As
confusing as the issue surrounding Carl Edwards getting black-flagged
late in Saturday night's race at Richmond may sound, it's actually very simple.
When the caution came out on Lap 312, Edwards was the only car not to
have made a green-flag pit stop. Thus, there were only three cars on
the lead lap at that time - Edwards, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson who had just completed his pit stop on pit road.
Edwards then pit. There is
no way you can be the only car to pit and still be the race leader.
Regardless of who told who what, what Fox's TV graphic said, or what the scoring pylon showed, Edwards should have known the moment
he went down pit road he was no longer the race leader.
It really is just as simple as that.
Very simple!
ReplyDeleteNothing is quite THAT simple...when NASCAR tells you something, you pretty much always have to listen, whether you think its right, wrong, in your favor, or not, when they radio in and say you're the leader, you have to make decisions like you're the leader. If NASCAR wasn't sure, they should have waved off the restart another lap...I'm not an Edwards fan, but I still didn't see conclusive evidence he jumped the line...the Video only shows him getting ahead of Stewart, but its no conclusive whether that was due to Edwards accelerating that early, or Stewart slowing down from spinning the tires...either would create that view, and if Stewart was spinning the tires that early, then that meant he was attempting to accelerate early as well. I thought it was a bad call, or at least too quick of a call due to all the circumstances and confusion. One more caution lap would have solved a lot.
ReplyDeleteThere's an "acceleration box" at RIR. Even if Edwards were the leader, he started accelerating prior to entering the "box." That alone should have merited the black flag.
ReplyDelete