Another terrible NASCAR decision resurfaces after Phoenix controversy

NASCAR has been in hot water throughout the week after approving Katherine Legge, whose lone national series oval start came all the way back in 2018, to compete for Live Fast Motorsports in this past weekend's race at Phoenix Raceway.

Her Cup and thus her Next Gen car debut went exactly like a lot of fans expected. It took her four laps to spin out, and she later spun out again, derailing a potential top five finish for Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suarez in the process.

The decision was particularly baffling, considering the fact that Mike Wallace, who has a top finish of fourth place in 11 Daytona 500 starts, was not even approved to attempt to qualify for this year's "Great American Race" for MBM Motorsports (Garage 66).

In NASCAR's defense, Wallace hasn't competed since 2015. But the same cannot be said for Tommy Joe Martins.

The Legge fiasco led to the resurfacing of another controversial NASCAR decision. Tommy Joe Martins shared over the offseason that he is not approved to compete at the Cup level, and that shocking revelation has made the rounds once again over the past few days.

The argument is total bogus, given the fact that Martins has never driven anything remotely close to top-level equipment. As he said, "context be damned".

The Como, Mississippi native has made 129 career starts going back to 2014, and he finished in a career-high 10th place at Texas Motor Speedway for his own Martins Motorsports team, which is now known as Alpha Prime Racing, in 2020.

And unlike Wallace, Martins isn't 65 years old, either; he is 38, and he does have plenty of recent Xfinity Series experience, including two full seasons since 2020.

But NASCAR is known to play favorites, and this type of picking and choosing should surprise absolutely nobody.

Different sets of rules are often applied to different people, and not just when it comes to race approval. That also applies to post-race penalties, suspensions, and apparently even lawsuits.