ESPN is “reporting” that many people feel that Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win at Daytona Saturday was fixed, a la Don King. How can sane people actually believe this? While I, as a huge Little E fan since his first Busch races, may be biased, I don’t see how anyone can think that NASCAR allowed something illegal on the 8 car Saturday night in an attempt to create a “storybook ending.” Junior obviously won because DEI has a great restrictor-plate program and because he is a great talent. Any thoughts?
I’m not a NASCAR fan, so I don’t know the ins and outs of the politics of NASCAR, but I thought I’d mention one thing.
The Washington Post had a recent article about NASCAR. Many veteran racers complained that NASCAR rewards favorite racers by selectively enforcing the rules. One of the claims is that they will allow one racer to run with a technically illegal setup while barring another driver from using the same setup.
I don’t know if that’s what people are saying about Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but it’s possible they allowed him to race with an advantage. That’s still not a true fix, however, since his victory wouldn’t be pre-ordained.
Let’s all remember one thing: This was a 400-mile race. If any one car had a distinct advantage over the others, it would have absolutely blown the doors off of everyone else, not made a charge in the final laps. Furthermore, it is impossible to “fix” a 42-car race. It may be possible to make a certain car more likely to win, but there are still too many things that can go wrong…say, a crash, which can victimize anyone, anywhere, or a mechanical breakdown, which has busted countless drivers who were absolutely breezing (Michael Andretti at Indy comes to mind).
I find ESPN’s mindless regurge of completely unfounded rumors beneath contempt. There is absolutely no evidence thus far for a fix, and the Pepsi 400 result is just one of several remarkable finishes that happen every year in this sport. Or in any sport (hey, who was it that won the US Open again?).
Good lord, the real scandals are bad enough; why make up garbage like fixed races?
It also might be worth noting that one of the people making the accusation is Jimmy Spencer. Who, IMO, is a loud mouthed punk who thinks too highly of himself and his racing skills.
While NASCAR probably can be fairly accused of selective rule enforcement, I think this latest allegation is too short sighted. In order to pull this off, NASCAR would have to:
convince 42 other drivers to go along with it (well maybe only 41- Michael Waltrip probably wouldn’t have such a problem with it)2. orchestrate accidents so as to exclude Dale Jr.
count on Dale’s pit crew to perform impeccably.
Kind of a tall order, no?
Yeah, they could have looked the other way to allow Dale to alter his car, but there’s no guarantee of his win. And yeah, it is a little weird that Michael Waltrip, who is not a typical top ten finisher, would be 2nd. But I seriously doubt that they could “fix” a race. But it will be interesting to see if there is any perceived retribution towards Speancer next week.
Just a quick wrap-up…USA Today recent ran an arctcle which addressed this and Cal Ripken Jr.'s home run in the All-Star game. The problem, essentially, is that fans have more stats and information than ever before, so they’re a lot quicker to jump on any result that doesn’t “look right” or “had to have been a fix”.
Well, guess what…it’s because sports aren’t fixed that amazing achievements are possible. And it does an incredible disservice to these genuine efforts to belittle them with the “fix” label…with virtually no evidence to back it up, I might add.
I mean, a cancer survivor winning the Tour de France? It’s gotta be a fix, right? Or how about a fading tennis megastar winning Wimbledon for the 7th time? Or another tennis star returning from the brink of utter collapse to win TWO grand slam events? Or a multiracial golfer winning the Masters by a par-5 fairway? Or a former grocery clerk leading one of the NFL’s perennial doormats to the Super Bowl? None of this can be real, can it? Well, guess what, it is. You never know what some people are capable of.
Well, did the judges measure the restrictor plates on the winning car like they are supposed to do in suspicious circumstances, or did they let it slide this time, just like they let Jeff Gordon slide throughout the early 1990s (according to my NASCAR team-member friend)?
Passing on the outside on a restart with a few laps to go while the rest of the field is wheezing along sure seems suspicious to me, new tires or not. So did they measure the plates, or didn’t they? Come to think of it, did they check the tires?
Allegations of selective enforcement in NASCAR have been around for a long, long time. Documented evidence of cheating in NASCAR has been around even longer. Furthermore, NASCAR has done very little to dispel this supposed myth of selective enforcement.
I like this quote from the Other Dale:
“[NASCAR is] just now getting into the markets and the areas they want to, so why would they take a chance and risk it all? Why would they want to do that?”
Why, indeed? Some of us cynical bastards would point out that NASCAR isn’t taking many chances at all by keeping it all–including the judges and the record keeping–in the family, so to speak. This cynical bastard sees a certain logic in allowing a magic moment like the Other Dale’s win to go unmarred by a close inspection of the vehicle. “Why risk it all?”
Hey, I’m easy to convince. Show me the after-race checklist and I’ll shut up. I’ve had some trouble finding it on http://www.nascar.com . Maybe some of you fans out there can help me.
But see the thing about the conspiracy is you can’t kill it. You can beat it over the head with logic all you want, but you can’t prove a negative.
-The following may contain sarcasm
The after-race checklist isn’t posted? Must be a fix. It is posted? Well they doctored it.
So what if little E had fresh tires and a better car setup. There ain’t no strategy in racing right? It’s just a bunch of rednecks driving in circles ain’t it?
—end of sarcasm
At the last Daytona who was first and second? Is it really so surprising that they finished well again?
I’m not saying this would be easy to pull off at a huge, media-saturated race, but I covered a race at Altamont a couple of years ago where one of the racers got so far ahead of the pack that it had become a little boring, so the staff made it interesting again; they “discovered” some non-existent “debris” on the track, giving them an excuse to send up the yellow flag and bunch everyone together again.
I myself will be happy when NASCAR at least posts their post-race inspection results. What’s the point of having a judges’ inspection if the results are not made public? That’s all I’m saying.
I disagree. Whenever there is something out of the ordinary found in post-race inspection, it is reported on and if it is illegal, the offending team is penalized in some way (which is also reported on). But why post a checklist full of “within allowed specifications” when any discrepancy is going to get its own news story written for it anyway?