Friday, September 03, 2004
Deiny holds on to perilous points lead
Deiny is leading the points at both the Motor Mile Speedway and Ace Speedway in Burlington, N.C. That's put him atop the Atlantic Region standings for the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Racing Series, but at this point, it's a rather perilous perch. What NASCAR has done is figure out a way that the performances of drivers at tracks in eight different national regions can be compared. The drivers can also be measured against others in their region. The means of doing so is called the Competition Performance Index.
At the moment, Deiny is an eyebrow ahead of Lonesome Pine points leader Steve Blackburn for first in the region, 0.8204 to .08138. Deiny has won eight of 18 at Motor Mile, and another five at Ace; Blackburn has won 14 of 19 at Lonesome Pine.
Maybe backing its guy's regional title quest for all it's worth, Lonesome Pine has added another race this weekend.
"Or maybe they just want to have another race for their fans," Deiny said.
How generous.
More is not better for Deiny in this case.
"He's won more races than I have, but not against the same level of competition," Deiny said.
Also, not against the same size field. Lonesome Pine would consider 15 a real good car count for a race; Motor Mile can count on as many as 30 or more.
"That's why I think each driver should be rated by NASCAR, so you can get a better idea of the comparisons," Deiny said.
It must be infuriating for drivers and owners to put up with the shifting terrain of NASCAR rules. Deiny, for example, was planning on trying to win two regions this summer. That's why he's been running at Ace.
"At the start of the year, Ace and Motor Mile were in two different regions," Deiny said. "Then, about four races into the season, NASCAR moved Ace to our region. The owner of my Ace car didn't like that too much because now he has no chance to win the region. If we were in the other region, I'd have a chance to win it the way things stand now."
No word on how Deiny and his guys felt about getting rooked out of the chance to win two regions. He's a gentleman, also smart, so he does not engage in public barbecues of NASCAR.
"Nobody had ever won two regions," he said. "You have to aim high. That's why we wanted to try it."
Between the two tracks, Deiny has won 13 races and has a combined 29 top-five finishes. Too bad that's not worth any more to him.
"There's a lot of pressure on us at this point," he said. "We figure we're going to have to win one of the next three races at Motor Mile and finish in the top five in the other two to have a shot at the region."
Should that shot find the mark and Deiny does win the region, then he'll cash a $45,000 bonus check from NASCAR over and above his local winnings. Capturing the region would make him eligible for the $120,000 winner's share for being the highest-scoring driver in the country and thus the national champion.
Deiny figures that quest is a long shot at best, those dreams probably dashed by a couple of early-season wrecks. The accidents weren't his fault, he doesn't think, which makes it harder to take.
"Now if I win the next three races, then I'd like to see what happens nationally," he said. "That could be pretty cool."
One more long shot, but like the guy says, you have to aim high.
