What’s Wrong With Sports – The Attitude of NASCAR

NASCAR needs to look in the mirror. The intentional wrecking, the pit lane melees, the 20-car crashes…it needs to stop NOW. Somebody is going to get killed.

In Sunday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway, tempers flared on and off of the track. Chase competitors Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon touched late in the race while battling for fifth place. The incident caused Gordon to lose some ground. He retaliated on Bowyer by intentionally putting him into the wall, ruining Bowyer’s chance of being able to race for the Championship next week at Homestead.

The feud on the track led to punches in pit lane. Gordon and Bowyer’s crew broke into an all-out melee after the crash. Bowyer himself sprinted from his car straight to Gordon’s team truck before being stopped by NASCAR personnel.

It needs to end.

Jeff Gordon said after a big wreck (I think at the beginning of this season) in a restrictor plate race that the crash “was fun!” That wreck took over a dozen cars out of the race, including Gordon, who were nowhere near the main part of the crash. It baffles me that Gordon flipped upside down four times in that crash, yet says it was “fun” to be in that wreck.

I’m glad these cars are safe for the drivers. But maybe they’re too safe? When 180 mph bullets are going down the track and drivers are using them as weapons against their enemies, it’s a miracle serious injury or death hasn’t occurred.

Flash forward again to Sunday’s race. On the last lap, something breaks on Danica Patrick’s car and she spins out. Her car is leaking fluid and her crippled machine is coasting across the finish line as the field quickly catches up (packed together in a green-white-checkered). Again, over a dozen cars wreck, mainly from slipping on the oil left from Danica’s car. Danica herself was a sitting duck and got pummeled by the spinning out cars as they crossed the finish line.

NASCAR officials are heading down a very slippery slope (pardon the pun) with how they let their drivers race. It’s one thing to be aggressive, but another thing entirely to intentionally wreck somebody. It’s one thing to encourage excitement with a green-white-checkered and wanting there to be a race to the line, but safety has to come first. It’s one thing to want tight-knit, bumper-to-bumper racing, but it’s another to put everybody within an inch of each other so if one crashes then they all do.  Lack of concern for the driver here is evident.

That lack of concern leads to drivers taking matters into their own hands with no fear of penalty – no fear of penalty by NASCAR, no fear of their own well-being. Gordon said after the race that he was taken out of races this year many times by Bowyer, and he simply had had enough and was returning the favor.

I hope NASCAR returns the favor with a huge fine on the four-time champ, but I doubt it will happen.

Then, like all grown men do when they don’t get their way, they start throwing haymakers. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? This sort of thing just sickens me. 

Stock Car racing was built on fighting.  That’s what the fans want to see apparently. Sportscenter talked more about the fight (which is becoming a regular occurrence on the NASCAR schedule) than the race itself. Thus, nothing will change by people getting hurt with such blatant acts. 

Series points leader Brad Keselowski called the race an “embarrassment.” He got exceptionally heated when talking about out-of-control drivers. Last week, a hard-racing Keselowski was bashed by fellow racers for being out of control at Texas. Some even said he had a death wish. What he did last week was nothing compared to the death wish that Gordon, probably the biggest gentleman of the sport, had Sunday at Phoenix. And it's a miracle that the points leader didn't get caught up in either of the two incidents.

But again, the crashes and the fights are what the fans want. So a smart CEO won’t change a product unless there is a demand for it. That means more “big ones” on the track, more brawls off of the track, and intentional crashes year-round.

One of these times, that intentional wreck is going to leave somebody dead. And when it does, I’ll say I told you so.

Things don't change until something tragic like death occurs. That is what’s wrong with sports.