Sofa Sideline: Marlin and Labonte – Caught Between ‘The Rock and a Hard Place’

With seven laps to go, Matt Kenseth passed
Sterling Marlin and Bobby Labonte for the lead and held on to become the winner
of the Subway 400. But, as usual, the race ended not without its share of
controversy.

The #17 car was dominant, and more the
likely would have been the winner, but the race still remains a subject of
discussion given the fact that the race finished under caution. Sterling Marlin
wound up second, with Bobby Labonte third. The final outcome may have been
different had the race finished under green. Kenseth made the pass when Marlin
and Labonte nearly wrecked on turns three and four after slipping in some oil on
the track laid down when Kenny Schrader blew his engine on lap 384.

On lap 385 Robby Gordon spins out on the
backstretch when he got tangled up with Jimmie Johnson. No caution was thrown as
Gordon was able to get his car restarted and back on the track. Apparently
Gordon was told to pit by NASCAR, but that did not happen. Debris from Gordon’s
right rear tire and sheet metal finally caused the yellow to be thrown on lap
389. The race ended under caution on lap 393.

One kept wondering why the caution was not
thrown earlier – you know oil on the track, a spin out on the backstretch –
the key word "safety" comes to mind.

NASCAR’s Mike Helton defended the
decision not to throw the red flag.

"Ever since we started using red
flags, we said that if there were enough time when the last caution came out, we
would red-flag the race in order to finish under green," Helton said.
"Today’s case was the caution came out at the completion of lap 389. And
when the caution came out, the leaders were beyond the point of being able to be
picked up by the pace car."

"So in essence, there wasn’t enough
time when this last caution came out, with the circumstances around it, and the
collection of the leader by the pace car, and even with just a quickie pit stop,
there wasn’t enough time to red flag the race and finish under green. So we
just went ahead and finished it the way we finished it. We were one lap short of
being able to red flag it."

Okay – so if that’s the case, why wasn’t
the yellow thrown earlier with oil on the track, with Robby Gordon spinning out…..?????

Regardless, a rule that is consistent
needs to be put in place, and the NASCAR officials in charge of making these
arbitrary decisions need to "get their fingers out of the pie" and
play by the rules. If this does not happen, then how can fans, teams, drivers,
anyone involved feel that the race is without prejudice.

In the words of Sterling Marlin:

"Just don’t open pit road. The deal
is, if a caution comes out with three or four to go, just close pit road, so you
can’t pit and put on fresh tires. I think all the drivers would like them to
have some firm rule, that they would stop it with five to go or three to go….or
get out and run around the car, or do something, "Marlin said. "We
need to know what we’re going to do. So they need to figure something
out."

From Bobby Labonte:

"Like we talked earlier this morning,
a lot of racing series have gone to the ‘green, white, checker’ finish. I
don’t say I approve of that, because I don’t like that a lot of times,
because I’m probably not that good in three laps. But at least if they’d say
"It’s going to be green-white-checkered, or it’s not or its not, we’re
just going to finish the race under yellow. But if it was just a consistent
deal, instead of one time this way and the next time you don’t know, it would
be better.

There you have it, solves the problem –
just say one way or the other and stick too it!

And then we come to the fact that the
number 17 car did not pass post-race inspection after not meeting the minimum
height requirements. NASCAR said the car was ¼ inch too low. According to
NASCAR officials the win would stand and more than likely a $25,000 fine would
be assessed.

The argument has been made that being too
low is sometimes an advantage, but on a track like Rockingham, not likely. Is
that supposed to make it all right?

Friends have tried to explain that the
springs sometimes compress during the race resulting in the car not meeting
height requirements – no big deal. Well, if that’s the case, they why any
fine at all?

This situation has occurred on more than
one occasion and in my mind there is only one solution – take away the win and
points. If you bend the rules, you pay the price. It’s as simple as that.

Up until the last five laps, I enjoyed the
race in Rockingham.

Tony Stewart
– finished a solid fourth and moved up 21 positions in the points (the same as
his teammate). The two advanced more than anyone else in the Series.

Ricky Craven
— pole sitter, finished fifth. Played his cards by not pitting during the last
pit stop, and as we saw, it didn’t work out too bad for him.

Jeff Burton
– quietly picked his way up through the field and finished sixth.

Jeff Gordon
– finished seventh, after making his way from the rear of the pack not once,
but twice. The problem here was that on lap 157 he hit Casey Atwood and sending
him into the wall and collecting Kyle Petty and Buckshot Jones in the process.
Five other cars had slight damage; Schrader, Mayfield, Robby Gordon, Spencer and
Jeff Burton. So what’s with this new, aggressive Jeff Gordon where he seems to
just "take out" anyone who is in his way? Or is the attitude, hey, I’m
the champ – you have to move. Regardless, it always seems to be the ‘other
guy’s’ fault. It’s getting old…already…

Robby Gordon
– two for two!

Other News:

Congratulations go out to Jason Keller for
his first career victory at North Carolina Speedway in the Busch Series race on
Saturday. As a result, Keller is now in first place in the point standings –
30 points ahead of teammate Scott Riggs. Suddenly Jason Keller is no longer that
quiet, consistent guy in the background – he’s now the force to be reckoned
with!

Las Vegas is the next stop for the Winston
Cup series. Look for Jeff Gordon to do well. Also, Junior had a good stretch
here last time, until a late race pit road penalty cost him a lap. I was in
attendance and remember him flying around that track, so don’t be surprised if
you see him in victory lane.

That’s it for now!