Seriously, what was the deal with Tony Stewart? Of all the people in the race that should have been careful he was by far the most reckless. First, he should have backed off on Gordon’s pass because it was so early. Instead, he clips Gordon and they both get jacked up. Then he chops down hard on Kenseth and basically ends his race. Then he gets into a battle with Kyle Busch and costs him the opportunity to win. In the meantime he has to make miraculous saves about 5 times during the race just to stay alive. Why? Because he got himself into some really bad situations, mostly of his making. He was vengeance driving all afternoon.
If you’re gonna blow the “someone’s gonna die” horn, it behooves you to be the safest guy on the track, not the guy that tries to prove the statement right.
Additionally, they need to start the race an hour earlier. This ending at night nonsense has got to go. This race was awful, especially for a Daytona 500.
The wreck with Gordon was about half his fault. Jeff said he was pushing coming off the corner, but Tony did have a nose in there.
The Kenseth wreck was crazy for both of them. Kenseth was leaning on him pretty hard before it, but Smoke didn’t have to spin him out. As for the incident with Dumbo Jr., he ran Tony down on the apron and didn’t seem to see a problem with it.
I’ll be impressed with Jimmie Johnson’s win IF the car passes inspection. They shouldn’t have wiped all that confetti off, because that was probably going to be the only thing that makes the 48 high enough to pass.
Also, can I just say that they should be racing back to the flag on the last lap no matter what? There’s no way they’re gonna be coming back through the wreck at speed, so just let them race to the flag and quit worrying about sorting the running order out on videotape.
And they easily could have dispensed with the Bon Jovi concert and started this thing an hour earlier.
My understanding is that the officials wouldn’t let the crew touch the car afterards, even to clean off the confetti.
Why wasn’t his car impounded like I forget who’s (Stewarts, last year?) when they got caught screwing with the rear window, and Johnson forced to run a backup car?
Also, why didn’t he have to start in row 22 at the begining of the race? He qualified in a car that was not upto NASCAR specs. Why washaving the crew chief ejected from the Daytona events the only action taken against him? Did he get fined/lose points?
Yeah, we missed the race start as a direct result of refusing to watch Buns Jovi.
Stewart’s drop to block Kenseth was unbelivably agressive. While Kenseth’s behavior coming out of the pit did provide some entertaining drama, it wouldn’t have been necessary had officials punished Stewart appropriately. Is it only time and position penalties handed out during the race or do they ever look back at film and impose fines or sanctions at a later date?
As we were cheering against #20 yesterday, I was doubting it was the kind of advertising publicity HD had anticipated. Left me wanting to buy a DeWalt drill, but only from Lowes.
I can’t find article now, but I recall reading yesterday that further action is likely. IIRC, Johnson may lose his first place standing as points are taken away and Knaus may not be able to return for a few more races.
As noted above, he probably will lose points over it. I just wanted to point out that he didn’t “qualify” in a car that wasn’t up to specs. He ran the Bud Pole qualifying in a car not up to specs. That time was disallowed and he had to run one of the 125s to earn his starting spot. Is anyone claiming that his car was also illegal during the 125?
I’d like to know how they get away with stating race times as they do. Heck, even with football, they kick off within about 5 minutes of the listed start time.
I’d love to a push for an actual posted Start Time. All else can be done during a pre-race show, just like other sports. To start the race 1+ hours after the posted time is criminal.
I’m of the opinion that the new rules suck, too. How about instead of having “bump drafting” zones, they remove the ‘cow catcher’ underside that’s in car’s nose? Make it so that if they bump-draft, they lose their aerodynamics and you’ll see them knock it off right quick.
Way to go, asshole. When are they going to actually penalize EVERYONE equally who rough rides, instead of seeming to pick and choose? I know they gave him a penalty, but simply sending him to the end of the longest line during a caution was too light, as shown in the fact that he still ended up in the top 5. Kenseth was forced to do a pit run during green.
He was going to have to anyway, because he wasn’t on the front row (although he was guaranteed to be in the field, so it didn’t really matter.)
Knaus needs to be suspended a hell of a lot longer than 4 races. This is his SEVENTH infraction, 5 of which have come as crew chief of the 48. He needs to be gone at least 6 races, maybe 8. Forget “treating each infraction seperately,” this guy’s a recidivist when it comes to the rulebook.
And NBC is the worst about having a ton of prerace crap. Fox always manages to make do with only 30 minutes of prerace, which is fine. NBC was up to an hour at the end of last year, and it was all worthless.
Jeff Gordon fan, so I’m probably predisposed to hating Pudge. Every year he does something that will make me grudgingly admit he’s a great race driver. But the rest of the year the fucker pulls shit like this that reminds me what a douchebag he is.
After getting in the wall with Gordon, Gordon acts professionaly and cool-headed when he radioed in that it was probably 50-50 as to whose fault it was. Shitheel, of course, radioes in that he was completely innocent.
What the connsumate professional. I can appreciate what he does as far as the charity work. However, I’m now convinced it’s not done because he’s a nice guy. It’s done to deflect what a fuckstick he really is.
I’ve also chosen Lowe’s over Home Depot generally, I’m at the point now that I will never step foot in a HD while he’s driving the car.
NASCAR fans are a very loyal bunch. I refused to consider Cingular service only because Robby Gordon drove the car. Now that he’s out, we have Cingular service.
I have a feeling there are many people that will no longer shop HD.
And some people, like myself, hate shopping at Lowe’s.
Was Smoke out of line in some of those incidents? Yes. But you can’t deny that Kyle Busch was driving way over his head when he threw two blocks and nearly ran him down on the apron on the backstretch. The Gordon wreck should have been avoided, and the Kenseth wreck was a case of tempers on both sides getting too hot.
And I think we can all agree that Robby Gordon is a schmuck.
Actually, Gordon has become a lot more palatable since he stopped claiming that God wanted him to win races.
As to Smoke, I think he is an excellent driver and a piss-poor human being. Hasn’t he learned anything from the much-publicized anger management courses he has taken? If he is supposed to become the next Dale Earnhardt he is going to have to learn to intimidate his opponents a lot more subtly. Talk about blatant! Running another car off the track with the entire TV audience watching!
