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Just racin' The Man should listen to fans' voice
If race fans need any further proof that NASCAR is woefully* out of touch with what the average fan wants to see, they need look no further than the organization's response to this weekend's meeting of the minds between Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. A refresher: On the last lap of Sunday's Food City 500, Gordon wrecks Stewart and takes his position in fourth and, in the process, sends Stewart all the way back to 25th, thus ruining Stewart's best performance in a month. Hey, that's racin'. Stewart retaliates by spinning Gordon in the pits after the race. Hey, that's racin', too. So, Mike Helton and Gary Nelson summon the drivers to NASCAR's hauler after the race. Fine so far, right? Well -- and this is where things start to get weird -- apparently, Helton and Nelson called Stewart and Gordon into the hauler not to praise them, but to punish them. Now -- and this is what's really weird -- Helton and Nelson were upset not that the two drivers didn't mix it up a bit more (See: Cale Yarborough/Donnie Allison, 1979 Daytona 500), but that they mixed it up at all. That's right, instead of demonstrating to Stewart and Gordon just exactly how a real post-race fight is supposed to go (Helton: Then, Jeff, you run over to his car. ... Nelson: ... Yeah, yeah! And before Tony can even move, you throw a right hand!) Helton and Nelson read the drivers the riot act, which presented fans with arguably the most unpleasant tableau of the whole day: a contrite Tony Stewart apologizing not only to his sponsors, but also to his fans. It's a shame that Gordon doesn't look the slightest bit menacing ... he certainly plays the villain well. Then, on Monday NASCAR went and announced that they had fined Stewart $10,000 and placed him on probation until Aug. 29. The sanctioning body justified its action by citing Section 12-4-A of the rule book, saying Stewart's actions were "detrimental to stock car racing ..." Huh? "Detrimental to stock car racing?" Is that anything like "cool?" It's probably true that the second act of Stewart's post-race performance made Helton and Nelson and his sponsors happy, but race fans? Sure, that's what they want. They want to see Stewart -- their last, best hope for some actual conflict and drama -- totally kiss The Man's ass. No, they don't want see an actual demonstration of honest-to-goodness emotion or anger, they just want to see their favorite driver conduct himself like any good golfer would. Had Dale Earnhardt been on the receiving end of Sunday's mixup, do you imagine there would have been a response of some kind? Obviously, it's lucky that no one was injured as a result of Sunday's disagreement (of course, the odds of a Winston Cup driver being hurt in a pit-road spin at 40 miles per hour do seem fairly slim), but NASCAR's decision makers might be advised to take heed of what one race fan said a few hours after Sunday's race: What took place between Stewart and Gordon was by far the most interesting thing to happen all day. * woeful: a commonly used adjective by your average race fan, as in "Darn it, Darla, that there was one of the most woefully boring races I have ever seen." Stephen Thomas covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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