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So, what’s the big deal with debris cautions? (4-8-08)
By admin | April 7, 2008
So, what’s the big deal with debris cautions?
By Richard Allen
The 1972 Olympic Basketball Finals are often disregarded by most international basketball fans. A look at the final score shows that the Soviet Union beat the United States by a score of 51-50.
So, what was the problem? Why is the game passed over by basketball enthusiasts?
The problem is that the game ended with a manufactured finish. The Soviets were to inbound the ball with :03 seconds remaining. They trailed by one point.
After an unsuccessful attempt at scoring on their inbounds play, the Soviets were given another chance when it was determined that the Soviet coach had called a timeout. On the second attempt, a Soviet player missed a long shot but the Soviet coach protested that this time the clock had been reset incorrectly. Finally, after a third attempt the Soviets scored a basket at the buzzer to win the gold medal.
The U.S. team refused to accept the silver medal and filed a protest, believing the final outcome was nothing more than a Cold War robbery.
With basketball being the topic of the day I threw that story in to parallel what many NASCAR fans think about debris cautions.
Based on feedback I often get, fans believe the debris caution wrongfully takes away a lead, and possibly even a victory, from a deserving team and driver who have worked hard to build that lead.
With all of that being said, NASCAR’s first consideration must be safety. If an observer sees something shiny in the middle of the racing groove and has to make a quick determination as to whether that object is a piece of metal or not, any error should be made on the side of caution. If the object turns out to be a gum wrapper then so be it. Better to have a mistake made than to allow cars to come barreling into a turn and one of them cut a tire and slam into the wall.
However, simply throwing a caution for the sake of bringing the field together, particularly late in the race, is questionable behavior. As Tony Stewart said last year, that brings on comparisons to professional wrestling.
On Sunday in Texas, Carl Edwards had a commanding lead in the Samsung 500. On lap 296 a caution flag waved for debris on the backstretch.
The Fox Network never showed any debris. Perhaps there was something on the track but the network was busy setting up for the pit stops that were forthcoming. If there was debris then there is no problem. If NASCAR was merely manufacturing a good finish then they run the risk of being disregarded.
This season, or for that matter since Stewart’s comments of last year, television cameras have shown safety workers picking up debris during cautions.
Fox commentator Mike Joy pointed out in the late stages of the Texas event that all races this year have had close finishes. That’s fine if those finishes are legitimate.
My dad and I have watched many races together. We used to joke that if NASCAR ran a 24 hour race they would race for 23:40, throw a caution and bring the jet driers out for 19 minutes, then have a green-white-checkered finish. That needs to always be no more than a joke.
Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly column appears in The Mountain Press every Wednesday.
Topics: Articles |
April 8th, 2008 at 6:50 am
You know, when you think about it NASCAR is not the only one at fault with these created finishes. College basketball is not officiated the same in the 1st half as it is in the 2nd half. Like slamming the ball down would be a T in the 1st half but not late.
hey, the NFL is an entire league built on creating closeness.
ever watch the end of an nba game? yeah, I know, nobody does.
I’m not saying it’s right, just saying Nascar isn’t the only ones.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:09 am
There is a 100% chance that NA$CAR will have a caution in the last 10 laps of the race. The only exception would be if Jr. was leading. They got lucky this week. They left a smoking car on the track rather than black flagging in the hope it would blow up and save another “debris” caution. Like professional basketball, you only need to watch the last 10 minutes to see the “excitement” of a close race.
Carl said he could have gone faster. Next time, he will need to slow down more to prevent the “debris” cautions.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am
hmmm….
Ken says there is a 100% chance of a caution in the last 10 laps unless junior is leading.
in other words, there is a 100% chance of a caution in the last 10 laps. HAHAHA
April 8th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
When ya take into consideration that darn near EVERY time (since tonys’ comments) they have made it a point to SHOW us the debris when the magic yellow is thrown …add in the fact that ALL the announcers have spent every week telling us that these cars are better for close racing ( contrary to every driver ) ..ITS pretty OBVIOUS that it was an attempt at staging the finish ! DOES it matter ? no cause CARL deserved to win and did …BUT if ya dont like being compared to WWF then stop acting like it !!
April 8th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Richard, your logic seems to be that we should accept manufactured finish! I think it hurts the intregrity of Nascar if this is infact true!
The race at Texas with Edwards having a 7 second lead, then a ‘debris caution’, with all the cameras they had and not showing it, you stated they had to get ready for pits, they had plenty of time to get the backstretch camera angle to show it! I am not saying there was no debris, but prove and verify is the least they can do for us fans!
Yes Nascar needs to have cautions when debris is a issue, but they seem to have a habit of doing it when someone has a large lead near the end of a race!Besides when you get down to it, there are more wrecks and safety concerns at the end of a race when they are bunched up and see all the crashes,restart after restart!
My main issue is I think Nascar will kept losing its prestige if infact it is doing things like this! That makes a lot of us fans think if they will manufacter a finish, what else are they doing behind close doors! A staged and rigged NASCAR will not work for them like it does in WWF! The Joke could be on Nascar!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I was watching the race and with a couple of laps to go I was just waiting for the caution since Edwards was too far ahead for a photo finish. I almost thought they weren’t going to throw it — I was thinking back to a race I saw back in ‘01 or ‘02 at Rockingham where Matt Kenseth ran away for a win. No manufactured debris cautions back then — they finished where they finished. My reverie was broken by the sudden yellow coming out, guaranteeing a green-white-checker. Bogus, absolutely bogus. I’m really getting sick of it. Professional wrestling antics –”It’s real racing, really it is!” I find myself watching ALMS races now instead if they are on at the same time… and if they are not, the TV has started staying off…