Last Lap: Surprise, surprise

NASCAR officials had every intention of parking Jimmy Spencer Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway for what initially looked like a blatant banzai sprint into Casey Mears' Dodge.

Marty Smith

No offense to Mears, or Jimmie Johnson for that matter, but I'm not sure NASCAR shouldn't have thanked Spencer.

Prior to the aforementioned run-in on lap 178 -- which was preceded by a similar door-banging dance for Mears with Dale Jarrett -- the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 was as cordial as Sunday school. No one stepped out of line. No one made a misstep. Everyone minded their p's, q's, a's, b's and c's.

But the minute Spencer took that bulls eye on Mears' Dodge literally, church let out. Right then, every driver in the house knew that to reach the promised land, they had to slide through the 400-point window unscathed.

Spencer's aggressive approach completely changed the complexion of that race, and in turn many teams' seasons. And it gave NASCAR exactly what NASCAR wanted -- a dramatic regular season finale that went down to the final lap.

What do you think was the biggest surprise during the Richmond race that set the field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup?

Un-parking Jimmy Spencer. I've never seen NASCAR review a replay and change a blown call before. Could this become standard procedure? I like it when drivers get to review the video before commenting instead of saying thing they later have to eat.

But I'd really like a NASCAR policy of using available resources to decide a questionable call instead of admitting on Monday or Tuesday that something did go wrong and shrugging it off with a meaningless "Oops, sorry about that." -- gogregbiffle

Per usual, Nicole crushes one to the upper deck. (That's a masked shout out to Kurt Busch. Did anyone else notice how many baseball cliches Busch used in his post race interview the other night? Dude sounded like a Bob Uecker wind-up doll.)

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Anyway, I couldn't agree more with this response. Considering the magnitude of this race and the ramifications involved with every decision Mike Helton and John Darby made in the tower, it was quite heartening that they reviewed the Spencer/Mears incident immediately for accuracy.

Though Spencer had no chance at qualifying for the Chase, NASCAR's decision to own up to a mistake and rescind the initial call to park him made a glaring statement -- that they're willing to be flexible with official rulings, which could prove vital during the Chase.

The magnitude of this decision cannot be overstated. Considering the significant number of scoring and procedural gaffs during the 2004 Nextel Cup season that NASCAR did nothing about and faced no consequences for, their willingness to stand up and admit fault, and fix it, even, is commendable.

And to my knowledge, unprecedented.

Bliss and Mike Wallace finishing in the top ten might have thrown a wrench in someone's party plan. -- FIREBALL

Mr. Roberts' observation garnered my attention, as well, mainly because both Wallace and Bliss had Chase-contending "teammates" running worse than they were. Jamie McMurray's crew chief, Donnie Wingo, was infuriated that Wallace wouldn't remain behind McMurray during the final laps of the race.

McMurray was down to seven cylinders, and needed every position he could muster to qualify for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. But when Wingo asked Wallace's crew chief, Mark Reno, for some help, Reno opted not to assist McMurray's effort.

Wallace passed McMurray and went on to finish seventh. McMurray finished ninth.

The question is, had Wallace remained behind McMurray, could he have had any bearing on where Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin, all of whom finished just ahead of McMurray, wound up in the final running order? Would Wallace have been able to hold off other competitors so that McMurray could gain the points necessary to supplant Ryan Newman in 10th position?

I'll have to watch the race again to determine that.

Then there's this:

The biggest surprise during the Richmond Race was something that was decided months before the race. Jamie McMurray's 25-point penalty from Bristol turned out to have a huge effect on his Chase chances, especially since he lost a cylinder during the race.

I feel bad for Jamie and I look back at what his part car owner Felix Sabates said about it in a NASCAR.COM interview. It is total B.S. how NASCAR penalized the 42 for the same infraction that the 20 car had a year earlier and did not get penalized points for doing.

Felix is going to have to sign up for the Jack Roush club of NASCAR screw jobs, I can remember more than one time NASCAR has penalized a Roush car on a questionable call.

By Jamie McMurray not making the Chase by such a close margin, NASCAR has once again exposed itself to even more scrutiny on the subject of officiating and with Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates behind it this one may not die quickly. -- Driver17_pa

I couldn't disagree more. I'd say the four engine failures had more to do with it than the penalty did.

