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closeObservations | Oil no longer dangerous?
DAVID POOLE / The Charlotte Observer
Monday, Oct. 15, 2007
• Apparently, oil on the track is no longer dangerous. That's the only logical conclusion after the Busch and Cup races this weekend.
In Friday's Busch race, fluid was flowing out of a car being pulled off the track and NASCAR still threw the green flag.
Saturday night, Jeff Green's Cup car leaked so much that it looked like the frontstretch had been crop-dusted in an effort to sop it all up. But that only happened after Johnny Sauter wrecked.
Before that, NASCAR let the cars keep racing. Then, after stopping the cars under a red flag for just more than 12 minutes, the cars ran a half-dozen laps under yellow while more cleanup was done.
If the cars are stopped so the track can be cleaned, clean the track.
NASCAR will say the cars had to be moved so blowers could go by. Then don't park the cars where the cleanup needs to be happening!
• So much stuff went on during the final two restarts that nobody noticed that Jimmie Johnson fell from sixth to 19th on the first when he didn't get going as the green flew. He came back up to 14th, but if he hadn't slipped up who knows how well he might have finished.
• Dave Blaney finished sixth, Kasey Kahne eighth, David Stremme ninth, Michael Waltrip 10th, Ricky Rudd 11th, J.J. Yeley 13th and A.J. Allmendinger 15th. That's about all I can tell you about any of them. It was such a screwy race, there was no way to keep up with how any of them got there.