Catchfence

A cliche that needs to be banned is “Rubbing is racing.” It needs to be banned. The reason why showed up again in Miami as we saw yet again that in racing, as in anything else, stupid is as stupid does.

If you’re still wondering why Juan Montoya has just one NASCAR win and has been pretty much irrelevant to racing this decade, the reason why showed up at Homestead. They always say you have to use your head in racing – except it never registers with Montoya. It’s one thing to stand up for yourself, but to get repairs on your car just to go back out and cheapshot someone indicates there isn’t much head of his to use. It merely reinforces the garage view of him as a loose cannon, and if someone starts talking about his talent, don’t believe it.

The same applies to Tony Stewart. We of course have seen it many times before and the Firecracker 400 blast was egregious even by the standards of past incidents. He gets some extra love from fans because he’s an owner-driver – though even this is deceptive because his team is just a direct satellite outfit of Hendrick Motorsports – but it doesn’t change that he has the bully streak as a racer; it just took awhile for that to come out again.

This of course comes amid the burgeoning feud between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, a feud that erupted in the BGN 300. Between this feud and the Stewart-Montoya contretemps some are feeling it is what the sport needs as an injection of competitive fire.

It’s head-shaking – three weeks ago people were screaming about push-drafting at Talladega; now suddenly we hear the view that drivers wrecking each other is needed to inject some life into the sport. This is how much the sport has deteriorated – instead of wanting more lead changes, people want more wrecks to inject life into the sport.

Stupid is as stupid does. Some people in racing need to grow up; some people in racing need to be suspended for at least one race; and some people watching racing need to grow up. What we saw at Homestead exemplifies what kills desire in racing.