When is NASCAR going to quit screwing over Mark Martin???

Question

If it would have been gordon, jr, stewart, or johnson who was fixing to be passed when the melee happened Im sure the yellow flag would have came out very quickly!!!!!! NASCAR needs to quit playing favoritism.

Answer 1

I DEFINITELY AGREE!!!! I am so tired of this crap. every year he does an awesome job and he NEVER prevails. he should have won this race and if they would have thrown the caution flag when they were supposed to then he would have. he deserved this, after 23 years racing at daytona this should have been his year. and it would have if nascar didn't play favorties. this crap needs to end

Answer 2

I AGREE 101%!!!
NASCAR has made such a big freaking deal about racing back to the yellow flag and not racing hard whenever there is a wreck. If I look in my rearview mirror and see cars flipping upside down, i assume there will be a caution. NASCAR is so dang inconsistent, it's upsetting. Yah, Mark will have a great season, but this was it for the 500. He more than likely won't get this chance again. I just wish that NASCAR would sit down and make a rule book with specific rules. THey are way too inconsistent. Mark got screwed BIG TIME!!! I hate Kevin "Crybaby" Harvick too.

rkimble, one thing you need to realize is that NASCAR not only uses video to see who is in what position at the time of accident. There are hundreds of scoring "loops" around the race track that track position at certain points on the track. They would have used the most recent "loop" that the drivers passed to determine positions. Even the video looked like Mark had a small advantage up until about 100ft in front of the finish line.

Answer 3

Mark Martin has come out of retirement more than Evander Holyfield. Instead of gracefully exiting the sport like Rusty and D.W., he continues to hang on. He's just a joke at this point. I mean c'mon Mark Martin and Chevy! I thought hell was supposed to freeze at this point. He whines that restrictor plate racing is too dangerous, but in his post-race media interview after the Daytona 500 said that he wasn't going to whine about losing. Shocking, I know. Why should Martin be a sentimental favorite? He's never been a dominant driver in Nascar. No championship. He drove forever before getting his first win. Eventually he'll bow out, but he's already made a joke of his retirement. Nascar should treat him the same as any other average driver.

Answer 4

I totally agree, I'm a hugh Mark Martin fan and the end of the race sucked. The only sport I know that can enforce THERE rules the ones they make whenever they feel like. I understand it was an emotional victory for Harvick because of Dale Earnhart 6 years to the day had passed away at the track, and he was the one who replaced Dale. if I didn't know better you would almost swear that it was written to go down the way it did. Again giving Mark the shaft without the lube. Jeff Burton was correct when he said Mark is a champion no matter what.

Answer 5

Thanks for the question. You bring up a problem that I've been thinking about for some time.
The ruling body in NASCAR is not consistent. Everyone got docked points and crew chiefs in the latest qualifying fiasco. But Jeff Gorden is not penalized in points, dollars, crew chief. Robin Pemberton is quoted as saying that the problem with Gordon's 24 car was due to a misaligned bolt done "accidentally" in the garage. Oh, really. In Baseball or Football if there's a rule infraction it is not up to a diminishing scale of punishment. The rule book states the punishment and that's that. Your bat has cork in it; you lose. It doesn't matter if you picked-up the wrong bat or someone else did it, you are responsible.
I say all that to say this:
NASCAR needs an "Office of the Commissioner". Not the France family or a past crew chief with an axe to grind or sharpen. NASCAR has used replay before to decide an issue. There must be parity or else you end up with WWFCAR.

The Mark Martin issue is pretty much cut and dried. It was the last lap of a green-white-checker flag. It's over when the first car crosses the finish-line. If the wreck had been in front of the leaders; then yes, yellow flag it. But I've seen plenty of these super speedway races where they let the winners finish under green even as calamity followed. I like Mark Martin and I would have been delighted if he had won. But at Daytona the leader on the last three laps is the set-up man. I though that everyone had agreed on that much.

Answer 6

If Nascar had thrown the flag when the crash started it wouldn't have mattered. Remember that the rule states that the field is frozen at the time that the caution flag is displayed. However, Nascar determines the position of each driver in the field based on thier position at the previous scoring loop from the time the caution was displayed. Since Harvick had been leading for several hundred yards before the crash occured, it is likely that he was the leader at the previous scoring loop. Thus, it is likely that Harvick would have still been awarded the winner.

Answer 7

[e-mail] going there and let nascar no how you feel. The nascar rule books says that there is no racing back to the yellow. It also says that if a wreck happens the caution will come out. SO nascar better have a good aswner for this one. For all of you that say the wreck happend behind the leaders yeah it did but the yellow didnt come out so all the guys behind the leaders still had to race to the line. I dont blame teams for cheating when nascar cant even follower their own rules. COME NASCAR WAKE UP YOUR PISSING YOUR FANS OFF AND WE'RE THE ONES THAT MAKE NASCAR WHAT IT IS.

Answer 8

Man this is tough to swallow...as my handle suggests(roushski6),I'm a MM fan...BUT...I think I agree with NASCAR on this...if the 5 car didn't wreck and was still able to push Mark he would have prevailed and we would have all been fine with that.
On WindTunnel last night,...Mike Joy said that the caution flag would have caused more wrecks due to people running into the back of others...the debate continues.
The real problem here is once again Nascar doesn't seem to follow any precedent and leaves the door open for controvercy...AGAIN....and I admit that if Jr. or 20 etc were in Mark's place they would have thrown caution to the wind and reverted to the last scoring loop...we'll never know...but we do KNOW that Mark is still a class act and won't complain...He is a CHAMPION!!!

Answer 9

I thought this was a tough call tonight.

Do I think NASCAR was showing favoritism toward Harvick? To be honest, no. I think NASCAR was just letting Martin and Harvick race it out to the end.

Should the yellow flag have been thrown? Absolutely! There was a field of cars travelling around 200 MPH and the cars from the 3rd position on back were wrecking. This put most of the field in danger by trying to "race back to the line" (hence the reason NASCAR freezes the field at the yellow like CART did)

At 200 MPH, I'm sure there would be no difference if the flag was thrown or not. If a car was going to crash, they were going to crash regardless if the yellow was put out or not. However, this is just another example of NASCAR not consistantly applying their own rules.

Answer 10

You know, I agree. The yellow flag should of been thrown. True, in old days they would of let them run, but they did away with the Gentleman's Agreement for a reason. They say it wouldn't of changed the results, but it would have. Lucky no one was hurt racing to the finish line running through the green flag part of the wreak!
If this is the way it's gonna be on the 1st race, it should be like this on the rest of the tracks this season. Good bye lucky dog, hello Gentleman's Agreement!!!
Let the ol school racing begin!

Answer 11

i agree ....Martin diserved to win this race and he by all means should have. i noticed him slow down in last lap after hearing radio about the crash.
check speed of his last lap.
i am not sure how harvick managed to boost his car that fast though, he just flew by everyone out there.
Anyway i wish Mark successfull season this year and nextel cup champion.
I think he will do better with this chev, he's got experience, great handling in crash situations, and stamina to do the job.
Good Luck MARK!