No flag gives Harvick big 500 victory
That was quite a race last week. The final 50 laps were as good as it gets. Of course NASCAR has to create controversy as it did on the final lap by not throwing the caution flag immediately following the crash off turn 4.
If NASCAR had thrown the flag, Mark Martin would have won the race. As it turned out, Kevin Harvick out-raced Martin across the finish line at which time NASCAR put out the caution flag.
I like what NASCAR did, letting the two leaders battle it out to the end. The wreck occurred off turn 4 and a caution would not have prevented the melee that followed.
In 2003, NASCAR eliminated racing to the start-finish line when the caution flag is displayed. In 2004, NASCAR assumed the responsibility for displaying the caution lights.
By rule, the caution should have been displayed as soon as the crash occurred. Officials said Martin and Harvick were allowed to race to the checkered flag because cars didn?t start spinning until the two cars crossed the finish line, at which time they displayed the caution lights. TV replays contradict that theory, thus creating another controversy.
Clint Bowyer gave us quite a show by crossing the finish line on his roof top and then bursting into flames. He came out unscathed. Many of the race favorites, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmy Johnson, to name a few, crashed early in the race allowing some of the lesser known drivers to battle it out.
The top Rookie of the Year finisher was David Ragan in fifth place. The top Toyota car was Dale Jarrett in 22nd place. It seems Toyota has a little work to do for restrictor-plate racing. Let?s see how they fare on non-restrictor plate tracks.
An interesting piece of information I came across is that Ginn Racing has a car ready for Mark Martin if he wants to run a full schedule this year. Martin plans to run in the first four races this year and then turn the car over to rookie Regan Smith.
Martin?s plans for 2007 are to run about 21 Cup races and some Busch and truck races. Some feel that due to his success at Daytona, and if he sits high up in the points race after four races, Martin may wish to run the full schedule and Ginn Racing is ready to oblige.
Another item of interest is that on Feb. 28 and March 1 at 6 p.m., Speed TV is planning to air a pair of 30-minute specials testing the new Car of Tomorrow at Bristol Motor Speedway. This could be our first indication of which teams have the new car figured out.
NASCAR is off to Fontana for this weeks race. The California track is fairly new, having been completed in 1997. It is two miles in length with 14-degree banking in the turns and 11-degree banking on the front stretch. This makes for some fast speeds.
Jeff Gordon has the pole for today?s race with a speed of 185.735 mph. Allmendinger is the only Rookie of the Year driver who failed to qualify.
Michael Waltrip, fined 100 driver points before the Daytona race, also failed to qualify for today?s race, putting him in a deeper hole in the race for the championship. He?s still in the negative a -27 points. Ouch.
Art Larson has followed racing for over 40 years. He can be reached at [email protected].