Let the conspiracy theories begin....

[Ponch ®]

I usually don't buy into any of that stuff...but the #29 (fka #3) comes out of nowhere to win the Daytona 500 on the 6 year anniversary of Earnhardt's death...no yellow when there was plenty of time. Does anyone else think that if it had been Jr. instead of Martin, that yellow would have come out before Kyle Busch's tire started smoking and NASCAR would have found a way to give him the race by scoring the race based on the 'last scoring loop'?

[RD]

I usually don't buy into any of that stuff...but the #29 (fka #3) comes out of nowhere to win the Daytona 500 on the 6 year anniversary of Earnhardt's death...no yellow when there was plenty of time. Does anyone else think that if it had been Jr. instead of Martin, that yellow would have come out before Kyle Busch's tire started smoking and NASCAR would have found a way to give him the race by scoring the race based on the 'last scoring loop'?

naaah... I was glad NASCAR did not yellow flag the race.... it makes for an awesome finish that way.  I do not think if Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading they would have cautioned the race either.  Sucks that Mark didnt win though.  Though I was thoroughly impressed with Harvick's charge at the end... that was good driving there, with some help from Kenseth following his butt to help him with that motivation through the turn.

[Vainglory, Esq.]

Wouldn't NASCAR have also wanted to give the race to one of its old veterans, Martin?  It doesn't seem like the 6-year anniversary is any big deal.

[pettyfan43]

Look, they let em race back to the line. No more and no less.

The bottom line is that in this situation, you are damned if you do or damned if you don't.

They throw the caution immediately, and they are accused of giving the race to one driver or another or at the very least affecting the outcome with a yellow flag.

They let em race to the line and people want to gripe about that. The wreck was well behind them and they are slowing t down after they cross the line ANYWAY. A track the size of Daytona or Talladega is one of the few places you can do that, since they had JUST restarted the race, THE WHOLE FIELD was behind them ANYWAY. Giving those two cars the caution was POINTLESS. You are NOT endangering anybody else and you are not creating safety issues, The 01 and the 29 have nearly 2.5 MILES to get slowed down. spotters are telling them what is happening behind them. The fans still get to see a green flag finish and the caution comes out immediately afterward. When the smoke started flying the cars behind the crash are slowing down ANYWAY.

In short I really believe Nascar made the right call and believe me, I DON'T say that about Nascar much these days! I would have loved to have seen Martin win as well but the green flag finish was better in my opinion.

Look at it this way a few good things happened, Jimmie Johnson (WTH is Up with that hair?!?!?!?!) had a bad day Gordon had a bad day and yoyotas SUCKED! It was a good day!

[my73charger]

I guess it was right IMHO to let them race back to the line but I sure did feel bad for Mark Martin.  Poor guy was so close and probably will never get back there again.  That sux but thats racing.

[Chargen69]

Yeah, this was a case of d**ned if they did  and d**ned if they didnt.  I'm glad I dont get paid to make those decisions.


Imagine how dumb kyle bush feels, if he had the balls to pull over, he would have won.

[Ponch ®]

maybe im wrong about this...but I just hope NASCAR shows consistency with this sort of thing going forward.

[Sledge57]

Letting em race was the right thing.

I've been a Mark Martin fan forever and don't like Harvick so I was rooting for Mark as hard as anyonyone...........

So why would the "6th year anniverserary" be special? Every year will be an anniverserary of Dales death at Daytona, so why would they "conspire" on the 6th year?

[Ponch ®]

Letting em race was the right thing.

I've been a Mark Martin fan forever and don't like Harvick so I was rooting for Mark as hard as anyonyone...........

So why would the "6th year anniverserary" be special? Every year will be an anniverserary of Dales death at Daytona, so why would they "conspire" on the 6th year?

cuz it was to the day...

[Guns N Rotors]

maybe im wrong about this...but I just hope NASCAR shows consistency with this sort of thing going forward.

Yep. Me too.

