Different Rules for Different Drivers
by M.L. Morgan 8-29-1999
Well, race fans, Dale Earnhardt's recent 'victory' at Bristol has me fuming again. Nascar's arbitrary enforcement of their rules is getting to be absurd.
The controversy of the week surrounds Dale Earnhardt's tactics on lap 499 at the Goody's 500. Earnhardt deliberately took out race leader Terry Labonte - not even a judgement call - it was blatant and it was despicable. Earnhardt has become a shadow of his former self and in his pathetic desperation to win the race, he resorted to "whatever it takes". This is B.S. of the highest order. He was soundly booed by the 140,000+ spectators as he emerged from his car in 'victory' lane. A very ugly scene. But appropriate.
Very few fans noticed that on lap 100 of this same race, Jerry Nadeau was given a 2-lap penalty for doing the same thing to Dale Jarrett. Exactly the same thing. Nadeau was in no danger of winning the race, but his infraction was identical to Earnhardt's.
For some reason Nascar treated virtually identical incidents in completely different ways. This is a bunch of crap. Nascar's credibility has long been suspect and incidents like this are the reason why. I don't care that Earnhardt has won 7 Championships and Nadeau will probably never win a race. This is wrong.
140,000+ booing fans at Bristol make me think I might be right.
It's time for Nascar to sprout some balls. If they don't overturn Earnhardt's 'win' at Bristol, all my suspicons they just care about the money, will be confirmed. I hope other fans are as outraged as I am.
If you want to voice your opinions to Nascar go to Nascar. If you want to sit on your thumbs I can't help you. You deserve what you get.
Another day - another rock. We are not afraid of icons. We are not afraid of anything. We just don't like travesties. And we'll never be silent.