NASCAR: NASCAR: Subway 400 - Rockingham

Yes, I saw it for sure,....and I was floored that he wasnt brought back in.

I was at a freinds house and hew was just as suprised.

www.nascar.com... index.html

"We got robbed in front of 100,000 people with their eyes wide open," Ganassi said before walking away.


The Rookie ran the stop sign too !

[Edited on 04/10/03 by smirkley]

Originally posted by smirkley


The Rookie ran the stop sign too !

Yeah, I realized that after I clicked your link and read the article. They are claiming Jamie McMurray should have won because the rook was as guilty as Kenseth. The guy even said that NASCAR has never overturned a decision on the winner and never will.

Do you think NASCAR will admit they are wrong or do you think they are not wrong?

I still don't like the short track races. Not sure why. Maybe there is too much turning. Or things seem slow since there tend to be more small incidents.

What is up with pitlane at 'The Rock'? That is horrid. Guess its better than having a front/back stretch pit lanes.

When it comes race time though, not sure you can get better commentators and track side people. They get so excited. It does rev ya up a little.

I still don't get it. The yellow flag should have cost Kennseth the race. He should have been on the tail end of the lead lap. I cannot ever rember seeing a call like this before.
I do know the samething happened to Jr. a couple of times late last year,and he was put a lap down. (because he was in the pits when a yellow came out)

Its the one thing about NASCAR that bugs the hell out of me. They are very inconsistient in rules and interpertation of them. More than anything,NASCAR needs to sit down and make rules that cannot be changed during a race. Just like every other sport.
They should put an * next to this win for Kennesth. He won by default.

I think nascar will admit that the rules need to be looked at.

And that's all you can squeez out of them.


The lack of a call on this reminds me of when Jeff Gordon was new, and it always seemed then that the official's were always looking the other way when he did something.

Bogus.

I didn't know about this until i read the thread.

This is a joke how can they let someone win like this when they did wrong?

When i used to watch F1 alot,similar things happened in there races but the result was always changed if a driver did wrong and fines and stuff were dished out.

How can they turn a blind eye to it?

Any updates on this story?

Do they even plan on reviewing the tape and issuing a statement?

They cant be so inconsistent with their rules and enforcing them, it will end up costing them their integrity.

nascar has always been know for their uhhh..creative reading of the rule book, as i understand this one when the yellow flag is thrown the cars are frozen in their position...right? now, lets say car a and car b are well out in front of the field, car a is pitted at the pit exit and car b is at the pit entrance, now the yellow comes out, since car a has crossed the start, finish line to get to his pit does this put him a lap ahead of the field???? think nascar needs to rethink this one

So far no news, which really usually means, the decision is made and final.

i really doubt that they will change the decision, they will probably come out with a rule tinkering before the next race

Originally posted by toejam
nascar has always been know for their uhhh..creative reading of the rule book, as i understand this one when the yellow flag is thrown the cars are frozen in their position...right? now, lets say car a and car b are well out in front of the field, car a is pitted at the pit exit and car b is at the pit entrance, now the yellow comes out, since car a has crossed the start, finish line to get to his pit does this put him a lap ahead of the field???? think nascar needs to rethink this one

Yeah, they gave us the frozen field rule during the race. I could live with it if they called it that way for every race. But they don't. That is why I am angry. I swear they just flip coins when it comes to make decsions or enforcing rules.

And don't get me wrong,Kennseth raced his guts out. I have no problems with anything he did. Ran that race almost to perfection. And it had a great finish. They don't get much closer.

Marty Smith, Turner Sports

Used to be that Kenseth and Kahne would have been caught a lap down. But under the updated scoring system instituted late last year, the field is frozen immediately at the time the yellow is displayed.

And in NASCAR's determination Sunday, the Nos. 17 and 9 teams had completed their stops, were off the jack and rolling when the pace car and McMurray passed them.

With each respective driver's position being frozen, NASCAR determined Kenseth and Kahne had not gone a lap down, but rather had remained at the tail end of the lead lap. So when McMurray and the rest of the leaders pitted, Kenseth and Kahne were cycled back into the first and second positions, respectively.

Confused yet? McMurray certainly was. After the race he sat frustrated and puzzled in the media center, unable to quantify how he wound up third in the running order following that scenario. But he wasn't mad. He said he had the third-best car.

His team owners, on the other hand, weren't confused in the least. In their minds, NASCAR screwed them over, plain and simple. Donnie Wingo, McMurray's crew chief, said at the very best Kenseth and Kahne should have restarted at the tail end of the lead lap.

But they didn't. They started out front, and went on to stage an epic battle that ended in one of the closest finishes in the sport's history.

But that's no solace to McMurray. He's still winless in the Havoline Dodge. Who's to say what would have happened had he restarted first? He may have run away with it, as he's prone to doing in Busch Series cars at Rockingham. Or he may have knocked the fence down trying to hold off Kenseth and Kahne on old tires. Who knows?

Not me. But I do know this: Racing back to the caution is awfully dangerous and had gotten way out of hand. So freezing the field is necessary. All said, there's no argument here. Given the black and white, NASCAR got it right.

But be prepared for some sort of rules alteration. NASCAR president Mike Helton admitted this was the first time they'd encountered such a situation. If I'm associated with Chip Ganassi Racing in any way, it's hard to accept the outcome of the 2004 Subway 400. I don't blame Ganassi, Sabates or Wingo for being ticked off.

Sounds like they are saying it was the right call as the rules are written and interpreted but that maybe the rule needs to be revised.

www.nascar.com...


Photo Finish