Day: November 3, 2015

Gloom, Dispair and Agony On Me…..

First, I want to congratulate Jeff Gordon for his win and his entry to thr 2015 Championship Final!  A win is a win, and he won through perserverence and luck.  I am glad to see him win.

Now I have to apologize to him for what happens next.  For the umpteenth time in the last several years, a great win has been overshadowed by circumstances beyond the winners control.  For NASCAR, it seems bad luck is followed by worse luck.  The series seems to chase bad news, especially during the Chase.  NASCAR seems bedeviled by the actions of teams trying to game the system or, sometimes just bad luck (Sorry Tony).  Its embarrasing!

The Kenseth/Logano thing just pisses me off.  I was a Kenseth fan, until this!  I’m angry for several reasons.

I love a little bumpin’ and runnin’; contact is not a bad thing.  Bent metal chasing a lead is something truly unique to NASCAR, and I love it.  But what Kenseth did IS NOT RACING.  Nine laps down, he cruised the apron like a sniper waiting for a kill, which he got.  He was upfront and honest about it, at least until he pulled the trigger, then denied any wrong doing.

It was very selfish of him to decide the championship on his own.  Not by racing Logano, but by t-boning him from the apron.  This is the kind of thing an immature person with low self esteem would do.  He looked ike a spoil sport and a sore loser.  It’s playing dirty, getting in those cheap shots, when you already know you can’t win the game.  Zero class from a former NASCAR Champion who represents the series.

The team is at fault, too.  Playing Monday Morning Quarterback, Kenseth, his crew chief and spotter should have watched the tapes of Kansas and Talladega and figured out how to defend against Team Penske!  But I didn’t hear anyone say “Matt, don’t do anything stupid” or “WHAT THE HELL!!!”.  I had higher expectations of Joe Gibbs.  He’s had to work with Kyle Busch, who has his own record.  Roger Penske would NEVER tolerate this.

There is no fine high enough to correct this.  Probation is meaningless, and with the season essentially over for Kenseth, parking him will make no difference.  Personally, I feel Kenseth should be excluded from the 2016 championship.  I don’t care if he wins every race next year.  What he did was the pre-meditated removal of another competitor from the championship in a manor that is totally outside the context of racing.  This will send a message about where the limits of “Boy’s Have At It”is.

The hardest thing for me to deal with, though, was the crowd.  They were cheering for him.  CHEERING!  There has always been talk of NASCAR being the WWF of racing, and this will only prove it the sports detractors.  Let’s bring the pom pom’s to the train wreck.  Doom, Dispair and Agony on me.