Cross' Words: Talladega (cont'd)

Up Next

Bank of America 500 | Charlotte | 7 p.m. ET Saturday | ABC
Race No. 31 of 36 | Get tickets | Book travel

• Defending race winner: Kasey Kahne
• Most victories at the track: Jimmie Johnson (5)
• Best average finish (minimum five starts): Jimmie Johnson (6.2 in 12 starts)
Active drivers only

Sound off

• This week's topic
Five of the 12 drivers in the Chase are more than 250 points behind leader Jeff Gordon. Is it too early to eliminate these drivers? If not, which driver is most likely to make a charge during the final six races?

Surf over and weigh in on the blog.

• Last week's topic
It seems NASCAR is more open than ever to interpretations. What would be the best way for NASCAR to handle these judgment calls? Is there a way to take out some of the interpretations so that the rules are more black and white -- and less detrimental to the actions of stock car racing?

mrevoix
What car sets the reasonable speed on any caution lap? The leader or the pace car? I always thought it was the pace car, but hey they could change that too if they needed to cover their blunder. NASCAR screwed up and now they will say anything to try and make sense of their blunder. Meanwhile, the sport suffers yet again because of NASCAR's whimsical interpretations of its own rules.

KenK1
NASCAR is the new WWF. "Too dark?" to finish the 3 lousy laps??? It's sad when even the announcers then started chiming in "Well, it is kinda dark out and TV makes it look lighter ..." Where is Mean Gene Okerlund and Jesse the Body ... that's all we are missing now!!!

mzmomm2
Get over it! Had it been Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon in Biffle's place half of the "whiners" whining would not even be here. Sick of those two receiving better treatment than the rest and they are always whining about something ... get over it!

OnebadDAD
The pace car sets a safe speed. The leader (like always) can speed up or slow down.

HMSFAN1956
Someone else needs to officiate the races. NASCAR needs to hire about 50 officials to call the race. They need to rotate the officials to insure none are on the take. NASCAR will never be able to call a race to please everyone! So let someone outside NASCAR call foul!

24jeff
NASCAR did what was right, according to them. I agree with their decision even though I am a Hendrick fan. I don't care to see a Roush driver win, but he was still moving. I see a lot of people complaining about NASCAR's decision-making and if you don't like the show you don't have to watch.

sbx2424
It's not that we don't like the show, we want some consistency. It's that simple!

PoorSpellor
The definition of reasonable speed is NASCAR's interpretation and always has been. The 16 crossed the stripe first so move on. And where is the inconsistency? Don't give me that Robby Gordon excuse. That point has been proved moot in at least five blogs and on television through interviews with NASCAR officials as well as drivers and respected TV hosts in the know (not ESPN).

3CMAC8
Maybe the field should be frozen and positions maintained as long as the car can roll unassisted across the finish line on the final lap if under caution. That gets rid of the "reasonable speed" part of the equation at least. Takes judgment out of it altogether. Either they make it across the line or they don't. If they don't, then their fuel mileage gamble would cause them to finish as the last car on the lead lap.

Frevr3fan
I agree with the call that was made on behalf of Greg. He was rolling at a reasonable speed. His car did not come to a complete stop. And at that time the field was already frozen. Usually it's the lead car that sets the pace behind the pace car anyway. When they go back to green flag racing, a driver cannot pass the lead car until he passes the start finish line. The problem that I had with the situation, was why wasn't Jimmie and Bowyer penalized for passing under yellow? They both went by Biffle. The race wasn't over at that point.

Read all the responses ... (Continued)