This one’s almost too easy.

Sometimes you take a gentle swipe at NASCAR and it feels as if you’re shooting at a target that’s already wounded.

On other occasions, it offers the same emotional high as hooking trout in the bottom of a wading pool.

Recent safety issues at a Winston Cup race provide one of the latter opportunities.

Making the case is simple, and solving the problem should be even more basic for a sanctioning body that has ample resources to accomplish it.

But then we have to remember whom we’re dealing

with.

Racing is a sport of reaction times. A fraction of a second at the starting line can make all the difference in a drag race. The blink of an eye in the final turn could determine the winner of a stock car showcase at a 2-mile tri-oval.

In the case of a safety worker, that hiccup of time could mean the difference between a driver’s life and death.

Two of the most talented NASCAR drivers of this generation, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon, were involved in wild-looking wrecks at Watkins Glen, N.Y., last weekend.

After each incident, the track’s rescue team took an indefinite, but by all accounts lengthy amount of time in arriving at the scene and/or transporting the drivers to the track’s care center.

Newman was fine after his practice excursion on Friday, as was Gordon after running out of gas and getting nudged into the wall by Kevin Harvick (who had little choice but to move Gordon aside, by the way).

Both stars were miffed, however, and used the post-race bully pulpit to express their frustration.

Other high-profile drivers have publicly acknowledged this recurring situation in recent seasons. Dale Jarrett once refused an ambulance ride after one safety team failed to report to his damaged car in what he deemed an appropriate amount of time.

The Watkins Glen incidents have shed new light on a distinct difference between the hard-edged, stock car mentality of NASCAR and CART, the older of two prominent open-wheel series.

Here’s one area where the champ car folks have a leg

up on the stock car brigade. CART has a safety team that travels (internationally, no less) with its circuit. They’re presumably well trained to deal with any situation that may arise in a racing context, not to mention familiar with the medical records and potential needs of every driver on the circuit.

NASCAR, despite its status as the pre-eminent sanctioning body in America, has no such mechanism. It relies on local fire, rescue and surgical teams to intervene in the event of an emergency.

At some venues, such as Michigan International Speedway, where NASCAR is racing this weekend, that’s not such a bad thing. That well-oiled machine’s fast and sure response was credited with saving the life of Ernie Irvan, who was given a 10 percent chance of survival through the first night after his horrific practice crash there in August 1994.

In other locales, though, there are no guarantees that the medical staff on duty is providing world-class care.

The intent here is not to belittle the fine folks at Watkins Glen. Certainly there are reasonable expectations that it will take a little longer to usher an ambulance and fire trucks around a two-mile road course than to the site of an accident at a closed, oval course.

But their misadventures force any reasonable observer to ask why NASCAR won’t commit to a full-time staff of six to eight doctors, nurses and paramedics whose exclusive job is that critical first response.

NASCAR’s schedule, which runs from early January to mid-November if you include testing, justifies the full-time job description. Also, given its status as one of the leading spectator sports in the world, complete with a $700 million sponsorship deal, NASCAR’s decision to go about its medical business the old-fashioned way seems inexcusable.

It’s doubtful that the recent streak of big-league stock car deaths could have been prevented by anyone’s expertise, and the weekend warriors currently in charge of dangerous situations may have saved the lives of Jerry Nadeau and Steve Park, to name two.

If I were Gordon, Newman, or another driver risking my life each week in this high-profile endeavor, however, I know I’d feel much better knowing that the people supervising my care at an accident scene know me. It might make them step up their pace, if nothing else.

By moving into giant new markets and showing a new affinity for prime-time events, NASCAR demonstrates its desire to get bigger and better with each passing season.

Hiring full-time rescue personnel is an improvement it can’t afford not to make before the start of the 2004 campaign.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor. He can be reached by e-mail at koakes@sunjournal.com.

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