Wow what to say regarding the state of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup right about now. There are so many things to touch on.
Let’s start with the bright spot, and yes there is one. All season long right after my wife would ask me if the race was over yet, the second question she would utter was if Jeff Gordon was going to win a race in his last season? Well the answer is yes, and what a great moment it was.
Tony Stewart tweeted on Sunday night that Gordon’s win at Martinsville with hardly any remaining sunlight on the track was the best moment of the 2015 season. I have to wholeheartedly agree with Smoke. By far Gordon’s 93rd Sprint Cup victory, which clinches his spot in the Championship Four at Homestead, was the best moment of the year and maybe of this decade. The crowd went wild, tears were shed…
For a future NASCAR Hall of Famer, a 5-time champion, to go out with barely a whimper would have been really sad. We’ve seen it happen before. But Gordon, his crew chief Alan Gustafson, and his team kept fighting, and that hard work and persistence paid off with a huge win, his ninth career grandfather clock at the paper clip. To say Gordon was elated is an understatement.
“I cannot believe it,” Gordon said in the media center.
“This is turning into one of these just incredible storybook finishes to this year, to this career. Of all years, I mean, of all years, I cannot believe this. I’m so excited it’s happening in this year.
That was clutch. That was huge. Yeah, we had a few things that fell in our favor. But you got to be there and be ready for that moment when it comes, and we were.”
Sure Gordon was in the right place at the right time when Matt Kenseth took out leader and Chase dominator Joey Logano, but he still had to hold off Jamie McMurray. And all Gordon fans know that restarts are not exactly his strong suit. He battled McMurray on a green-white-checkered finish and pulled away from him on the final lap to preserve the win.
Other than Dale Jr. qualifying for the final race with a chance to win the title, this is the best NASCAR could have hoped for this season. All year tracks have been saluting Gordon with presentations and painting his number into their infield grass. There was a time when no one even knew for sure that he would qualify for the Chase in his final go around. Now his shot at Homestead on November 22nd will be a media frenzy and he attempts to hit his final shot and go out on top like Jordan once did.
More on Gordon as we head into the final weeks of the season.
MARTINSVILLE, VA – NOVEMBER 01: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, makes contact with Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway on November 1, 2015 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
Now to Matt Kenseth. As I write he has been suspended for two races because of his actions in wrecking Joey Logano while Logano led the Martinsville race. The incident occurred while Kenseth was not running on the lead lap after an incident between him, Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski, and Kurt Busch. It was believed to be in retaliation for Logano spinning Kenseth while racing for the win at Kansas two races ago. Kenseth needed to win that race to advance into the next round and therefore he is no longer one of the eight eligible to advance to Homestead.
There is not enough space to cover everything in just one blog entry, but here we go. I do not totally think Matt Kenseth was in the wrong for what he did. Should he have been suspended? Absolutely. I was surprised that NASCAR is letting him race again in 2015.
I also don’t think Logano was at fault and did not deserve to be wrecked out of the lead and possibly a trip to the championship round. Kyle Petty was being a bit extreme when he made his very strong “this is complete BS” comments in the post race. Kyle this is not the first time something like this has happened in racing and it certainly won’t be the last so questioning Kenseth’s integrity like he’s the first driver to intentionally wreck another (Dale Earnhardt Sr.) is just plain wrong. But obviously Kyle has a famous father and he’s entitled to his opinion. Are both drivers innocent? No. But Matt Kenseth certainly did not embarrass NASCAR, nor did Joey Logano, and neither did Brad Keselowski when he went on a wrecking tour during the Chase last year.
In my opinion, NASCAR has brought this on themselves and instead of gaining attention for the drama-filled “playoffs,” they’ve lost some loyal racing fans with their inconsistent penalties and racing standards.
When NASCAR reevaluated the Chase a few years ago they decided on this elimination format. It was met with a little skepticism, but the thought was to bring about some excitement. What it has brought is an insurmountable amount of pressure to the drivers and the real possibility that a year’s worth of tireless work will go down the drain in an instant. Every bump, every flat tire, every $5 broken part, and every half a second lost in the pits affects whether or not your championship hopes live or die. It’s too much. It totally speaks to the will power of the crews of both teams that a brawl did not break out in the pits after the crash.
I know the sanctioning body and Brian France are looking for excitement during a time in the season where football overshadows every day that the cars are on the track on every weekend, but it’s gotten a little ridiculous. I still don’t understand the logic behind changing the number of green-white-checkered attempts before the Talladega race, which led directly to controversy with the end of the race.
This inconsistent rule-changing nonsense is especially true when in 2010, France imposed a new “boys have at it” rule in which the drivers could police themselves on the track. But now all of a sudden it’s not okay to take it upon yourself to voice your displeasure with some contact?
Brian France and all of NASCAR needs to take a long, hard look at to whether this type of win or go home format survives in 2016. If Kenseth still had a shot at the championship, which he would under the old points format, he would not have risked that to invoke revenge on Logano.
Bottom line: if you are going to eliminate drivers in a playoff format, be prepared for emotions to boil over and split-second decisions to be made. Maybe Kenseth regrets his actions today, maybe not. But he knows that Logano is directly responsible for eliminating him from the Chase. That is a fact. Seeing Logano win three races in a row and about to watch him win another after being taken out this time by Logano’s teammate was just too much for Kenseth to take, and he wrecked him. Don’t we remember last year when Kenseth got together with Kevin Harvick at Martinsville and Harvick vowed that Kenseth wouldn’t win the championship? And can we talk about the other elephant in the room, that drivers who already have advanced to the next round, could be working to “eliminate” other drivers who are a threat to them in the future rounds? No one will ever admit it on the record, but you better believe it’s crossed their minds.
I never thought I’d say this, but as you can tell I’ve got some issues with NASCAR right now. Three races remain and it’s still looking like the championship race is going to be quite entertaining, especially with the Gordon storyline, but things are far from perfect and everyone knows it. I don’t want to see 43 cars running around single-file for four hours next season and I surely don’t wanna see a driver run away with the points championship, but at this point I can do without the Chase. Maybe my opinion will change in the coming weeks.
(Above Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
Speed For Thought 