Down To One Race, And A Look At In-Race Penalties
So now it is down to one.
The Phoenix 500k leads Winston Cup to the final race of the 2002 season, at
Homestead Miami Speedway. And the championships in all three of NASCAR’s big
divisions saw substantial pivots at Phoenix.
First blood was drawn by the Trucks. Kevin Harvick’s photo-finish win largely
obscured that Mike Bliss unexpectedly lost a good slice of his point lead and
has to finish in the top five at Homestead regardless of what Rick Crawford does
to win the title.
Next up was Grand National, and one of the surprise finishes of the year.
Greg Biffle looked a lock to lead wire to wire, but Scott Wimmer came to life in
the final 20 laps; the two dueled for the lead side by side for three straight
laps and Wimmer got the win after Jeff Green smashed the wall. Despite not
winning the race, though, Biffle aced the Grand National title with Homestead
next up.
Ryan Newman won the most poles in modern era rookie history, eclipsing Davey
Allison (the all-time rookie pole record remains that of Dick Hutcherson in
1965, with nine poles atop nine wins).
Now the old-schooler in me feels some regret for this, because the
circumstances of Davey’s rookie season don’t compare with Newman’s. One ought to
remember that Davey won his poles with a team that ran 22 of 29 races and
struggled to get sponsorship in the first quarter of the year. It was also the
era when rookies, as Robert Yates himself stated in 1992, got junk racecars
instead of front-line machinery.
Newman’s race, though, didn’t go quite so well, as he finished 18th while
teammate Rusty Wallace finished second, with the lack of a win clearly gnawing
at him.
The point race got a little closer as Tony Stewart finished behind Mark
Martin and has 89 points of a lead. Only a total collapse at Homestead will stop
Stewart from the title.
Several cars ran out of gas, including Dale Earnhardt Junior and Matt
Kenseth. Kenseth’s situation actually helped him win – for lousy track position
forced the use of two tires instead of four, and two tires proved faster than
four. Kenseth went on to bag his fifth win of the season, an even better season
than his four-win Grand National year of 1999, while Junior wound up finishing
fifth.
So now it all comes down to Homestead. The Trucks have by far the closest
point race, while Winston Cup at least has a slim hope of the point lead
changing hands in the final race, something that has only happened twice, and
neither involved a point lead greater than 30.
The headline doesn’t really reveal anything surprising, but….Toyota Taking
Hard Look Toward Entering NASCAR.1
Lee White, GM of Toyota Racing Development, recently confirmed that a
feasibility study is nearing completion on whether Toyota will enter the
Craftsman Truck Series in 2004. This, though, seems more like a formality, as
Toyota is already building NASCAR-spec engines and has wind tunnel tested Toyota
Truck bodies, and Lee White acknowledged the formality angle when he noted,
"TRD has to treat this like it’s a done deal," given that the company
can’t wait for NASCAR and Toyota management to make a deal first.
I know a lot of fans are not happy with the prospect of a foreign car make
entering NASCAR – especially given the truism of a Jack Roush comment that when
Toyota enters such endeavors it does so all guns blazing, which could beat down
one or more of the other manufacturers to the point of having to quit the
series. Given NASCAR’s success in keeping things equal, though, the sport seems
able to ride out whatever storm ensues from a Toyota entry.
And if/when Toyota comes in, one can expect its rival Honda to want to beat
Toyota in that same arena. One can also expect more than a few teams with what
look like solid factory backing to jump ship – one need remember that Penske
Racing and Ganassi Racing will be Toyota teams in IRL, that Ganassi was Toyota’s
big catch in CART in 2000, and that Cal Wells was a long time Toyota
participant.
You knew this was going to come, but it is still a surprise that it happened
here – the US Army’s sponsorship of the MBV Pontiac is now official, and Jerry
Nadeau will be the driver. The semi-surprise is that it DOES NOT entail the
entire season – only 27 races will carry the Army colors; for the rest of the
year the MBV Pontiac – presently #36, rumored to switch to #01 – will need
another sponsor, perhaps additional money from Valvoline atop the company’s
primary #10 Grand Prix.2
This has been building for years – costs have gotten beyond reason. NASCAR
rules are often criticized for being restrictive, but obviously they are not
restrictive enough. NASCAR has to clamp down harder and start forcing teams to
open their books, because costs will not come down until everyone can see
clearly where they are spending money and where they should not be spending
money.
