What Rules ?
by M.L. Morgan
We recently visited Richmond for what was purported to be a Winston Cup Race - the Pontiac Excitement 400. Very aptly named. It was exciting to some. Rusty Wallace drove the ‘fans’ to a frenzy by intentionally wrecking Jeff Gordon in a truly no-class display of what isn’t racing. It was another example of “if you can’t beat’em, wreck ‘em”. Nice move, Rusty. You get my vote for “Jerk of the Week”. And to all the mouth-breathing fans who stood up and cheered when Gordon wrecked - go back to watching professional wrestling - you obviously don’t have the I.Q. to appreciate Winston Cup Racing.
Where was Nascar when this travesty took place ? That’s rhetorical. Nascar has a seldom-enforced rule concerning rough and/or careless driving. I’ve seen Earnhardt sit-out a 5-lap penalty for a much less flagrant display of rough driving. Why is Rusty Wallace immune ? Also rhetorical. Rusty wasn’t penalized because Nascar was pandering to the clueless ‘fans’ who became orgasmic when Gordon hit the wall. If Nascar had enforced their own rules and put Wallace in the penalty box for 5 laps there probably would have been a riot. Nascar will sprout cajones right after pigs fly.
But that wasn’t the ultimate insult to the thinking fans. With a handful of laps remaining there was a multi-car wreck which brought out a yellow flag. No big deal since we’ve seen a lot of races end under caution, but Nascar decided to red-flag the race so the fans would get the chance to see the cars race for the victory, rather than coast . I agreed with their decision. Fans shouldn’t pay that much for a ticket and watch a race end under a caution. That’s truly B.S. I gave Nascar half an attaboy for trying to remedy a really bad policy. No race should end under caution. Then what happens ? Another caution when Johnny Benson spewed water all over the track. No problem, right ? Another red flag and we’ll race to the finish. WRONG ! Yellow flag and we had another miserable 2 lap shootout. What a bunch of crap.
The red-flag rule is a discretionary rule, meaning it will be used whenever King William II thinks it will add excitement to the finish of the race, rather much like the imaginary debris on the track rule which they often use late in the race to group the cars closer. These two rules are equally absurd because they are not enforced uniformly. That’s a crock. Why does Nascar pretend to have rules ? I guess that’s rhetorical, as well.
When is Nascar going to print some rules in ink ? Their current policy of writing them in the sand at low tide is getting a bit old.
Have comments or questions? E-mail: M.L. Morgan
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