How Stupid is NASCAR: Edition 3,503,069
Officials unsuccessfully tried to find the culprit who threw a piece of roll bar padding onto the track to intentionally bring out a caution flag during Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops 500.
The piece of padding was tossed from one of the cars during the race, but a NASCAR spokesman said a review of the film was “inconclusive” about which car it came from. The piece of padding forced a caution on lap 291 and allowed several trailing cars to catch up to the lead pack.
Jeffy Gordon said NASCAR didn’t try hard enough to find out who threw the padding out, and claimed that it affected the outcome of the race.
Gee, ya think? I’ll be the first to admit I’m… Not… The… smartest DZUS fastener rattling around the bottom of the toolbox.
However given the circumstances and the only possible scenario for not finding the perp - that he rode around since the opening lap with a piece per-staged “just in case” it was needed - I do believe I could have found him.
My first stop would have been with Reed Sorenson, he was caught at Texas pulling this stunt. A quick check of those “trailing cars” may have done it. Failing that, a through check of the remainder of the field should have pointed to the perp via damaged padding.
If no missing padding is found so be it. That along with, allegedly, no video evidence the case would be closed. As it stands NASCAR, once again, has egg on their face.
Not a good thing, even if it was Halloween, a holiday that many “celebrate” by egging people houses.
UPDATE: I haven’t seen the race yet, I’ll catch the rebroadcast in about 12 hours when it’s replayed here. According to this Jim Utter piece the NBC replays clearly show Robby Gordon tossing the offending padding out of his car. Robby says: “Who me!!!”
By coincidence he was a lap down at the time and received the Lucky Mongrel
Robby Gordon might be able to drive off road, but he can’t drive a stock car. He does, however, know how to cheat and lie, and he’s brought those skills to the NEXTEL CUP Circuit. He should be parked for the rest of the season for this infraction and his subsequent interview. The fact that NASCAR has decided to turn a blind eye to this has me very upset.
Marc, hear me out on this.
If I were to do this foam debris thing as a driver, I would not take it from the existing padding in my car. I would have had a piece hidden in my fire suit and then put it in the car for when and if it was needed. I may not be the smartest person on the Earth, but if I can think of this I’m sure other people can, mainly the likes of NASCAR drivers. So even if NASCAR did a rollbar inspection I doubt that they would find any missing pieces of foam in any suspected cars.
Am I off on another planet with this or what?
It’s classic Robby Gordon. Remember when he said on live TV, “Everyone thinks Michael Waltrip is this nice guy. But he’s not. He’s a piece of shit.”
Nothing would surprise me with RG. Nothing.
One has to remember, though, Dale Jr.’s stunt from a few years ago. He spun at Bristol to intentionally cause a yellow flag. He was about to go a lap down.
RG’s stunt was much safer than Jr.’s.
4ever3 — I agree with your assessment. It was kept in the car just in case it was needed. I’ll bet many drivers have similar items ready to go.