NASCAR Crowns a New Champion

Today was the 36th and final Sprint Cup race of 2012 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  Two drivers went into the weekend with a shot at the Championship.

Jimmie Johnson started the day trailing Brad Keselowski by 20 points.  Brad had to finish 15th or better and would win the Championship, no matter what Johnson did.

There's an old saying "It's not over until the checkered flag falls."  Anything can happen in NASCAR.  There are too many variables and too many things can go right or wrong.

Keselowski was middle of the pack most of the day.  He was running 12th-18th most of the race.  Johnson was all over the map.  He led 25 laps and at one point was ahead of Keselowski by 7 points. 


Then everything unfolded in the worst of ways.

Johnson went to the pits for a routine pit stop.  While there, the NASCAR official assigned to his pit box noticed that a lug nut was loose.  Johnson would have to make a second pit stop to correct the issue.  That dropped him down one lap but still in contention.

A handful of laps later things went downhill for Johnson. 

He started to report of smoke in the car.  Then suddenly he slowed.  He headed to pit road and the crew discovered they had a drive shaft/gear issue.  No way were they going to fix that in the pits.  Johnson headed to the garage and never returned.

Keselowski finished 15th to clinch his first Sprint Cup championship.

Brad's only 28, in the prime of his racing career, and could be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.  He also gave car owner Roger Penske his first Sprint Cup after 20 seasons in NASCAR.  Keselowski becomes just the sixth full-time active Cup Champion (the others are Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, and Jimmie Johnson).

The future of NASCAR looks bright.  I believe Brad will be a great representative of the sport for NASCAR, Sprint, and his sponsor, Miller Lite.

It's Time for NASCAR to Send a Message

Yesterday we saw how tempers can get the best of people.

Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer were battling for position late in the Advocare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway when the two made contact.  The result was a cut left rear tire on Gordon's car.

What happened next was straight out of a video game, or your Saturday night dirt track.

Gordon waited for Bowyer and intentionally wrecked him, collecting Joey Logano and Aric Almirola in the process.  Two guys that had absolutely nothing to do with what happened between Gordon and Bowyer.  After the accident, Gordon got out of his car and Bowyer's pit crew went after Gordon.  A large melee broke out.  NASCAR officials and sheriff's deputies got the crews separated.  Bowyer exited the remains of his race car, then sprinted through the garage towards Gordon's hauler, attempting to confront him.  He was stopped by several NASCAR officials and uniformed sheriff's deputies before he could reach Gordon. 

As usual, both drivers were summoned to the NASCAR trailer.

So where do we go now?

It was pretty obvious Gordon intentionally wrecked Bowyer in retaliation for the contact a few laps earlier.  Then the ensuing fight.

My suggestion:  Suspend both Gordon and Bowyer next week at Homestead.  Gordon for retaliation with his race car and Bowyer for his pit crew basically attacking Gordon.

NASCAR would look largely unpopular for this move, but it would set a precedence.  The last time an incident like this occurred, Kurt Busch was "parked" for a race.  Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick have seen similar fates as well.

It would send a rather harsh message to two drivers in the Chase.  Both have already been eliminated from Championship contention, so it wouldn't matter if they missed the weekend.  The teams would have to answer to their sponsors for their actions.  And it would send a clear message to others:  Actions like this will not be tolerated.

NASCAR has rarely put the brakes on drivers for their on-track incidents, but this was one that knocked Bowyer out of Championship contention.  While he was a long shot, he now has zero chance.  The initial contact between Bowyer and Gordon looked to me like a racing incident - two guys going for the same space late in the race.

Yesterday was definitely "have at it, boys".  They took it literally.