I don’t know if you heard but there was a little incident at Phoenix International Raceway yesterday. It was so small that it caused #NASCAR to be a trend nationally on Twitter and for The Today Show to mention it this morning. Just a bunch of dudes getting in to a fist fight in the garage that’s all.
Ahh, that was so amazing. When we saw the No. 15 5-Hour Energy/Michael Waltrip Racing crew guys run up to Jeff Gordon and take swings at him I was, like, “WHAA???” and then I was, like, “WHY ARE THERE NOT BETTER CAMERA ANGLES ON THIS RIGHT NOW?!?” Because I’m nosey and I want to see what’s happening out there.
What Jeff Gordon did wasn’t new for NASCAR, retaliating against Clint Bowyer who he felt has been “running over” him all year, but the timing wasn’t so good because Clint was still technically in the running for the Sprint Cup Championship. So that pissed off the No. 15 crew big time which is understandable. But fighting won’t solve any problems kids!
I don’t fault anyone in this, I’m not taking a side, I understand Jeff Gordon’s perspective and I understand what Clint Bowyer & his team were feeling.
The best quote to illustrate this comes from Michael Waltrip:
Q: Why did the No. 15 crew react the way they did after the incident?
A: “It’s just boys venting, showing their frustration trying to express their feelings. The men and women that work on these cars have way more invested in what goes on than people realize and people appreciate and when a coward makes a move like that on the race track they just see all their hopes and dreams go up in flames, literally — they’re going to be frustrated.”
Although I’m slightly disappointed it wasn’t Jeff Gordon at the bottom of the pile or being held down in that tool cart. If you look at the video closely you’ll see that Jeff gets pulled away from it all by one of his crew guys. I’m not saying I wanted the guy to be hurt it’s just that it would have been really interesting to see him with a black eye, at least.
And then there was the insanity that was NASCAR not putting out a caution for Danica Patrick’s crash on the second to last lap. Like, what the hell? Seriously? I don’t understand that at all. There should have been a caution. Done.
And THEN! Because Jimmie Johnson’s tire blew up Brad Keselowski left PIR with a very hefty points lead going into Sunday’s final Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
If Jimmie Johnson wants to win this Championship (but I’m sure he’s totally OK with sitting this one out *nod*) here’s what has to happen:
Keselowski clinches his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with a finish of 15th or better; or 16th and at least one lap led; or 17th and the most laps led, even if Johnson wins and leads the most laps.
All other drivers have been eliminated from championship consideration.
Oh! And Kevin Harvick won the race you guys! And cute little Keelan Harvick got to visit Victory Lane with his mommy, DeLana, for the very first time. That was super cute.
I adore BK and Clint B more now than ever after reading the quotes they gave about the incident. I also love/hate how NASCAR has said virtually NOTHING about the incident – you’d better believe that if someone deliberately turned precious Prince Gordon into the wall, there’d be penalties issued/$$$.
NASCAR hasn’t said anything because their penalty system is to announce them on Tuesdays. Sometimes they announce it on Mondays, usually Tuesday. I don’t remember any time that they announced it on the same day as the infraction, unless we are talking about drivers & drugs.
All that used to be NASCAR just keeps drifting deeply into the dark shadows of American sports. The negative influence…the lousy role models for kids…is now at he forefront. NASCAR does not police its own because they see giant dollar signs every time there is juvenile, bad-boy behavior. Jeff Gordon should be loudly and severely punished for his apparent anger issues. Using a car as a deadly weapon is the ultimate in poor judgemnt and bad sportsmanship. I do not think it is too late to recover NASCAR’s image. But there has to be an “enough is enough” approach to re-educating their fans and demanding integrity be restored in drivers and crews. Now! It is nearly too late.
Jeff Gordon, did what he had to do Clint has wrecked lots of people this year.
Jeff should recieve a medal for his conduct. Hendricks could put loud mouth
Michael out of business at anytime. Let the war games begin!!!
I’m takin’ sides!
Jeff was totally wrong. It’s not like the guy was running for the championship – his entire season has sucked and he’s only IN the Chase because of a rain-influenced win (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) I think the season finally caught up with him and he lost it. Big time.
Now, the question is, will NASCAR be consistent and park him next week, a la Kyle Busch? Because if they don’t, their credibility is gone, as far as I’m concerned.
OTOH, I wonder how Michael will deal with his crew and their behavior (or if NASCAR will issue penalties for the 15 team…don’t think Clint did anything wrong, he just ran to the scene and yelled. No penalties for that.)
You know that I’m the unabashed Clint Bowyer fan. And while ok, I can understand Jeff’s frustration, his actions were asinine.
Funny how ol’ Jeffy-poo has conveniently forgotten his case of The Ass that made him wreck Bowyer in Turn 11 at Sonoma (then Infineon) in 2010. Oh, how about attacking Matt Kenseth with his helmet on? Or going after Jeff Burton at Texas? Now he throws a punch at Bowyer with a 800 hp fist. At speed. Causing him to hit the wall head on. Collecting two innocent bystanders in the process with Logano and Almirola.
I’m not saying Clint is completely innocent of wrongdoing, but Jeff’s reaction was way over the line.
And they only fine him 100k and dock him 25 points? I think it should have been harsher than that. Kyle Busch was made to sit out the rest of a race weekend after deliberately taking out Ron Hornaday.
What makes the above even harder to write is before Sunday, Gordon was (WAS!) one of my top 3 drivers, but after yesterday, there’s a conspicuously blank spot on The Hat.