News for March 9th 2010

Red Bull Racing Team race report

The spotters picked the holes. Brian Vickers and Scott Speed trusted the call and drove right through as both Red Bull Toyotas finished in the top 10 for the second time in three-plus years of Sprint Cup racing.

Vickers survived two overtime restarts and 16 extra laps to finish seventh in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 – 525, really – at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Not far behind was Speed, whose 10th-place finish was his best at a track not named Talladega.

The defining moment that gave Red Bull Racing Team its third-best combined result in history came on lap 332 – NASCAR’s first attempt at a green-white- checkered finish. Jamie McMurray had a smoky spin in turns three and four and collected five other cars. Right behind the mess in 14th and 15th were Vickers and Speed, and both made evasive maneuvers with the guidance their respective spotters. Chris Lambert sent Vickers up high near the wall, and Tim Fedewa helped Speed dive to the apron below.

Speed predicted the restart was going to be “a cluster,” and after the smoke cleared Vickers countered with, “That was straight up Days of Thunder.” But both cars made it through unscathed, and eventually the field strung together two clean laps to the checkered flag.

Vickers posted his first top 10 of the season, third in a row at Atlanta and fifth in the past six races there. He’s finished in the top 10 in half of his 14 starts at the 1.54-mile track. (more…)

Edited: March 9th, 2010

Should drivers speak up?

For the second time in less than a year at a high-speed NASCAR track a car has spun around, lifted off the ground, turned upside down and slamed into a retaining wall and catchfence.

At Talladega Superspeedway last year, it was Carl Edwards flying into the fence, nearly windshield first, with Brad Keselowski, the driver he’d just tangled with, going on to win the race. At Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday it was Keselowski flying upside down, almost head first into the wall, after contact, apparently intentional, from Edwards.

This time it wasn’t for the win. Edwards was 156 laps down and from all indications delivering payback for an earlier incident or incidents between the two of them.

The crashes may look exciting on TV, but in person, they’re sickening.

At Talladega, fellow reporter Monte Dutton and I left our seats in the press box and went to the crash scene below where we found a handful of battered and bruised fans who looked like they’d just lost a bar room brawl. Up at the top of the stands, a young lady was lying flat on her back on a stretcher attached to a rescue vehicle. She had bled enough from her jaw to turn a starched white towel nearly completely red.

NASCAR and track officials went out of their way to label the injuries “minor.”

At Atlanta, Keselowski’s car stayed out of the spectator area. Mercifully there were no injuries.

If there’s an upside to the crash at Atlanta it’s that it raised questions about the “Have at it, boys” approach to racing that NASCAR officials announced earlier this year.

Drivers and series officials spent most of the post-race news conference time answering questions about just how much wrecking is acceptable in the “Have at it, boys” era.

Is there a difference, from an enforcement standpoint, in wrecking someone at Martinsville at 90 miles per hour and putting them in the fence at Atlanta at 200? What kind of punishment, if any, can drivers expect? Will the sport continue to cater to a segment of the fan base – hopefully a small one – that shows up at the track or turns on the TV just to see bone-jarring, potentially deadly wrecks?

What all this calls for is some leadership from the garage – not NASCAR officials or TV commentators or even members of the press but veteran drivers like Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

They need to stand up and demand professional, civil behavior in the sport, and if they don’t they’re dishonoring the legacy of the people who helped bring NASCAR from the rough and tumble bullrings of the South to the national scene.

They need to stand up and tell their fans in no uncertain terms that the sport has been over-hyped. They need to spread the word to the public and to their younger peers that rivalries are good but irresponsible driving is not.

They need to tell their fans that the fact that the Car of Tomorrow is safer does not mean that a driver or fan won’t be hurt or killed.

They need to point out that NASCAR racing is about dueling for positions, with mutual respect among drivers, and strategy and doing everything possible on the track and on pit road to get the best result possible.

They need to use the media to get the word out instead of trying to spend as little time as possible with the press.

They need to explain to fans that just as motorists on the highway have to trust that oncoming drivers will stay in their lane and abide by the rules of the road, NASCAR drivers need to know they can do their jobs without worrying about a competitor having no regard for common decency.

They need to demand that something be done about the track at Talladega, where a “boring” race last year got all of this mess started.

Drivers and race teams and sponsors and promoters need to be prepared to run a race with a top driver sitting out a race as punishment.

Carl Edwards is a great guy, and has been one of the most helpful to many of us in the media over the years, but when a driver pulls a stunt like Edwards did at Atlanta he needs to sit out a race so he can rethink his and the sport’s priorities.

If he or any other driver is frustrated by pressure from his sponsors or team owners, the sponsors and team owners should back off and work on fixing whatever the problem may be.

For years, NASCAR has grown while portraying its athletes as role models and for the most part they have been.

But wrecking another driver intentionally sends a terrible message.

Demolition Derbies are amateur events that belong at county fairs or local short tracks.

NASCAR racing should be a professional sport. It’s time for its stars to step up and insist that it be that way. (more…)

Edited: March 9th, 2010

NASCAR centerpiece: Brad’s rough start

For a driver with just 21 Sprint Cup starts, Brad Keselowski has made a lot of enemies. And while the violence of his wreck at Atlanta was shocking – his flip into the fence caved the roof in around his roll cage – the dynamics of the crash surprised nobody. Said Juan Pablo Montoya, one of several drivers who have vowed to retaliate after run-ins with Keselowski, “I’m sure a lot of people wanted to pay him back. Looking at the TV (replay), somebody did.” So how did Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing No. 12, get to this point? (more…)

Edited: March 9th, 2010