NASCAR rule book remains unclear
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was a split-second decision that NASCAR could get neither right nor wrong.
As the cars tumbled across the track in the Daytona 500’s closing moments, series officials had to make a tough choice.
They could throw a caution flag immediately, giving Mark Martin a sentimental victory while denying Kevin Harvick a chance to race to the finish. Or they could let them race on – even as a seven-car demolition derby exploded behind them – in a frenzied final stretch that will be remembered as one of the best in NASCAR history.
NASCAR went for the drama.
By allowing Harvick and Martin to race to the checkered flag, giving Harvick his first Daytona 500 victory and dropping Martin to 0-for-23, NASCAR created a new controversy.
“We get criticized for everything we do, and this is no exception,” competition director Robin Pemberton said Monday. “If we throw the flag too early, people are mad that we kept Harvick from winning. If we throw it too late, people are mad that Mark Martin didn’t win.
“It’s hard. It’s always hard. All we can do is make the best decisions we can in that moment.”
But in that moment NASCAR slightly changed its own rules.
In the old days, drivers raced to the flag when the caution came out. That practice was stopped in 2003, when NASCAR determined it was too dangerous to allow speeding cars to zip past an accident scene.
Now, the field is frozen and all cars must slow down when a caution comes out. Multi-car mayhem generally warrants a caution. But as Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon bumped and banged across the track just a few hundred yards from the finish, NASCAR let the racing go on.
It wasn’t until Clint Bowyer flipped, crossing the finish line on his roof as flames ripped through his car, that NASCAR finally waved the yellow flag.
By then, it was too late for Martin. Harvick already had nosed ahead, beating him across the finish line by the length of his car hood. The .020 margin was the closest in the history of electronic scoring at Daytona.
Martin initially was irate over his radio, criticizing NASCAR for not throwing the caution.
“I can’t believe they waited!” he wailed.
Still, he refused to blast NASCAR for its decision – which might have cost Martin is last shot at a Daytona 500 victory.
“No one wants to hear a grown man cry,” the 48-year-old Martin said. “I’m not going to cry about it. This is the end. They made the decision. That’s what we’re going to live with.”
That’s just how it goes in NASCAR, where the rules can be a moving target and enforcement is almost always arbitrary.
On any other lap at any other race, it’s likely the caution would come out the moment Busch and Kenseth collided.
Arguing that it was OK because it was the last lap isn’t right, either.
The one constant of Speedweeks, which saw six people thrown out of the garage for cheating? Every incident proved it’s past time for NASCAR to have a very clear rule book.