Fickle NASCAR
Here's a hypothetical scenario for you:
A pitcher intentionally throws at a batter, causing a brawl in which two other players are injured and miss the rest of the season. The team punishes its pitcher. Major League Baseball takes a pass.
Sound bizarre? Apparently not, if you're a NASCAR official ...
Here's the quick background. At Sunday's race in New Hampshire, Robby Gordon intentionally wrecked Greg Biffle - Gordon's admitted the act and apologized for it - causing an accident which also put innocent bystanders Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield out of the race. Bear in mind that this is the first of the 10-race chase for the Nextel Cup playoffs and that Stewart and Mayfield were two of the 10 drivers who had made the playoffs.
On Wednesday, Gordon's bosses at Childress Racing place him on probation. Yet NASCAR declines any further punishment beyond a two-lap penalty on Gordon meted out during the race.
Here I am, thinking that Gordon could possibly be brought up on charges of vehicular assault by New Hampshire police, and NASCAR's giving him a free pass.
Think of the damage this does to the integrity of the races, let alone the safety issues that arise when people are playing joust with cars at 160 miles per hour. . A guy intentionally wrecks someone else and in the process seriously damages the chances of 20% of the remaining contenders for the Cup. Yet he walks away with a light touch - not even a slap - on the wrist. I know this might seem farfetched, but what's to stop, say, Michael Waltrip from wrecking Jeff Gordon so that Waltrip's teammate, Earnhardt Jr., has a better shot at the Cup? A two-lap penalty? Now that's real deterrence.
Gordon should face at least a multi-race suspension. I wouldn't mind if he sat out for the rest of the season.
What do you think?
Comments (2)
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Jim, maybe NASCAR's inaction is analogous to a college self-reporting NCAA violations. The governing body in this case decides no further penalties are called for. Ok, I admit, that's a stretch. But, otherwise, giving Gordon a pass makes little sense.
Posted on September 26, 2004 11:26 PM
Ryan Newman led 325 laps of a possible four hundred laps on his way to a seven plus second win over Mark Martin. That comes a week after Kurt Busch led 155 of a possible 300 laps at New Hampshire beating second place Matt Kenseth by two and a half seconds. NASCAR is promoting their chase for the championship with the promise of an exciting points battle and that damn well better happen because there's no getting around the fact the first two races of the much-hyped Chase for the Championship have been beyond sedate. I've seen more exciting lawn croquet tournaments to be honest. TV ratings are fickle things so perhaps NASCAR will receive a pleasant surprise later this week but if ratings are in any way tied to the quality of the event we're likely to see another Nielsen disaster. Under the regime of Brian X. France NASCAR has proven willing to adopt radical solutions to problems that don't exist. Maybe they can spend this winter addressing the problem of boring races a problem that threatens the long term health and even survival of this sport. Mediocrity may reign supreme in politics and television but not in sports.
Posted on October 15, 2004 6:22 AM