Controversy?

By M.L. Morgan

(June 16, 1998) - Well, race fans, Nascar seems to have come up with a new gimmick to entertain the fans. It’s called the controversy of the week. King William II stole the premise from professional wrestling. It sucks when professional wrestling does it and it sucks when Nascar does it.

Before we go too far - Nascar didn’t start this - the media midgets did. Nascar just encouraged it. Except for the interpretation of their own rules Nascar is not very creative.

This latest deal started when Jeff Gordon hoisted his Pepsi bottle in the winner’s circle at Charlotte after winning the Coca Cola 600. No big deal to me - Pepsi pays him gobs of money to endorse their product. He’s supposed to do that. I thought it was hysterical. I guess some of the media puppies didn’t understand and raised their little angry fists in affected outrage. Again, I thought it was hysterical until I realized these puppies had found some believers and the groundswell was picking up. Reminded me of something my great-uncle, P.T. Morgan told me years ago: remember who you are dealing with. Very profound.

The next week we went to Richmond. Great track - one of my favorites. Good race for a while. Then Jeff Gordon committed the unpardonable sin of passing Rusty Wallace. Rusty used to be one of the heavies in earlier times so Nascar told him over his headset to punish this boy for passing you. So, Rusty being a loyal employee of King William II, moved up the track a whole lane to hit Gordon and take him out of the race. A really bush move - notice the spelling before you comment. But that wasn’t enough for King William II. A late race caution was turned into a red-flag, ostensibly so the fans could see the race end under green flag. Nice idea, Nascar. The fans waited patiently for the wounded race cars to be removed from the track and we went back to green-flag racing for a minute or so. With 2 laps to go another yellow-flag and in the race back to the caution, Terry Labonte nudged Dale Jarrett out of the way and coasted home to victory. This race was great - gave the media puppies at least 3 different controversies to add their ignorant spins to.

Then we go to Michigan. Another great track. Jeff Gordon absolutely dominated the race for the first half of the race. Somewhere around lap 132 some driver threw a piece of roll-bar padding out his window bringing out a yellow-flag for the legendary debris on the track deal. Like I was surprised. Gordon had a 10 second lead and was on the verge of lapping the whole field. I guess that’s not politically correct to Nascar. ‘Can’t have the young boy stomping the old guys’. No matter the rationale, the race was yellow-flagged and 62 laps later, Mark Martin passed Gordon and went on to win. That’s not controversy - that’s b.s. Martin wouldn’t ever have passed Gordon without the help of Nascar.

I tried to get confirmation from Nascar about the facts in this column before I published them but apparently my questions fell under Nascar’s “Don’t Ask - Don’t Tell” policy.

Have comments or questions? E-mail: M.L. Morgan

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