Internal peace and happiness-- and that, stock car fans, can only come from one place.
And there is judgment there as well, and consequences. Forgiveness, no doubt, but only if one is truly contrite, and Stewart
is anything but contrite at this point. In fact, like most people that are lost, he is a self appointed victim, and his emotional
life is heading off the cliff with his foot on the gas.
Forgiveness and responsibility for one’s actions are epiphanies that Stewart has
yet to learn, and may never learn. In the meantime, there are 43 other drivers on the track that are potentially at risk,
and conceivably spectators and track workers as well.
Mr. Helton, how is it that if you cross the yellow line at Daytona there is a penalty,
wreck or no wreck. If your tire rolls out of your pit box there is a penalty. If your car is one quarter of an inch too low
you are loaded on the trailer. Kevin Harvick was parked for a weekend for throwing entirely too much weight (that he did not
have) around in the NASCAR trailer.
And yet, both at Daytona and at Pocono, Stewart unarguably intentionally crashes someone
that he decides needs it, and he is docked only a lap?
NASCAR, Stewart needs help. By letting this slide, you are essentially enabling him and
the problem will only get worse. Further, we all have an angry side. Jeff Gordon among others has announced that if the new
game is all about aggression, he knows how it is done. Still, Gordon knows how to move them, not stuff them. There are other aggressive drivers out there (a pair of brothers
comes to mind) that understandably could think “Well, that is how Tony drives and it apparently is ok with NASCAR, why
not me?”
Do not misunderstand the potential problems, historically when NASCAR, or any other sanctioning body makes
judgment calls, it can be disastrous. Ask Ricky Rudd, he had a road course win taken away at Sears Point after a bump and run incident on the last
lap.
That said, this could very easily become an out of control
crash fest. It is time to stop it now, before someone gets hurt.
In a recent article (Jeff Gordon, MattKenseth, and The Rules of The Ring) it was written that with ten laps to go all bets are off on polite driving. Fair enough, but the line still has to be drawn
between the bump and run and putting someone into the wall intentionally.
The penalty should not be one lap, or even the “penalty box” for multiple
laps. The penalty for intentionally and blatantly trying to crash someone should be to be parked for the duration of the event.
That is, if you cannot race without trying to crash others at 200 or so MPH, you cannot
race. Tony—and others, may not like it, may not agree with it, may not see the error of their ways, but they would certainly
play nice if that was the consequence.
When Jeff Gordon nudged Matt Kenseth out of the way it was stated in this column that
NASCAR made the right call. At Pocono, they did not. We have a week off, to be followed by the rest of the season. And future
seasons after that. Mr. France, before we re-arrange the chase, let’s establish some real control over the competitors
right now, and everyone—ironically, especially Tony Stewart, will come out winners.
Questions, Comments;
Email Jay
The views and opinions in this article are
that of the writer and not necessarily that of SCR
2006 StockCar Review.
