Published: August 07, 2007 11:02 pm            

De La BASTIDE: NASCAR officials made the wrong calls in Montreal

Gordon should sit at the Glen

There is only one word to describe the final laps of the first ever Busch Series race in Canada - fiasco.

The chief buffoon at Montreal was Robby Gordon for his antics at the finish of the event, but there were many more nominees for what took place.

It really all started when Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick decided to drive through the car of Scott Pruett. Harvick can be seen accelerating to make heavy contact with the back of Pruett’s car, which was slowing to negotiate a corner.

Harvick slammed into the rear of Pruett’s car, which caused a multi-car crash at the corner. Harvick, with the nose of his Chevrolet damaged calmly drove around Pruett and danced his way into third.

While all this was happening the main event was starting between Gordon and Marcus Ambrose. With caution flags visibly waving Ambrose spun Gordon. The only real question is was Gordon or Ambrose the leader at the time.

From this point on Busch series officials dropped the proverbial ball. To begin with Harvick, at the least, should have been penalized immediately for aggressive driving and sent to the end of the longest line on a restart or forced to pit for a one-lap penalty.

Ambrose deserved a penalty for spinning out Gordon after the caution was displayed and the field was frozen. Ambrose should have been placed as the final car on the lead lap.

Gordon should have been required to start in 13th, where he rejoined the field.

Instead Gordon decided that he didn’t belong in the 13th spot and ignored NASCAR orders and a black flag and opted instead to restart the race in second place.

It was no surprise when Gordon punted Ambrose on the restart, thus handing the win to Harvick.

What could NASCAR have done?

They could have red-flagged the race at this point and informed Gordon through an official that he had to fall back to 13th. If Gordon refused, then order him off the track, disqualify him and credit him with a 43rd place finish.

Instead NASCAR restarted the race with Gordon and Ambrose side by side, having to know that Ambrose was not going to survive the first few corners.

Gordon’s action were wrong, but so was those of the Busch series officials. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

NASCAR did park Gordon for the race at Pocono. He should be parked for this weekend’s activities at Watkins Glen, including his team’s race car. Maybe he should be parked for more than one more weekend of racing activities.

Does anyone doubt that there will be more fireworks during the Busch race on Saturday at the Glen? Will Pruett slam Harvick in retaliation? Will Ambrose decide to seek vengeance on Gordon or anyone driving his cars?

There are rules in some short track racing that a driver involved in a caution has to restart at the back of the field. NASCAR should have taken immediate action against Harvick, Gordon and Ambrose, failure to do so was an embarrassment to the sport.

It certainly seems that in NASCAR the inmates are running the asylum.

In other racing news

I was amazed that NASCAR decided to fine Tony Stewart $25,000 and 25 points for the use of an expletive during the victory lane interview following his win at Indianapolis.

The fault clearly rests with ESPN which decided not to use a delay on the victory lane interview, a practice it uses for in-car communications during a telecast. All NASCAR has to do is tell the networks to use a three-second delay during all facets of a telecast.

So far this season NASCAR has penalized 13 teams including 100-point penalties to Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip.

Busch’s penalty was deserved for almost running down one of Stewart’s pit crew members as was Waltrip’s, who was caught not once but twice with some mysterious substance (jet fuel?) inside the intake manifold at Daytona.

All those drivers except for Waltrip have a chance of making the chase for the championship. Other drivers in the chase that have been docked points by NASCAR include Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch.

The penalties are having an impact on the chase and with five races remaining, NASCAR is sure to continue the practice.

Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454 -8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com

        

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