How do NASCAR fans defend their sport after Nationwide race?

June 26, 2011 9 Comments »

Reed Sorenson was about the only person happy with the finish of Saturday's Nationwide race. Photo by Jason Smith, Getty Images

I left work Saturday night at 10:45 p.m., with at least four television sets fixated on soccer’s Gold Cup final between the U.S. and Mexico.

No, I don’t get it, either.

But that’s OK. I enjoy and write about two athletic endeavors that many others don’t get — NASCAR and professional wrestling. Live and let live, right?

Undoubtedly, though, at some point soon I’ll end up in one of those classic water cooler conversations where folks defend their favorite sport’s legitimacy, and I’d like to be able to at least hold my own.

Gang, if somebody brings up Saturday’s Nationwide race in Wisconsin, I’m screwed.

“OK, Josh, so this guy won the race because it ended when the caution flag was thrown and he was in front,” soccer fan says. “But then he wasn’t the winner because he didn’t have enough gas to make it to the end of the race, even though they weren’t really racing at that point? And he only ran out of gas because they kept extending the race past the distance they said they were going to run?”

What am I supposed to come back with? Other than David Beckham’s wife, the former Posh Spice, going out in public scowling like the warden in some women-in-prison flick, I got nothing.

The truth is that Justin Allgaier screaming congratulations to his team just seconds before his car slowed was the worst moment in NASCAR since the 2008 Brickyard 400 was rendered a joke thanks to tires that couldn’t last 10 laps.

Luck may be a definitive element in auto racing, but Reed Sorenson’s win was so random the teams could have saved on engine rebuilds by swiping the NBA lottery’s ping-pong ball machine, pulling out a number and sending the haulers back east.

This was awful, although the fix may be simple enough. NASCAR tracks, much like baseball stadiums, have markedly different dimensions. Baseball accounts for the individuality of its fields with different ground rules.

Time for NASCAR to take a lesson. You simply can’t have up to three green-white-checker finishes at a four-mile road course. People will win the race, then lose it, again, and the only emotion anyone will have other than the winner is utter deflation.

If NASCAR doesn’t want different rules for different tracks, then lay down the law for everywhere they race. If a yellow falls on the last lap of a green-white-checker finish, then the guy in the lead at that time is the winner, whether he can make it back to the finish line or not. It is simply a formality at that point, holding all the importance of a pitcher delivering to the plate during an intentional walk. The drivers had enough gas to make it to the scheduled distance, so you can’t say they didn’t deserve it.

I have a feeling NASCAR will get this one fixed.

Just stay away from your soccer friends until then.

  • Matt

    Justin Allgaier won that race. Plain and simple.

    When Almirola and that other car were punted into the gravel trap on the third green-white-checker attempt, the caution should’ve been thrown right then and there like it was when Papis and Brian Scott were done the same way by Jaques Villenueve two attempts before.

    Instead, we get another attempt by Nascar to rig a finish they like (under green even though it ignores rules and precedent, even within the same race) and in the wake of it we get the Allgaier, no wait, Fellows, no, wait, Sorensen won! mess. There’s an impolite term that begins with “cluster” (Clint Eastwood used it in “Heartbreak Ridge”) that describes the situation perfectly.

  • http://Jayski.com Earner

    Sorry not with you on this one …Things are just fine ..(you see you have to calculate ALL the fuel for the WHOLE race) lol …So many thing to do before this

  • mr clause

    I get the writers point on three GWC on this track and can’t say I disagree. 8-12 miles extra is a bit much. That was my point of thought when it became a possibility.

    However as much as I criticize NASCAR most of the time, they got this one right even if under the 3 GWC rule. Allgier didn’t cross the finish line and take the checkers in fact he was pushed into the garage. Would he have won it if not for the 3rd GWC, you betcha. Fellows screwed his own pooch by ignoring the yellow maintaining speed and passing under the yellow. Sorenson and the rest of the field did what the rules dictated. I do have to say that I was fairly surprised that they actually gave the win to Reed in part because of who owns the Fellows ride.

    In the end the 3 GWC rule is out of whack for this track and maybe Sonoma as well and should be modified. But for this one time NASCAR called it right under the rules.

  • http://www.racetalkradio.com/ Dennis Michelsen

    What is wrong with you people?

