Normally I'd be loathe to compare any stock car race or sporting event to the D-Day Invasion, perhaps the most significant event of the previous century, and a day where the greatest battle between freedom and tyranny was waged. But since the race and broadcast were shamelessly promoted as a "tribute" to the 60th Anniversary of D-Day (and a galling excuse to sell more toy cars) I guess anything is fair game. Simply put, if the Allied commanders had run the Normandy invasion the way NASCAR officials ran Sunday's race, I'd be writing this column in German and you'd be feeding your dachshund Adolph wiener-schnitzel for breakfast tomorrow.
There have been a series of mistakes made by NASCAR officials already this season (the caution light mess that ruined last week's Charlotte truck race for example) but on Sunday it seemed that not only was NASCAR determined to shoot itself in the foot, they were using an automatic weapon. The trouble all started when then race leader Ryan Newman spun entering the pits on lap 320, a rare mental error for Newman. Since only one other car had not pitted at that point NASCAR seemed clueless as to who the leader of the event was when the caution flag flew, and as a result the pace car driver didn't know who he was supposed to pick up. While Newman's number appeared atop the leader board, he's spun and wrecked, then ran out of gas while the pits were closed and his team committed numerous infractions on pit road. NASCAR also said that Newman ran the "stop" paddle at the end of pit road, but Newman claimed the official didn't switch his paddle from "go" to "stop" until it was too late for Newman to stop on pit road. While NASCAR officials tried to figure out who was leading, who got the Lucky Dog pass, what to do with Newman, and perhaps how to avoid the untantalizing prospect of having Dave Blaney, a part time driver, leading the race on a lap of his own, the field circled behind the pace car for 26 excruciatingly boring laps. At a stated pit road/caution speed of 35 MPH that's almost 45 minutes it took to try to sort things out.
And eventually it appeared that someone at NASCAR decided, "We're never going to get this figured out so we better just pull one of out of the air and get this race going before the beer cans start flying." I don't know that anyone felt there was any degree of legitimacy in the way NASCAR had the field line up for a lap 346 restart. And I think anyone paying attention knew that they way they'd lined up that hornet's nest there was going to be trouble and quickly. The easiest way for a driver on the tail end of the lead lap to get the caution he needs to make up the distance around the track is for him to cause one. <br><br>Kasey Kahne shot by his teammate Jeremy Mayfield to take the lead, just as the wreck began unfolding ahead of them. Kahne made it through, but second place Mayfield, third place Jimmie Johnson and a majority of the other top 10 cars were caught up in the wreck. What might have been a relatively minor incident turned into a major one, because with NASCAR's baffling rules about when the field is frozen after a wreck, some drivers just kept the boot in it and ran over the cars in front of them rather than risk losing spots. At that point NASCAR officials realized they had more wrecks than wreckers and they red flagged the race. Bully for them! <br><br>On lap 374 Rusty Wallace made incidental contact with the wall driving a car that probably didn't deserve to be out there at all racing with all the other patched together wrecks. Though he continued driving, NASCAR quickly threw a caution. But on lap 381 when Casey Mears Dodge began spewing oil, NASCAR didn't throw a caution despite drivers screaming over their radios that the track was an oily mess, information that John Darby in the tower claims he never received. (Just as NASCAR denied they had triggered the caution lights during the Charlotte truck race until they were confronted with video evidence they had.) Race leader Kasey Kahne hit the oil, spun and wrecked hard. Matt Kenseth, who is third in the points, also wrecked and saw his day end. (Fortunately for Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were already out of the race when his day ended.) Kenseth waited patiently for his mandatory ride to the infield care center, but when no ambulance arrived after two laps he walked back to the garage thoroughly disgusted. <br><br>NASCAR decided to throw another red flag while they cleaned up the track. Or actually they threw a red flag while they half-cleaned up the track They then returned the cars to the track and ran another nine laps while the track was further cleaned, burning off almost half the remaining laps of the race. No, I don't get it either especially when