NASCAR’s Big Blunder

Many NASCAR fans are angry in the face of an event (or I should say non-event) that took place during this week’s race at Watkins Glen. While NASCAR should have clearly acted out, the organization sat quietly while one of its drivers put the well-being of another driver at risk.

To give a little background about the situation, the previous week’s race at Pocono saw Robby Gordon and David Stremme both slapped with penalties due to overly aggressive actions while racing. Gordon was at it again at Watkins Glen, as he very aggressively roughed up Joey Lagano on the track, forcing him into a crash. Nothing happened to Gordon for this.

Yes, I know the Pocono incident was during the Cup race and the Glen incident was Nationwide, but aggressive driving is aggressive driving and the penalty has been issued in both series many times. What is a mystery is how NASCAR officials could watch the on-track actions of Robby Gordon and just see them as a “racing” deal. This was one of the most blatant cases of aggressive driving with the sole intention of wrecking a driver I have seen in quite some time.

The fact that Robby intentionally forced Logano off the track right after a car had spun and the field in that area was under a local caution, which resulted in Logano’s car suffering enough damage that it caught fire and his day was done, should have been enough to put Mr. Gordon behind the wall for the day, but no, he was allowed to continue.

NASCAR has been disciplinary in recent times and has no reason whatsoever to condone behavior like this. Somehow, the organization completely overlooked actions on Gordon’s part that nearly every fan of the sport knew was intentional.

For those who say he didn’t announce over his radio that he was trying to wreck Joey so how could NASCAR know his intent, I say BULL!! Even a non race fan who watched that event could see what Robby was trying to do and the fact that NASCAR allowed it to continue to the point of a crash that resulted in a car on fire is ludicrous. If safety and fair racing are what NASCAR is really interested in then sometimes they need to step up and show it.

I’m sure that NASCAR will probably end up hitting Gordon with some kind of penalty during the days that follow the race, but that’s not what it’s about here. NASCAR needs to be proactive as an enforcer, and not reactive. Gordon should have been pulled from the race on the spot.

I’ve never been a big fan of Gordon, but he just made the bottom of my list. His actions are unforgivable, and I can’t believe that NASCAR doesn’t see things the same way.