Fans Not Happy With Caution-Flag Win

The beer cans and seat cushions that rained down at the end of last Sunday’s NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway shouldn’t have been a surprise.

They came mostly from the thousands of disappointed Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans, outraged he was not going to win a race he had dominated.

Instead, with the field frozen by the last of 11 caution flags in the race, the leaders drove across the finish line under yellow at 70 mph, with Jeff Gordon just ahead of Earnhardt.

NASCAR too loves to see races end under green flags and has often red-flagged an event in the waning laps to give track workers time to clean up after an accident or a blown engine and restart the race.

But the prevailing rule is there will be no red flag if NASCAR determines there are not enough laps left to give the drivers a shot at a safe competitive finish.

Such was the case Sunday, with the yellow flag coming out only four laps from the finish. It appeared NASCAR could have given the drivers one final lap to fight it out for the win, but that idea was rejected.

“Here and at Daytona we’re not going to have a one-lap shootout just because of safety,” NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said after the race.

Earnhardt was disappointed, of course. But he agreed with NASCAR’s call.

“I understand that it is dangerous -- maybe not for a guy in first, second, third or fourth, but (there’s always) this guy coming from 10th that’s trying to get a top five and somehow somebody gets on his roof every time.

“So, it’s maybe not a good idea overall for everybody. I’d have liked to have a shot at it, but there are a lot of guys who were probably happy to have it end under caution.”

Jimmie Johnson, who finished fourth at Talladega, would love to see NASCAR guarantee a finish under green. But he acknowledges that might not be practical.

“If it’s a green-white-checkered finish, that’s fine with me as long as it’s the same all year long,” he said. “We’re calculating our fuel mileage to the last drop to finish these races.

“I don’t think you’ll find a driver who complains about it just as long as it’s the same. I know the fans were upset because we didn’t have a green flag finish, but the sport was founded on being a certain number of miles per event. ... That’s the way it was designed and they are still following that mind-set.”

Rusty Wallace was running 33rd at the end of the Talladega race, thanks to getting caught up in a 10-car crash early in the event. But the former Cup champion doesn’t mind races ending under caution.

“The reason we like it is because we know as drivers if you’ve got two or three laps to go its going to cause one heck of a mess trying to restart,” he said. “That’s how I got on my roof and ended up in the hospital with broken bones.

“The only reason we try to restart these races is to put an exciting show on. The thing that confuses me is we’ve already put an exciting show on for three and a half hours. We’ve missed the last little bit because of a crash.”

Wallace pointed out it’s the drivers who have been out there running three- and four-wide in huge packs at more than 190 mph laps after lap.

“If you poll the drivers, most of them will tell you, Hey look, its been a nail biter all day long. Were just happy to get this thing over with right now. It was the safe way out.”

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Lowe’s Motor Speedway will pay out a record $14 million in May.

The money will be paid out to competitors in eight divisions, with the biggest amount reserved for the Coca-Cola 600 on May 30. The Nextel Cup event, which culminates two weeks of racing at the Concord, N.C., track, will pay $6.16 -- an increase of $764,000 over last year.

The total is $1,06 million more than was posted for the track’s May races last year and represents an increase of nearly $8 million over what competitors raced for just five years ago.

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Mark Martin has certainly had his highs and lows in the seven Cup races at California Speedway. He has three top 10 finishes, including one victory, but is also tied with Derrike Cope as the DNF (Did not finish) leader with three.

One of Martin’s DNF’s was his first top 10. He ran out of gas on the final lap of the inaugural California race, but still finished 10th.