An unfortunate end to an otherwise outstanding season for Stewart, a bit reminicsent of 2006 when he wrecked Kenseth at Daytona and Bowyer at Pocono for racing him too hard at an inconvenient time (the latter was when Edwards got caught up and spun him out later on pit road in retaliation).

Some of this activity on a fast banked 1.5 mile track comes back to what we discussed earlier this year, with the safety improvements giving drivers confidence to make kamikaze blocks at the end of plate races. As Red stick mentioned earlier re past rivalries, IIRC there was plenty of bashing on the short tracks, but not at the more dangerous venues.

You do realize Nascar makes up and/or enforces rules when it's to their benefit right?

in engineering there's an expression that goes something like this.. "if something happens once it's a fluke. if it happens twice it's a coincidence. if it happens a third time, it's pattern."

nascar operates under the same principal. just because smoke ran into monty after he had himself been tagged, it doesn't mean he did it too retaliate - he could have just gotten lose himself and seemed like he did it to retaliate. the patterns wasn't established until juans second hit.

Ok, now you're really stretching it. No way did Stewart get lose on a straight, come on. NASCAR screwed up when it didn't penalize Stewart for aggressive driving, plain and simple.

I think its the next best to Darlington.

Ummm, I think you'll find I basically said that, or at least alluded to it. Either way, it doesn't change what I said in the slightest.

And yes Wildmouse, Dmitry is right--you really are stretching it with that line of reasoning. As it is, Montoya should have been warned for the initial tagging of tagging Stewart, and Stewart should have been parked for 2 laps or the day for retaliating. Funny thing is, I'm betting that if Nascar actually started following its own rules, you'd see the vigilante/revenge/retaliation bullsh!t stop within a season, probably less.

Thing is that I think that in reality Nascar prefers this BS WWE approach. They've effectively extended the old "rubbin' is racin'" to read "crashin' is entertainin'" complete with subtexts of "fvck the fairness!" and "rools? wot rools?"

Neil

I doubt very much that there is going to be less 'rubbin if NASCAR starts parking people, and the flip side is what do you do if someone like Lil' E bangs into someone at somewhere like Talladega?
Run for the helicopters and THEN throw the black flag on him?
If they throw a black on a fan favorite in that guys hometown, they are in for a world of hurt. Kyle Busch or Jeff Gordo being pelted with beer cans will look like a walk in the park.

I think letting the drivers work it out is good for a couple of reasons. TS came down blatantly on Montoya, Montoya took him out as soon as he was back on the track and EVERYONE knew he was going to, hell, Jimmy Johnson backed off a half a lap and so did everyone else so they didn't get caught up in it. The endangering other drivers argument doesn't apply at all, every spotter worth his Motorola was telling their drivers to stand clear. Then when JPM does take him out, Stewarts *own* crew chief told him he deserved it.
Net effect? TS ruined his day when he ruined JPM's, so it made no sense at all to do what he did, and thick as TS is, he'll remember how much it cost him the last time he did it.
Game over, let's all go back the pits and sing kum ba yah, and the bad blood is over.
Seen Harvick or Montoya screw with each other at all since they had their go a couple of years ago?
Nope, now they act like favorite cousins or something.

If NASCAR steps in, and ruins TS's day,NASCAR has a crap load of fans pissed at them, which they certainly don't want, and the net effect had NASCAR stepped in would have been the battle continuing into next season, and possibly resulting in fisticuffs in the garage, if not between the drivers, certainly amongst the crews.
Nah, NASCAR has run this series for decades and let the drivers police themselves, with 43 cars out there it could get really subjective on what was deliberate and what was just fighting for running room.

Best thing of all this, from this fan's standpoint, JPM has in no uncertain terms made in known on the track that he'll race you fair, but if you dick with him, he doesn't care one iota if your name is Jeff Gordon or Ton Stewart, he'll take your ass out. He's made his bones now, and earned his respect out there. Jeff tried to force him down a few racse into the chase and since then, there has been no more between them after JPM moved him right back out of the way.
Meanwhile, his contemporary of sorts, Hornish, is still getting moved out of the way with impunity, because he gets no respect. He gets beaten like a rented mule every race it seems, by even the backmarkers
We don't get DTM over here in the states, but from what few clips I do see, it seems that those guys also beat the crap out of each other as well. I have no idea how they police it. Part of racing salons, I guess, is there is now way of getting these guys to not use the occasional fender to send a message to stay clean.

Same thing can be said for Tony Stewart. He spun Kenny Erwin at Martinsville 99 I believe, got wrecked in return, and went in the car and punched him on track when the race was stopped for cleanup. It was Tony who spun Jeff at Bristol in 2001. This wasnt anything that has not been seen before as far as I can tell, especially with Stewart. He is the big one always saying "race others how you want to be raced.

In the BTCC the tap out is a legal passing manoeuvre.... as long as you're Mat Neal.

tony stewart and montoya will work together any time they need too. I think it was cool that they beat on each other a bit. too much nicey nicey going on these days. talladega was useless because they couldn't race each other.

Talladega was definitely the most frustrating race of the season, in all aspects. Not even the big one was big enough to raise my eyebrows.

Agreed. Just want to add Kyle to the JPM payback list.

Needless to say, I disagree for the reasons in my previous two posts. C'est la vie.

Neil

this is exactly what the reporter from USA today said on WindTunnel the other night.

This had me cracking up..
great post man..

No problem, I understand your position, rules is rules.
One thing I will add, this type of racing would be absolutely unacceptable to me in every other form of racing, but in salons it seems to be the way they race.

Montoya-Stewart rivalry a non-starter:

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sp...al_rivalry.html

They're laughing their asses off about it, and rightly so.

They appear to be OK with each other

JPM had his Blackberry with him and tweeting from the parade, see the picture.

Actually that's a taser, look how he has it pressed against Tony's neck. He's trying to tase the Stewman, but his neck folds are too thick.