The 2001 Pepsi 400: Fixed?

The Car Guy of Benchfield

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The 2001 Pepsi 400: Fixed?

by Steve Wingate

I would like to take a few moments to respond to some of the preposterous charges that have been floating around the Internet and print media concerning Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win at last Saturday's Pepsi 400. There are some people out there who are just too cynical to believe in happy endings like we had last week. Thus, some folks have started screeching about NASCAR making "the call".

In case some of you haven't heard about "the call", I'll take a few moments to explain. I believe it was Bill France Sr., the founding father of NASCAR, who was reputed to have said: "Always give the fans a good show." There are some who believe that NASCAR often goes to great lengths to make good on this promise by "fixing races" to give the fans what they want.

One of the more widely known examples of NASCAR's "call" took place in 1984 when Richard Petty took his 200th win at Daytona, on the 4th of July, with the president of the United States in attendance. There were some who grumbled that Petty's win was too perfect.... you know, an all-American country boy winning in an all-American sport on the 4th of July while Ronald Reagan, the all-American president, watched from the press box. Petty raced Cale Yarborough to the stripe, door handle to door handle, and won by mere inches. Sounds like the last few minutes of "Days of Thunder", doesn't it? I admit, it does sound like a movie script, but if art can emulate life, then it can also work the other way.

Now you have Dale Jr returning to the track that took his father from him just a few months ago and running away with the entire race. This, according to the cynics, gave Dale Jr an excuse to turn donuts in the infield grass just like Dale Sr did after winning the 1998 Daytona 500, and cause all the fans to get all choked up and teary-eyed as well as making the TV ratings skyrocket. I hear that Tom Cruise is really salivating over the movie rights to the Earnhardt story now. Hey, I know, it's a conspiracy! (Gasp!) Tom Cruise paid NASCAR to fix the race so it would make a better movie ending. Yeah, that's it. Don't know why I didn't see that before.

Let's look at a few reasons why there is no such thing as "the call".

1. You can't keep that many people quiet. If there were a such thing as "the call", it would have to involve too many people to be kept a secret. You'd have to involve the drivers, the crews, team owners, spotters and probably more. Somebody would talk. And if that were the case, Tony Stewart would have been talking the loudest last weekend...... after being relegated to a 36th place finishing position when he fully believed he deserved 6th, then having to be restrained from throttling Gary Nelson at the NASCAR trailer-- Oh yeah, he'd have said a thing or two.

2. There's too many other "storybook endings" that NASCAR could have cooked up. The first prime time race at Daytona on a major network was a snoozer-- Do you remember Dale Jarrett rolling under the checkers at 60 MPH under caution? The whole world is watching and NASCAR lets the race end under caution. Couldn't they have made a "call" then to spice things up for a prime time audience? Why didn't they let Kyle Petty win a race last year? After all Kyle went through last year, that surely would have been a storybook ending. Speaking of last year's tragedies, why didn't they let Sterling Marlin win a race and dedicate the win to his fallen teammate? I hate to use Kenny and Adam as examples in this, and I'm not suggesting anything that the cynics haven't already suggested-- Namely, that NASCAR let Dale Jr win because they felt sorry for him, which is, for lack of a better word, utter crap.

3. NASCAR is not THAT desperate yet. I'm not crazy about some of the directions NASCAR has taken in the past few years.... I don't like the slick, media-friendly corporate image that NASCAR has taken on in the past six or seven years, I don't like the "go west" thinking we've been hearing over the last few weeks, and I certainly don't like all these flat, all-purpose tracks with no banking that keep getting race dates. As much as I question all of these moves, I do not question NASCAR's integrity on the subject of "fixed" races. I believe that they occasionally throw a questionable red flag or call for one of those "debris on the track" cautions to spice things up, but I DO NOT believe NASCAR has or will sink to the level of picking the winners ahead of time.

Has anyone considered the fact that Dale Jr just wanted this race worse than any other driver out there? Consider the fact that there have been numerous drivers out there who perform well at tracks in their home state. Davey Allison took his first win at Talladega, Terry Labonte has won at Texas, and Jeff Gordon has won at California and Indianapolis, which tells me that there is a psychological factor, a "hometown pride" sort of thing that kicks in and motivates that driver to do his very best. Couldn't this same kind of thing, a strong belief in "family pride" have motivated Dale Jr to do his best? In his mind, winning at Daytona could have been the modern day equivalent of "avenging" his father's death, thus giving him the motivation to win and the ability to get on with his life.

The cynics out there obviously don't believe in story book endings, and for the most part, they are right to think so. God knows there's not enough story book endings in all of our lives-- there are so many people in this world who live lives wracked with disappointment and failure, that it does us all good to see a "storybook ending" in real life.

I guess some people just can't let themselves enjoy that feeling.

