Kenseth wins...

MountaineerTom · February 25, 2002

From Thatsracin

-----

ROCKINGHAM - The yellow flag didn’t come out until Matt Kenseth took the lead. The red flag didn’t come out at all. And the penalty flag will most likely be thrown Monday.

Kenseth’s victory in Sunday’s Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway was controversial even before his car was found to be lower than the minimum 51-inch height requirement in post-race inspection - an infraction that usually brings with it a fine but no change the results of the race.

Kenseth shot past Bobby Labonte and then Sterling Marlin on Lap 387, seizing an opportunity when those two drivers’ cars apparently slipped in oil in turns 3 and 4.

NASCAR then decided the oil and other debris made the track too dangerous for the racing to continue, putting out a yellow to start Lap 389 - with five laps to go and Kenseth back out front, where he’d spent much of the second half of the race.

It has been NASCAR’s recent practice to stop the cars with a red flag to preserve a green-flag finish in similar situations. It happened last weekend at Daytona, for example, leading to Marlin’s now infamous excursion from his Dodge to pull his fender off his tire.

This time, however, the cars continued around the track behind the pace car and the race finished under yellow, with Kenseth beating Marlin and Labonte to score his second career victory. The other came in May of 2000, Kenseth’s rookie year, in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Kenseth’s car was, according to NASCAR spokesperson Danielle Humphrey, about one-quarter inch below the minimum height requirement in postrace inspection.

"As in recent years, this decision has no affected the outcome of race positions and should not in this case," Humphrey said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team was fined $25,000 when his car was below the height requirement after his win at Talladega in October, but his victory was allowed to stand.

And the red flag issue?

"In essence, there wasn’t enough time when the last caution came out, with the circumstances around it...to red flag the race and end under green," NASCAR president Mike Helton said after the race. "It wouldn’t be fair to have a caution, throw a red and not open up pit road."

Helton said that Sunday’s situation fell one lap short of providing the opportunity for such a finish. But in stating that he mistakenly said the caution began at the completion of Lap 389. Actually, the yellow came out after 388 laps.

"Whoever is running the show sometimes decides to do it and sometimes they don’t," Marlin said of NASCAR’s call. "I depends on who’s leading the race."

Helton said different circumstances lead to different applications of the rule.

"It depends on where we are," Helton said. "It’s not (a rule) you can put down on paper. But if we have the time to do it, it’s in our interest to do it if we have the time. We just didn’t have enough laps today to do it here in Rockingham."

It’s easy to see why Marlin would be upset. If NASCAR had kept the cars running under yellow instead of showing the red flag with six laps to go, Marlin likely could have limped around even on a flat tire to win the Daytona 500. This week, a red flag would have given him at least a chance to get the win back from Kenseth.

"As long as they’re consistent, it doesn’t matter," said Tony Glover, team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing, which owns Marlin’s car. "In my opinion they weren’t consistent today. I’m zero for 900 with NASCAR, so I don’t plan on winning this one."

No, Kenseth did with a quick move to low side when Marlin and Labonte momentarily lost grip in the oil on Lap 386 - as the race remained under the green flag despite Robby Gordon’s spin in Turn 2 and Ken Schrader’s brush with the wall in Turn 4.

"I always feel like things don’t go my way," Kenseth said. "This time we were in the right place. ...My car would push behind those guys pretty bad and I was down in (turns) 3 and 4 trying to grab the apron and get it to turn me. The oil was up in the middle of the track where Bobby and Sterling were running. I was lucky enough to be down on the bottom."

Kenseth first took the lead on Lap 147 and had it for a total of 152 laps the rest of the way. His pit crew, which won the annual competition among crews here last fall, peeled off one great stop after another to keep him out front over the final laps.

Ricky Craven, who started from the pole and led the first 104 laps, had been struggling to keep up on pit road all day. So when Mike Skinner blew an engine to bring out a yellow on Lap 366, Craven stayed out while everyone else pitted.

Kenseth fell behind Labonte, who had rallied from a lap down early in the race, and Marlin as they raced behind Craven on the restart, leaving him in third once their fresher tires had allowed them all to get past Craven.

That put Kenseth in position to make the move that wound up bringing him the victory, his first in 60 races.

"I always wondered," Kenseth said when asked if he doubted he would ever win again. "I’ll wonder tomorrow if there will ever be a next one because you never know. It felt like 160 races."

LarryE · February 25, 2002

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH :baa:

and thats how you dominate a race in a turd lol

quadrunner500 · February 25, 2002

"It depends on where we are," Helton said. "It’s not (a rule) you can put down on paper.

Neither is it a rule that a race has to finish under green. I'm glad Helton kept his stinkin' hands out of the outcome, and let this one get decided on the track, even if it was under yellow. Much better race than '02 Daytona 500 in my opinion.

Robby Gordon? Back to his old crashin' self again. He keeps keeps banging up cars, Childress sends him walking before season is over.

Elwood · February 25, 2002

I don't see how finishing under yellow is decided on the track. Actually, if NASCAR had thrown the caution when Gordon wrecked like they should have there w ould've been time for a restart regardless, but instead they waited around to let KEnseth take the lead, then they decided to throw a yellow for debris and oil. Most of that debris and oil had been on the track a while, they should've thrown it sooner if they were going to. They didn't keep their hands out of the outcome, they decided the outcome.

quadrunner500 · February 26, 2002

They didn't keep their hands out of the outcome, they decided the outcome.

The difference, is the yellow is thrown for caution. The red flag should be used to stop the race only when it is unsafe to continue, not to change the outcome by a green flag finish if the race should have been decided when the yellow caution was thrown.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree. If you were behind an accident on the freeway, would you want them to close all the lanes, and wait for the tow trucks if you could use caution to safely get by? Of course not. A race should not be stopped when it doesn't have to be stopped. If that was the case, they could save us all a lot of time and just start every race 3 laps from the end. I don't want to see 497 mile qualifications for a 3 lap sprint race, with a 20 minute delay put in, like happened at Daytona. Nascar can sell my tickets to someone else.

LarryE · February 26, 2002

I'll take them, it's bull that they would hand the race to a damn ford, he didn't deserve that win it clearly showed with his post race inspection, that 3 lab sprint would have proved it.