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No rules Showcase event throws the book out the window
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Once a year, NASCAR takes a moment out of its hectic schedule, steps off the merry-go-round and stages an all-out rip snorter for its devoted fans. The Winston, like most any all-star event, is designed to showcase the best of the sport for an adoring public. But if Saturday night's, er, Sunday morning's edition of The Winston did nothing else, it demonstrated that NASCAR has certain institutional advantages not enjoyed by its fellow, um, legitimate sports: Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules! Admittedly, the rules that govern a normal NASCAR event ("normal" is, of course, used loosely when discussing anything that deals with NASCAR) don't and probably shouldn't apply to a race like The Winston. A first-lap accident eliminates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip? Why not flout every other accepted race practice and find a way to reinstall them in the field? As Dale Jarrett said: "The fans came here to see the winners race, and that would have taken out four, five, six of the guys. I think the right thing was done."
As it happens, I agree with Jarrett. The Winston is a special event, one that should be given every chance to sparkle. I'm even willing to overlook the incongruity of NASCAR's decision to retroactively claim that, in fact, The Winston hadn't actually been started. Work with me here: The field took the green flag and the chaos initiated by Harvick occurred on the first lap, bringing out the caution. Under normal conditions, the field slows and takes the yellow at the end of the first, green-flag lap. Regardless the race didn't start, at least not officially ... so why send Gordon, Burton, Harvick and Waltrip to the back of the field for the next start? Details, details. Now, as the entry blank for The Winston that made its way through the press box after NASCAR's interesting application of its "rules" makes clear, NASCAR can do whatever the heck it wants. And why shouldn't it? It is, after all, a fiefdom operated according to the whims of a select few. But -- and this is where NASCAR opens itself to criticism -- when the sanctioning body arbitrarily applies its arbitrary rules, well ... why, for example, nail Tony Stewart and send him to the back of the field for ducking onto pit road to fix a mucked-up radio antennae before the first 30-lap segment? After rewriting the rules for a few other drivers two hours earlier? C'mon, guys, this is supposed to be the showcase event of the year, and after going to the extremes you did for Gordon, Burton, et. al., why penalize another of your marquee drivers for such a silly infraction? Suddenly the rules are sacrosanct? Given the occasion, I'd even be willing to argue Rusty Wallace shouldn't have been penalized for speeding down pit road before the final 10-lap sprint ... eliminate a marquee player from your marquee event? No, it makes just about as much sense as anything else NASCAR did Saturday night ... er, Sunday morning. Stephen Thomas covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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