My Two Cents Worth for 9/22/04

By Todd Berger, LGR Staff Correspondent

I am usually excited about the Dover races, especially when I think back to the classic Monster Mile races of the late 80’s and early 90’s.  I forget that this is not the Dover track of old. Since it was concreted, Dover lost a lot of its charm.  Gone for good are the days of watching guys driving the right rear off the car, with that tire smoking every time they came off of turns two and four.  Oh well, at least we have “the chase.”

Kudos to Ryan Newman and the Alltel team for the way they bounced back after last week’s disappointment.  All the teams of Newman, Stewart, Mayfield and Kenseth can do is fight hard, try to avoid any further disasters, and quietly hope that each of the contenders has one or more bad races of their own.

Speaking of the ten guys in the “chase,” I was watching the post-race press conference live on Speed, and I thought that Jeff Gordon made a good point.  He was asked if he thought it was weird that so many of the “chase” drivers finished in the top ten.

Jeff replied that he did not think it was a coincidence and that the reason those ten guys were in the “chase” was that they had the best teams with their stuff together and had found ways to finish in or near the top ten most of the year. 

Jeff was also asked if he would continue to try for top fives (or some such nonsense).  He replied that he had finished 7th and 3rd and was currently leading the points, so yeah, he thought more top fives would be a good idea.  Mark Martin sitting next to Gordon just laughed.

It seems that just because the drivers are focused on the chase doesn’t mean that all members of the media are on their game and above asking the dumb or obvious question.  If only someone would ask if anyone was wearing their wife’s unmentionables (thanks Wally) or maybe ask about what a driver does when he has to pee during a race.  Yeesh.

We were treated to a fairly boring event with moments of excitement involving some of the sport’s biggest names.  Most notably Jeff Burton’s HANS throwing disgust after a blown right front resulted in hard contact with the wall and a pretty substantial fire.  I imagine that this display was compounded by the facts that the car wasn’t very fast and that NASCAR effectively double penalized the 30 car, costing him two laps instead of one and effectively ruining Burton’s day, the subsequent wreck and fire not withstanding.

Two past champions missed the pit road entrance as well.  Bobby Labonte missed and spun from the apron, nearly causing a huge wreck in the process.  The other involved Matt Kenseth who, after fading with what was thought to be a cut tire, finally decided to pit.  He spun before the commitment line and slammed into the water barrel and tire setup at the pit road entrance, crushing the front of his car and parking his ride on top of the guardrail there.  While he would return to the race, Kenseth finished a distant 32nd. 

Other disappointments included Kasey Kahne’s blown motor just 13 laps into the race.  This had to give Evernham and Kahne’s teammate Jeremy Mayfield cause for concern.  Ray, however, pointed out that in these cases, it was usually a part not manufactured in-house that fails, and it appears that he was right.  Mayfield went on to finish an impressive seventh. 

Here’s another interesting note from the 19 team on Sunday.  Jeremy was apparently having trouble with his radio on and off throughout the day.  He was able to talk to the crew, but they couldn’t talk to him.  With a round of green flag stops pending, Mayfield’s crew had no way to tell their driver when to pit. 

In what I consider one of the most ingenious ideas of the season, crew chief Kenny Francis asked his pit official to request that the 19 car be black flagged.  That would force the driver to pit within three laps.  Mayfield honored the black flag, pitted per the team’s request and got his service done.  That’s the kind of quick thinking that can make races fun to watch.

Another driver that was quietly working his way into contention for the Nextel Cup was Elliott Sadler. After a career best finish at Loudon, Sadler was set for his best career finish at Dover as well.  However, Sadler had to pit under green from 7th place.  He was then penalized for speeding, had to serve a drive-thru penalty and would go on to finish a disappointing 20th.  Despite that, Sadler is sixth in points, only 96 points out of the lead.

I thought that the caution for “oil” with 84 laps to go was suspect at best.  I know that a non-call by NASCAR cost Kasey Kahne last time at Dover, I felt like this caution was as nefarious as they come.  All day, teams were complaining about and showing serious right front tire wear, despite being within Goodyear’s recommended parameters for air pressure and camber.  As it was being run, it appeared that some teams were going to chance the tires and make a run to the end, some putting in excess of 100 laps on their Eagles. 

