Feud of the Week: NASCAR out of line; Hendrick controversy; IRL title
CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
We welcome your question submissions. If you have a question or hot racing topic you'd like to see discussed, post it here .
| Pete Pistone | Brian De Los Santos |
| Were NASCAR officials out of line telling Brad Keselowski to be careful when racing around Chase drivers at Kansas? | |
| If NASCAR asked Keselowski to be mindful of whom he was racing against when he encountered Chase drivers on the track in Sunday's race, that's perfectly acceptable. What's not is if he was told not to race anyone in the Chase field hard. Keselowski had a good car Sunday and after qualifying near the front of the field ran very well in one of his part-time starts for Hendrick Motorsports. He and Juan Pablo Montoya were in a furious duel for several laps and at the time, Keselowski's car was every bit as good as JPM's. I have no problem with that and racing hard should be what every driver does in this sport. If he were three laps down, that's another story. But Keselowski had every reason to try and get a good finish Sunday. He's entitled to race anyone on the track hard and I think what he did Sunday was perfectly acceptable. | I found it rather ridiculous that officials would feel the need to caution Keselowski about who he was racing with. Would they do the same if two Chasers were racing each other? Of course not. I didn't see any problem with the way Keselowski was battling Juan Pablo Montoya. In fact, it appeared Montoya was being the more aggressive of the two. If NASCAR is that concerned about non-Chasers having an impact on the points race, why the heck is Talladega part of the Chase? Just let them race and whatever happens, happens. Non-Chasers have a duty to their team and sponsors to race for wins, top fives and top 10s just as aggressively as any driver in the Chase. If this is what the Chase has wrought -- non-Chasers being forced to tip-toe around Chasers -- then I'd just as soon do away with the Chase. |
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| Officials warned the teams of Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin that they were close to failing inspection after Dover. Do you believe NASCAR is showing favoritism to Hendrick Motorsports or has this story been overblown? | |
| This story was first misreported and then got way overblown. True, NASCAR told the 5 and 48 teams they were very close to the tolerance level after Dover's postrace inspection and warned them -- as the sanctioning body does from time to time with any team -- that a little more would cause a penalty. But the cars were not penalized, were perfectly legal and Hendrick was never told not to bring them back to the track. If any car does not pass pre- and postrace inspection, you can bet it will be penalized no matter what team produces the machine -- including Hendrick. There was no favoritism shown in this case and the team did nothing wrong. It was a non-story that somehow mushroomed into a big deal over the weekend. | Overblown. I can't quite figure out why so many seem to think NASCAR is favoring Hendrick Motorsports in any manner. Johnson and the 48 team have been penalized many times over the years. Crew chief Chad Knaus was even banned from the Daytona 500 one year. I've asked the masses before and I'll ask again: What reason is there for NASCAR to favor any team over another? Especially a Hendrick operation that is making mincemeat of everybody? One would think NASCAR would want to penalize those teams in order to level the playing field. Some are reading too much into this story. Officials didn't say the cars of Johnson and Martin broke the rules and they were letting them off with a warning. They said the cars were "close" to breaking the rules and letting those teams know they were playing with fire. If anything, fans should actually be pleased that NASCAR is paying such close attention to make sure those teams were operating within the rules. |
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| It's a three-horse race for the IndyCar Series championship in the season finale at Homestead, who do you think comes out on top? | |
| Boy if NASCAR has three drivers within eight points of each other heading into the season finale you can bet there will be some excitement around the country. Unfortunately in the land of Indy Car racing, the buzz level is much more minimized and despite a fantastic championship battle Saturday night's Homestead finale will fly way under the radar. It's a shame because this has all the makings of a classic race on a track that should provide some fireworks. Scott Dixon is in control with teammate Dario Franchitti only five behind and Ryan Briscoe eight back. So there's no room for error by the leader. I don't think there will be any mistakes and Dixon will have another crown for the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team. | The three title combatants -- Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe -- have basically taken turns visiting Victory Lane all season, winning 12 of the 16 events. One of the three is a good bet to win again Saturday and, if that's the case, that driver will probably also win the title. I say probably because there is one scenario in which Briscoe could win the race, but not the title: If he failed to win the pole or lead the most laps, Dixon could take the title by finishing second and leading the most laps. I picked Briscoe to win it all at the start of the season so I'll stick with him, but there's really no good reason to choose one over the other two as a case could be made for any of the three to prevail. Dixon and Briscoe have been the best on ovals while 2007 series champion Franchitti has done most of his damage on the road courses. Dixon is a two-time winner at Homestead and the defending event champion, while Briscoe and Franchitti have never won at Homestead. In fact, Briscoe has never even finished in the top 10 at Homestead. However, he's made just two starts at the track. Working against Dixon, who is coming off a victory in Japan, is the fact that no driver has managed back-to-back wins this season. Whoever ends up taking the title, I'm definitely looking forward to the race. |
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| Previous Feud of the Weeks: Aug. 12 | Aug. 18 | Aug. 25 | Sept. 1 | Sept. 8 | Sept. 15 | Sept. 22 | Sept. 29 | |
