No two Frances are the same

Andy DeNardi
@andy-denardi
10 years ago
365 posts

Jim France's newly acquired TUDOR Sports cars ran their The Daytona 24 Hour this weekend and was a good race if you're into that kind of thing. I am.

The reason I bring it up is because of a longstanding NASCAR rule that the fan always knows who the winner is when they leave the racetrack. On the last lap there was a tight race in GTD, one of the four classes that run this race. A Ferrari was in the lead with an Audi close behind. Going into a left hand turn, The Audi made a last ditch effort and tried to pass on the right. This is the same as trying to make a pass on the outside coming out of turn 2 on any oval. The Audi managed to get about half a car length ahead, but he was on the Ferrari's line and was run off into the grass.

The Ferrari won the race but NASCAR immediately called a time penalty for unnecessary contact. In my view and that of the TV commentators, it was a bad call. The Ferrari had the racing line, and even though the Audi got an advantage, he was not pushed off. There was no contact (although the rules states that they don't actually have to touch).

The win was given to the Audi and they got their victory lane interview. However two hours later, NASCAR reversed their call and gave the win to the Ferrari. As I said earlier, I think this was the right outcome.Had this been Brian's outfit (or even Bill's), they would have stuck to their guns on who had won the race and fined the Ferrari. I understand the intent of the Grand National rule, but I think that rules are meant to be broken. In the typical stock car situation, if a car is found to be illegal in post-inspection, he should be penalized and the second place finisher should get the win.Longtime crew chief Gary Nelson manages the Daytona Prototype team that took the overall win by 1.5 seconds.


updated by @andy-denardi: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM