Hot 20 over the past 10 – Newman gets justice while Gordon will have to rely on vengeance

Sometime over the next ten weeks, at one of ten tracks hosting the Chase, Clint Bowyer will be sailing along. He will feel a sudden nudge in his left rear quarter-final, just a touch but enough to cause him to feel the car getting out from under him. Bowyer will try to save it, and come close in doing so but, alas, his car will find the wall. His race and his Chase hopes, done in an instant.

Over the car radio we will hear Jeff Gordon, “I did not mean to do that; I sure hate it.” Then silence, at least over the air waves, as laughter explodes from behind the wall, just beyond the #24 pit box and spotter’s stand. High above the track, Mike Helton will look on, a hint of a smile appearing behind that bushy mustache. He will know, just as was the case with Bowyer at Richmond, that he will not have definitive proof that Gordon did anything intentional. No doubt just a racing deal. Just like Bowyer. Then, all will be right with the world.

Bowyer was not penalized for intentionally spinning out to cause that late caution at Richmond. Not enough definitive proof, though enough to tarnish the reputation of the personable driver for the foreseeable future among fans. No, this was not an individual penalty, but one aimed at an entire organization for attempting to manipulate the outcome of an event and the standings to benefit one of their own. A $300,000 fine to Michael Waltrip Racing, a indefinite suspension of General Manager Ty Norris, 50 point penalties to each of the organization’s cars and drivers, and probation for all three of its crew chiefs.

In order for Martin Truex Jr to make the Chase, Ryan Newman could not win and Joey Logano had to claim a Top Ten spot in the standings in order to keep him out of the wild card scenario. When a startled Brian Vickers was ordered to the pits, just before the re-start, in order to allow Logano to move ahead of him on the track, combined with Bowyer’s dawdling on pit road to do the same, the proof was there. Logano made it, taking Jeff Gordon out of the Chase and allowing Truex to slip into the final wild card position.

At least until the penalties. They dropped Truex behind Newman in points, so Newman takes over that position. Logano was simply a pawn, so there was no reason to sanction him. Other than to invent a rule to award Gordon an extra Chase place, NASCAR’s hands were tied. Bowyer gets penalized from his season total, which will not affect his Chase standing going in. He was going to be tied for 8th at Chicago, penalty or no penalty. Where is the justice, you might ask. For Gordon, the best he can do is discover an itch in his hot car, just enough for him to need to scratch it, sometime over the next few weeks as his right front fender nears Bowyer’s left rear quarter-panel. We know it could happen. We have all already seen it.

As they enter the Chase, five race winner Matt Kenseth takes a three point lead over Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch in to Chicago.  The leader has been as hot as Johnson has not, as of late, but Rowdy is the one to watch. He has won there, while Kevin Harvick has done so twice. While they have not yet claimed a victory at the track, the two we will be watching who have the best average finish at Chicagoland are Johnson and Bowyer.  Ironically, Gordon owns a piece of one of those cars and would like just a piece of the other.