The Silver Crown conundrum.

Much has been said about USAC and their handling of the silver crown series. Recently, it was announced that USAC would hold a meeting to discuss plans for 2008. I haven’t heard anything official from the meeting, and reports are mixed as to what will happen. Here’s my take-

Back in late 2005, when the new generation of pavement silver crown cars was introduced, I had mixed feelings about it. When I heard USAC was going to make changes to the cars to allow them to run bigger tracks, I thought it was a great idea. There aren’t many paved tracks left smaller than a 1.5 miles, and with a change in the cars, it would open up many new venues, add dates, and make the series more relevant.

Little did I know that the changes would create a mutant cross between a stock car and a Silver Crown car. I’ve seen teams even go as far as to add headlight decals to the front bumper of the cars, and that’s disgusting!

USAC’s true intentions were revealed, which were to showcase their drivers at NASCAR events. While I think USAC was doing what they thought was a good move, NASCAR didn’t seem to be a willing dance partner. Many of the pavement races weren’t on NASCAR weekends, and those that were seemed to be an afterthought. Instead of running in front of full grandstands on NASCAR weekends, the crowns would be run on Friday afternoons with few fans in attendance.

I understand that the path of most USAC drivers is toward fenders, and USAC was only trying to help them along the way. However, in doing so, USAC seemed to alienate one of the most traditional, and loyal group of car owners and fans. They also created a huge stockpile of old style pavement cars that suddenly had no place to run.

Fast forward two years later. The car counts for pavement shows haven’t really improved. With so few cars it’s hard to judge if they’re capable of putting on a good show. Personally, I would have always gone to a stand alone race featuring the old style cars. Now, however, I probably would not. The car counts are just too low.

So, here we sit, at the end of 2007, awaiting word on what will happen. Some think that USAC will go back to their old style pavement cars. Others feel that no changes will happen, and some have even suggested combine the old and new style pavement cars. Whatever happens you can be sure someone will be upset.

In a fair world, both design variations would be used. The old style on dirt and paved tracks smaller than one mile, and the new cars on paved tracks over a mile. Obviously some of the teams feel differently. AJ Foyt is selling his Silver Crowns, so is Carl Edwards. Do they know something we don’t? Only time will tell.

My question is if USAC would like to showcase their talented drivers on a bigger track, couldn’t they have used the old style car with some upgrades? I don’t carry an engineering degree, nor was I present when the new generation cars were designed, so maybe upgrading the old style cars was not a viable option.

As for 2008, I know it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they went back to the old style cars. Silver Crowns don’t look good with fenders or headlight decals.