At Daytona, The Drivers (And NASCAR) Got What They Deserve
The heat was on at Daytona in a tragic way – a track employee and seven fans
were hit by lightning during a thunderstorm that postponed Daytona qualifying.
Those involved were fortunately treated and released.
And by the time the race was over the heat had become downright ugly with
fans on the backstretch bombarding the cars under yellow with seat cushions and
other mementoes, livid that the Firecracker would end under yellow.
I certainly don’t condone throwing things on the racetrack, but there was a
certain poetic justice to the whole spectacle – the sight of the drivers (and
NASCAR) finally getting what they really deserve.
Mark Martin noted that not restarting the race was NASCAR’s fault, but
reading the tortured justifications of drivers such as himself for finishing
under yellow only shows how much the drivers deserved the reaction, however
excessive, they got from the fans.
There may not have been enough laps to get a green-flag finish, but it was
still exceptionally frustrating end the Firecracker under yellow, especially
when it looked like we’d actually see some passing for the win after a night
when the leaders didn’t do a damned thing but ride. There was some passing up
front, but very little, certainly nowhere near enough for this caliber of
racing.
Rusty Wallace was the biggest hypocrite of all, because he had a run to shoot
down Michael Waltrip and lost that chance with the yellow, and there he was
bemoaning that the sport doesn’t need to restart superspeedway races with two to
go. Yes it does need to restart superspeedway races with two to go should the
need arise, Rusty.
The question one must ask is – do any of these guys know how to drive a
racecar? Elliott Sadler announced the arrival of the bonehead brigade by sending
Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart together, and Stewart got the worst of it. Then
Mikey Waltrip put Johnny Benson into the wall – and briefly into the hospital
with two injured ribs, this atop the injury he suffered at Richmond. Then Jeff
Burton and Dale Jarrett ran out of brains – Jarrett slammed Burton to the grass,
then Burton punted Jarrett into traffic and wiped out a bunch of cars. Then
Geoff Bodine tagged Ryan Newman, cut down his tire, and set off the wreck that
ended this race.
Burton was man
enough to accept blame and also finger Jarrett’s role – "The drivers
cause the wrecks." But he is 100% wrong to then say, "(Jarrett) did
what restrictor plate racing forces you to do…" No it doesn’t, Jeff –
have you ever heard of side drafting? It’s the right way to keep someone from
getting ahead. Blocking is stupidity, and the crashes at Daytona show you why.
It also puts the lie to Rusty Wallace and his assertion about not wanting to
restart the race – a little history is in order here; at Talladega in May 1993
there was a two to go restart; Rusty slammed Mark Martin and two others to the
wall and got nailed himself by Earnhardt, tumbling violently to the stripe.
What was obvious from the Firecracker weekend is what has been obvious since
the start of the season – NASCAR has got to go back to the "Hanford"
roof spoiler package of 2000-1, a package that made the draft so strong that
passing was constant and lead changes prolific, and thus gave drivers enough of
a passing cushion that it cut down enormously on the boneheaded driving. Lower down force
won’t solve the boneheadedness – only a powerful draft can do that.
What was also obvious is that Richard Petty’s 1986 Pocono slam on Tim
Richmond applies today – "I’m a little disturbed now at some people who
call themselves racecar drivers who can’t drive no better than I can."
Jarrett and Jeff Burton have won a combined 46 Winston Cup races (not to mention
their Grand National score sheet); what the hell were they doing driving like
brainless amateurs? You never know what to expect from Geoff Bodine; in the
Firecracker Bobby Allison’s 1981 slam at Charlotte came to mind: "He acts
like he’s got to fool around instead of race." Mikey Waltrip proved over 15
years he doesn’t have talent to justify two Winston Cup wins; sending Johnny
Benson to the hospital sure reminded everyone of that, didn’t it?
But Kurt Busch may be the worst of the lot right now – drilling Robby Gordon
in the pits (he needed a Robby Gordon caution here too, right?), getting black flagged
for running the stop paddle, then reportedly threatening to strike an official
on the radio. Between Daytona and his "I needed a caution" behavior at
The Winston, it all brings to mind his lethal 2000 season. In the Trucks at
Daytona he hooked Rob Morgan into Lyndon Amick and sent them both into Geoff
Bodine’s path; Bodine was launched into the tri-oval fencing, sliced out some
100 feet of it, tumbled, and got hit again by two other trucks (they don’t run
restrictor plates on the Trucks, so you can’t blame that wreck or the others at
Daytona on plates).
Busch got into a few other skirmishes in 2000 and after he made his Winston
Cup debut set off a big crash at Charlotte. He cleaned up his act in 2001 and
looked like one of the ones a driver can instinctively trust with his Bristol
win. Guess we all misjudged him. He may have won a pile of Truck races and has
the first of what looks like numerous Cup wins, but a bonehead is still a
bonehead.
