Waquoit
Mr. Positive
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 32,395
- Reaction Score
- 83,213
Instead of the Tour de France replay I was expecting on my DVR, I got the NASCAR race from "revered" Indy with 10 laps remaining. The race wasn't over for another 55 minutes. I think they only made one complete lap during the entire debacle. The embarrassing racing was bad enough. What was troubling about this from a sport point of view was the fact that they clearly called the race off before they should have just to get it over with.
The telecast made it a point to show you (in slow motion no less) that the lead car made it past the "overtime line" after the caution flag was dropped. That makes the race end under the yellow flag. They made no mention of the fact it took 5 seconds to drop that flag. Five seconds is an eternity in auto racing. I've seen them hold off a few beats before they drop the yellow, usually in the case of a 1-car wreck when the guy can get out of trouble. In this case, a guy goes sideways and takes out a bunch of cars. NASCAR clearly realized the race had turned to farce so they put an end to it. But they clearly went outside their norms to end that race. I can't say rules because NASCAR doesn't make their rules public, like wrestling. Another case of situational enforcement in NASCAR. A while back, Jack Arute said NASCAR was 80% competition 20% show. With crap like today and all of the gimmicks they've added to scoring lately, I think the show percentage has passed the 50% mark.
The telecast made it a point to show you (in slow motion no less) that the lead car made it past the "overtime line" after the caution flag was dropped. That makes the race end under the yellow flag. They made no mention of the fact it took 5 seconds to drop that flag. Five seconds is an eternity in auto racing. I've seen them hold off a few beats before they drop the yellow, usually in the case of a 1-car wreck when the guy can get out of trouble. In this case, a guy goes sideways and takes out a bunch of cars. NASCAR clearly realized the race had turned to farce so they put an end to it. But they clearly went outside their norms to end that race. I can't say rules because NASCAR doesn't make their rules public, like wrestling. Another case of situational enforcement in NASCAR. A while back, Jack Arute said NASCAR was 80% competition 20% show. With crap like today and all of the gimmicks they've added to scoring lately, I think the show percentage has passed the 50% mark.
