Here it is..
This week in baseball, several clubs in critical pennant races will find themselves playing against teams doing nothing more than playing out the string.
Now imagine, if you will, those underdogs laying down their bats, refusing to field a team, and just forfeiting the win to the more competitive club, claiming there's no need to even compete since their opponent is the one who has something to play for.
Get the picture? If you do, then check out this radio conversation, obtained by SI.com, that occurred between Casey Mears, crew chief Darian Grubb and spotter Chuck Joyce in the final laps of last Sunday's race at Dover, the second of NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Championship playoff. At the time, Mears was fifth, while Cup teammate and Chase contender Kyle Busch was nursing a damaged race car to sixth, on the lead lap but trying hard to gain as many points as possible:
Darian Grubb: "Alright [Casey], we're going to be sitting in 5th here ... and the No. 5 came in and pitted, he's got some damage. If he gets to us, we'll probably let him go on the last lap, let him get in front of us for that position. But if you can pass cars, pass cars."
Casey Mears: "10-4. Why is that? Just because of the points deal?"
Grubb: "Yeah, 10-4. It's only for one position there. We're racing the No. 16 ... so if you can pass the No. 8 and the No. 16 and go get that, we're all for it, but if we're not going anywhere and the No. 5 is still behind us, we'll give him that position."
Mears: "10-4. We've got pretty good tires here, so we should be able to go."
The conversation appears to indicate Mears had a car that could move to the front. But, fast forwarding to later in the radio transmission ...
Chuck Joyce, Spotter, No. 25 car: "Lead him around you, buddy. Lead him around you. Help the No. 5 out. Help the No. 5 out. Inside with the No. 31."
As the checkered flag flew, it was Busch, not Mears, coming to the finish line first, finishing fifth. Mears dropped back to the final car scored on the lead lap:
Grubb: "Good job, buddy, good job. Hate having to do that, but it's going to be good for everybody. Appreciate it, man. Sixth place."
After a pause, Mears: "I hate that now that I did that. I guess that's a team deal, but I don't like that. At all."
Grubb: "10-4 man, 10-4. We know that, but they're all coming and thanking us already. So we gotta do what we gotta do here."
Mears: "10-4. I understand it. I just ..."
Grubb: "10-4, man. Just when you think about it, remember who's going to be here next year."
It's unclear what Grubb was referring to with his last comment; neither he nor Mears was available at press time on Tuesday, as both men were busy doing tire testing for Goodyear down at Daytona. That leaves one to judge on his or her own principles whether doing such a thing is fair to the sport.
A Hendrick Motorsports spokesman told SI.com the car owner was likely not in attendance Sunday, making it next to impossible he could have phoned in any sort of directive through the No. 25 team.
In Hendrick's defense, this isn't the only incident to be reported so far in the playoffs; on Inside Nextel Cup last week, Greg Biffle strongly hinted that Roush Fenway asked him to ensure that he finished behind Carl Edwards in 13th place, while Edwards soldiered on to 12th ... gaining valuable points for his championship bid, integrity be damned.
More and more, these favors have become interwoven into the fabric of NASCAR playoff culture. It's an emphasis likely gleaned from a Hendrick marriage turned ugly divorce last season, when departing non-Chase driver Brian Vickers won his first career race at Talladega during the playoffs -- by spinning out teammate and championship contender Jimmie Johnson in the process. That wreck could have very easily cost Johnson the title, and shed light on how members within one's own organization could be the gun that shoots you in the foot when racing for the Nextel Cup.
Part of the problem is pitting drivers with different agendas against each other on the track. The basic concept of racing is for every man trying to finish ahead of 42 other cars; however, the Chase creates a divide between 12 "haves" and 31 "have nots." For the "have not" cars, their goal throughout an entire 400-mile event remains simply to win; but for the 12 Chasers, consistency proves paramount, as any point earned for finishing up front could make the difference in who comes out on top in the quest for the title.
Clearly, those different roles can cause conflict, calling into question the realities of how teams with different goals can all play fair together in a playoff format.
Yet another example of this occurred last Sunday afternoon, when Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin fought for the same spot on the race track -- and neither won. Both cars wrecked, turning them into a hunk of steaming sheet metal; of course, that's not the only thing that was steaming by the time both drivers were all said and done. Irritated over the incident, Petty found Hamlin still sitting in his car back in the garage, and incited a verbal shouting match that all but turned physical. For Hamlin, it put his Chase chances in serious jeopardy. As the one man out of the two competing for the title, he felt that gave him an extra degree of courtesy he never received.
"We're racing for bigger and better things," claimed the sophomore driver. "Hopefully, one day, if [Petty gets] it turned around, I can exchange the favor. But right now, we're the guys racing for the championship, so you know, [he should] heed a little bit."
Huh? Should the Nationals heed a few runs to the Mets just because they're trying to win the NL East? Hamlin's reaction held no claim to the basic principles of fairness and competition, something Petty felt got lost in the process of both cars hitting the wall.
"I just told him 'he is in the Chase and I'm not'," said Petty of his altercation in the garage. "That's how simple it is. It's a shame that a guy with that much talent has to drive like that."
Meanwhile, Petty was involved in a race of his own; his team sits precariously at 34th in owner points, trying desperately to hold onto a top 35 qualifying exemption that gets him into the Nextel Cup race each weekend. It's as important an agenda as Hamlin's playoff push to Petty's team; who's to say they should give a little more on the race track?
This whole ordeal is unfortunate; last I checked, sports was about the concept of letting the best man win. Not "the best man who gets everyone around him to back down" or "the man who's nice to his teammate, so he lets him by as a courtesy." Anything less threatens the very basis of competition on which racing is founded ... unless NASCAR's goal is to increasingly liken itself to the WWE.
NASCAR public relations was unavailable for comment at press time on this issue. Hopefully, they'll speak on it soon enough, before playoff races become in more serious jeopardy of being manipulated to the point of no return. Right now, it's not too late; but it soon could be.
