DRIVER ZONE:
Overall Rank: 421
Overall Score: 8 points
URL: /sadie
Member since: 08/03/2007
Number of hits: 5550
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Quote/Motto: "Every one of these drivers in the garage area, I can speak to because they all speak English, with the exception of Ward Burton. He speaks whatever he speaks. He speaks Ward." -- Tony Stewart
Favorite Driver: Kyle Busch
Who Am I:
Originally from the Washington DC area, my husband and I moved to New York City to pursue the American dream of living in a breadbox-sized apartment. Maybe subconsciously trying to compensate for the move North, I found myself delving deeper into my two passions of NASCAR and Civil War History. I now write a weekly (well I try to be weekly) NASCAR article and listen daily to the Rowdy Podcast.
Favorite Track:
Dover International Speedway
How I discovered Rowdy, and why I Listen:
I found Rowdy on ITunes and never looked back. One Rowdy a day keeps the Jayski away. It's all I need.
Why I'm a race fan:
For spite.
Favorite Music:
Old-school country, a little punk, new wave, glam, hip-hop, and a teeny weeny bit of hard core.
Favorite Movies:
My favorites tend to be documentaries. The last excellent movie I watched was After Innocence.
Favorite Books:
I can't remember the last non-history book I read, but I probably didn't like it.
Vices:
Gosh, it would have to be Rowdy.com. I spend WAY too much time here.
Heroes:
Marilyn Waring: a member of New Zealand parliament in the 80s. Her views on social economics changed my life.
Where There’s Smoke…
When Tony Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, opted against bringing in his damaged Home Depot Chevrolet to check the tire clearance, he gambled with much more than just his team’s fortunes. He threw the dice for every other car on the track.
For those too wrapped up in the Biffle fuel controversy to remember the story, Tony makes it around a late race crash with only minimal damage to the frontend. Under caution, his team tries to determine whether the tire will have enough clearance once the race gets going, or if it is going to rub. They are significantly aided in their decision making by the up-close television coverage during these caution laps. The cameras were zoomed-in enough to give the team, and those of us playing along at home, a pretty good idea of what Tony had going on under his hood.
I realize that it’s unfair to play crewchief from my living-room, which is why I usually keep my snarky second-guessing to myself. But when a team’s bull-headed decision puts other drivers at risk, I can’t be muzzled. So here is a geometry tip for Zippy. If there is an apple-sized dent on the hood of the car, then I can guarantee you that there is an apple-sized bulge on the other side of that hood. I’m not really sure how the wheel well of a racecar holds this much mystery for a team of this caliber, but clearly there was some element here that they could not account for. And so the 20 team decided to stay out on the track and “see what would happen.�
Brilliant.
However, I wouldn’t be writing this article if the stupidity ended here. Teams make this kind of mistake all the time. But when the field returned to green and the first trail of smoke appeared from under the hood, there was no excuse for not immediately bringing the car down pit road. There are small tire rubs and there are big tire rubs, and the cloud following Tony’s car around the corners was a pretty good indicator for this one.
Lap by lap, the puffs of smoke got smaller and smaller, leaving the television commentators to speculate that the tire had knocked the low-hanging bulge out of the way. I would have disagreed. It has been my experience that when rubber goes up against metal, metal wins. This is exactly what happened and Tony’s tire popped, causing a chain reaction that ended Carl Edwards’ day, and possibly, his Chase too.
Now it is not like Tony didn’t get the bad end of the stick, too. He ended up finishing 39th in a race that many fans (who had stopped watching and actually did something with their Sundays) assumed he had won hours before. But to keep that car in the race was akin to driving a time bomb. It was reckless and it was dangerous.
In the past, NASCAR has stepped forward when teams gamble with safety. How was this different?
As he kept driving around the track, I was yelling "stop under caution dummy" why are you even taking this chance?? And to gamble for their own team is one thing, but now they have gambled Carl's chase hope's as well. And selfishly, since I had BOTH drivers in my fantasy team, they completely screwed up my fantasy score!
- Becky T.
- 05:40:51 10-03-2007
I didn't watch the restart but I am surprised that he didn't get black flagged. I did catch Carl's comments afterwards where he was upset but said if he were in Stewart's position that he would have done anything to stay on the track as well.
