NASCAR ends up with even more controversy
NASCAR certainly got plenty of publicity from the toime qualifying started to the end of the Daytona 500. Most of it isn't the kind of publicity NASCAR would want, writes David Newton.
Harvick Wins His First Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- "I don't know what started it, but everybody kind of started getting crazy there at the end."
Casey Mears was talking about the last 43 laps of Sunday's Daytona 500.
He just as easily could have been talking about the Past week and a half at Daytona International Speedway.
The festivities surrounding Speedweeks began with a rather uneventful victory by Tony Stewart in the Budweiser Shootout. They concluded with a controversial finish by Kevin Harvick over Mark Martin.
In between there were more fines, penalties and suspensions than "Judge Judy" could pass out in a month.
The key word was cheating, not racing.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition, visited the media center more often than drivers to explain the latest infraction. He got almost as much air time as Harvick, who won Saturday's Busch Series race in addition to Sunday's Cup race.
Had Martin challenged the finish, he would have gotten an explanation as to why the field wasn't frozen, making him the winner with cars spinning out of control behind him.
He could have, to. The situation wasn't much different than two years ago at Talladega Superspeedway when the field was frozen on the final lap with Dale Jarrett slightly ahead of Stewart.
In a sadistic way, it was the perfect ending to a week in which perfection was defined by the stiffness of the penalty.
This was not the kind of publicity NASCAR wanted or needed to start the season. As spokesman Jim Hunter said late last week, "cheating" is an ugly word and nothing good comes of it.
And while Harvick's win had nothing to do with cheating, Martin surely must feel he got cheated out of the victory. In his own words over the car radio as he crossed the finish line, "They waited, they waited. I can't believe they waited."
It's hard to believe a lot of things that happened the past week. Let's rehash in case you forgot:
Sunday, Feb. 11: Pole Day
- NASCAR announces the No. 55 Toyota of Michael Waltrip has failed post-qualifying inspection because a foreign substance is found in the intake manifold. The manifold is sent to the Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., and the car is impounded.
- NASCAR announces the No. 9 Dodge of Kasey Kahne and No. 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth have failed post-qualifying inspection because an uncovered hole near the rear wheel well could create an aerodynamic advantage.
Tuesday, Feb. 13: First Penalty Day
- NASCAR announces that the crew chiefs for Kahne and Kenseth have been suspended for four races, fined $50,000 each and their drivers penalized 50 championship points.
- NASCAR also announces that the crew chiefs for Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs have been suspended for two races, fined $25,000 each and the drivers docked 25 points.
Wednesday, Feb. 14: Second Penalty Day
- NASCAR announces crew chief David Hyder and competition director Bobby Kennedy for Michael Waltrip have been ejected from Daytona and suspended indefinitely. Hyder also is fined a record $100,000. Waltrip is docked 100 points and forced to go to his backup car.
- Owners Ray Evernham (Kahne, Sadler and Riggs) and Jack Roush (Kenseth) begin the day by addressing accusations made against their teams on Tuesday.
- Embarrassed by the negative publicity Toyota has gotten in its debut on the Nextel Cup, an official says any Toyota team that flagrantly violates the rule risks losing manufacturer support.
Thursday, Feb. 15: Third Penalty Day
- NASCAR announces that Jeff Gordon's car failed postrace inspection after he won the second of the 150-mile qualifying races and the four-time Nextel Cup champion is forced to start one spot from the back of the 500 field in 42nd. The incident is ruled unintentional, but Gordon is put on the offensive while defending the integrity of his team.
- All three of Waltrip's Toyotas get into the Daytona 500 in the first qualifying race. Many are baffled that Waltrip will start 15th after being accused of a flagrant violation and Gordon 42nd for an unintentional violation.
Sunday, Feb. 18: Race Day
- NASCAR denies Martin, 48, his first win in the Daytona 500 by opting not to throw the caution and freeze the field for what turned into an eight-car accident coming off Turn 4 on the final lap.
Officials say Harvick and Martin were allowed to race to the checkered because cars didn't start spinning until the top two cars crossed the finish line. Replays appear to show what Jeff Burton called "carnage" started before that.
Martin accepts the decision.
"Nobody wants to hear a grown man cry, all right?" Martin said. "That's what it is. And I'm not going to cry about it. This is what it is, and that's it. That's the end."
But is this the end of negative publicity that has overshadowed the beginning of a season that NASCAR chairman Brian France painted so positively in his state-of-the-sport address?
Probably not. There's sure to be controversy in four weeks when the Car of Tomorrow becomes the Car of Today at Bristol. There's the ongoing investigation to find out how the foreign substance got into Waltrip's car.
"Well, there has been a lot of things go on this week," Harvick said when asked if the close finish will help people forget about the cheating. "Some of them were probably a little bit further than the rest of us ever thought it would go.
"Anytime there's a good race on the racetrack, it helps mend things. But I think it's still going to take a little bit to get over some of the issues that happened."
As Mears said, it got crazy.
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
