cars were lapping over two seconds slower than the leader and there were more cars that would be a lap down shortly after. This is a problem in a field that consisted of only 24 cars because it shows that most of the cars that show up have no chance of winning.

            Field fillers have been a part of stock car racing for most of the history of the sport, but this is normally in a field that contains 40 or more cars. In a 24-car field, there should not be over ten cars a lap down by the 20^th lap like there were during this race because it shows that equipment is the biggest factor in deciding what drivers are the most successful in this series. This leads to the drivers who are able to secure the best cars because of their funding sources being the ones who will be most successful in the series and potentially more talented drivers in the field not being able to show their talents because their equipment is so inferior to the drivers that are winning every week.

            ARCA is a development series, and having this much of a difference in equipment will cause people to make the wrong decisions when promoting drivers to the higher levels of NASCAR. There is also a safety issue at play. All racing series have a minimum speed that cars need to make to stay on the track because large differences in velocity during a collision can lead to injurious or fatal consequences. While these cars are making the minimum speed, they are getting in the way and can cause issues with the race leaders passing them that could end their race or have far more grave consequences. This also leads to less people showing up for these races because they believe that there is no way they could be as good as the teams who are dominating the series. As much as this is a development series for drivers, it should also be a development series for team owners.