NASCAR: Talladega Finish A Huge Black Eye For Sport

Kevin D. Liles-USA TODAY Sports

The finish of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was a memorable one but for all the wrong reasons. From late season changes to the green/white/checker procedure going into the race to Kevin Harvick potentially causing a wreck at the end to save his chances at the 2015 championship, the end of Sunday’s event was a disaster of epic proportions.

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In the week leading up to the Talladega race, NASCAR announced an amendment to their green/white/checker rule for the restrictor plate races cutting down the number of attempts from three down to one. NASCAR’s reasoning behind the change was to avoid having an incident similar to the one Austin Dillon had in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July where he ended up in the catch fence.

Fans were highly critical of the rule change for numerous reasons. For one, an incident like that could occur during any point of a restrictor plate race since the cars are bunched two, three and sometimes four-wide lap after lap after lap. There was also backlash of NASCAR changing the rule which had been in place all season long. Some suggested that having single-file restarts was the better option since it would allow more space between cars on a restart.

Given the rule change it seemed inevitable that the finish of Sunday’s race would end in a green/white/checkered finish which of course it did.

Something that was ignored prior to the green/white/checkered finish was the fact that NASCAR did not throw a red flag to clean up the track after Jamie McMurray’s engine failed on lap 185. Numerous times in the past, NASCAR has stopped the field to allow cleanup crews to clean oil and debris on the track. On Sunday, NASCAR continued to make laps under yellow as crews spread oil dry down the back stretch. The leader at the time was Greg Biffle who had stretched his fuel mileage and was hoping to steal the victory. Unfortunately for him, the numerous laps under caution and the lack of a red flag took away his chance at winning.

The first major controversy occurred on the first green/white/checkered attempt. Numerous cars got together resulting in NASCAR throwing a yellow flag before the field crossed the start/finish line. Ever since the introduction of the green/white/checkered rule, NASCAR had never waived off a restart. With the change to the number of attempts the week prior, many drivers, teams and fans felt as though NASCAR was making up rules as they were going along.

The bigger controversy came on the actual green/white/checkered restart when Kevin Harvick made contact with Trevor Bayne resulting in a huge incident which ended the race under caution. The wreck was controversial in several ways. In the closing stages of the race, Harvick’s car began suffering engine issues. On the restart that was called off, Harvick pulled to the outside line to allow drivers to pass him. However on the final restart, Harvick stayed in line then moved up and made contact with Trevor Bayne who was passing him on the outside line.

The wreck had a huge effect in determining who will be this year’s Sprint Cup champion. It prevented Dale Earnhardt, Jr. from potentially making a race-winning pass on Joey Logano to ensure him moving on in NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup. It prevented Harvick from losing enough positions to where he would have been out of The Chase otherwise. Ryan Newman was among those caught up which cost him his chance at advancing while Kyle Busch was ahead of the accident and moves on to the next round. Those who weren’t in contention for the championship had their race cars tore up.

Several things need to be questioned in regards to the final restart. First, why did NASCAR allow Kevin Harvick to restart in the middle of the field when his car was incapable of running a safe and competitive speed? It can be argued that NASCAR was unable to determine the severity of Harvick’s engine woes but it was clear he wasn’t able to even get up to speed in the restart that was called off.

Allowing Harvick to restart mid-pack was a hazard to everyone behind him. For a sanctioning body that says they make safety their number one priority, their decision to do nothing is mind boggling. Besides all of the millions of dollars in equipment that was wrecked, there was the potential of injury. Luckily that didn’t happen.

Second, why did Harvick move to the high line on the restart that was called off but not do the same on the subsequent restart? This is where the controversy comes to a head because had Harvick restarted on the high line, there would not have been an incident. Instead he chose to restart as normal and when it was clear he wasn’t going to be up to speed for the restart he moved high and made contact with Trevor Bayne.

Several other drivers including Bayne, Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and David Gilliland felt that Harvick purposefully turned the 6 car in an attempt to prevent from falling out of The Chase. Comments between Harvick and his crew prior to the final restart have added fuel to the fire and created more speculation in favor of the incident being caused purposefully.

In the end, what was one of the best races at Talladega in recent memory will be remembered for all the wrong reasons and that is not a good thing. Controversy can be good for NASCAR but not in a situation like this. NASCAR appeared to be inconsistent with the rules they changed going into the weekend, they didn’t apply common sense regarding a potential hazard and the series’ defending champion might have purposefully caused a wreck to ensure his chance at winning another one. NASCAR has lost thousands of fans in the past 10 to 15 years. Incidents such as what happened Sunday will only drive away the fans they do have left.

Next: NASCAR Fans Reach New Low At Talladega

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