The Bud Shootout could be even wilder than it has in the past due to a new NASCAR policy.
It was only a few weeks ago when NASCAR officials said that they were loosening up rules enforcement as NASCAR's vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said, "boys, have at it, and have a good time.”
You have to wonder if he thought that there would be multi-car wrecks, in practice, for the Shootout a non-points race for Sprint Cup teams.
That’s exactly what happened as cars and drivers got on the track at Daytona International Speedway late Thursday afternoon.
The first crash took out five cars including those of Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick (which was driven by Clint Bowyer due to Harvick’s flu). In the second practice Juan Pablo Montoya sent Kurt Busch crashing.
Oddly enough Martin explains that his wreck was not as a result of aggression when he said “it looked like he (Hamlin) was going to try to squeeze in on the outside of me, so I made an effort to give him the lane. And, he anticipated to get behind me, not that it wasn’t worth it to get in behind me instead. So, if either one of us had just anticipated something else, then it wouldn’t have happened.
I saw him look for the outside and you know, it was practice, no reason to put the squeeze on him. I made an effort to give him a lane. I think at that same time, he decided it wasn’t worth pushing it so he decided to get in behind me so that caused us to come together.”
Biffle disagreed with Martin “yeah, it’s aggressive bump-drafting – that’s what we were looking for,” he said. “Trust me, we’re not finished. What are we, 20-30 minutes into practice? “
After the track was cleared and made ready for the second practice came the second crash.
Talking about Saturday night’s 75-lap race Greg Biffle said “it’s gonna be awesome.”
photo:Éric Gilbert/Motorsport.com
It was only a few weeks ago when NASCAR officials said that they were loosening up rules enforcement as NASCAR's vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said, "boys, have at it, and have a good time.”
You have to wonder if he thought that there would be multi-car wrecks, in practice, for the Shootout a non-points race for Sprint Cup teams.
That’s exactly what happened as cars and drivers got on the track at Daytona International Speedway late Thursday afternoon.
The first crash took out five cars including those of Denny Hamlin, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick (which was driven by Clint Bowyer due to Harvick’s flu). In the second practice Juan Pablo Montoya sent Kurt Busch crashing.
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| Mark Martin's car being towed to the garage. |
Oddly enough Martin explains that his wreck was not as a result of aggression when he said “it looked like he (Hamlin) was going to try to squeeze in on the outside of me, so I made an effort to give him the lane. And, he anticipated to get behind me, not that it wasn’t worth it to get in behind me instead. So, if either one of us had just anticipated something else, then it wouldn’t have happened.
I saw him look for the outside and you know, it was practice, no reason to put the squeeze on him. I made an effort to give him a lane. I think at that same time, he decided it wasn’t worth pushing it so he decided to get in behind me so that caused us to come together.”
Biffle disagreed with Martin “yeah, it’s aggressive bump-drafting – that’s what we were looking for,” he said. “Trust me, we’re not finished. What are we, 20-30 minutes into practice? “
After the track was cleared and made ready for the second practice came the second crash.
Talking about Saturday night’s 75-lap race Greg Biffle said “it’s gonna be awesome.”
photo:Éric Gilbert/Motorsport.com
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