Some Comments
Mobile Register:
Five days before the race, driver Tony Stewart accused NASCAR officials of “playing God,” saying they called for phony caution periods to shape races. What happened at Talladega? The yellow flag came out just after superstar Jeff Gordon made the race’s final pass into the lead.
Stewart backed off his comments comparing NASCAR to professional wrestling after meeting with top administrators and being fined $10,000 (not, a NASCAR official said, for criticizing the organization, but for skipping a press conference). Stewart said he no longer believed that NASCAR threw cautions for non-existent debris on the track.
Driver Jeff Burton said the bigger picture is the issue of the sport’s integrity.
“Certainly, one of the things that our sport has to have is credibility,” Burton said. “When the fans watch the races, they have to know that NASCAR doesn’t have an interest in one particular team. And anytime there is a hint of that, I don’t think it’s good for the sport, although this sport has to be willing to talk about the issues that people are talking about. I’ve watched shows where they’ll come right out and say, ‘If we can find a (piece of debris), we’re going to show it to you.’ Tony didn’t start that conversation. I don’t believe they’d throw a caution so Jeff Gordon could win.”
Valeria Wood at FemmeFan.com:
<That leads to the statements last week by Tony Stewart–who merely stated what has been said all along by many insiders, both racers and reporters, about NASCAR’s manipulating the races. Tony was roundly criticized by NASCAR for making ‘comments detrimental to the integrity of the sport’ and fined $10,000 and put on probation for skipping the post-race Phoenix media session. By Tuesday, Tony hadn’t cooled off much, which says that he was truly upset and angry at NASCAR’s mystery debris cautions which have plagued the Series for the past 3 or 4 years, affecting the outcome of races–so he made some statements comparing NASCAR to Pro Wrestling. Even the FOX Commentators were wondering where that phantom debris on the rack was. In other races, NASCAR waits to throw a caution while cars are wrecking left and right, then finally throws one after a lead change…or omits throwing one (as in the Mexico City Busch race), and the outcome is once again changed by the timing of the caution(s). I rather wish Tony HAD attended that Phoenix post-race media session–think what he might have said right after the race! As it is, he merely stated what literally thousands of fans, writers and racers have thought–and NASCAR, being the overbearing, ham-fisted, corpulent sanctioning busy-body that it is, took exception.
No one has come right out and said that races are fixed — and technically, I don’t believe they are BUT, I wrote a column about 8 years ago concerning how NASCAR could easily ‘weight’ the races — much like a handicapper does in a horse-race, by assigning different weights (heavier) to the more successful horses, in an attempt to bring all down to the finish line at the same time. Only, in NASCAR there is a perception–right or wrong–that certain drivers have a preferred edge, based on whatever scenario the sanctioning body wants to dictate. NASCAR made sure that Tony retracted his words. Perhaps it was a subtle threat about failing race inspections, a veiled insinuation about being singled out for pit road infractions…Yes, NASCAR certainly has the ability to manipulate races. And the most telling thing is that many folks either believe, or are starting to believe, that they really do this.