The standard cliché is, "the cars are so bunched up that one little
mistake…" But these wrecks aren’t caused by "one little
mistake," they are caused by boneheadedness. At least Joe Nemechek and Mike
Skinner were man enough to point out that the veteran drivers are driving like
idiots.
Mark Martin said, "I don’t know what the fans want." They want
this:
- for the drivers to stop blaming the rules for their own stupidity, to stop
being scared, to stop whining about how "miserable" restrictor
plate racing is, to shut up and race for the win all race long. Richard
Childress noted after the 2000 Winston 500, "The race fans got the race
they deserve." That race is what all racing is supposed to be like. - for NASCAR to get these cars where they can race for the lead every lap
again – that means returning the roof spoiler – and to get green-flag
finishes to these races, with two to go at least.
Dale Jarrett was angry because the ambulance took as long as it did to get to
his car – that they had to deal with quite a few cars obviously didn’t occur to
him. Ben Blake curtly noted that NASCAR won’t implement a traveling safety team,
as if they could have done any better.
And leave it to Jarrett to rejoin the NASCAR Whiner Line with another
intelligence insulter during qualifying – "…if we can’t qualify,
let’s line ’em up on points and not postpone. I don’t understand why we have to accommodate
the other guys who aren’t normally running with us."
Dale, understand this – the guys who don’t run every race deserve the same
chance to qualify that you get. That is why they postponed qualifying.
"…..but this is not the way to start a 20-week stretch. My crew has been
here all day and now they will be here all day again. That’s rough on a
crew." Too damn bad, Jarrett, it’s rough on everyone, but each team
deserves a shot to qualify.
Crashes galore. A 30-minute red flag to repair the fence. Fire under more
than one car.
Daytona? Nope – Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night.
Whine all you want about the multi-car crashes at Daytona – Friday and
Saturday’s melees were no different from the melees that permeated Stafford’s
Friday night features that same night. Randy LaJoie was involved in an early
crash at Daytona; his godson Ronnie Silk tore open a portion of guardrail late
at Stafford in a wreck involving more than five cars, including most of the
leaders, leaving a truncated SK Modified field of less than a dozen (out of a
starting field of 30) left to finish. Gary Pelletier went out in a firey crash
at the end of the backstretch. Bo Gunning had taken the lead near the end when
the big melee erupted at Lap 42. When it was over Ted Christopher had another SK
win atop his Mod Tour win there on Wednesday.
The Late Models weren’t any different – crashes galore, including a Woody
Pitkat melee where he got hit by another car. The wildest moment came when Bob
Botticello collided with Tom Butler and another car and Mark Atkinson flew over
Botticello’s trunk, and yet finished second in the feature.
It looks like Steve Park just
burned his bridges with DEI.
Slamming the organization amid rumors of the pending end of his employment
there, Park basically said, "You can’t fire me, because I quit." His
comments about being treated as a second-tier driver and being dragged along
at DEI are what one normally hears when a driver is about to be axed. Park has
proclaimed himself a free agent – "Either I’m the driver……or get
somebody else."
Hold
the phone on Andy Petree working on Fords – he now says he has not decided
to run Fords once his merger with Jerry Jones is consummated. He acknowledged
they are considering it, but "I do have a good relationship with GM."
Basically some details have to be worked out before the deal is solidified and
officially launched.
Whenever this deal gets done, it
won’t involve Bobby Hamilton, who "just don’t like change….I like to
stay with established stuff." He said there is one team he’d like to race
with, and that it is a Dodge team – perhaps his old employers Petty Enterprises;
if he can bring Square D sponsorship with him such a deal would be all the more
enticing for both involved.
Finally, A.J. Foyt had his best racing weekend in years. Anthony IV won the
inaugural Infiniti Pro Series event at Kansas (man, the growl of those cars
rocks), then Airton Dare drove A.J.’s #14 to victory in the Kansas 300. Sam
Hornish was ticked over the restart, but it looked pretty obvious that Dare
snookered him fair & square.
What does Tomas Scheckter have to do to win? I haven’t seen this much
misfortune since Mario Andretti’s annual frustrations at Indy. Scheckter is all
but unstoppable on superspeedways in Eddie Cheever’s Nissan cars – so much so it
made this year’s 300 far less competitive than Cheever’s win last year – and yet
something always happens that stops a sure win. That’s three races, maybe more,
he should have won this season.
And yet despite Scheckter’s stink-up of the show, the Kansas 300 still had 14
lead changes, eight more than Daytona. And when the IRL hits Michigan at the end
of July, watch out for a potential new series record for lead changes.