Kenny Bruce: Judgment calls will always leave NASCAR open for criticism
Now that we’ve got last weekend’s yellow-line rule all straightened out ...
Well, maybe not. The whole “no passing below the yellow line” sounds pretty simple, but few things are ever as simple as they seem in NASCAR.
Go below the yellow line and improve your position and you’ll be penalized. It should be one of the easiest rules to understand. Doesn’t
leave a lot of room for interpretation. Or manipulation. It certainly doesn’t sound as if there is any gray area involved.
It gets kind of fuzzy, though, when fans start writing in, questioning the difference between the finish in the first Cup race at Talladega this year and the second race. Fuzzier still when fans recall, accurately, other instances when drivers advanced their positions by going below the line and were not penalized.
In the April race, Kyle Busch went below the yellow line to pass Jimmie Johnson for the lead with five laps to go.
This past week, Regan Smith went below the yellow line and passed Tony Stewart on the final lap.
Busch got the lead, got to the line first and got the win.
Smith got the lead, got to the line first and ... got the win taken away.
NASCAR officials have said that Busch wasn’t penalized because they felt he was “forced” below the line. But if he was forced, whoever pulled such a dastardly stunt must have slipped out unnoticed with the crowd since no one was ever penalized.
Smith, they said, “violated NASCAR policy by driving under the yellow line to improve his position.”
OK, when is a guy on the track NOT trying to improve his position? Bump drafting is every bit as dangerous a practice, yet NASCAR hasn’t outlawed that particular move. The fact of the matter is, there are drivers on the track who can pull off a pass by going down on the apron, and there are those who can, and do, use the bump-draft perfectly to execute passes.
It’s also true that there are drivers who don’t have the ability, or the experience, to successfully pull off those moves. Or perhaps they are simply wise enough to know better.
But getting back to the rule ... It isn’t the same as a car that doesn’t fit the templates during inspection or a crewman missing a lug nut during a pit stop. The car fits the templates, or it doesn’t. All the lug nuts are in place, or they aren’t. And that’s is the problem. The bottom line is that the rule regarding the yellow line, or rather the enforcement of it, appears to
be a judgment call.
But should it be?
Are NASCAR, the teams and fans of the sport better served when officials have the latitude to rule on issues such as this? Should NASCAR keep a bit of wiggle room in the rule? Officials have trotted out the old explanation that “every situation is different” on a number of occasions. And for good reason – it is true.
But just because the situation is different, should the rule be applied, or ignored, based on those differences?
Shouldn’t the rule, if it’s going to exist at all, be applied the same regardless of the circumstances? Doesn’t implementing the rule based on circumstances open up a whole can of worms and leave such decision-making, and the sanctioning body, open for criticism?
Officials seemed to at least take a step toward attempting to clarify the rule earlier this week with President Mike Helton stating that, going forward, “There will be no passing under the yellow line at any time during NASCAR races at Daytona or Talladega, period. This includes any passing below the yellow line near the start/finish line on the final lap.”
Then again, that’s pretty much been the official stance all along.
And we see where that’s gotten us.
