Reaching into the mailbag, and pulling out the thorns (cont'd)

From Lane, whereabouts unknown: "I think your article stinks. What you should have written was how wrong NASCAR was. Oh, wait, you're not allowed to go against the guys that pay your salary."

Where did we rip Ted Turner? As it clearly states at the bottom of each page, this site is run not by NASCAR, but by Turner Sports Interactive. Our parent company is the same one that owns CNN. That's right -- after work, Anderson Cooper and I kick back and try to get to the bottom of a carton of Schlitz.

Muting complaints

Robby Gordon's post-race actions ruined any complaints he had with NASCAR's rulings, writes David Caraviello.

• Complete story, click here

From Dean, in a secret location: "There is one item I think needs clarification in your opinion. When Robby passed Kevin Harvick in Sonoma in 2003, it was a perfectly legal move. NASCAR did not freeze the field at that time. I'm pretty sure Robby is not the only driver who had done that prior to NASCAR's rule change."

Maybe, but other drivers were infuriated when Gordon passed Harvick under yellow en route to winning the 2003 event at Infineon. "What he did, especially to his teammate, was absolutely ridiculous," Jeff Gordon said then. To that point, NASCAR had allowed drivers to operate under a "gentlemen's agreement" that forbade racing back to the line after a caution. That race, and the furor that followed, was the first step toward scoring loops, freezing the field, and the situation Gordon found himself in Saturday.

From Tim in Tennessee: "Why didn't NASCAR red-flag the race and sort out the lineup?"

It would have seemed like the logical thing to do, wouldn't it? But according to a statement NASCAR released after the race, Gordon technically wasn't in violation of NASCAR's order to drop to 13th until after he passed the start / finish line on the restart. Yet the sanctioning body had to know that Gordon was seeking revenge on Ambrose. That they were unwilling or unable to prevent it makes them equally culpable for the result in some eyes.

Asked Jim: "If you were in Robby's place, what would you have done? Arbitration works as well as ESPN's air turbulence animation."

Absolutely correct. The minute NASCAR officials ordered him back to 13th, his race was cooked. But rather than staging his one-man, on-track revolution, Gordon should have finished the race and lashed out at NASCAR in the media afterward. He should have demanded answers as to why Ambrose was allowed to spin him under yellow, and why he was placed so far back in the field. Trust me, writers would have eaten that up. And then the story would have been about NASCAR's scoring system, and not Gordon's antics. And oh yeah, he probably would have been able to race the next day at Pocono, and saved himself $35,000.

From John in Indiana: "Did Robby Gordon refuse to talk to you at one time? Steal your lunch money? Boy, he must have done you bad."

Please, John. This is big-boy auto racing. Anybody who's thin-skinned when it comes to criticism -- whether it be a competitor, columnist, public relations rep or series official -- isn't going to last very long. What reporter doesn't like Robby Gordon? He's talkative, opinionated, colorful, often controversial and usually accessible, unless he's strapped into an off-road car somewhere in the Mexican desert. His independent streak may have cost him some rides in the past, but it also makes him stand out in a garage full of drivers who all seem a little too similar.

But that doesn't mean you approve of everything he does. There's a big difference between disliking the person and disliking the action, something that in this case too many people have failed to understand. Plenty of people, fans as well as writers, have hammered Gordon for his antics last Saturday. But this is a sport where everybody travels and works together for 10 months out of the year. The easy way to make your life miserable is to hold a grudge.

From another John, this one in South Carolina: "Gordon broke the cardinal rule of NASCAR, the only rule of NASCAR: Don't not do what we tell you. Mutiny is a capital offense in NASCAR. That's it. That's all there is. It's irrelevant [completely] whether or not Gordon was wronged by NASCAR. It became irrelevant the millisecond that Gordon put his nose under Ambrose's rear and moved him after being black-flagged."

Finally, someone who gets it. This whole argument isn't about when the caution came out or who got spun under yellow or who should have been in the lead, all factors that have turned the Montreal event into the motorsports version of the JFK assassination. (Was there a second yellow flag on the grassy knoll?) It's about how Gordon's gripe, however legitimate, was completely overshadowed the instant he took matters into his own hands. It's about recognizing that whether it's one driver trying to make a stand in Canada or a group of them three decades ago at Talladega, NASCAR holds absolute power. In these kinds of situations, they have an undefeated record.

Try as he might, Robby Gordon wasn't going to change that. Thinking he could was his biggest mistake. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shut my e-mail account down for about a week.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.