At the Track

We'll note happenings at the national and local levels of racing.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Now, don't play too hard, boys...


When you say, boys have at it, well, expect some bumping, banging, shoving and well, wrecking.

Dale Earnhardt must be spinning in his grave (no pun intended).

How far is too far? When does it become rage?

A year ago, NASCAR director of competition Robin Pemberton stood in front of 100 people at Joe Gibbs Racing at the Official NASCAR Members Club annual convention and said he can tell when a driver crosses the line. There are cameras everywhere in and around the cars on the track and he can see it in driver’s eyes.

I’ll give him that much. He can see the anger and premeditation on the monitors in the big red truck, which, by the way, is actually black.

But come on, tell them have at it, then when they do, act surprised at damaged cars?. Seriously? You couldn’t see flying cars and massive pileups coming?

Please. There are 43 cars driving well over 100 miles per hour, 200 mph sometimes, and you don’t think a little bump will send someone into the wall, the fence or infield?

Really?

If Carl said he wasn’t at fault I tend to believe him. He’s not ducked wreck-related issues in the past. He manned up a year ago after wrecking Kyle Busch and said, yeah, I did it. If the tables were turned he’d have done it to me.

And we all KNOW he was right, Kyle would have done it to him, and has. There's a lot of money on the line. Points and championships are fine, but a couple hundred thousand dead presidents on the line? Whatever means necessary within the law.

So who’s the villain here? Not Carl. I’d tag Brad Keselowski on this one. His aggressiveness is no different than that of Kyle Bush a couple years ago. We’ve seen Kyle hung in effigy at Bristol. He’s embraced the hatred. Maybe Brad should, too. Don't whine and send your daddy in (we've seen Danica's dad do that in Indy League). In a year or so, Brad merchandise will fly out of the souvenir haulers.

Am I saying no fault anywhere? No. Carl is a bully, on and off the track. Just because you’re built like Rambo doesn’t mean you can beat up everyone who steps in front of you in the jungle.

A lot of guys in the garage are saying they took it too far this time. OK, maybe they did. I personally don't really think so, but maybe they did, I wasn't on the track collected in a huge wreck, either. I drive an 11-year-old Taurus on I-64, not a million dollar racecar on a superspeedway.

I’m just saying turn about is fair play. You push me, I push you. Run with the big dogs, expect more than snarling.

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