Trevor Bayne is receiving a lot of flak for “Ditching” Jeff Gordon. And okay. I get it! Giving someone your word and then leaving them out to dry isn’t going to win many “Most Popular Driver” awards. As bad as it was, this is the way of restrictor plate racing. “Ditching,” people has and always will happen.
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[/media-credit]Take the 2000 Daytona 500 for example. Late in the running, 2 time Daytona 500 champion Dale Jarrett’s crew chief Todd Parrott walked to Mark Martin’s pit and told them he wanted to stay with Martin and go to the front. Martin and crew chief Jimmy Fennig agreed.
However, later on in the race Mark Martin shot high. Jarrett, who was behind Martin stayed low, leaves Martin out to dry in a long line of cars. Jarrett went on to win the 500, Martin ended up 5th. Jarrett would apologize in victory lane for the incident.
What makes this situation different? Trevor Bayne is a great guy, who apologized for the incident just like Jarrett. Why is he getting flak? Do I believe him he was given team orders? Of course! It’s Jack Roush’s job to put his guys in the best situation and by telling Bayne to draft with Kenseth he did that.
Roush is trying to win a championship with Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. If you’re an owner of a company and one of your employees can help benefit another for the benefit of the organization, wouldn’t you do that? Who wouldn’t?
The problem is simple- The two car draft. NASCAR has done a nice job trying to fix the problem, but so far their steps have been unsuccessful. Expect more steps to be taken as we head closer to the Daytona 500 in February.
Trevor Bayne and Jack Roush are both not at fault. It’s Talladega people! Both did what they should have done. Don’t hate those guys, hate the racing!
