SEARS POINT
I have to say, the Sears Point road race was one of the worst Winston Cup races I've ever watched. It's hard to say if it was because of the newly configured track, but the professionalism, driving ethics, and normal finesse of the WC drivers went out the window. On top of that, NASCAR's scoring and placement system for the cars during and after pit stops went out the window also. There was a hot controversy, initially brought up by Steve Hmiel, Johnny Benson's crew chief, about the fact that NASCAR let the cars leaving pit road blend in with the field as the cars were going by. In previous road course races, the cars have had to wait until cars on the track on the lead lap go by before they can take their places behind them, where they belong. When they stop in the pits, they give up their track position, and have to fall in behind those who remain on the track. The controversy was still going, and the next thing you knew, the green flag was out and the cars were racing again, and they did not appear to be in the right order, due to the "blending in." NASCAR used the defense that stopping the cars on pit road causes accidents from the drivers trying to beat each other out for position. All of the cars have electronic "transponders" in them that registers their positions when they pass by the start/finish line. And that is what is used to sort out who is supposed to be where, along with replays from videotapes of the order in which the cars left the pits. It was clearly evident that there wasn't time to get the cars in their correct positions before the race was restarted. ESPN went to a commercial break thinking that there would be time allotted for the "resorting" process, but even ESPN was caught off guard by the "quick restart." They only had a chance to show one quick commercial, then they were back, and the cars had already taken the green flag. It is this writer's opinion that the points for this race should be negated. I've heard lots of folks say that they thought some of the NASCAR races were "fixed," and I've always scoffed at the idea, but now I'm not so sure. NASCAR sure has egg on their faces on this one.
