Remember: Harry Hogge to Cole Trickle: 'Rubbin', son, is racin'...and these guys are taking it to heart

  Jeff Gordon (L) at Sonoma last weekend looked like he was auditioning for a stunt-driving job in a Tom Cruise (R) remake of legendary 'Days of Thunder,' the 1990 stock car flick (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

   (Updated)  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   LOUDON, N.H.
   So it's the 20th anniversary of 'Days of Thunder.'
   How apropos.
   Tom Cruise certainly wouldn't need a stage set for a remake this NASCAR season.
   Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and other veteran drivers ripped some of their fellow drivers Friday for "disrespectful" racing Sunday at Sonoma.
   Stewart, who was highly critical of late-race driving by many at Pocono three weeks ago, said the racing at Sonoma was "absolutely out of control," which he blamed on "lack of patience.
   "The give-and-take is out of balance...and it's getting worse."
   Well, with 'Boys, have at it,' you'll have that.
   About every two weeks or so, it seems.
    Kevin Harvick, the tour leader, says after the Sonoma race that this weekend "you just assume that everybody is angry at everybody."
   Trying to keep with who's mad at whom might be difficult, he conceded: "There are so many to tally up...it would be hard to keep track of what's going on.
    "So you just go out and race hard, and if something happens, something happens.
    "But if something's going to happen, you can pretty much tell what's going to go on. So you just keep your eyes open."
   Harvick, though, apparently managed to get through Sonoma without ticking anyone off.
    "I went back and watched the race...and it looked like the majority of them (the numerous incidents) had Jeff Gordon involved," Harvick said.
   "And I saw Joey Logano get dumped again for running in the side of somebody...so that one hasn't changed."
    Harvick himself had a celebrated run-in with Logano at Pocono, spinning out Logano late in the race, which led to an angry pit road confrontation afterwards.
    Two aggravating issues at Sonoma, Harvick said were the double-file restarts and the rapid speed drop-off in tires.
   "I think it was just good racing, honestly," Harvick said. "It was probably one of the most exciting road course races I've watched.
    "I think the double-file restarts create a lot of that. And the tire fall-off creates the other part -- when the tires fall off like that, you have so many different strategies: people pit and don't pit...and then you have cars passing each other and staying out.
   "You have a whole bunch of things going on.
     "Rough racing. I like that kind of racing. I think it's great."

   Among the relatively innocent victims: the two hottest drivers in NASCAR, Denny Hamlin and teammate Kyle Busch.
   "Just unfortunate circumstances that took us all out of good runs," Busch said. "Denny and I both getting caught up in incidents that happened in front of us....and then Joey – I'm not sure what happened to him, but he knocked the radiator out of it I think, and then blew up with one lap to go.
   "We went from having the best eight or 10 weeks to having one of the worst. That's how quick this sport can change."

    And these drivers aren't bulletproof: Regan Smith is wearing a custom-molded splint on his left hand after suffering a fractured left wrist in that race, when he got caught up in one of the big crashes.

   
  

  A 3-D remake of Days of Thunder? Actually that's what the 2010 NASCAR season has been....

    And what about the guy at the center of the hurricane, Jeff Gordon?
    Martin Truex Jr., a victim of Gordon's aggression, is still seething.
    But at least Gordon called him: "I owed Martin that, I owed him at least an apology, a phone call...and then some. 
    "I genuinely felt terrible about what happened. 
     "I knew he wasn't going to call me back. 
     "I knew it's going to be a long time -- if ever -- for him to forget about that.
      "But I did my part, I felt I did the right thing.
      "But I didn't expect anything in return.
       "My incident with Martin had nothing to do with Martin; I wasn't even racing Martin. I was racing Juan Pablo Montoya.
      "That's what caused me to make the mistake that got me into Martin.
      "But it still was uncalled for.
        "Those restarts, they're intense.
     "One time Boris Said was up there and he just didn't have the grip, he wasn't able to get going...and it started stacking everybody up behind him. When that happened, guys were just shoving people off the track, and going in three-wide, and just doing crazy things.
     "I've just come to realize that's Sonoma in the closing laps.
     "Especially now with double-file restarts it just make it even that much more intense."
      Truex isn't the only driver with a score to settle with Gordon. And Gordon just laughs ruefully: take a number....
     "I'm going to deal with whatever comes my way," Gordon said. "If you run into a guy for no reason, then you should know you're going to have to deal with something.  Either the guy is going to have a lot of patience and just loom there and make you sweat it out, or he's going to get you back right away.
    "You don't know how they're going to deal with it.  You just know you probably have one coming.
    "I'm not out there to make friends, but I'm also not out there to make enemies. I feel I've been pretty good about that over the years...because I race clean.
     "Has intensity gone up for me?  Yeah, it has.  It's just because that's what the sport demands today. 
      "In the new format, with the double-file restarts especially, you just have to be more aggressive.  When you're more aggressive, people are going to get upset."


    Lack of patience...lack of respect...
    Mark Martin says it may be just an age gap.
   And he points out Sonoma and Pocono weren't anomalies: "It happens every week.
    "It wasn't just last week; it happens all the time.
    "It is getting worse, mostly because the nature of our racing and the growth of the sport.
    "You wouldn't be able to keep a job 20 years ago if you drove for somebody and you wrecked as many cars as you wreck today. You wouldn’t keep a job. The teams could not justify it. They didn't have the manpower; they didn't have the money...they could not repair these cars and get them back out there.
    "You wouldn't last.
    "But it is a different day and age now.
    "It is just different, and there is a lot of pressure on these guys.
    "You don't see Jeff Burton and me running over each other, or Bobby Labonte, and a number of the veterans. We still try to race the way we raced; but we also are having to learn to race differently as well.
    "It puts you in a bind. Just for example: I almost spun Jeff Gordon out (at Sonoma), and, boy, I didn't want to. But I was racing all these cats around me, and we flew into the corner harder than I wanted to, I almost ran over him...and he did some guys.
    "I almost got lured into the same situation. It was very close.
    "The racing today is about the thrill of watching it on TV. And the racing 20 years ago, or 25 years ago, was about the sport. It wasn't really about the thrill; it was about being a part of something that you loved. And it was a lot smaller, less entertainment-oriented.
    "If you weren't one of the top teams, you just had to survive. You couldn't afford to go out there and wreck these things every week. You just had to do the best that you could with what you had to work with, and close the deal the best you could.
    "It is different now.
     "It is much more entertaining.
      "You take a 25-year-old driver, and it is 'NASCAR racing' to them. But you take a Jeff Burton or me, and you might think 'Whew! This is different.'
     "But to the kids, it isn't different."
      So how to explain Jeff Gordon?

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