Catchfence

Gillian Zucker had it right after the Daytona 500 when she suggested making Fontana a restrictor plate track. But this Talladega weekend managed to put up competition that was eye-popping even by Talladega’s standards, and in the process rewrote the record book by posting motorsport history’s highest number of leaders – 28 drivers led at Talladega, a record eclipsing the previous mark, set twice at Talladega, of 26.

The number of leaders was astonishing enough; the sheer ferocity of the battle for the lead made it arguably NASCAR’s greatest race, as there were 64 lead changes to go with 28 leaders, the twelfth time this decade Talladega has broken 40 official lead changes, sixth time it has broken 50, and second time in three seasons it eclipsed 60. And it once again illustrates the inferiority of the level of competition on NASCAR’s non-plate tracks.

But it also illustrated some of the sport’s weaknesses, and those weaknesses appear in a listing of the varied winners and losers of Talladega’s October fest:

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BIGGEST LOSER, PART ONE - NASCAR’s credibility. This was the fifth time in the last ten Talladega races that the sagacity of a rule put in place for Talladega and nowhere else (other than Daytona) managed to become a frontline controversy. Usually the rule has been racing to the line when the yellow flies; in September 2003 Ward Burton grabbed the lead when Elliott Sadler slid into Kurt Busch and flipped well behind the field, but the pass was nullified by NASCAR’s then-new rule freezing the field; as result Michael Waltrip was put into the lead for the final sprint to the finish. The field-freeze rule became a huge controversy when Jeff Gordon was declared winner in April 2004 based on a scoring loop instead of position at the stripe, a situation repeated in October 2005 for Dale Jarrett (costing Tony Stewart a last-lap win) and October 2006 for Brian Vickers (costing Kasey Kahne a last-lap win). It also hit Daytona in the Firecracker 400 and stopped a drag race between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards for the win by giving the lead to Busch and is indirectly pertinent to the Talladega discussion..

This time around it was the yellow line rule that struck, as Stewart swerved Regan Smith onto the trioval apron and Smith beat Stewart to the flag. Smith said afterward that “anything goes” applies on the final lap, basing this on the response of NASCAR’s Ramsey Poston during Speedweeks 2007 that drivers can get that they can on the last lap. Jim Hunter of NASCAR released a postrace statement about the call, noting “NASCAR has to maintain some kind of control, and that’s the reason we say you cannot advance your position by going below the yellow line.”

It is here we need to stop, for the premise behind the rule is deeply flawed. NASCAR thinks it has to maintain some kind of control, but this is not an issue of legitimate control as much as control because of the sanctioning body’s obsession with control. A credible argument why it is NASCAR’s business to police racing below the yellow line to begin with has never been offered, by either the sanctioning body or the Race-Stream Media; one is hard-pressed to find any example of a crash that happene because of passing below the yellow line. The safety argument for policing the yellow line was all myth in the Regan Smith incident as there was simply no danger of a wreck from Smith’s pass.

The reponse, “Rules are rules” will likely be made, but in NASCAR, where the EIRI clause takes precedence over everything, rules notoriously AREN’T rules. In the case of racing below the yellow line, twice it won races for Dale Earnhardt Jr. – in the notorious 2001 Firecracker 400 Tony Stewart was flagged for passing below the line on the eastern short chute as he clawed toward Junior, while two years later at Talladega Junior blew past Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth on the apron of Turn Three without penalty.

The “rules are rules” response also suffers when the field-freeze rule comes into consideration – in Saturday’s Truck 250 several Trucks crashed on the final lap but no yellow flew – the field was in effect allowed to race to the flag. It was a situation repeated in 2004′s Firecracker 250 nd in 2007′s 500, scene of the famous “why wasn’t the yellow thrown?” argument. It was a case where a rule WASN’T a rule, as it was not applied where one would suppose it would.

The blunt truth is NASCAR has no defense of the rule or the way it is enforced, and yes, a driver with superstar status like Johnson or Junior would have gotten the benefit of the doubt if they were the one passing on the apron for the win.
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BIGGEST LOSER, PART TWO - The tire companies. In three big races over the weekend, exploding tires were a major factor in all of them. The ARCA 250 saw a plethora of blown Hoosier Tires, with rear tires semingly the common culprit. The Truck 250 saw far less tire trouble but it was still a concern. Then the AMP 500 saw a resurgence of Friday’s epidemic, this time with right fronts the common culprit.

It all took place on a track historically easy on tires, so easy that skipping tire changes has long been common with no one batting an eyelash.
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BIGGEST LOSER, PART THREE - The Chase. Nearly the entire Chase lineup crashed or had nothing with which to challenge at the end, and as a result any realistic hope of dislodging the point leader from here to the season’s end was ended.
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BIGGEST WINNER - Jimmie Johnson. Jaking it out back cost him a lap, but Lucky Dogs got him back on he lead lap; he raced to the front but couldn’t sustain it and finished a somewhat mediocre tenth. It can’t be considered an endorsement of the jake-it-out-back strategy seveal drivers espoused before the race because it didn’t work. But it was enough for Johnson to take a commanding point lead.
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WINNER - Tony Stewart. An obvious choice, and one stat is mind-blowing – Stewart led the most laps in the race – just 24.
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WINNER - DEI. Long under fire from Dale Junior fans for cheapness and amid the search or sponors for at least two of its cars, DEI rallied to a spectacular effort.
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WINNER - Petty Enterprises. Twice Bobby Labonte stormed into the lead; twice he was passed before getting to the stripe. He nonetheless proved anew what a racer he is and how underrated the team is. His brother Terry showed some fire himself before getting caught in the Brian Vickers melee but salvaged a top-18 finish.
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WINNER - Dodge. Bobby Labonte, Robby Gordon, and Elliott Sadler nailed top-tens while both Ganassi Dodges and Sadler teammate Kasey Kahne raced it out for the lead. The Vickers mess knocked out Kahne while Roush-Fenway Fratricide eliminated Ganassi’s Dodges in the final laps.
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LOSER - While Ganassi had a bad finish, Penske Racing never really got off the ground between Sam Hornish’s DNQ and engine trouble for Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

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LOSER - Outside of Jimmie Johnson Talladega was a house of horrors for Hendrick Motorsports. Casey Mears had his best opportunity to prove he can race, and didn’t exactly sparkle, though he certainly wasn’t bad. Jeff Gordon’s season of futility continued with a crash, while Dale Junior’s frustration continued with his first DNF of the year and his twelfth race since the Michigan win outside of the top ten – and fifth since then outside the top-20.
Thus wrapped up Talladega’s October feast of competition, a feast well worth gorging on.