The Official NASCAR Thread

[Mega-Tallica]

Penalties handed down: Gordon gets fined 100k and docked 25 meaningless points as well as probation, Gordon's and Bowyer's crew chiefs also fined and put on probation, and Brad K got fined 25k and put on probation for having his cell phone in the car. He's damn lucky that that violation doesn't have a point penalty as well because that would have been REALLY stupid of him to do that. I thought he was going to be fined because of his cussing in the post-race interview and "actions detrimental to stock car racing" or some BS that Nascar fines everybody with but I guess not. He's damn lucky though and that rule was put in place because of him and he's the first person to violate it. Oh, the irony.

[HeyRiles]

But his cell phone is always in the car...he's always got it in his pocket

[Mega-Tallica]

But his cell phone is always in the car...he's always got it in his pocket

He pulled it out right when ESPN was showing his in car camera and the announcers commented on it. He got caught red-handed even though he's tweeted in the middle of races all year long, until now Nascar has been blissfully ignorant to it. Since now everybody's seen it on a live broadcast, they felt it was necessary to fine him for it since he blatantly broke the rule.

25k for a cell phone is a bit steep either way. It wasn't all that long ago, guys like Dick Trickle (hehe) and Davey Allison would smoke cigarettes in the middle of races while they were driving, at least Brad had the decency to only pull it out under the red flag. Times have changed, Nascar has none of that anymore.

[nascargo19]

They don't want Brad having his phone in his car? But him tweeting while in the car is what made me become a fan of him. Followed him during that red flag on the 500. I always jumped onto twitter when a red flag came out to see what he had to say. Why is this just now a problem after the year is almost over.

In other news bruther, what's up with Bowyers crew dude? 8 guys trying to beat up one driver bruther? I call that a bunch of ******. Gordon had enough of Bowyer bruther and handled the problem

Despite what the announcers had said, Gordon was not in the middle of that massive fight. I looked at a youtube video pretty closely and he was trying to get into it, but someone was holding him back. (took me a few tries to find him because the camera view changed about when it all started)

[Mega-Tallica]

I'm guessing because he got caught on TV with the phone, it'll make Nascar look bad if they don't penalize him when everybody watching the race saw it.

They couldn't really penalize him before because they didn't really have proof (aside form the fact the times on his tweets match up with the time the race was going on, like I said, Nascar ignored this all year), but getting caught on TV, Nascar was forced to enforce their own rule which was made because of BK at Daytona way back in February. Got busted at his own game is all it was and Nascar finally had evidence to throw the book at him, as the saying goes.

[HeyRiles]

That still doesn't make any sense, the announcers made a huge deal about his iPhone at Daytona (which is the reason why I'm following him on Twitter), and Nascar did jack nothing back then. He even tweeted a picture from his car and they put the picture up on TV

They couldn't really penalize him before because they didn't really have proof (aside form the fact the times on his tweets match up with the time the race was going on, like I said, Nascar ignored this all year)

I don't recall him ever tweeting mid-race other than the Daytona race I just mentioned. His tweets always come a couple hours after the race

[billybobjoe1881]

What's Brads twitter handle?

[Mega-Tallica]

That still doesn't make any sense, the announcers made a huge deal about his iPhone at Daytona (which is the reason why I'm following him on Twitter), and Nascar did jack nothing back then. He even tweeted a picture from his car and they put the picture up on TV

I'm not sure exactly about this either. I'm sure if somebody asked Nascar they'd shrug their shoulders and give you the "I don't know what the hell you're talking about" look. Their inconsistency goes beyond just the caution flags sometimes.

And Brad also got hit with Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) for his episode during the post-race interviews. So, he did get penalized for both things. He dodged a bullet twice regarding not getting points docked. Lucky guy or just very smart.

And s'more news: The Nationwide schedule for 2013 was released, looks like after taking the Montreal race out, they've added a new road coarse at Mid-Ohio instead for the end of the summer. Always excited for new tracks on the schedule, but they should start cycling in some of the Nationwide tracks to Cup, that would be nice to shake things up a little. The Cup schedule remains too constant every year, they have to change it more. And why did they ever get rid of the Milwaukee Mile!? That was a cool track.

[nascargo19]

Do they want him to completley stop tweeting? I don't see the problem. He was never doing so under caution/green flags. Only under red flags when his car was shut off. What could the issue possibly be?

also, new avatar to show what I hope happens next week. And incase you can't see it:
http://thefinallap.files.wordpress.c.../07/258333.jpg

edit: technically. I don't hope that happens next week. I hope it happens every week! (sorry Hogan)

[Mega-Tallica]

They don't care about his tweets, just don't do it while inside a Nascar under any circumstances. It's probably a safety thing. Even though the race may be under a red flag, they still want the drivers to be alert in the car in case of anything and a cell phone is a pretty big distraction as we all know.