Hot under the collar: aggressive driving and quick tempers are heating things up in Winston Cup

Auto Racing Digest, Dec, 2003 by Barry Wilner

NASCAR HAS PROBLEMS. AS Matt Kenseth was pulling away from the field in the Winston Cup points race during the summer months, the scoring system's flaws were becoming apparent. And those flaws led to some overly aggressive tactics on the tracks, ones that could lead to the type of dangerous driving that gets people hurt.

Simply put, there were so many drivers out of the championship race by early August that any thought of conservative racing went out the window netting. Getting to Victory Lane was primary in their planning, and how they got there didn't make a lot of difference.

We saw it at Watkins Glen, where Greg Biffle spun out pole-sitter Jeff Gordon on the first turn of the first lap, and Robby Gordon muscled his way past Boris Said when a slightly less aggressive approach would have worked moments later.

We saw it at the other road track, in Sonoma, Calif., when Robby Gordon passed teammate Kevin Harvick under a yellow flag, drawing the ire of both his cohort and Jeff Gordon.

There was an incident between non-contenders Jimmy Spencer and John Andretti at New Hampshire. And a five-car smack-up when Johnny Benson and Casey Mears banged together back in the pack and Bobby Labonte's car became engulfed in flames.

The capper came at Richmond when, after Ricky Rudd tapped Harvick's bumper and set the Childress Racing driver into the wall, a post-race melee ensued. Harvick--whose eventual 16th-place finished all but ensured he was out of the Cup title race--drove to pit road and ran into the side of Rudd's car. Some of Harvick's crew members ran into pit road and banged on Rudd's car until NASCAR officials settled the situation.

So we're not talking about the door-to-door, bang-bang finish at Darlington between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch. Both guys were out front in that one in the final laps and, in that case, everyone accepts the "anything goes" strategy. And it makes for great racing; that final lap was one of the best in recent Winston Cup history.

The problems lie farther back in the pack and earlier in the races. Plus the lack of respect drivers are carrying for each other, which leads to Spencer vs. Kurt Busch at various stops on the circuit. Or, more recently, Biffle vs. Gordon. "I'm not sure there's as much respect for the other drivers out there in the heat of action as there once was," says Rusty Wallace.

"A big part of it is the racing is so tight, so close," adds Dale Earnhardt Jr. "Everybody is bunched together because the cars are so competitive. There's more tight racing than ever, and it seems to lead to more hard feelings sometimes."

At the forefront have been the Gordons, who have taken different routes to the villain's role. Jeff Gordon, by far the most successful Cup driver of the past decade, has always been a bit of a whiner. But he has usually drove clean--although exceptions at places such as Daytona and Bristol have been well documented.

But Gordon became something of a menace earlier this year. Perhaps frustrated by having good cars but not getting them to the Winner's Circle with the same regularity as he did in the late 1990s, Gordon got into a nasty groove. Twice, he spun out Sterling Marlin--including a June race at Dover--without any provocation. "He's always had the reputation as a driver that wasn't going to run over you," says Marlin. "But I don't know now."

In the Winston all-star race, Gordon looked like he was driving a tank. That is the most aggressive race of the year, with no points on the--line only money, prestige, and the chance to brag for a year about beating the best in an all-out sprint to the finish.

Gordon has found running consistent laps isn't enough anymore, because so many drivers are doing just that with equal or better equipment or pit crews. So he let the tiger loose. "I've never felt like I was ever going to let anybody push me around," he says. "We're all 3,400 pounds out there on the race track. I'm not doing things to try to show people up. I'm just racing as hard as I can."

Sometimes, it comes back to haunt the No. 24, such as it did at Watkins Glen in one of the more noteworthy races of the season. After winning the pole on a track where he often has been dominant, Gordon seemed primed for his second win of the season. But before the field was through the first turn, outside polesitter Biffle had spun Gordon around and everyone flew past him. "I don't know what happened," says Gordon. "I got a great jump. It's the first lap. There's no reason to blast the thing down in there, but he just blasted me."

When Gordon blasted back toward the front, getting as high as third in the final laps, he ran out of gas. Instead of moving out of the way, though, he wound up blocking Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick.

Wham!

"I ran into the back of him and tried not to kill him," says Earnhardt. "You run out of gas, you're not going to block me all the way around the track."

Adds Harvick: "He pulled right up in the groove and I hit him twice, and the second time he spun out."

Both Biffle and Harvick were interviewed by NASCAR officials after the race, but not punished. "They just ran all over the back of me," says Gordon. "It's ridiculous. It stinks that I ran out of fuel and the car stepped, but all they had to do was drive right by me."