I just watched one of the most exciting Daytona 500 finishes I’ve ever seen, and after a week of scandals, one that will only add fuel to the NASCAR rules fire. I like the winner Kevin Harvick and I like runner up Mark Martin too. But why, oh why didn’t NASCAR throw the caution flag as soon as cars started wrecking behind the leaders on the final lap? Normally, in the name of safety, NASCAR is all too eager to throw out the yellow, but not this time. If the yellow had come out as it normally would, we’d have Mark Martin in the winner’s circle instead of Harvick. While one can argue that the yellow may have been held to avoid essentially deciding the outcome of the race in a noncompetitive fashion, NASCAR has made such a big noise about their commitment to the safety of the drivers that an argument like that in the face of such developing auto carnage doesn’t hold any water. So again, why oh NASCAR, why?
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19 replies on “Was Martin Robbed of Daytona Victory?”
they punished gordon for something not his fault in the by there rules.
there rules say yellow at first accident. to be fair martin won.
Nascar finally did the right thing. The accident was in back beind the leaders coming to the checkers, the leaders and therefore their finish should not have been affected. This is the way last years Daytona 500 should have ended… race to the checkers. It is a 2.5 mile oval they have 2 miles to slow down after the checkers before getting to the wreck. Now we get to hear Martin whine about being “robbed” of both the Daytona 500 and a championship…waa…
nascar has done it again. i’m seriuosly considering a one man crusade to have nascar (the sanctioning body), the director of competition, and ceo brian france penalized for rules violations that are detrimental to the sport. the yellow had more than ample time to come out and “freeze” the field as they say, but no yellow and no win for one of the sports greatest gentelman…what a debacle, what a farce, and this hints of organized crime. “we make the rules”-we decide when to apply them, bull*&$#. the fans must get together and apply some pressure to this mob style atmosphere to install a fan based sanctioning body of it’s own.
what if the 01 car was not in that position? what if it was the 24 or the 48, maybe the 8 or the 20 car? you damn sure bet the outcome would be much different. this problem has not just happened today, last year, or a decade ago, no this problem has a recurring theme from about 30 years back. i went to my first 500 in 1973 and have been loyal to this sport for all these years but enough is enough…
nascar rules they change on a whim, mark got rob, if that was Dale Jr, the result would have been different, done withwatching nascar going to drag raCING, MORE ACTION, LESS CRAP.. ENOUGH IS PLENTLY
say what u will but mark martin was robbed….im an earnhardt and harvick fan but when its wrong its wrong,,,mark is a gtr8t driver whom.thank god got away from roush and now has a good team……..ok dale its ur time…git er done
I’m not happy with the outcome. I think Martin should have been the winner when the accidents occured. I would hope Nascar would review
film on the whole incident the last lap. When the accident happened, what
cars were there, and if any of the top 5 finishers were in the accident.
Rules should be consistent for all situations and all drivers equal.
Mark Martin is still a champion and a gentleman in my book.
Congratulations to Harvick on a questionable victory.
Come on throwing the caution would not have affected the safety of any of the racers coming to the flag. Caution is thrown for the sake of safety of the drivers and track safety workers. By the time caution would have been shown the wreck would have been behind everyone who wasn’t involved anyway. I want to see a race and enough of the throwing the last lap yellow when the wreck is behind the leaders. If the wreck is in turn 1 or something that is different but come on LETS RACE. Nascar finally got it right.
The only flag that can follow a white is a checkered…so they actually did have it right, even though I so much wanted Martin to win. The checkered flag is the ONLY thing after the white is thrown. It would have been checker and yellow together…and well, who knows what a mess that would have been.
There was no danger invoved for the leaders, but there was for those behind them. The yellow should have come out for that reason. Then there is the rule that there is no race to the checkerd flag. You can’t have it both ways. The checkerd flag should have been thrown, the field frozen and Mark Marting the winner!
There was no danger invoved for the leaders, but there was for those behind them. The yellow should have come out for that reason. Then there is the rule that there is no race to the checkerd flag. You can’t have it both ways. The checkerd flag should have been thrown, the field frozen and Mark Martin the winner!