So... what do you think about NASCAR parking Dave Blaney for aggressive driving?
I could see a one lap penalty, but, not tossing him out of the race. I don't think the 8
24, 48, or 20 car would have been parked for that. No sir.

Lets see how they handle other aggressive drivers in the weeks to come.

[NHCharger]

If Kyle Busch hadn't tried to block Harvick and had stayed glued to Martin's ass,  Martin would have won by half a car length. And Busch wouldn't have gotten out of shape and wrecked himself and half of what was left of the field.
IMHO even if they had thrown the caution flag how many drivers would have actually lifted being only seconds from the finish line.
And how far back was the last scoring loop? Harvick was actually ahead of Martin for a bit coming out of turn four when the wreck began, before pulling ahead for good just before the finish line.

[General_01]

Personally, I think they should have thrown the yellow. Sure, Mark and Harvick were ahead of the crash, but everyone else was behind it. They were trying to slow up a little, but they were still trying to make the finish line because the yellow hadn't flown. I liked it better when they raced back to the flag, but if your gonna make a rule, stick to it. People might not like it, but at least they can't say your inconsistent with your application. I just hate it when they apply their rules willy-nilly like that.

[hemigeno]

Yeah, but I think they caught so much grief when they threw the yellow at Talladega in 2005 (when the spin was well behind the leaders approaching the finish line) that they thought twice about it this time.  In '05 Stewart would have won, but because the yellow was thrown and the field frozen his pass for the lead didn't count.  All kinds of uproar about that decision back then, so NASCAR was literally in the "no win" situation.

Let 'em race.  I would have rather seen Martin win, but calling the race before the finish line would be winning on a technicality - which would have been a phyrric victory in my book.

[General_01]

Let 'em race.  I would have rather seen Martin win, but calling the race before the finish line would be winning on a technicality - which would have been a phyrric victory in my book.

No more a phyrric victory than all those guys who won races that finished under caution before they started with the "Green, White, Checkered" finish attempts.

[Ponch ®]

Biffle was saying that when he found out there was no yellow, he tried to drive his car in reverse to try to get to the finish line...and that he head to avoid running into Bowyer's upside down car - which he wouldnt have done if the yellow had been out. If NASCAR is going to use driver safety as the reasoning for a lot of their recent rule changes (no racing back to the caution, the COT, etc..), then they better make safety a priority. What if Bowyer's car didn't land on its wheels and he'd been trapped in it? The rescue crews couldn't go anywhere because cars were still going by at full speed and wrecking.

[hemigeno]

Let 'em race.  I would have rather seen Martin win, but calling the race before the finish line would be winning on a technicality - which would have been a phyrric victory in my book.

No more a phyrric victory than all those guys who won races that finished under caution before they started with the "Green, White, Checkered" finish attempts.

You're exactly right, and that's got to be why they're doing the green-white-checkers attempt now (one attempt, at least).  The truck race at Gateway a few years back where they did multiple green-white-checkers was really cool to watch, but I don't see them doing that on the Cup level.  I like it a whole lot more than subjectively throwing the caution to end the race.  At least they get one chance to decide it on the racetrack at the finish line. 

On Sunday, I thought they did throw the caution shortly after Martin & Harvick crossed the finish line? 

[BrianShaughnessy]

  I watched at my friend's annual Daytona garage party with a bunch of folks and lots of beer and snacks.   He has a slot car track there so I spent more time racing my old mopar slots. 

  I called that it would get red flagged about 5 laps to go before the race even started.    The "series formerly known as nascar" has their ways of getting their golden boy of the moment back up to the front for their own reasons... which is basically $$$$.  I don't know who their golden boy of the moment is this year  - don't care either.   Seen it before a lot of times... won't be wasting my weekends watching them anymore.   I didn't plan on watching this except for the invite.   

  At the end there was about 15 guys all rooting for Martin and nobody knew at the end for a few moments who won.... then we were all disappointed.     Got nothing against Harvik,  except he's not Martin.