Defending Texas champ Matt Kenseth was running in first when the caution flag was waved at the end of 168th lap. Kenseth slowed before the line to allow Roush teammate Kurt Busch to get a lap back. Ricky Rudd, who was two laps down, and second-place driver Jeff Gordon went racing by as well. After NASCAR reviewed the move, Kenseth was restored to the lead, ahead of Gordon, and both Busch and Rudd got their laps back. “There’s a gentlemen’s agreement not to pass for position, but if he chooses to let the guys have a lap back, the gentlemen’s agreement is out the door,” said Gordon, who finished third.( ThatsRacin.com/AP ) AND It’s not often you see Jeff Gordon get riled up, but the four-time Winston Cup champion has had it with NASCAR’s rule of racing back to the start-finish line when a caution comes out. How that rule is enforced came into question Sunday when Gordon passed leader Matt Kenseth as they reached the line to start a caution midway through the race. Gordon, who was running second, moved ahead of Kenseth when Kenseth slowed down to let drivers Kurt Busch and Ricky Rudd by him and get back on the lead lap. But Gordon moved ahead of Kenseth to keep the other two drivers a lap down. NASCAR officials ruled that Kenseth still would be the leader, Gordon would be second and Busch and Rudd would get their lap back. “Someone will have to explain that one to me,” Gordon said. “It’s frustrating. Just because the leader may want to let them have their lap back, it doesn’t mean everybody else behind him has to let them have a lap back. The next guy in line can choose. I did. I was the leader when we crossed the line.” NASCAR president Mike Helton said Gordon didn’t have the right to determine who got a lap back because Gordon wasn’t the leader when the yellow was displayed. Drivers have a gentlemen’s agreement not to pass the leader while racing back to the yellow flag. But the leader often slows down enough to let lapped cars go by him to get back on the lead lap. “There is a gentlemen’s agreement not to pass for position, but we’re talking about keeping cars down a lap,” Gordon said. “I don’t know of any gentleman’s agreement to let cars get a lap back, even if you aren’t the leader. I didn’t think there was any reason for me to let them have a lap back. We’re fighting those guys for a championship. For NASCAR to put those guys back just blows me away. I think the whole getting a lap back thing is crazy.” NASCAR is the only major racing body that has it cars race back around to the start-finish line when a caution is displayed.( Dallas Morning News – may need to register to view) AND see my Story/Columns/Article Links page for many more stories and commentary on this.(3-31-2003) UPDATE: NASCAR president Mike Helton said Tuesday the sanctioning body erred in the way it handled Jeff Gordon’s attempt to keep down cars that Matt Kenseth tried to let back on the lead lap during the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. “If we had to do that call over again, we would have done it differently,” Helton said. “We made a mistake.” Kenseth was leading the race when Elliott Sadler’s Ford spun on the backstretch on Lap 168. When the yellow flag came out, Kenseth slowed to allow Ricky Rudd and Kurt Busch to make up a lap. Gordon sped up to try to keep them a lap down, passing Kenseth before the start-finish line. That pass, Helton said, technically made Gordon the race leader. Since he got to the line before Busch and Rudd, they would have still been a lap down. The problem happened when Gordon allowed Kenseth to go back by him before the pace car picked up the leaders. Gordon said he didn’t want to violate the “gentlemen’s agreement” against racing for position back to the yellow, so he wanted to give the lead back to Kenseth. But Gordon did want to keep Busch and Rudd a lap down. “It was a scenario that we had not seen before,” Helton said. “Someone who took the lead in the race then gave it back after the start-finish line.” But since Gordon ceded the lead back to Kenseth, Helton said, NASCAR ruled Busch and Rudd did make up a lap. “For a long time we’ve told the drivers…that when a yellow comes out, slow down and let the leaders be the one to keep the lapped cars down,” Helton said. “What happens between the leaders is their prerogative. What we did Sunday was interject NASCAR into that prerogative that we leave to the drivers, and we shouldn’t have done that.” Helton said that since the race continued there’s no way to go back and change anything about Sunday’s race now. He also said NASCAR does not plan to change its rules about racing back to the flag, partly because the technology does not yet exist to ensure NASCAR could accurately record the correct positions of all cars at the time a caution comes out to freeze the running order at that point.( ThatsRacin.com )(4-1-2003)
