Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy. Right? Oh who are we kidding, this is NASCAR. No one is ever happy.
Immediately following the Indianapolis 500, which I must say was the best Indianapolis 500 I've ever seen, the cries for the race to attempt to finish under green similar to NASCAR's green-white-checker system began. It's understandable that some tuning in wanted to see such a thrilling race end under yellow, but should IndyCar take a page from NASCAR on this one?
After Tony Kanaan's victory on Sunday at Indianapolis, more than a few stated that the finish wasn't satisfying because it ended under caution. They want what NASCAR has - the ballyhooed 'Green/White/Checkers'. As much as I like Green/White/Wreckers in NASCAR, you can't do it in Indy Car. Try beating, banging, and bumping with those cars like they do in NASCAR and someone ends up in the hospital - or worse. Leave Indy Car, and especially the 500 with all its traditions, alone. I had absolutely NO problem with the result.
- Andy
I'm completely with Andy on this one. I have no problem with IndyCar and NASCAR having separate rules, though some in NASCAR thought differently. Take this tweet from Michael Waltrip. Waltrip must have forgotten that he raced most of his career without a green-white-checker finish rule in place in NASCAR.
And besides, that essentially was a green-white-checker finish. Sometimes dramatic NASCAR races end under caution too... like Dale Earnhardt's Daytona 500 win.
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Can someone explain to me why when a bizarre event like a TV camera cable falls, everyone gets to pit for 15 minutes to repair the damage and then resume the same race order. But back when Jeff Gordon had the Martinsville pothole throw up a piece of asphalt into his car and put a hole in the grill that you could stick your head in after dominating the race to that point, he was forced to pit on his own and make the repairs just as if he had a flat tire.
-Paul
That's a good point that Geoffrey Miller and I talked about in our Chrome Horn podcast. You all listened, right? I believe it was the fairest thing NASCAR could have done in that situation, though it was a stark departure from the rules that have been in place previously.
In that race Paul mentions, Gordon wasn't allowed any special avenues to help get the damage from the concrete fixed and his car in raceable condition. Neither did anyone in the Daytona pothole incident.
We're going to get another bizarre incident in NASCAR in the near future that's going to damage race cars. Hell, who could have seen the rope snapping like that? But the big thing is to see how NASCAR will react in the future. Officials can now go either way. Is this the new normal or was it a special exception?
Now, on to Warped Wednesday, which apparently generated a lot of chatter.
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We cannot afford to go to the races and will be deprived of seeing them on TV.
- Tommy
You need to stop posting BS lies .... You are so full of it your eyes are brown I have no Idea why yahoo lets you post BS..I hope yahoo yanks you from there page ... Start printing real stuff not fake crap ...
- Jamie (via Twitter)
Apparently people don't read headlines or disclaimers. I'll spell it out. Warped. Wednesday. Is. Not. Real. Got it?
However, there were a lot of commenters and people on social media who got freaked out about the post, despite the fact that the race was going to be replaced by a LEGO re-enactment. Disclaimer aside, if that didn't make you think that it was a fake story, I've got nothing to say.
(I do want to apologize to other NASCAR media members who had to field questions about the post on Twitter Wednesday evening. With the exception of a post that I wrote to convey a message, most are more unbelievable than your craziest Jimmie Johnson conspiracy theory.)
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Here is something I have never understood. Bobby Labonte is consistently in the top 10 in the fan vote every year, despite his best years being far behind. Heck, he hasn't won a race in almost ten years. I understand loyalty to a driver, or a team if you include all sports, but it seems like being a Labonte fan would be frustrating at times. Can you explain why Bobby Labonte remains so popular to this day?
- Jason
NASCAR fans are a fiercely loyal bunch. Labonte is also the last of the family in NASCAR. Justin's Nationwide Series career was short and Terry is just running a race or two every year.
My guess is that many of those fans have also picked other drivers, but given that Labonte has been eligible for the fan vote every year, he's an easy and sentimental choice to vote for.
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