HAS NASCAR COMPLETELY LOST ITS MARBLES?
Let’s get one thing straight before I get
started here. I am a NASCAR fan. A total NASCAR fan. The kind that wears my
favorite team colors pretty much everyday. Everyone at work knows me as a NASCAR
nut. Having said that, I can’t help but think that the big wigs at NASCAR have
gone completely around the bend.
Jeff Gordon goes to Rockingham and has THE
car to beat. It is quite evident that he is going to run away with the show.
Then for some reason he is never heard from again. He goes from a race
dominating performance to holding on for dear life just to finish 3rd. And what
was the cause of this turn of events. A set screw in the front suspension had
come loose and allowed one of the front weight jackers to work its’ way up. This
caused the car to sink and made it plow like a bulldozer in the turns. He’s
lucky he finished in the top ten let alone the top five.
Well, one other thing this little
malfunction caused when the car sank was to lower the roof below the minimum
height requirements that NASCAR has set in its’ rulebook. Get the gavel! Robbie
Loomis, you are hereby fined $25,000 for letting a piece on your car malfunction
and inadvertently come in a little under the minimum height required. Never mind
the fact that it made your car drive like a station wagon. Cough it up.
Let’s fast forward to Bristol. Thunder
Valley. Home of two of the best races on the NASCAR circuit each and every year.
Racing was fast and furious this last Sunday, just as it usually is. Cars were
beat to death, tempers flared and colorful language was exchanged. Ah yes,
Bristol in the springtime. The only thing that beats Bristol in the springtime
is Bristol on a hot August night but, that’s for another story.
Elliott Sadler listens to his crew chief
and they make a daring decision to forego tires and gas in exchange for track
position and this proves to be absolute genius. Elliott is able to hold off all
challengers and put the Wood Brothers back in Victory Lane where they belong.
Now, in case you didn’t notice, Elliott, in the 21 car, a car driven in the past
by David Pearson, was followed very closely across the line by the number 43
car, a car driven in the past by Richard Petty. How many times did we thrill
during the 70s to see the 21 and the 43 beat and bang on each other trying
desperately to reach the checkers first?
Obviously NASCAR has forgotten those days,
because when they measured John Andretti’s car he was found to be a whopping
half-inch below the minimum height requirement. Good golly Miss Molly, we can’t
have this! Greg Steadman, you are hereby fined $20,000 for this unethical breach
in the rules set down by NASCAR. Obviously Greg and his pit crew were trying to
get the 43 down out of the wind at this aerodynamically challenging track. Get
it low enough and you can draft with the best of them and we all know how
important drafting is at Bristol. You lose the draft at Bristol and you might as
well make that left turn through the pit wall and put it on the hauler because
you’re going straight backwards when the pack just drives off and leaves you.
And why was Johns’ car half an inch too
low. I don’t have the inside scoop on this one but my guess would be 500 laps at
Bristol. I have read in a column put out by a team member of another team that
if their car had been measured they would have been fined also. Their car came
in under the minimum height because the right front had been beat into
submission, mostly because of flying off the banking onto the flat to avoid a
wreck. If Mike Helton had been smart about the whole thing he would have
measured every single car coming off the track and he could have paid for a
brand new house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
These fines are ridiculous because they
smack of diversionary tactics. NASCAR is taking some serious heat on some other
fronts and they can’t be made to look like they are sitting on their hands. So
the refs are throwing the yellow flags on every play and fines are being handed
out. And their fines are the equivalent of chopping Walter Payton’s head off
because his shirt came untucked when someone grabbed him as he ran through the
hole in the line.
Now, why has this gotten me so up in arms?
Because of another fine that was levied at the very same race at Bristol. I’m
sure we all know which fine I’m talking about here. Seems Tony Stewart doesn’t
like door to door racing on the last lap at Bristol. He drove hard into turn
three and drifted up a little bit and Jeff Gordon stuck his nose right in there.
Tony says he didn’t know Jeff was down there but, I’m guessing he was just a
little irritated that Jeff would even think of passing him on the last lap. So
Tony ran Jeff right down on to the apron. Was Jeff going to lift? Hey, race car
drivers, good race car drivers don’t lift. Of course he wasn’t going to lift.
Now, these Winston Cup cars are made to race around on the banking of the cereal
bowl we call Bristol, not down on the flat of the apron. So Jeff’s car did
exactly what it was made to do. It climbed right back up onto the banking. Only
problem with that is that Tony was right there on the line. Well, we all know
what happened next as Tony did a masterful job of not hitting anything and
stumbled home with a 25th place finish.
Well, Tony the Tiger showed that he can’t
just shrug his shoulders and say, "rubbin’s racin’". We all got to see
Tony pull the move of a 10-year-old by diving off the banking, cutting in front
of Texas Terry and giving Jeff a little love tap on pit road, spinning him
completely around. And to make sure Jeff understood he was displeased with him,
Tony communicated his displeasure through the age-old use of sign language. Now,
mind you, this all took place on pit road, after the race was over. A place
where crew members are out congratulating Elliott Sadler for his win. Where
photographers are busy recording for history the return of the Wood Brothers
back to Victory Lane. A place and time where no one is expecting to see spinning
cars and hotrods gunning it down pit road, fleeing the scene of the crime.
Tony, we want to see you and your crew
chief and your car owner in the NASCAR trailer, NOW!
After the little closed door meeting in
the NASCAR trailer it was announced that Tony had been fined $10,000 and placed
on probation until sometime in August. Okay, now correct me if I’m wrong but,
you can get fined $20,000+ for a part on your car giving up the ghost and only
get fined $10,000 for endangering the lives of innocent bystanders on pit road.
I think the scales of justice have been totally knocked off balance by lunacy
and we need to get the Bureau of Standards and Measures in there quick to set
things right. If Tony had actually caused someone to get hit on pit road would
this have warranted the magical $20,000 barrier?
I am a Tony Stewart fan. I have my Tony
hat and a couple of Tony shirts and I still wear them but, make no mistake about
it, I think his little stunt on pit road last week was completely uncalled for
and warranted a hell of lot more than a $10,000 fine. Especially in comparison
to the other fines that NASCAR seems to be handing out lately. My kids and I
race go karts and if one of them pulled a stunt like that on pit road I can
guarantee you that they would receive a little more than a slap on the wrist and
it is this kind of behavior coming from the NASCAR trailer that has me totally
baffled.
We need good rivalries between drivers and
the one that seems to be shaping up between Tony and Jeff is probably what the
sport of stock car racing needs. But we don’t need hotheads doing stupid things
on pit road for younger fans to emulate and we surely don’t need NASCAR to pass
out token fines for such behavior and then slam the door on others because of a
mechanical malfunction.
One last thought to ponder on this issue,
why didn’t NASCAR swing the penalty hammer at Ricky Craven in Las Vegas when he
drove around the track three times, blowing smoke and oil all over the racing
surface, thus causing the crashes of three cars? Hmmmm?