An interesting thought crosses the mind after seeing the controversial finish
to the Patriots-Bears football game – two late-fourth-quarter calls reversing apparent
Bears gains over the Patriots led to a huge comeback win by the Patriots.
Chicago fans will be saying the Bears got ripped off by the referees, something
fans (and players) of the Oakland Raiders (now fresh off an unexpectedly
thorough trouncing of the Broncos) have been saying since the "Tuck
Rule" call for the Patriots in January 2002’s AFC divisional playoff game,
and which Bills fans perhaps still feel after November 1998’s Flutie Bowl, where
Shawn Jefferson inbounds and end zone pass-interference calls for the Patriots
at Foxboro led to a final-play goal line Drew Bledsoe to Ben Coates TD.
Controversial officiating calls are a way of life in pro sports – from the
Dallas Stars’ crease non-call in the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs onward; among the
memories Patriots fans still hold is Ben Dreith’s widely-derided roughing
penalty against the Patriots for the Raiders in 1976’s playoffs.
In NASCAR, there have been comparatively few such in-race officiating
controversies in the last 30-plus years, and it is perhaps their rarity that
makes it all the more controversial when they do happen.
Of course a controversial officiating call marked the very first NASCAR
Strictly Stock – aka Grand National aka Winston Cup – race in 1949, the
disqualification of apparent winner Glenn Dunaway for illegal modifications to
his car – modifications made for moonshine runner cars, of which the car in
question had been.
As far as in-race calls, as opposed to post race penalties a la the recent
spate of 25-point deductions for cheating, there have been a number of such over
the years, and one of the more famous was a reversal. The 1959 International
Sweepstakes 500 at Daytona – now of course simply the Daytona 500 – was a photo
finish anticipated by literally no one. John Beauchamp was initially declared
the winner, but a 61-hour review of footage finally showed Lee Petty the winner.
Petty did not fare so well the next season at Charlotte, when he, Richard Petty,
Junior Johnson, and several other cars were disqualified for pitting after
running through Charlotte’s unpaved dirt quad-oval infield.
Junior Johnson’s Yellow Banana Ford and Smokey Yunick’s Chevrolet at the 1966
Dixie 400 at Atlanta were controversial calls to be sure, and officiating at the
1968 and ’69 Atlanta 500s became a major issue, with quite a bit of anger by
several drivers over calls made during the race – one, Charlie Glotzbach,
developed a reputation for quitting races in a huff following disputed calls,
such as a one-lap penalty at Rockingham when he made contact with Little Bud
Moore in the pits dodging a loose tire and a similar penalty at Atlanta in ’69.
There was then controversy at Michigan in 1970, when Cale Yarborough was
scored on the lead lap and bested Pete Hamilton in a fierce duel for the win.
NASCAR ruled that Cale made up a lap when Hamilton made four stops under a
mid-race yellow, but car owner Richard petty disputed this: "The cards say
Cale lapped Pete without the pace car lapping Pete. That’s impossible."
Petty quipped the next week that he wanted to get out front early at Riverside
so the scorers all knew who the leader was.
Petty benefited three times in 1971. First he, Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac,
James Hylton, and Benny Parsons were all caught with unapproved racecars. NASCAR
permitted them to start at the back with a smaller restrictor plate than other
cars (this was when the plates were used on all tracks, including short tracks),
and Petty won the race. Next, at Martinsville, he collided with another car and
it jarred his gas cap loose; NASCAR thought about black flagging him but did not
– they did, though, black flag him for a loose gas cap at Darlington in
September. Finally, at Rockingham Petty made up a lap, apparently after the
yellow flag had flown; he won over Buddy Baker and after the race Bobby Allison
said to Baker, "I asked Johnny Bruner how it was they kept coming up with
new rules to help Petty win races."
