It was a wild night in the Fort Worth area. Eliminated Jimmie Johnson won a race, thus allowing three drivers to enter the championship winner-take-all race at Homestead and get in on points. Brad Keselowski, fighting for his racing life tried to split Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson but made contact with Gordon. Gordon cut a tire and tires were in short supply. Gordon finished 29th and wasn’t happy. Gordon said on his radio, “I’m gonna beat his ass.” He confronted Keselowski on pit road (sound familiar?), a crowd followed, and a melee began.
Gordon and Keselowski, well maybe just Gordon, were yelling at each other when Kevin Harvick pushed Keselowski from behind telling him to get involved in the fight, “and if you’re going to drive like that…” You get the picture. All manners of Hades broke loose. One crew member from the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne appeared to be laying haymakers everywhere. Gordon even threw a punch that was intercepted by Keselowski. Both Gordon and Keselowski came away bloody and probably not from each other. I have a theory on this. Hang with me for a moment.
In the past few years, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing were the top dogs in the Sprint Cup Series (and you can arguably add the Nationwide Series to that too). Though HMS cars have won the most races this year, they have only one car left, Gordon’s No. 24, that is eligible for the Final Four at Homestead. This year, Team Penske cars have won 11 races with a two car team. This must be frustrating to them. Joe Gibbs Racing has only won two races after winning in double figures in 2013. Frustration has to be big there. Add to that the new NASCAR Chase format and dynamite is exploding, and it goes deeper than the two drivers that got into an altercation tonight.
I don’t recall any other altercations with drivers on the track, but it all seemed to explode at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago. Here’s Brad getting pushed around on a restart by Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin, so he retaliates against those two and ended up tapping the back end of Tony Stewart. Stewart retaliates by spinning his tires and backing into Keselowski. Seeing that he’s in trouble, Keselowski drives through the garage area with Hamlin in tow. Kenseth finally puts him in a headlock and the thing is over quickly. Keselowski must have broken some secret rule because now everyone hates him. Or is it now? Maybe it’s always been that way.
Remember how Brad drove in the Nationwide Series? It got Carl Edwards so mad, he went after him. Remember Brad punting Edwards nearly into the stands at Talladega? Maybe no one has forgotten those days. That’s part of it, but it goes deeper. Remember Joey Logano punting Hamlin and causing him to miss almost all of a season. Remember? These were all racing accidents—the kind we see every race, but it’s more than that.
Today’s NASCAR, unlike a few years ago, has a group of drivers who want to act gentlemanly on the track. Don’t take a chance to win; just settle for what you have. If you’re running in second and you have to rub to try to get a win, it’s a no-no. With the new rules, just settle for not making the Final Four and leave it to the proper folks. Trouble is, guys like Brad and Joey don’t race that way. They race more like they did in the day. Win at any cost. Sort of like Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison. Let us not forget Cale Yarborough. This newer generation doesn’t like it. That’s why guys like Hamlin, Harvick, Stewart, Gordon and others are expressing hatred for the Penske boys. They’re running better on some days and winning more. What’s not to hate? So if Brad touches one of them, all of the teams’ crews come out to participate in the beating of Brad or Joey if they get touched. I watched tonight a crew member from Kasey Khane’s crew get in the fray and throw punch after punch. NASCAR may have created a monster.
The worst thing about all of this is the fan reaction. Twitter is filled with hate messages from fans who now “hate” Keselowski. He was called names I can’t even write here. One tweet even went as far as to say a hit man is needed to “take care of him.” Huh? I have to imagine the late Dale Earnhardt, sitting in Heaven is having a good laugh about this. I can imagine what he would say at this point, but it’s not printable either. It’s almost like the sport morphed into that fighting organization where Harvick manages some of the participants, or the WWE. Many think this is the greatest thing, but it embarrasses me. I hope NASCAR acts appropriately.
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