There was no more danger for those behind the leaders either. Think about it if the flag was immediately thrown what would have changed about the wreck??? Nothing. The drivers who could have avoided it would have regardless of the flag conditions. The flag is not to stop them in the middle of the wreck it is for the safety of the track safety workers and to keep them from racing through the wreck after it happens. Which is something they did not do. The whole field was bunched up so there was no one left to go through the wreck and therefore no need to throw the caution early and wreck the end of the race. Mark Martin was outrun to the checkered.
Martin was definately robbed ! Nascar should be more consistent with their rules. There was more than enough time to throw the yellow while the wreck was happening, and it may have been safer for the cars who had not hit anyone yet. But as always, they make the rules as they go. For years I attended 2 races a year. I will not go to another, and not too worried if I see anymore on tv. Good Luck nascrap keeping what fans you have left.
WALTRIP SAID EARLIER IN BROADCAST “WHEN WRECKS HAPPEN…
THE FIELD IS FROZEN”… BY WHAT I SAW- THATS A LIE…
MARKIE MARK WON AND HE DESERVES THE WIN… DO THE RIGHT THING AND OVERTURN HARVICKS WIN… IF IT WAS JR. OR GORDON,STEWART,
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE
OH AND I’M A HARVICK FAN
Waltrip also said that Greg Biffile and Matt Kenseth would prefer to see Mark Martin win more than themselves during the last caution. Do you believe that line of crap to? Last year we saw on the last lap Kenseth wreck Jeff Gorden on the back stretch in traffic (at Martinsville I think) and there was no caution. So this isn’t the first time. This has nothing to do with safety. I am shocked that the caution was not thrown for Martin because Nascar would have loved to have him as their winner… what a story for them it would have been and they love him. They have thrown unnecessary last lap cautions before and maybe they are finally realizing how it wrecks the finish of a good race to the finish.
One more thing, watch the replay when Kyle bush spins Harvick is in front of Martin. After that Martin pulls ahead then Harvick comes back to the lead. If they go back to the last scoring loop or the moment of the wreck He still wins. Martin looses either way.
I thought that was the worst race I have ever seen in my life. How can Nascar say we are following the rules to the T, we are cracking down on the cheating and blah blah blah. The Field is suppose to be frozen at the time of the accident. And the other drivers in the back are surrounded by debris so why was the caution flag not thrown at the time of the accident? Because there are no set of rules. Nothing in Nascar is set in stone. It is a do what I want to do at the time. Let me see what my mood strikes me to do. Earnhardt Jr. lost a race because the field had to be frozen and the winner was the one in the lead at the time of the caution. Why was it not the same for Mark Martin. He has been screwed and robbed. Everyone in the pit area should be ashamed to be afilliated with Kevin Harvick and even Nascar. I have grown up watching Nascar and I believe it is one of the crookedest things out there. It benefits who it wants to. It helps no one but themselves. They care nothing for the drivers or the fans. Only greed and the almighty dollar. I am not a Busch fan, probably as far from it as you can get, but after this race I may have to become one. I have more respect for him than I will ever have for the Nascar officiating or Kevin Harvick. Mark Martin deserved this victory and more importantly earned it and it was stolen from him. WAY TO GO NASCAR. NEXT TIME WE’LL WAIT FOR SOMEONE TO BE DEAD TO EXPECT A CAUTION!!!!!
For those who say that there was no danger to the leaders or to the drivers in back who could not have avoided the wreck anyway, what about next time. If the drivers have it in their head that a caution may not be thrown at some point on the final lap of the race, then they may just as well ignore the whats going on and try to race to the checkered, which can cause more dangerous crashes. I have no problem with letting drivers race for the win but if nascar rules say no racing to the checkered and the field is frozen then so be it and apply it under any circumstances.
Be consistent.
*****MARK MARTIN won the 2007 Daytona 500*****
Thanks to a last second rules change on the yellow flag, MARK MARTIN had the race stolen from him!
Also, Martin was in the lead at the end of 500 miles, but thanks to NASCAR the race was extened to 505 miles.
MARK MARTIN got the shaft, along with all of our fine men & women in the US Army.
NASCAR F____D-UP again, no wonder the fan base is dropping annually. They had better shape-up or when it comes time for TV contract renewals the big bucks won’t be there. Ask the NBA & the NHL how that works!
There was ten’s of thousands of empty seats during speed week, I was there and saw them!