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Layne Riggs was given a two-lap penalty for sending Stefan Parsons into the wall in Nashville earlier this year. Danny Hansen\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\nNASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer found it a fair to say that ideas have changed regarding acceptable racing contact, before admitting the sport needs to learn from what happened on Sunday night at Richmond Raceway.<\/p>\n
Those that need to learn are not NASCAR. The sanctioning body instead finds itself at a defining moment in its history where the reins need to be pulled back in on the garage.<\/p>\n
Austin Dillon had a win-at-all-costs mentality on the final lap, which resulted in wrecked race cars for Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. As Sawyer reminded everyone, NASCAR is a contact sport, and it was within Dillon\u2019s right to use his front bumper. But if the first contact with Logano was understandably aggressive \u2013 but perhaps not liked \u2013 it was also arguably within the lines of many previous incidents. The second contact, a right rear hook of Hamlin, should be considered intolerable.<\/p>\n
Sawyer described the chain of events as close to crossing the line. NASCAR will dig into all available data \u2013 audio, video and SMT \u2013 concerning the finish, and any reaction will come this week. It would serve NASCAR\u2019s best interest to have the last word in the matter, and that final word needs to be strong.<\/p>\n
A former competitor himself, Sawyer already gave the correct analysis that needs to be put into action: \u201cRacing in the era that we race in today and the way our young kids are coming up racing at short tracks, we want to make sure that the highest level of racing, which is NASCAR Cup Series, is done at the highest level and it\u2019s done with the utmost integrity and sportsmanship and that\u2019s what we\u2019re about. So, we\u2019ll see if we need to adjust accordingly going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highest level. Integrity. Sportsmanship.<\/p>\n
The finish at Richmond didn\u2019t seem to strike those chords. It was less competition or craft, and more destruction and deflection to the system. Perhaps drivers have become too comfortable feeling that way, since the reward seems to outweigh the risk of being punished more often than not.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents used to say if you want to sit at the adult table, you have to act like an adult, and we just don\u2019t as a sport sometimes,\u201d Hamlin opined. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating as someone who has been doing this so long to see where we\u2019ve come . I\u2019ll just bitch and complain my last few years, but this is just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Layne Riggs was given a two-lap penalty for sending Stefan Parsons into the wall in Nashville earlier this year. Danny Hansen\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n
Hamlin also had plenty to say about there being \u201cno real officiating\u201d in favor what he perceives to be an embrace of the chaos and headlines. As famed wrestling promoter and personality Eric Bischoff titled his autobiography, controversy creates cash. Except, Hamlin knows there are rules in place to prevent, as he described, \u201cridiculous acts\u201d that rarely get enforced. Then, when they do, such as Layne Riggs being made an example of in a Craftsman Truck Series race earlier this year with a two-lap penalty for reckless driving, they seem questionable compared to what others got away with.<\/p>\n
Yet, hooking someone in the right rear has been the most consistent call NASCAR has made over the last two years, with suspensions for drivers like Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott. Following its review, an explanation is owed by NASCAR as to why what Dillon did was or was not different.<\/p>\n
NASCAR is not immune to criticism for being more entertainment than competition. Some will not let it outrun comments from former executives about \u201cboys, have at it,\u201d even if the context around that time has long been forgotten. Or there are those quick to point out that one of the sport\u2019s most revered figures will always be known \u2013 whether rightly or wrongly \u2013 as having made a career of using the front bumper of his black No. 3 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n
All of those comments can be true, but it is simultaneously true that things have to change. And as long as the course is corrected, it\u2019s OK to be in this position. Sometimes, harsh reminders by those in charge are necessary about what is expected of its competitors because the sport\u2019s reputation has become one headline too many.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really sure what to say about that,\u201d Logano\u2019s crew chief Paul Wolfe told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. \u201cIt\u2019s as far from racing as you can get, and it\u2019s really disappointing that NASCAR allows stuff like that to go on. I don\u2019t know what else to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolfe, understandably, got more animated as the conversation continued and his comments more pointed. It might have been Wolfe\u2019s voice, but it was the thoughts of many.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t a racing incident,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cAnyone can see that. So, I guess what I\u2019m asking NASCAR is: What have we gotten to? Is this not racing anymore? At some point, we\u2019re going to have to not turn into a circus here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get it. We want stories. We want cars that don\u2019t run good in the playoffs. But, gosh, we\u2019re still racing here and when we lose sight of that, I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s very frustrating that all the time and effort and all our sponsors and everyone puts into this, and then it turns into that on the last lap. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing, and it\u2019s hard to understand. That was not a racing incident, racing hard for a win. There\u2019s a difference and everyone in this garage can look at that and know that\u2019s not what just happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is up to NASCAR to do the right thing. At some point, we\u2019re going to have to make the call of what\u2019s acceptable and not and just flat-out wrecking someone is not racing. So are we a racing series or what are we? If we\u2019re not a racing series, then we need to let everyone know we\u2019re not racing anymore because that was not racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it is not new that the garage is calling for NASCAR to take action on a particular situation, there has been an escalation in frustration in recent years about the code of conduct on the racetrack. It has grown from rivalries and retaliation to how a race winner is decided, reaching and staining the sport\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n
The time has come for NASCAR to do some cleaning up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer found it a fair to say that ideas have changed regarding acceptable racing contact, before admitting the sport needs to learn from what happened on Sunday night at Richmond Raceway. Those that need to learn are not NASCAR. The sanctioning body instead finds itself at a defining …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}