The next year Petty and Allison went at it at Martinsville’s Old Dominion
500. Petty pitted under a late yellow and came out as the green came out and was
thus almost a lap down. The blue move-over flag was waved, but Petty was not
holding up Allison and raced to stay on the lead lap. Later, after a yellow put
Petty securely on the lead lap, Allison sideswiped a back marker and it
dislodged his gas cap; he was black flagged, but a yellow intervened and Allison
got his cap replaced; he was nonetheless fined afterward, a move Allison
protested.
Cale Yarborough was the beneficiary of several following controversial
in-race calls. At Nashville in July 1974 Cale and Charlie Glotzbach were scored
with a lap they hadn’t run; Bobby Allison protested to NASCAR but while
Glotzbach was reset in his proper spot, no change was made with Cale, and four
days later NASCAR acknowledged a mistake had been made but could not correct it
with the race, and Cale’s win, long since completed; Cale explained his side to
the Nashville crowd in the post race interview and was booed, leading him to
mutter, "I’m in Bobby Allison territory."
Then in 1979 at Nashville Cale collided with J.D. McDuffie, lost a lap, then
lost two more laps in a long pitstop, but was scored on the lead lap at the end.
"Richard Petty won this race and I finished second," Bobby Allison
said. "I don’t know how they had Cale winning."
Nashville’s final year on the Winston Cup schedule saw another controversial
ruling. A mad scramble erupted at the end after a three-car melee. First Neil
Bonnett was declared the winner, then a recheck showed Darrell Waltrip the
winner, a change that was embarrassing to say the least.
Two years earlier, Bristol’s Volunteer 500 saw a controversial ruling, as a
pace-car snafu appeared to help put Darrell Waltrip back on the lead lap;
Waltrip went on to win the race.
In recent years, 1991 was a season where controversial officiating was a
major issue. First came the disqualification of Junior Johnson’s team for an
outsized engine at The Winston. Next came Sears Point – Ricky Rudd punted Davey
Allison out of the lead, but was black flagged and Allison credited with the
win; rough driving has long been a great rarity as an officiating call, though
the use of the five-lap penalty box has not been enormously uncommon over the
years, and Rudd’s howl of protest perhaps reflected this rarity. Making it all
the more curious, the Grand National series, run with a different officiating
crew, did not hesitate to disqualify Dale Earnhardt from Charlotte’s National
300 for a cheap shot punt to Phil Parsons in Turn Four.
The most notorious recent such call came at Daytona in July 1993 and Ken
Schrader’s suspension for an illegal manifold, a suspension reversed on appeal
to the embarrassment of the sanctioning body and the anger of many fans.
The addition of a yellow line rule in 2001 led to an embarrassing botch of a
call in the 2001 Firecracker 400; Tony Stewart’s late black flag for passing
below the yellow line illustrated the untenable nature of the rule, and also led
to one of Stewart’s now-infamous spats with the media.
Given the huge number of races run – 1,000 had been run by the 1971 Ontario
500 – the raw number of such in-race controversies is pretty strong, but is
still a rarity in the sport’s overall picture.
A fight broke out after the Phoenix race between Terry Labonte and Mikey
Waltrip, apparently because Mikey was "running his mouth," according
to a Labonte crewman involved. We hope Mikey got his from it.
Finally, is there any less useful car owner than Jack Roush?
Sure, he’s won the most races this year – nine, a full quarter of the season
– but reading his screeches about the 25-point penalty to Mark Martin insults
the intelligence. He’s threatening to sue Hutcherson-Pagan, Hypercoil (the maker
of the spring that got the points penalty), and try to "embroil NASCAR in a
defense of what they’ve done that will take it out of their court and put it in
a court of my peers."3
The BS nature of Roush’s attack is shown when comparison is made with
25-point penalties to RCR and Bill Davis earlier this year for the same spring
issues – the claim is made that with Davis and Childress "there was intent
and culpability," as if there wasn’t with Roush – given his record for
cheating, one has to be a complete idiot to believe Roush’s alibi.
Roush is one of those team owners that the sport would not suffer in the
least if he just disbanded his teams and quit. Either shut up and race, or just
go away, Jack. Your screeches are long since tiresome.