The Big One
You all saw it, the 25-car pileup toward the end of Sunday's race. (Admit it: That's why you watched the race. I mean, nobody was tuning in to watch Kyle Petty limp his car around the track.)
Today's big question: Who caused the thing? Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Wallace were the key players in this drama, which took out more than half the field and delayed the race by 45 minutes. Folks are hot about it. (The language in that last link is not work safe unless you're a sailor, and even some of them might blush.)
Jimmie Johnson's take (from his Web site's race report):
"On lap 132 the carnage began. While the field was running nose-to-tail and three-wide, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mike Wallace, Scott Riggs and Johnson all made contact triggering a 25-car crash that eliminated more than half the field. No drivers were injured."
Here's Junior's take:
"The 48 ran the 4 into the fence, and into the 10. I mean, we were all driving real hard, but -- I don't know -- just driving hard. Your spotters are a big part here. I was pushing the 4, and the guy beside him, which I was told was the 48, squeezed him into the fence."
And Mike Wallace? "All I know is that my car didn't turn sideways all by itself. I don't know whether I got hit from behind or from the side. All I know is that it turned right."
I've got my theories. Let's hear yours.
Comments (3)
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It was 2 small events that combined sent the big one into motion. Jr first hitting Wallace, who driving that 4 car, maybe doesn't have the downforce and aero needed to take a pounding like the cars Mike would usually drive. He got a little swirley. But the 2nd small thing was Jimmie coming up and crowding him, giving him nowhere to go with a car on the brink, except into the car next to him. That's what I think happened.
Posted on May 2, 2005 8:04 PM
I"m with Matt
Posted on May 2, 2005 8:05 PM
Both of y'all are right -- the 8 and the 48 definitely hit the 4 right before he made that right turn.
Ed Hardin (the N&R's sports columnist) pointed something out that might explain it: He saw (and I think I saw it on the replays yesterday, but wasn't exactly sure) a car ahead of Mike Wallace get a little squirrelly. It's possible that Wallace lifted just enough for Junior to tag him. JJ might have seen the same thing and reacted.
A lot of folks have blamed the wreck on Junior bump-drafting. You don't bump-draft in the middle line of a pack of cars, especially when the car in front of you doesn't have anywhere to go, and I'm pretty sure Junior knows that. And JJ? As Dustin Long pointed out in Saturday's paper, the driver of the No. 48 has been a little too out of control sometimes this year.
That's my guess, anyway.
Posted on May 2, 2005 9:54 PM