    The possibility of 3 green, white, checker finishes is PART of the strategy! The main reason the Turner Motorsports 3-some was up front at the end was based on a fuel mileage gamble. So what that the track is 4 miles long…it ain’t like the track grew DURING the green, white, checker situation.

    That was called drama…call in tonight on DOIN’ DONUTS on RaceTalkRadio.com if you want to discuss this race! (or anything else in racing)

  • jason

    The race ended legit…it was a great and exciting finish that gave people something to talk about….something that usually never happens in the nationwide series…well unless ur talking about cup guys in the nationwide series. The 3 gwc rule is a great rule to have at every track because once you take it from road america, you must take it from montreal, watkins glen, and infineon as well. Then you will want to take it from Daytona and Taladega as well because those are big tracks with a chance for a huge wreck. O wait, you dont want guys going around on 3 gwc for infineon, well thats a little under 2 mile track so all the 2 mile tracks need to not have 3 either. Well there goes pocono, michigan, california, and Indianapolis. But then if you donw want them to do 3 because of the chance for total chaos well, you might as well take out the short tracks. Basically it has to be uniform or not. Once you start doing track specific rules its gets really messy. Partly why im glad that double file restarts are happening now and not where it used to be where lap down cars would not start to the inside on road courses but would on all the other tracks. Now that could be confusing to a new fan.

    O and about that whole being a winner and not making it back to the checkered? REALLY? you really want a winner to be crowned who cant even cross the finish line but needs to be pushed? That would cause so much more controversy then this did.

    The ONLY controversy with this race could be that did reed sorenson slow doen to much to soon thus not staying on the caution pace, or did ron fellows go to fast and illegally pass under caution. I think if you went by TV broadcast, you would think that reed sorenson went off the pace which is what they initially said, however they then went back on that. Basically if it wasn’t for Ron Fellows this would have been a non discussion. And thank you NASCAR for letting the guys race around the track after the accident and not throwing the caution immediatly.

    One last thing, Can NASCAR please add another road course or two to the cup schedule? That will be the only way i will be happy with a race being taken from pocono or one one of the other tracks. Please DO NOT take a race from a track that is unique like dover, new hampshire, bristol, martinsville, or some other track and just give a track like chicago, las vegas, or some other mile and a half a second date. Road races are exciting with the beating and banging and fuel mileage gambles, and pit strategy. Which you get the fuel mileage, pit strategy, and the single file racing at tracks like michigan, pocono, california, and all the mile and a half tracks but without the excitement of the beating and banging which nascar needs. It’s why i fell in love with NASCAR 10 years ago and now NASCAR has just kinda fell flat. I dont necessary love crashes but i love the rubbin and the banging…not cars spread out and talk of aerodynamics, if i wanted that i would watch indy cars or f1.

  • LegendAt25

    Rules are rules. NASCAR would have done the same thing at Daytona or Bristol or anywhere else, for that matter.

    If the third attempt at a GWC results in a caution, the field is frozen. The race isn’t over until the last lap is finished and the leader crosses the start/finish line WHILE MAINTAINING PIT ROAD SPEED, regardless of the track’s length or shape.

    Don’t get me wrong, I wanted lil’ gator to win the race as much as anyone. The kid is a class act and he drove the hell out of his race car to be in the position he was when the yellow flag flew, but rules are rules and NASCAR followed theirs to a T.

  • JR

    The solution is simple, eliminate the green/white/checker rule and go back to running races the way the sport did it for the first 50 some years of its existence.

  • Steve

    If you remember correctly, Nascar used to end races when the caution came out, the leader was the winner. People whined about that because they wanted to see the races end under green. Nascar created this rule to please the fans, now they are complaining because they don’t like the GWC rule. Which is it people? You can’t have both.

    Maybe the question people should be asking is, should Nascar have called for a full course yellow or would a local one been better suited at that time. If any decision is to be questioned, maybe it is that one.

  • Keith

    This is another example of Brain France changing a rule and it having repercussions on the results of a race because he never thinks anything through. Ever since he stopped racing back to the yellow it caused problems, When to throw the yellow, freezing the field, scoring loops, closing pit road, the lucky dog rule, Green white checker. Nobody ever got hit racing back to the yellow in the 35 years I have been watching so since Dale Jarrett almost got hit this is what we got.