Well for one thing the drivers should be considering each and every race they drive in a chase to the championship not just these last couple. There is no reason to storm off into your hauler if you lost by 5, 10 or 50 points, if you had gotten up front and led a lap then guess what you might be in it.

That's enough on that. As for a surprise - Jeremy Mayfield, who would have thought he would be in on this championship run! Wow! Big surprise, not that he's a bad driver cause he's not it's just you don't think of him when you talk championship contention. I guess that has changed. -- Gojgordon

Me. Then again, I picked Mayfield to finish in the top 10 under the old point structure, which he'd also have done. When I made my top 10 predictions for 2004, the Chase for the Nextel Cup format hadn't yet been announced. I also had Dale Jarrett in my top 10, which obviously won't happen now. I betcha he'd have made it under the old system.

Junior's total lack of regard for a fellow competitor. Junior is already locked in the chase, nothing to loose. Kahne (granted, having a bad run) was racing for his season.

If he was that slow Junior could have easily backed out and passed him on the straight or the next corner. He had to know the points situation -- one of the guys running for a final spot in the Chase would be the guy a gave the most room and space.

How would you like to know you cost someone a shot at the cup? To "Little E" I guess that doesn't matter. Now, with all that said, no guarantee Kahne would have made it in if Jr. hadn't spun him. But as Kasey said "getting spun didn't help." -- whip1492

Total lack of regard for a fellow competitor is slightly overdramatic, Chris Columbus. Did Junior wreck Kahne? Yes. Did he wreck him on purpose? Please. Think about it. Had Earnhardt dumped Kahne on purpose, don't you think Kahne or Ray Evernham would have voiced that opinion?

Remember Chicago? Kahne nor Evernham had any reservation lighting Tony Stewart up then.

Here's how Junior saw it:

"When I got into Kasey (Kahne), I went in the corner, he was backing up on the top," Earnhardt explained. He was really slow all night. Then he got down the bottom. I was pretty fast.

"By the time I caught them boys he went around on the bottom. So I went in the corner into (Turn) one going to the top to hook the nose around the outside of him and force the issue to get him low to go by and he just kind of slid up in the center of the corner in front of me and I poked him with the headlight.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't think it was enough to spin anybody out but he must have been pretty damn loose. It took him right around. I almost ran inside of him. I didn't do it on purpose. I almost crashed into him too. His boys can be all pissed off or whatever. I didn't do it on purpose. I don't really care what they think.

"They're mad anyways. I ain't got nothing against him. We're pretty good buddies. If it cost him his chance at the top ten, I'm sorry."

The biggest surprise was what didn't happen -- 13 people fighting for the championship. Who would have thought that scenario even had the potential to play out, but yet it did at one point in the race. So the second biggest surprise was Jeff Gordon finishing third and extinguishing all those guys' hopes. It's too bad, because all those cars competing would have been neat to see. -- biffleboy

At one point in the race 13 teams were in position to make the Chase, an unfathomable prospect when this format was announced. Though it's no surprise that Gordon finished well at Richmond, you make a great point, Patrick Rogers. The more cars in the running, the harder it is to win it all.

I thought the almost over-aggressive driving by those who were closest to making it in, but even more shocking, that same driving being done by a classy driver like Dale Jarrett.

He was almost desperate to make it in that he seemed possessed. Then, his car fading near the end. Also, Jamie McMurray's car loosing a cylinder and him getting passed and not making it in. For the most part, the whole race seemed filled more with tension than any race before.

It made for a very exciting, and at the same time, almost scary race. Richmond turned out to be the best race of the season simply because of the importance of it.

I think, if NASCAR is going to stick with this Chase For The Cup, the 11th race to go needs to be at different tracks. This would make each year's race more exciting, and have more tracks involved in the excitement. -- 20Stewart02

Amen, Smoke. It was by far the most exciting race of the season. If I've ever paid attention to the who finished ninth in the fall Richmond race before, I certainly don't recall it. This time around I spent half an hour outside McMurray's transporter talking to Sabates.

Rest assured, NASCAR got what it wanted.

Wonder if Spencer will get a thank you note?