2001 Car Guy of Benchfield

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	The Car Guy of Benchfield Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us The 2001 Pepsi 400: Fixed? by Steve Wingate I would like to take a few moments to respond to some of the preposterous charges that have been floating around the Internet and print media concerning Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win at last Saturday's Pepsi 400. There are some people out there who are just too cynical to believe in happy endings like we had last week. Thus, some folks have started screeching about NASCAR making "the call". In case some of you haven't heard about "the call", I'll take a few moments to explain. I believe it was Bill France Sr., the founding father of NASCAR, who was reputed to have said: "Always give the fans a good show." There are some who believe that NASCAR often goes to great lengths to make good on this promise by "fixing races" to give the fans what they want. One of the more widely known examples of NASCAR's "call" took place in 1984 when Richard Petty took his 200th win at Daytona, on the 4th of July, with the president of the United States in attendance. There were some who grumbled that Petty's win was too perfect.... you know, an all-American country boy winning in an all-American sport on the 4th of July while Ronald Reagan, the all-American president, watched from the press box. Petty raced Cale Yarborough to the stripe, door handle to door handle, and won by mere inches. Sounds like the last few minutes of "Days of Thunder", doesn't it? I admit, it does sound like a movie script, but if art can emulate life, then it can also work the other way. Now you have Dale Jr returning to the track that took his father from him just a few months ago and running away with the entire race. This, according to the cynics, gave Dale Jr an excuse to turn donuts in the infield grass just like Dale Sr did after winning the 1998 Daytona 500, and cause all the fans to get all choked up and teary-eyed as well as making the TV ratings skyrocket. I hear that Tom Cruise is really salivating over the movie rights to the Earnhardt story now. Hey, I know, it's a conspiracy! (Gasp!) Tom Cruise paid NASCAR to fix the race so it would make a better movie ending. Yeah, that's it. Don't know why I didn't see that before. Let's look at a few reasons why there is no such thing as "the call". 1. You can't keep that many people quiet. If there were a such thing as "the call", it would have to involve too many people to be kept a secret. You'd have to involve the drivers, the crews, team owners, spotters and probably more. Somebody would talk. And if that were the case, Tony Stewart would have been talking the loudest last weekend...... after being relegated to a 36th place finishing position when he fully believed he deserved 6th, then having to be restrained from throttling Gary Nelson at the NASCAR trailer-- Oh yeah, he'd have said a thing or two. 2. There's too many other "storybook endings" that NASCAR could have cooked up. The first prime time race at Daytona on a major network was a snoozer-- Do you remember Dale Jarrett rolling under the checkers at 60 MPH under caution? The whole world is watching and NASCAR lets the race end under caution. Couldn't they have made a "call" then to spice things up for a prime time audience? Why didn't they let Kyle Petty win a race last year? After all Kyle went through last year, that surely would have been a storybook ending. Speaking of last year's tragedies, why didn't they let Sterling Marlin win a race and dedicate the win to his fallen teammate? I hate to use Kenny and Adam as examples in this, and I'm not suggesting anything that the cynics haven't already suggested-- Namely, that NASCAR let Dale Jr win because they felt sorry for him, which is, for lack of a better word, utter crap. 3. NASCAR is not THAT desperate yet. I'm not crazy about some of the directions NASCAR has taken in the past few years.... I don't like the slick, media-friendly corporate image that NASCAR has taken on in the past six or seven years, I don't like the "go west" thinking we've been hearing over the last few weeks, and I certainly don't like all these flat, all-purpose tracks with no banking that keep getting race dates. As much as I question all of these moves, I do not question NASCAR's integrity on the subject of "fixed" races. I believe that they occasionally throw a questionable red flag or call for one of those "debris on the track" cautions to spice things up, but I DO NOT believe NASCAR has or will sink to the level of picking the winners ahead of time. Has anyone considered the fact that Dale Jr just wanted this race worse than any other driver out there? Consider the fact that there have been numerous drivers out there who perform well at tracks in their home state. Davey Allison took his first win at Talladega, Terry Labonte has won at Texas, and Jeff Gordon has won at California and Indianapolis, which tells me that there is a psychological factor, a "hometown pride" sort of thing that kicks in and motivates that driver to do his very best. Couldn't this same kind of thing, a strong belief in "family pride" have motivated Dale Jr to do his best? In his mind, winning at Daytona could have been the modern day equivalent of "avenging" his father's death, thus giving him the motivation to win and the ability to get on with his life. The cynics out there obviously don't believe in story book endings, and for the most part, they are right to think so. God knows there's not enough story book endings in all of our lives-- there are so many people in this world who live lives wracked with disappointment and failure, that it does us all good to see a "storybook ending" in real life. I guess some people just can't let themselves enjoy that feeling. 2001 Car Guy of Benchfield Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us