Confusion over Budweiser Shootout finish not what NASCAR needed
Bob Pockrass
Bob Pockrass began covering NASCAR in 1992, primarily covering short-track racing and events. He has worked for Street & Smith's Motorsports Group since 2003.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Maybe in some ways it’s fitting – NASCAR wouldn’t be NASCAR without a bit of controversy.
NASCAR by its nature has complicated rules. It makes plenty of judgment calls and doesn’t hesitate to use its EIRI (except in rare instances) policy in which the series director can make a ruling at his discretion.
But the case of the Budweiser Shootout shows how out-of-control this can be. Apparently television commentators thought the race had to finish under green and said so during its qualifying show and at other times during the week. NASCAR officials say the entry blank for the race doesn’t specify that the race had to end under green and drivers were told at the prerace meeting that there would be one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.
I didn’t go to this year’s drivers meeting (was watching Danica Patrick race at the time), but I listened to my audio of last year’s driver meeting and it was clearly stated that there would be one attempt at a green-white-checkered. My guess is that before NASCAR went to green-white-checkered finishes, the special rule for the Budweiser Shootout was that it had to end under green, and that’s why people were confused.
Shouldn’t someone at NASCAR have heard what was said on television and done something to correct the misinformation? Isn’t someone monitoring the telecasts?
And worse, even if a NASCAR official heard it, there’s no guarantee that the official knew it was the wrong information. It was hard to get a definitive answer about who had to start at the rear of the field after drivers went to backup cars, and on whether Kevin Harvick would need to go to the rear for not practicing.
NASCAR has done a better job recently trying to explain its rules to the media. It handed out this year’s pit-road rule cards – the same ones given to the teams – to the media prior to the Budweiser Shootout. It even had a seminar for select media a couple of weeks ago to go over pit-road situations.
But NASCAR still needs to do a better job explaining what the rules are – especially for special events – and monitoring how those rules are explained to the fans. At a time when NASCAR is trying to entice fans to buy tickets and watch races on television, credibility is of great importance. And justifiable or not, NASCAR lost some credibility Saturday night.
