Posted on 11/08/2010 8:12:30 AM PST by tlb
ASCAR got what it needed most Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway when Jeff Gordon assaulted Jeff Burton after the two crashed during a caution period.
Just when the sport had become predictable and stale, there's nothing like two drivers slugging it out .
NASCAR has seen its numbers dwindle in terms of interest and popularity. While they like to blame the economy for that dip, there are some in the garage area who believe fan apathy has played a role as drivers became too corporate, too mindful of the reaction from sponsors and team owners.
And no driver represented that better than Gordon, who arrived in NASCAR in 1992 with a mullet haircut and a cheesy-looking mustache but eventually transformed into the cleanest of the clean-cut images. Gordon had become the "Choir Boy" of NASCAR.
Ironically, Burton was trying to apologize to Gordon before the scuffle began. "I turned left and he turned left and we hung up and off we went," Burton said. "It was my fault, it was 100 percent my fault. I don't blame him for being mad. I would have been mad, too. He was upset and he should have been upset. I wrecked him under caution. I didn't mean to wreck, but I wrecked him under caution. I don't have a bit of problem with what he did."
After Gordon was released from the infield care center, he tried to explain his actions.
"I guess he was really frustrated with the way his car was handling or something and he just drove into my right-rear under caution," Gordon said. "Of all the people out there, I never thought that would happen with Jeff Burton. I have had a lot of respect for Jeff, but I have certainly lost a lot of respect for him today."
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
Your right, they fight like girls or baseball players, shoving, pushing etc. Now, Hockey players, that’s a fight
Burton did handle him after being surprised initially.
Nancy-boy is lucky the officials were there.
Burton was fixin to open up a can on him...
Well, I wouldn’t exactly call that sweet science but more of a brawl.
I watched that race live and the brawl did add some excitement that is still talked about today, some 30 odd years later.
I believe a good fist fight maybe 10 years or so ago would have helped Jeff Gordons image.
Lots of folks still think Jeff is gay.
Nice wife, but hey, so is Charlie Crists new wife and it hasn’t helped him at all.
Charlie Crist is a fag, Is Jeff Gordon?
And, to add insult to injury, Nancy’s team went over to the 48 pit to a driver who could do something with a good pit crew.
Maybe they should switch teams permanently.
Ouch!
The event I'm thinking of was the 1979 Daytona 500, which was held in mid-February that year and was the first Daytona 500 to be broadcast on national television. CBS carried the race almost as an afterthought -- really just to fill their weekend sports programming in a dead period on the sports calendar after the end of the NFL season and before the NCAA basketball tournament in March and the start of the Major League Baseball season in April.
NASCAR and CBS didn't expect to attract too many viewers that day, but they lucked out when television ratings across the board were abnormally high as much of the Northeast and Midwest was blanketed by the infamous "Presidents Day Blizzard" of 1979.
That Daytona 500 race went down as one of the most exciting auto races in history, and ended with an amazing scene on the final lap, with race leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough bumping each other several times before crashing into the wall and ending up wrecked on the infield. Richard Petty went on to win the race, and an argument broke out at the scene of the wrecked cars between Allison and Yarborough, Donnie Allison's brother Bobby stopped his car at the scene and joined the fracas, and a brawl broke out among the drivers.
A huge portion of the TV audience was watching a NASCAR race for the first time, and a lot of these people became die-hard fans because they just assumed every NASCAR race was like that. Stock car racing became a big-time sport on that day, and has never looked back.
Yep, I’ll never forget watching that race. I still sort of follow nascar...I drink a glass of milk as the green flag flies, fall asleep, and wake back up for the last 50 laps or so.
It's all that and more. As a former NASCAR fan, the races all became boring and predictable but, the worst thing was that the NASCAR organization kept trying to fix something that wasn't broke . . . . . until they broke it!!
Worse, with all of the requirements on car specs such that they all have to be virtual replicas of each other, the races became more reminiscent of the old IROC series than anything of NASCAR. IROC was boring because all the cars were mechanical duplicates. The theory was good, but the implementation was horrible!
IMO, NASCAR’s loss of following is in part because they insist on putting the last 2/3 of the season, including The Chase on the TV channels which are paid for.
Many retirees no longer can afford such extras. Therefore, that following is being marginalized & lost.
Smokey Yunick was a hero back then!””
One year, Smokey spent the winter building a 7/8 size car. Everyone at Daytona kept looking at it & not seeing what he had done.
That is when the manufacturer’s templates came into use.
It was a beautiful car—just 7/8 size.
David Pearson & Cale Yarborough at Daytona, while Petty pushes in his clutch while sliding thru & makes it to the finish line?
David Pearson “
ooops
Donnie Allison
NASCAR is scripted BS.
Current race car drivers fight like baseball players,....meaning they can’t fight. most NASCAR drivers save for Kyle Busch come up with a silver spoon.
It was like watching two girls push each other.
He was such a kick! Soaking body panels in acid to make them thinner and lighter. Using thinner glass for the same reason. What a blast!
Whoops!
Johnson to use Gordon's crew for rest of season
I must be psychiatric or something! :-)
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