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November 02, 2008
Not Thinking Much of David Gilliland Right Now and Other Texas Thoughts
David Gilliland just put Juan Pablo Montoya into the wall and got parked by Nascar as he should have been. While JPM had stones enough to admit that he bumped Gilliland prior to that to send a message that he didn't like the way Gilliland was racing him, Gilliland claimed in his interview that he was trying to let JPM go and just "misjudged." Yeah, he misjudged all right - misjudged if it was a wise idea or not to allow himself to lose control of his emotions to the point where he put another driver into the wall. There is no excuse for punting a driver at this kind of track at these speeds. As much as I don't like it retaliation is a part of the sport but Nascar shouldn't have any tolerance for when it goes that far. No matter what the other driver might have done, drivers can't be wrecking each other like that. It probably won't happen since they parked him but I'd like to see Nascar hand out some additional penalties to Gilliland, even if it's something relatively meaningless like a fine or putting him on probation for the last two races.
What was interesting was that I was in a chat at the time this incident took place and someone was on Jeff Burton's directv Hotpass channel - apparently Burton was livid when he saw what Gilliland did and thought he should have been parked immediately. It would be interesting to find out what some other drivers thought - while there's no doubt that they all understand retaliation and how angry one can get behind the wheel, particularly when it comes to JPM who more than a few have been annoyed by on the track, there also seems to be some unwritten rules as to how and when you send a message to another driver.
As much as I don't like what Gilliland did I don't think he should be banned from Nascar as I've seen at least one person say they think should happen. The reality is that countless other drivers have acted out, lost control of their emotions or otherwise done stupid things. Some think Nascar should sit Gilliland for the rest of the season but if they didn't sit Michael Waltrip for blatantly retaliating against Casey Mears at Richmond earlier in the season, then I don't think they're going to sit Gilliland. They probably won't even penalize him further but I'm sure they'll make it clear to him that they don't want to see anything like that again no matter what another driver does to him.
Maybe though the worst penalty for Gilliland will be the one he receives in the court of public opinion. He's currently getting ripped on virtually every fan forum and I would guess the same will be true on XM and Sirius tomorrow, and possibly in the media. That's not good for a driver who is currently in need of sponsorship for his Cup car - although it's been reported that Gilliland has a contract with Yates Racing that goes through next season Yates only has one of their three cars fully sponsored and I wouldn't be surprised if they downsized by one car due to a lack of sponsorship. So it's probably a good idea for Gilliland to not be getting himself into any trouble on the track and attracting negative attention to himself and his team.
Otherwise, Michael and his team struggled to get the handling on the #55 right and he ended up finishing 27th, three laps down. That had to be a disappointment to him since he had qualified so well and the car had been so good last week, so I think the expectations were that he would be able to race up front again. Still, I can't be too upset since it appeared the car had decent speed - after he had been lapped and they had worked on the car they were among the fastest on the track and there have been times when the car has started out slow and stayed slow. In addition, as Michael said over the radio at the end of the race his team did a good job in the pits. I continue to be happy about all the progress Michael and his team have made - as Dale Jarrett pointed out during the broadcast, MWR is still a new organization and they are still growing. There is still work to be done but the pieces are starting to fall into place for them.
The result was much better for the other MWR teams. David Reutimann was among the fastest cars on the track as he had been all weekend and spent most of the race in the top ten, including quite a few laps in 2nd. Although he lost some spots at the end of the race he still finished 10th and it was awesome to see David race so well! If David and his team carry the momentum they've got now into next season he's going to be racing up front and contending for wins on a regular basis! Marcos Ambrose finished 21st, one of the better finishes for that team this season, and that was in spite of receiving some damage in an incident in which he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the points I saw is correct the #47/#00 team is just 44 points out of 35th on owner's points which means that strong finishes in the last two races could put that team back in the top 35 which would be good for Marcos for next season.
Overall, I didn't think this race was very exciting. Maybe the TV broadcast just didn't do a very good job of showing all the action on the track but it didn't seem like a very interesting race. I was happy that MWR continues to get some positive attention - they talked about how well David was racing and showed Michael a few times including a pit stop even though he wasn't racing up from. Usually drivers who aren't Chase drivers or are racing up front are mostly ignored unless they're involved in an incident so I was actually a little surprised by the coverage he got today. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to see it but I found myself wondering if ESPN was trying to make good with NAPA and Michael for playing Clint Bowyer's negative comment about Michael earlier in the season.
Carl Edwards won the race with a gamble on fuel mileage and closed the gap on Jimmie Johnson for the Championship. I still think that Jimmie and the #48 team are going to pull it out but I guess it creates some drama for the last two races.
Posted by silverdsl at November 2, 2008 07:07 PM