nascar ended up with a corrupt race

For those unable to hear but are still interested. Here's some of what DW had to say .

DW says 'No acceptable excuse for what happened Saturday night.'

He said there have always been team orders but this was to the extreme.

He is saying that this has opened peoples eyes that this stuff goes on in the sport of NASCAR. He says that we all know that this kind of stuff goes on but that we never talk about it.

He said this time NASCAR was put in a position that they had to do something about it. He said their response was appropriate.

Calling it an 'ugly situation'.

Said he doesn't condone it or like it.

Said he spoke to Michael last night after the announcement and Michael was apologetic and upset about everything.

He thinks that the response from NASCAR is enough to deter this or something similar from happening again. We will see how the teams respond throughout the Chase.

That was the main part of what he had to say.
 
USA Today sports section.

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There was no way nascar could totally fix this mess. Who's to say Newman would have won with a slow pit crew anyway? How can we know if that yellow actually saved Gordon from a blowout? JJ's accident certainly benefited Gordon, was that investigated too?

What a mess.
 
There was no way nascar could totally fix this mess. Who's to say Newman would have won with a slow pit crew anyway? How can we know if that yellow actually saved Gordon from a blowout? JJ's accident certainly benefited Gordon, was that investigated too?

What a mess.
You really won't let the JJ blown tire go will ya?
 
It would not be fair to Logano to kick him out of the Chase because of something he had no part of; and to do that, the race results would have to be changed, and that gets NASCAR into too many hypotheticals about what MIGHT have happened had Bowyer's caution not come out. But there is no reason that NASCAR cannot just say, "okay, nonetheless, Gordon got screwed," and just add a 13th car to the Chase. NASCAR changes rules every couple of minutes anyway. Why not just do what would be truly fair, and add Gordon to the chase? Or disqualify Bowyer from the Chase, thus moving Gordon up. Gordon is getting the shaft, and Bowyer is getting no meaningful penalty. Keep working on it, NASCAR...
 
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It would not be fair to Logano to kick him out of the Chase because of something he had no part of; and to do that, the race results would have to be changed, and that gets NASCAR into too many hypotheticals about what MIGHT have happened had Bowyer's caution not come out. But there is no reason that NASCAR cannot just say, "okay, nonetheless, Gordon got screwed," and just add a 13th car to the Chase. NASCAR changes rules every couple of minutes anyway. Why not just do what would be truly fair, and add Gordon to the chase? Or disqualify Bowyer from the Chase, thus moving Gordon up. Gordon is getting the shaft, and Bowyer is betting no meaningful penalty. Keep working on it, NASCAR...
That's how I see it..
 
It would not be fair to Logano to kick him out of the Chase because of something he had no part of; and to do that, the race results would have to be changed, and that gets NASCAR into too many hypotheticals about what MIGHT have happened had Bowyer's caution not come out. But there is no reason that NASCAR cannot just say, "okay, nonetheless, Gordon got screwed," and just add a 13th car to the Chase. NASCAR changes rules every couple of minutes anyway. Why not just do what would be truly fair, and add Gordon to the chase? Or disqualify Bowyer from the Chase, thus moving Gordon up. Gordon is getting the shaft, and Bowyer is getting no meaningful penalty. Keep working on it, NASCAR...

Yep. But this is NASCAR. The biggest joke around.
 
Their decision was basically nothing more than a points update. They let the points do the work for them. There was probably no mathematical way to get Jeff into the Chase. I've only had one cup of coffee so far this morning so I'd be quite taxed trying to resolve this for them.

Upon further review . . .

it wouldn't have been that hard after all.

Correct me if I'm wrong but if they had hit Bowyer with an 80 point penalty instead of just 50, his point total prior to the reset would have dropped to 749, one less than Gordon's 750.

The standings would have been 9th-Logano-751, 10th-Gordon-750, 11th-Bowyer-749.

Having no wins under his belt would have left Bowyer SOL for a wild card spot, as those two spots would still go to Kahne and Newman.

go figure . . .
 
It's going to be difficult to put an objective penalty for something like this in the new rulebook.
 
Michael Waltrip in a FOX Sports story much earlier in the year:

“Our business model doesn’t work without us making the Chase,” Waltrip said. “We invest in our cars and our team and we tell our sponsors that with the way we built our team, we’re going to make the Chase, we’re going to win races.”
 
Unfortunately, as long as NASCAR employs gimmicks like the Chase and the wildcard (a gimmick within a gimmick), and tries to keep everybody bunched up as tight as possible in pursuit of a "Game 7" moment, this kind of stuff is going to happen.
 
It's a problem if a Nascar team's business model requires making the Chase. Especially since most of them won't.
 
Anybody remember Jeff Gordon spinning out Clint bowyer at Phoenix and ruining his chances at a title......payback no title shot for Gordon........ Stuff like this goes on all the time NASCAR has a strange way of dealing with this stuff.
 
If nothing else, this has given us the insanity of Stephen A. Smith expounding prophetically and with furious pomposity about Nascar.
 
So, he's not going to admit he spun on purpose? He's just gonna ... let people call him a liar to his face ... and offer vague, but not specific, apologies?
 
Bowyer not coming off too good here. Just insulted Craven. Said Craven couldn't understand the pressure of modern Nascar since he's old and the Chase didn't exist back in his day.

Odd media strategy by Bowyer.
 
There was no way nascar could totally fix this mess. Who's to say Newman would have won with a slow pit crew anyway? How can we know if that yellow actually saved Gordon from a blowout? JJ's accident certainly benefited Gordon, was that investigated too?

What a mess.


If Bowyer doesn't crash, there is no caution and Newman wins the race.. simple.
 
Bowyer keeps saying he owns up to what happened. But he kept refusing to admit what happened.

Strategy seemed to be 1) Let ESPN anchors and Craven insult him to his face as a liar and cheat 2) Offer vague, blanket apologies while admitting nothing 3) Congratulate self for taking responsibility and being a stand up guy 4) Say it's old news now, time to look forward.
 
Michael Waltrip in a FOX Sports story much earlier in the year:

“Our business model doesn’t work without us making the Chase,” Waltrip said. “We invest in our cars and our team and we tell our sponsors that with the way we built our team, we’re going to make the Chase, we’re going to win races.”


While this may be true, how does not having the chase effect the business model in a positive manner? No matter how good the title battle is, it's not likely to involve as many drivers in the end.. Three maybe four if Nascar is lucky. On a bad year, someone runs away with the title. I'm not a huge fan of the chase but I'm sure it works better for the sponsors to have the chase then not.
 
@nateryan
Next round of MWR's apology tour on TV: Bob Dillner apparently will have Michael Waltrip on "RaceHub" at 4:30 p.m. today.
 
Can anyone post a transcript of the Bowyer ESPN interview?
 
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