I think NASCAR was concerned that they could have a top ten guy, or several, fall out with tire failures, and they didn’t want that to happen.  So they threw a caution, TNT’s broadcast team blamed it on Robby Gordon (even though he went to the garage for a suspension problem involving springs), and everyone got fresh tires and gas so they could “safely” make it to the end of the race. 

After two of the ten races in the “chase” are complete, we have Jeff Gordon in the lead by a point over Kurt Busch, with Junior in 3rd by 18 points.  Mayfield is last 157 points out of the lead.  There are still seven drivers within 99 points of the lead, and going into Talladega, all of that can change.  However, even with eight races to go, the pressure is ratcheting up on every team chasing the leader, regardless of whether they’re one or 157 points out of the lead.  I still believe that one bad race, especially early in the final ten, can be overcome.  If a team fails at one of the last four races, they can probably kiss their hopes goodbye.

One thing I would like to mention.  Yesterday it was mentioned that Jimmy Spencer was finally wearing a full-faced helmet for the first time.  While he may still think it’s uncomfortable or whatever, the fact is that he is safer in it than with his open faced one.  Good for you, Jimmy.

Last week, I wrote a column defending Robby Gordon’s actions on the track at Loudon and later off the track.  I expected that column to generate some emails, but I had no idea I would get so many.  Within 24 hours of that column hitting the Net, I got over 50 emails, and only two of them said I was wrong about the whole thing.  It seems that Robby has a lot of fans that are passionate, well read (shameless plug for me) and are educated race fans as well.

Let me put a period on last week’s events.  Robby wrecking Biffle was okay.  Robby talking about it on the radio was not.  Now, let’s move on to this week’s action.

I must start with the Trackside show from Friday night.  For seemingly the 100th time since it happened, Robby Gordon went public with his apologies to Mayfield, Stewart and their respective fans.  He did not read a statement written by someone else or by a PR firm.  He sat in front of a crowd of reporters and later a live audience and apologized.  I do not recall a driver (past or present) being forced to apologize so many times for the same thing to the same people over and over again.  But Robby did it.  He looked into the camera and apologized.  That’s all he can do and that’s all he can be expected to do. 

Fast-forward to Sunday’s race, and while reports vary, it appears that Tony said in a pre-race interview that he wanted to “kick Robby Gordon’s butt.” 

Now, on to the race.  On a restart just 14 laps into the race, Robby Gordon (in accordance with the rules) goes to pass Tony Stewart on the outside.  Stewart takes offense at this and drives the 31 car up into the wall.  Robby completed the pass despite that, and Tony proceeded to immediately chase down and boot the 31 car from the rear several times, nearly causing him to wreck. 

There are several things wrong here.  First, NASCAR warned Robby for passing on the outside.  That’s right.  Despite the move being legal and actually one of the few written in the rulebook and known by all competitors, Robby was warned about it. 

Then, the 20 car did knowingly hit, then chase down, hit and knock the 31 car out of the way because Tony Stewart was “angry at the way he was passed.” 

 This was about the umpteenth time this year Tony has hit another car because he “didn’t like the WAY he was passed.”  Apparently, Tony would like his fellow competitors to wait for their hand-written invitations to pass Mr. Stewart on the track.  Martinsville and Darlington resulted in on-track altercations between Tony and one or more competitors when he retaliated for being passed in a manner deemed by Mr. Stewart to be unfit.  And what has NASCAR done about this?

Absolutely nothing.  In a classic case of there being two rulebooks:  One for the big sponsor money teams like Dupont, Home Depot, Sharpie Rubbermaid, UPS and others, NASCAR turned a blind eye to blatant retaliation and outright assaults by the abovementioned sponsors’ respective drivers.  And I’m sure it doesn’t help Robby’s cause that he drives for a NEXTEL competitor with a superior product. 

The problem is that NASCAR wants to have it both ways.  They want drivers to police themselves, as long as the driver NASCAR favors comes out on top.  Robby settling a score is no good, but Tony, Jeff, Dale and Kurt Busch are free to handle things on the track or in the garage as they see fit. 

In a word:  disgusting.   I can’t wait to see what rules interpretation Mike Helton and Company have in store for us at Talladega, home of the race this year where the guy that got to the finish line second was named the winner.