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Have it our way NASCAR wants it both ways -- and it's wrongPosted: Monday March 31, 2003 3:10 PM
Brian Vickers was livid Saturday after he got black flagged for passing a car on the left during a late restart in the Busch race. Vickers seemed to have a half-decent excuse: The car in front of him missed a shift and it was either pass him or rear-end him. "The 19 [Chad Blount] missed a shift and it was either me wreck [by] hitting him or try to avoid him," Vickers said. "That's racing. When somebody misses a shift it's a basic maneuver -- you either wreck or be wrecked and we went low to miss him. I never passed him before the start/finish line. It's the front bumper that counts and it was a bad call." NASCAR's defense was that it says in the rule book that you can't pass on the left before the start/finish line. True, perhaps. (I don't have a rule book. They're more closely guarded than Enigma machines were in WWII. You have to join NASCAR to get one.) But what annoys me about this is the double-standard NASCAR employs: It expects Vickers to abide by the letter of the law when they are not. It's like that scene in A Few Good Men, where Tom Cruise is cross-examining Jack Nicholson, asking him if a Marine can exercise judgment and decide which orders are "real" and which ones aren't meant to be obeyed. And Nicholson tells him no, his men always follow his orders. That's NASCAR. They wing it half the time, and then punish drivers for not knowing when they are expected to follow orders and when they are allowed to wing it themselves. Case in point: Sunday, when Matt Kenseth slowed when the yellow came out to let two Fords back on the lead lap. Jeff Gordon, who was behind Kenseth, passed him. Makes sense. You haven't reached the yellow, the guy in front of you slows down, you go around him. But NASCAR put Gordon back behind Kenseth, because of a "gentlemen's agreement" not to race back to the line. And then they let Ricky Rudd and Kurt Busch get their laps back. So they're not bound by this "gentlemen's agreement"? Gordon was miffed. "There's a gentlemen's agreement not to pass for position, but if he chooses to let the guys have a lap back, the gentlemen's agreement is out the door," he said. And I don't blame him for being mad. You can have a rule, written in black and white, or you can have gentlemen's agreements and social mores and decisions made on the fly. (Red-flagging a race late, for instance. And impounding Tony Stewart's car. That's fine, but they're supposedly talking about using it as a crash test dummy in one of those SAFER tests. If it explicitly states anywhere in the rulebook that the penalty for an illegal X measurement is having your car run into a wall in Nebraska I will eat my hat.) But you can't have both.
I asked you about Kurt Busch. Nearly everyone had the same answer -- that he's a little of both. The best answer by far came from Jo of Rock Hill, whose in-depth research and flamboyant writing style rivals that of Brian from Boise (who last week expounded upon Dale Jarrett) and puts mine to shame. Here's a snippet of his thoughts on Busch. (Printing the whole thing would take up way too much space.) "You asked if Kurt Busch is a snotty punk or an articulate hot shot. The answer is somewhere in between. 'Rubberhead' (or as I prefer, 'The Keebler Elf,' certainly is spoiled rotten: he's gotten just about everything in racing handed to him and hasn't spent many years (other than his rookie season) struggling at the back. So he always expects things to be peachy and when they're not, he flies off the handle (case in point: the Atlanta attack on the Roush engine department, followed by his apology the following week, in which he explained that Jack Roush doesn't really know what he's doing with engines and should let the pros do it)." Keebler Elf. That's good stuff. And on it goes. Jo, you and Brian from Boise have a standing invite to write about anything you want, and I'll print it. Just keep it clean. Jo also pointed out that my name was spelled wrong on the site last week. (By the time I checked it was fixed, so it must not have been typo-ed for long.) I'm not Kurt Busch; I refuse to blame my own people, who do a great job. I'll blame the AP. Meanwhile, Todd in Laguna Hills writes: "Why would I want to waste money on a ticket or time watching on Sunday when more often than not the current caution rule allows so-called drivers who really should stick to the Busch series ruin a perfectly good race? Not me not anymore until the race is actually determined by the best cars racing for victory. P.S. Tell NASCAR to get a clue!" OK, Todd. NASCAR, get a clue! Onto the question of the week, from Iran Ausley in West Hills, Calif. "What ever possessed Petty Enterprises to rehire John Andretti. I think he was a good driver at one time but now he either is a back peddler or the equipment that he is being provided is worse, not better as Kyle seems to be saying. You can't build the team by charging to the rear. What's going on?" Iran: First, cool name. Iran Barkley, the boxer, was one bad mutha. He knocked out Thomas Hearns, for crying out loud. (Which brings us to yet another aside. HBO's mini-documentary series Legendary Nights is the best thing on TV now. They do 30-minute features on great fights they've shown in their 30-year-history; the Hearns-Marvin Hagler one was on the other night and was great, as are the other two I've seen: Gerry Cooney-Larry Holmes and Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello.) Anyhoo, there's some old expression about making lemonade when life hands you lemons. Andretti is making lemonade these days. His cars just aren't good. He's not a horrible driver, and neither is Kyle. I thought Kyle was going to be a threat to sneak into the top 20 this year, but the Petty Enterprises cars are clearly struggling. It's a shame, because John and Kyle are good for the sport-good guys, straight shooters, class acts. They just aren't in very good cars. Would hiring someone else to replace John have improved things? Maybe a couple spots. Would bringing Bobby Hamilton in have put them in the top 15? No way.
Let's not even waste any time discussing what you need to win at Talladega. You need to be named Earnhardt is what you need. (And you have to stay out of trouble, but if you start up front and run up front, all the trouble will be behind you.) Bet the farm on Junior. As for my pick last week, I wrote "I'm half-tempted to pick Ryan Newman again, on my theory that sitting on the pole will come in handy at some point." Well, he didn't sit on the pole, but he won. Alas, my pick, Kurt Busch, came in ninth. "We've got to take this car and dissect it -- motor, chassis, every bit of it," Busch said, frothing at the mouth. "I've never driven anything quite like this. We weren't anywhere near where we needed to be [Sunday] and that's not acceptable." You tell 'em, Kurt. It was good for 138 points, which brings me up to 834 for the year, wedged between ninth-place Ricky Craven and 10th-place Kevin Harvick, a fine duo to be wedged betwixt if there ever was one.
Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com.
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