Nascar

[Tybo]

MAN, Mark was ()this close.

Thought for sure he was going to pull one off.

Good for Harvick.

One heck of finish.

[danc]

Twas a great 500.

[Bernie]

Man...where did Harvick come from? Thought Mark had it in the bag!....Sad for Mark . O well----thats racin'

[Deano]

Great race, now that was an exciting 500. Most of previous winners ended up with DNF's. Mark Martin losing by a fender, Boyer crossing the finish line upside down, man what a finish.

[Gerry]

Yeah, it was a memorable finish especially with Boyer crossing the finish line upside down and on fire. Too bad for Mark Martin, he certainly was the sentimental favorite.

[Chris]

Unfortunately, there will be a lot of controversy over the officiating at the end of the race. According to NASCAR's own rules they are supposed to drop the yellow flag as soon as an accident starts to take place and the cars are to slow down and hold their positions past the start/finish. This was not done. I'm impartial to either Harvick or Martin, BUT......rules are rules and NASCAR already has a bit of a reputation for inconsistancy in applying their rules. The NASCAR boys are saying the fans don't like to see a race end under caution, but what about Martin's fans....he could've been the real winner. The NASCAR boys were saying that throwing the caution would've created an unsafe situation for the drivers as many of them would have lifted off of the gas pedal, creating more of a wreck. This is faulty reasoning.....they throw the yellow during the race all the time. If anyone watched Dave Despain last night the majority of fans that called in or emailed thought NASCAR did the wrong thing by not dropping the yellow. Normally when the yellow drops the field holds their position and slows AND THEN safety crews are dispatched to the wreck. In last night's final lap mellee one car slid hundreds of yards on it's roof, on fire and no safety crews were dispatched until AFTER all cars crossed the finish line. So is NASCAR saying that giving the fans a finish under green is MORE important than the safety of the drivers???

[bowshep]

NASCAR is just shooting themselves in the foot with their hypocricy. They can't even govern the basic rules, their were alot of pit infractions that were not penalized mostly speeding is the pit lane, some of those cars were comming is so hot that they locked up their tires yet the number of drivers penalized were small, how many black flags were their. Also with the smaller fuel cels the pit crews are in greater danger of being hurt. Its bad enough that some people in USA are tampering with our frozen pond play to convince people that they should not be at the beach but at an arena but now they are damaging the great game of stock car and that l put all onto NEXTEL. Peace.

[misfish]

Nice to see that Jimmy J was driving so clean out there..................................GOOF.

[Corey]

Ya that sucked. I am a huge Mark Martin fan. They should have thrown the caution. He deserved the win, especially considering how long he has been in the game and is finishing up his career.

[muskieb]

Here is an interesting question.

 

How many people would be questioning Nascars lack of a caution if the tables were turned and Martin edged out Harvick for the win? I bet the media coverage would be totally different.

 

Thought it was interesting that the Speed networks coverage for the half hour following the race included an interview with Mark Martin, but didn't include as much as a blip of an interview with the winner of the race.

[Chris]

How many people would be questioning Nascars lack of a caution if the tables were turned and Martin edged out Harvick for the win? I bet the media coverage would be totally different.

 

muskieb, I don't think it really has anything to do who won the race. NASCAR made the rule to prevent drivers from racing back to the start/finish line while there were wrecked cars on the track. In yesterday's race there were cars racing for position while cars were wrecking in front of them. It's all about driver safety.

[Joey]

I totally agree ChrisS. I felt there should have been a caution. They have to stay consistent. It's almost as bad as watching hockey and the ref's favor one team and penalize another throughout the game. It's not really a game then is it.

 

Joey

[muskieb]

I do understand the purpose of the rule and support it 100%. I can't imagine sitting out on the track in a destroyed vehicle while cars thread the needle at 180mph to try to better their position. It was a great decision for NASCAR to implement that rule.

 

I will say however that my question remains, as I can't see the media voicing much displeasure if mark Martin had raced his way to his first Daytona 500 win.

 

Just a Harvick fan here playing devils advocate.

[Guest Trophymuskie]

Hey the rules state when there is an accident caution is thrown right away and positions are awarded at the last timing line crossed.

 

Now the accident happened way before the finish line so yes a caution was warranted. For safety for sure but even forget about the winner as Mark Martin still got second place but think of all the other guys out there that lost a lot of positions as there was nearly 40 cars behind the crash.

 

When the third and forth place cars crash it messes up all the other positions behind them. These guys are in the big leagues and can you imagine how much money some of them lost and may even lose more in the end because NASCAR screwed up?

 

Definitely was an exciting race with a wicked finish but I am very disappointed with NASCAR messing up such a clear black and white call.

 

P.S. I am not a Mark martin fan but he was driving a Chevy. Can you imagine winning the Daytona 500 in his first ride in a Chevy? Goes to show how good those cars are.