Bowman-Gray temper tantrums

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

They both passed the safety car.  A dozen wrongs don't make anyone right.  I could say something about societal decay but past experience shows you all can't handle that.  Funny how evidence for it continues to pop up by the second though, huh?  

Apparently you are unaware that NASCAR literally rose to popularity in 1979 when the Allison's and Yarborough got into a fistfight on live TV during the first race televised flag to flag?

Or that in 1989 when two entire teams brawled and the whole infield ended up in the fray?

And it's not just stock cars or Americans. Nelson Piquet looked like an MMA fighter in 82.

That's a perfect demonstration of why I don't race circle track anymore.  Not that road racers never loose their temper or do stupid stuff but it's strongly discouraged by the sanctioning bodies as opposed to being a tool to sell tickets.

As far as the initial incident is concerned it obviously would have been better if the 2 had slowed more and the 8 had waited longer before moving but that's only obvious in hindsight. 

When cars are wrecking in front of you it's always a balancing act between slowing down to avoid hitting what's in front of you and not slowing too much to avoid being hit from behind and the decision has to be made in seconds or even fractions of a second as the situation evolves.  In addition you can only slow so quickly while in a corner particularly after it's covered with dirt, coolant and oil.

The 8 should have stayed put until the dust settled but it probably seemed to him that he'd sat there forever.

Regardless of the fault or lack thereof in the initial incident adults behaving like petulant 3 year olds is not something I have a lot of tolerance for.  I don't want to hang out with people who do that and I don't find watching it entertaining.  Clearly there are a lot of people who do find it entertaining and that's OK with me.  I just don't enjoy it. Not that my approval should mean anything to anyone.

APEowner said:

That's a perfect demonstration of why I don't race circle track anymore.  Not that road racers never loose their temper or do stupid stuff but it's strongly discouraged by the sanctioning bodies as opposed to being a tool to sell tickets.

As far as the initial incident is concerned it obviously would have been better if the 2 had slowed more and the 8 had waited longer before moving but that's only obvious in hindsight. 

When cars are wrecking in front of you it's always a balancing act between slowing down to avoid hitting what's in front of you and not slowing too much to avoid being hit from behind and the decision has to be made in seconds or even fractions of a second as the situation evolves.  In addition you can only slow so quickly while in a corner particularly after it's covered with dirt, coolant and oil.

The 8 should have stayed put until the dust settled but it probably seemed to him that he'd sat there forever.

Regardless of the fault or lack thereof in the initial incident ...

I hadn't considered fault until it was mentioned, but one car cleanly negotiating the situation, another sideways on the track under power and driving into the side of another, it's pretty obvious who it belongs to.

I've been in that situation many times. It all happens so quickly, and there's so little room, you  have to balance what you would like to do, with what is probably the safest, or at very least, the least dangerous thing to do. That happens in a fraction of a second, and there may not be one correct answer.

How do you prevent the on track shenanigans? Give them a week or two off? That only stops the front runners from doing it. 

I suggest if they want to carry on on the track like that you make them fight in the pits afterward

Hasn't Bowman-Gray always been like that? I seem to recall reading that in the '40s and '50s, pretty much every driver carried a gun in their car to settle disputes.

In reply to Peabody :

Yeah you don't like to see them out of control on the track like that with track workers out there. I like the Chili Bowl dispute resolution policy. After the crash you can fight all you want on the track in front of the fans but no fighting in the pits, there are too many people and they can't control it. I see that as a win win, fans get to see the "dispute resolution", it's hands flying and not powerful cars, no chaos in the pits. I have been too close to one pit fight at Caraway Speedway and they are scary as hell. A lot of tools that are weapons and people all over.

racerfink said:

Streetwiseguy said:

If you go find her in car footage, it changes the blame a bit.

You're right.  I put more blame on her now, driving through all that dirt like she was about to pick up 10 positions, not knowing what was on the other side.  

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EXVuDH3qMhU?rel=0

 

Where did she drive through any dirt except MAYBE just a tad that was on the apron??

Even in the original video, she never left the track/apron

Then, it seems, he 'cut her off' a bit under caution. I dont know if she was getting a wave around or what, but she was on the high line and #8 jerked over in front of her.

I live in Winston. I dont know either of these people and doubt Ive seen either of them race. Im coming into this with zero bias, just what Im seeing on those two videos posted. 8 was wrong. 

Up until they passed the safety car this is pretty normal short track behavior and none of it is that hateful... If a couple dolts want to smash up their/their sponsor's cars good for them. After they passed the safety car they are both deserving of the banhammer. 

I'm not a circle track expert but at what rung of the ladder is this series? It is often misunderstood on this website the difference between people racing for a hobby and racing or trying to race for a living. One smashed up car ends a hobbyists' season if not career, the amount of attention Amber Lynn has received from this likely pays for the car. 

I actually thought it would be worse based on the descriptions. As said by others, this seems like a normal night at the track for this type of racing. NASCAR themselves probably wouldn't have punished them if it was a televised cup race.

Byrneon27 said:

Up until they passed the safety car this is pretty normal short track behavior and none of it is that hateful... If a couple dolts want to smash up their/their sponsor's cars good for them. After they passed the safety car they are both deserving of the banhammer. 

 

I'm not a circle track expert but at what rung of the ladder is this series? It is often misunderstood on this website the difference between people racing for a hobby and racing or trying to race for a living. One smashed up car ends a hobbyists' season if not career, the amount of attention Amber Lynn has received from this likely pays for the car. 

These are hobbyist racers. However, many teams at Bowman Gray get a decent chunk of sponsorship because of the large crowds.

Also, keep in mind that the damage they inflicted on each other is probably relatively minimal. Body bracing (annoying). Fenders (bang them out into shape). A radiator (the expensive part). More of a headache in the shop than a pain in the wallet. If they wanted to, many oval-trackers could fix that in one night.

In reply to Javelin :

I know all that.  Getting out of your car and taking care of things man to man is different than this.  I stopped watching NASCAR during the whine more era of the 2000s.  Half the crap people do behind the wheel or say on the internet they wouldn't dare try face to face.  This was more of that, enjoy.

Sure seems like all that dirt hitting her windshield means she's driving through it.  I never said anything about driving IN the dirt.

I remember seeing a few videos from there that seemed to be heading more toward the attempted murder range, one with a guy diving through the window of a racecar punching the driver while he drove around the track at speed trying to crush the other guy against the wall, and another one with a group of people standing around a truck/trailer in the pits and someone was driving a racecar and floored it into the back of the trailer.