· Penalties have been stiffer than ever before. Using the same heavy handed “officiating”
as a 1950’s parent, NASCAR believes that the Teams and drivers respect a serious spanking—just look at the points
and $$ penalties as of late, and although I do not want to see parking a driver become commonplace, dangerous practices do
absolutely need to stop.
· Stewart needs a lesson as much as Busch does, and NASCAR will hope that he gets the
message—which I further believe will not happen.
· Bill France Jr. passed away this week. The powers that be have been very busy dealing
with that loss, and it has not only been time consuming, it is the reason that the penalty has not come down before now—NASCAR
did not want France’s funeral and remembrance sullied with all the controversy parking Kurt will cause.
But the funeral
is over for the man that did so much for our sport and Friday is qualifying day.
Kurt is going
to be getting a little surprise when he checks into Pocono International Raceway, and it will not be a happy one.
Or so I strongly
think.
We shall see,
but regardless of how the above prediction plays out, this article could have been written a little differently and titled
“Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart in ‘Dumb and Dumber Part II’”.
Both Mr. Stewart
and Mr. Busch went over the line. Ironically, when Kurt raced Ricky Craven at Darlington in 2003 there was plenty of paint being traded and sheet metal bent, but it was clean
hard racing and the best finish in memorable history—bar none.
But Stewart and
Busch were way beyond that. One of the “dirtiest” moves that a driver can make is to hit another car in the right
rear quarter panel—that guy is going into the wall, and hard.
Certainly Tony
feels justified, and claims Kurt caused the accident himself, but that is an excuse, and a thinly veiled one at that. In Tony’s
mind, Kurt “caused” the accident by not showing him “respect” for some time. The irony is that Tony
is a great driver, but he intentionally crashes someone often enough because they “made him” that he is not worthy
of that respect to begin with.
No doubt there
will be irate fans in both camps that respond to this article, but like the drivers themselves, nothing will be solved, and
no one wins, no one will admit wrong, not them, and certainly not this author.
2006 StockCar Review.