the driver in second had much fresher tires than the leader and needed some time to run him down. Maybe that was part of Stewart's "Double Secret Off-the-Record" probation? In all it took NASCAR five hours to run a 400 mile race, with the final one hundred miles dragging on for close to two hours. <br><br>The bitterness of the day was somewhat softened when Mark Martin won the race to score his first victory since the 2002 World 600. Martin is one of the classiest and best-respected drivers in the sport and many feel he's the greatest Cup driver ever who has never won a title. Over the course of the last month or so Martin has been showing some signs of life with four top 11 finishes in the last five races, and even at Charlotte where he finished poorly in the 600 he'd run strong before experiencing problems. According to Martin he and the team have been under heavy pressure to start running up front again and now that he is Viagra wants him to keep it up. (Yeah, I know, but it's so easy.) <br><br>Tony Stewart dominated much of the earlier stages of the race before making a crucial mistake just before Newman's incident and missing the entrance to pit road. The scoring flap seemed to benefit Stewart but with just nine laps to race at the end and under heavy attack from Earnhardt Jr. Stewart never got to take a run at Martin. <br><br>Earnhardt had been off song most of the weekend. He qualified poorly on Friday and showed no great strength in Saturday's only practice session. Early in the race he fell back through the pack to 34th and went a lap down. After miraculously escaping two wrecks that unfolded directly in front of him Earnhardt found himself with a chance to make chicken salad out of chicken stuff (I'm being polite) and grab a top 5 finish. Considering the way the weekend had gone and the fact he left Dover last fall in a "Bambulance" Junior was probably just as satisfied to finish third rather than risk tangling with Tony Stewart on the final lap. <br><br>Jeff Burton had his best run of the 2004 season in a car that lacked sponsorship decals this weekend. Rumors abound there's a hard liquor company that would like to sponsor the 99 car, but the team awaits NASCAR's approval. Why not? It seems that NASCAR officials are consuming gallons of the stuff in the control tower during races. <br><br>Scott Riggs scored the first top 10 of his career finishing fifth at Dover on Sunday. But you'll have some unexpected faces in the top 10 when a majority of the stronger cars are reduced to charity sheetmetal auction status during the course of a race. <br><br>Michael Waltrip also had what appeared to be a 15th-20th place car but got a solid top 10 after escaping contact with Dave Blaney that triggered the big wreck. <br><br>Terry Labonte finished seventh on a day when anyone who finished had to be considered lucky indeed. <br><br>Jeremy Mayfield survived that big wreck while he was running second, but lost a lap while he was stuck in the wet grass. Had he been able to get his car moving again he'd probably have finished far better despite a thoroughly beat up race car. <br><br>Scott Wimmer, who has finally put his legal problems behind him, got "the whole rest of his season" off to a decent start with a ninth place finish, his first top 10 since the Daytona 500. <br><br>Kevin Harvick struggled for most of the race and never mounted a charge to the front but the record books will show Harvick finished tenth. It was his first top 10 finish in over a month. (The last was at Fontana.) <br><br>NASCAR has now had 22 Cup races (as well as Busch and truck races) to figure out the logistics of the new rule that freezes the field when a caution flies. At first it might have been understandable that unanticipated circumstances would cause some confusion. But after 22 races it still seems there's mass confusion almost every weekend, and that indicates someone hasn't been on the ball considering various scenarios, not that each weekend offers up a unique new challenge that couldn't have been anticipated. And NASCAR can't even seem to get the simple stuff (when to throw a caution, when to return the cars to the track after a red flag, what penalty certain infractions carry, etc.) right. In most high profile businesses an unsightly and humiliating debacle of the magnitude of Sunday's race would have pink dismissal slips flying like beer cans at Talladega at corporate headquarters on Monday. But my guess is NASCAR officialdom will hide behind the "work in progress" excuse and go right on bumbling along weekend to weekend. It's getting almost painful to watch and judging by the drivers post-race comments Sunday I'm not the only one who is confused and annoyed.
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