Sunday’s rain shortened NASCAR race in Pocono, PA was gift wrapped and handed to Jeff Gordon by the sanctioning body of NASCAR. Yes, it was raining and it is unsafe to run NASCARs on a rain soaked track. Granted. However NASCAR threw the caution flag just as Ryan Newman was about to overtake Gordon on lap 104. The broadcasters began dictating almost exactly how the race would play out about lap 80: Gordon pitted off sequence, the race would get to just over half way (lap 101) to be an “official” race, the rain would start, the caution would come out and Gordon would win his 4th race of the season.
Guess what happened?
Exactly as Bill Webber, Wally Dalenbach and Kyle Petty predicted. As if they were reading off a script.
As soon as the the cars were stopped under red flag on pit road, BEFORE the race was actually called, the rain stopped and the sun was back out. It seems to me NASCAR could have made an effort to dry the track, as it didn’t rain that long at the time and they wouldn’t have “lost” the track. Then NASCAR could have run until it became dark or at least sunset. But that wouldn’t have been in the script.
If I were a fan at that race I’d be pissed off to wait over 4 hours of rain delay to see that race turn out the way it did.
Jeff, you may have gotten the win, and I know, a win is a win, but you didn’t really beat anyone Sunday.
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