Again not watching the race I'm not sure about the details but figuring he knew that the race would be called soon and that if he came in he would have gone a lap down. (I don't know how many were on the lead lap, but it looked like around 30 or so) So the gamble to stay out may not as cost him that much.
If he goes into fix the tire he is a lap down in 30th or so. If he rides it out it may not blow before they call the race and he gets a good finish. If it does blow (which it obviously did) then he really only loses 8-10 spots if he would have went in to fix it.
Was it selfish of Stewart to risk himself and others? Sure, but you don't win Championships without being selfish.
Sadie great post, well written as usual.
- wdogg40
- 05:46:47 10-03-2007
Zippy and Tony screwed up. IMO staying out would have been an acceptable risk if it was the last race and the championship was down to the wire. But there were seven races remaining after this one. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
I was yelling "Pit, Pit, Pit" aloud along with Becky T (and I'm sure many other Rowdians.)
- John Ousterhout
- 08:39:59 10-03-2007
Due to the loooooonnnnnngggg rain delay, I wasn’t able to see the end of the race, but obviously the 20 team was hoping the tire would clear itself. I can’t help but think about and compare this to Truex Jr.’s car at Dover. That thing was a mess, he totally should not have been allowed back on the track (he was eventually black flagged, right?) but he stayed out. I know Stewart ended up screwing himself, but I think every Chaser is going to try and get every single point they can. They had nothing to lose, so they took a shot. Stewart was in control enough to get Raines to go around him. It was an unfortunate accident, but if Stewart’s not mad that Busch couldn’t slow up in time, I’m going to chalk it up to just one of those things. I don’t think we want NASCAR to start black flagging for tire rub (I know I don’t.) I can’t even begin to imagine the field day the conspiracy theorists would have with those decisions… Weird race- weird ending.
- Kerry
- 08:47:04 10-03-2007
Did you see the in car when Tony threw the steering wheel at the camera? He had to know what a risk the team was taking and held his breath. I saw his reaction and thought that he could have taken it down a notch, unless he was just mad at Zippy.
- Jana
- 17:49:01 10-04-2007
I missed this blog! How did that happen?! Everyone seems to keep blaming Tony. I don't blame Tony ... I BLAME NASCAR! Of course Tony and Zippy are going to stay out, take the gamble, ride it to the finish! NASCAR needed to take that decision out of their hands and make him pit and change that badly rubbed tire. Badly handled, and that's all I have to say about that ...
- Becky
- 01:55:40 10-05-2007
Ok, my 2 pennies worth... What I recall (but am not certian of) was that Zippy wanted to pit and Tony insisted on staying out.
Point A: Zippy should have trumped him here. He had the view of the extent of the damage, Tony did not.
Maybe it rubs, maybe not. I will go on record of saying in the rubber vs. metal meeting that regardless of what alloy is used and what the rubber durometer is employed, rubber looses. Every time. First sign of bad smoke the 20 team should have said "This is worse that we thought. Bring it in so we don't loose too many points." Not only did the large amount of smoke make it difficult for other drivers directly behind Stewart to see, but after 3 laps it was evident he was a huge liability to the racing field. I do not care how gingerly Tony drove it in to the corner.
Point B: NASCAR should have blag flagged the 20 car as it was a clear danger to the racing field. Much more so than a slow car or someone tossing roll bar padding.
This was not the last race of the season, nor was Tony outside the top 12 and fighting to get in. Dumb call all around.
- J.D.
- 06:19:49 10-05-2007
Perhaps they were emboldened by their previous gambles at Kansas (the fuel mileage win last year and the pit gamble that got him up front at what they thought would be the end of the race). Sadie, I completely agree that the gamble here was not worth the risk. His actions not only affected his own team's fortunes but those of the other drivers around him. Personally, I think NASCAR is afraid of black flagging him of late. Why he didn't get black flagged for repeatedly slamming into Johnny Sauter's car at Dover is beyond me. I don't dislike Smoke but I think he gets way too emotional and makes bad decisions in the heat of the moment. Then, he gets all hostile in the driver's seat for the camera after the tire finally gave way. Who does he have to blame but himself?!?!
Also, it shouldn't be overlooked in all of this that Carl Edwards has almost been knocked out of the Chase, even after a win, because of this. He has a very big hole to climb out of thanks to this setback.
- Jason
- 07:15:53 10-05-2007
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