Smoke's finally smiling, but Jimmie's angry...and Jeff says NASCAR needs to step up its safety programs

Tony Stewart at the Dover finish, pulling away from Juan Pablo Montoya, as Jimmie Johnson fumes over that NASCAR blackflag (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   
   So Smoke finally has something to talk about, after snapping that winless skid with Sunday's Dover 400 victory..albeit at Jimmie Johnson's expense and with the help of a controversial NASCAR black flag with less than 20 miles to go.
   And:
   -- Juan Pablo Montoya once again fails to snare an oval track NASCAR win, more than six years now on the stock car tour for the Formula 1 star.
   -- Jeff Gordon adds his voice to the chorus of drivers demanding NASCAR executives order the sport's two top track owner promoters -- Bruton Smith and the Frances -- to install soft walls all around their tracks: to better protect drivers.
   -- Brad Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe take another NASCAR hit, failing post-race height inspection, drawing a $25,000 fine and losing six Sprint Cup points (approximately the difference in six finishing positions).

   The most important story coming out of the Dover weekend was easily the safety questions raised by Gordon.
   Gordon, who has been mired in something of a slump too (last win, Homestead, November 2012), rallied to finish third Sunday.
    But Gordon made more news at Dover for his complaints about NASCAR not being aggressive enough in ordering track owners to make their tracks safer.

 Jeff Gordon: NASCAR executives need to step up their safety game (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    When he arrived at Dover, he was very sore: "I had a rough week. I didn't quite understand the pain that night (after crashing in the Charlotte 600) until I went back and watched the video --and realized the angle that I hit, as well as that there was no Safer barrier.
    "I had no idea there was no Safer barrier at that dogleg on the front stretch (at Charlotte). That blew my mind. There's one at the start-finish line, and it stops.  There's one at turn one, that goes around to turn two.
    "That shocked me.
    "I certainly said something (to NASCAR), and when I get the opportunity I'll talk to others as well about it."
    However Gordon raised safety concerns about other tracks too, including Dover's turn two. "They haven't fixed that one," he said.
    And it is unclear what the France family is doing at its California track, where there are holes in the soft walls safety barrier system, which Denny Hamlin discovered when he crashed into one of those holes in March and suffered major injury.
    So Gordon said he wasn't optimistic that NASCAR executives were on top of the safety situation. "I'm not anticipating any change," he said.
    Gordon said "there's only one reason" for NASCAR's reluctance to make these safety changes: "Cost. Cost. That's it.
    "I understand their theory --- they go through their testing and see where multiple impacts have happened, and highest impacts (before deciding where to order tracks to install soft walls).
    "But I've got to tell you, that (Charlotte crash) was one of the hardest hits I've had in a race car. And the type of impact -- I got hit from the left, so it shifted everything to the left, and then I hit the wall on the right, so I went from left to right."
    Gordon's frustration with NASCAR's safety decisions lately comes through clearly: "Me sitting down and having a conversation with them (NASCAR and track owners) isn't necessarily going to change that, but it doesn't mean it's going to stop me from doing it."

  Jimmie Johnson at Dover: did NASCAR make the right call in blackflagging him while battling for the lead and the win with less than 20 miles to go? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

 
    Tony Stewart's rally to win was not really a decisive charge but more a scramble to make the most out of the situation. Crew chief Steve Addington had to make some gambling pit road calls pay off, with Stewart starting deep in the field and then falling a lap down. And they need some luck too, getting a 'Lucky Dog.'
     But at the end, it was NASCAR's questionable call to blackflag Johnson on the final restart.
     NASCAR insisted the call was 'easy,' and Johnson, running second at the restart, on the inside lane, was easily far ahead of leader Montoya when they reached the start-finish line.
    However Johnson -- pointing to the clearly defined restart 'box' down near the fourth turn -- said Montoya simply didn't go when they reached that 'box.'
    Drivers -- whether at Bowman Gray Stadium or any major league Sprint Cup track -- play games on restarts. Some leaders lag, hoping to get a rival to jump.
    That's what Johnson insists. And he would almost certainly have won the Dover race if not for that black flag.
    NASCAR has been criticized by some for what sometimes looks like a bias in rulings that favor Johnson. It is unclear if that played a role in this decision.

   Tony Stewart leading Juan Pablo Montoya in the final miles of the Dover 400 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

      "Jimmie was laying off about just nearly a car length from me, and I knew he was trying to jump the start," Montoya said. "I backed off a little bit, for us to line up...and he didn't want to do it.
     "When we got to the (restart) line, I think he wanted to time it.... and he timed it too well.
      "He wanted to get the jump on me, and he just jump it too much. 
       "I would have tried to do the same. 
      "It's one of those deals when you time it too good, it actually hurts you."

    "I totally disagree with the call," Johnson countered.
    "I was half-throttle the whole front-stretch...and at some point, I got to go.
    "NASCAR has the judgment to decide if you jumped it or not. But I'm like 'He's not even going.'
    "I'm not sure if his car broke or if he was off-power or spun the tires.
     "I'm running half-throttle down the frontstretch waiting for him, and he never comes.
    "A bummer way to lose a race. We certainly had the winning car."
     NASCAR allows a driver to 'give back' a spot so gained on a restart, without penalty.
     "I tried to give it back," Johnson said "I was hopeful they would look at the telemetry and see.  They have that ability."
     Johnson is apparently referring to NASCAR's scoring system, which can determine how fast every driver runs through every segment every lap of a race.

 Smoke is smokin' again, and smiling (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

    Stewart's view of the restart controversy is simple: "Juan was leading the race...so he's in charge of the restart pace.
   "The zone we have to restart in is not very leaderfriendly.  Most of the time, the guy second has a huge advantage, and he will lay back and roll the start.
   "I feel bad for Jimmie, because Jimmie ran good all day.  He didn't deserve to be in a situation at the end.
    "But he knows the rules; he knows the leader has to cross the start-finish line first. 
    "Juan is smart enough to not let the second place guy take advantage of the restart.  And that's what he did.
    "I feel bad for Jimmie because I don't think that's what he deserved.  You don't want it coming down to a decision NASCAR has to make."
    Stewart suggests NASCAR adjust the restarting zone.
     That, he suggests, "would give the leader more flexibility of where they pick the restart up at. And it takes away that opportunity for the secondplace guy to take advantage of the restarts."
    ...as if the leader, with clean air, doesn't have enough advantages himself.

  Tony Stewart celebrating his first Sprint Cup tour victory in nearly a year (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
     
     Montoya, for his part, was probably more upset with losing a race that he could have won. His only two tour wins since joining NASCAR in 2006 have been on the Sonoma and Watkins Glen road courses, most recently in the summer of 2010.
    "At the end, it was way too loose, and I just couldn't hold Tony off," Montoya said.
    Stewart himself was surprised with the win: "If somebody told me it was going to be that way, I would have told them they were crazy.  This thing was not a car that could win the race. 
    "Just great pit strategy at the end."
    It's been nearly a full year since Stewart's last tour win, at Daytona last summer. And this year he and his two teammates have been woefully off the mark week after week. Stewart's only top-10 coming into Dover was an eighth at Phoenix in early March.
    And with each passing week of this slump, Stewart has become increasingly more grumpy.
    Now?
    "It's definitely momentum," he insists. "We've got two weeks of momentum now, at two totally different tracks.  That is big. 
    "Momentum is huge in this sport."
     However... 
    "We've still got a lot of work to do," Stewart frets.  "Now it's trying to be more consistent and stay in the top-10 more and make our program better."