Aug 13, 2007

A Miracle Occurs

Yes, the waters have parted. Yes, the multitudes have been fed with just a few loaves and fishes. Yes, the blind have been made to see and the dead have been returned to the living. And yes, NASCAR has suspended a driver from a Nextel Cup race. As Al Michaels so famously said, "Do you believe in miracles?" Well, believe -- NASCAR has finally issued a penalty with some teeth in it. Could it be that they are listening?

What prompted this miracle was incredibly bad behavior on the part of driver Robby Gordon. In the recent Busch series race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, which seems an odd place for a Busch race by the way, Gordon was in the lead when contact with Marcos Ambrose's car sent him spinning. Still, Gordon thought that he was ahead of Ambrose when the yellow light came on, so he was incensed when NASCAR officials ruled that he had fallen all the way back to 13th place and forced him to restart from that lowly position. But Gordon didn't cotton to that suggestion and decided he'd line up right after Ambrose in second position for the restart, no matter what the officials said. Then he added insult to injury by spinning Ambrose on the restart giving Kevin Harvick a clear shot at victory.

But that wasn't all. After Harvick took the checkered flag for the win, Gordon decided to express his disdain for it all but doing smoky burnouts when Harvick should have been the center of attention. All in all, it was a weird display of lack of control by both Gordon and NASCAR. Gordon couldn't seem to get it through his head that sometimes rulings go against you, and NASCAR could seem to get an obviously out-of-control driver off the track even after it black-flagged him. 

What is amazing is that NASCAR stepped up and forced Gordon to sit out the Pocono Nextel Cup race. It also hit him with a $35,000 fine and put him on probation in both the Nextel Cup and Busch series for the remainder of the year.  Potentially, he could be suspended indefinitely if he repeats something like he did at Montreal. That's pretty unlikely, but then miracles do happen. NASCAR just proved that.