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Every person has some kind of personal or professional bias, even if they try their hardest to not let it show. With this statement in mind many NASCAR fans have accused the sanctioning body of playing favorites at different times in NASCAR history whether for grounded reasons of reasons that may as well live in fantasy land. So today we are going to look at 7 times NASCAR was accused of favoritism and see which times in NASCAR history that fans used NASCAR as the scapegoat.
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51 comments
Do you think that NASCAR played favorites in any of these or any other situations? If so which ones?
Harvick won in 2003 at Talladega
The 46-point penalty that would cost Mark Martin the 1990 championship, since it’s been suggested that NASCAR was pressured by Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress into issuing it.
Hendrick 100 point penalties earlier this year is in the top 5 for me when it comes to favorites and playing politics
the addition of Jeff Gordon to the chase/championship battle after “spingate” yeah that still frustrates/haunts me to this day
2017 homestead with the mystery caution that nascar could never produce the debris for that cost Carl Edwards the championship
I think #1, 4 and 5 are the ones that may be NASCAR playing favourites. I’m saying this as a Gordon fan. 7 may be bias too.
If it was any other driver in the spring 2003 Talladega race, that would’ve been a penalty. Just went to show how much NASCAR was in love with Jr.
That’s what happens when the fans like the most overrated driver in NASCAR history
Anyone else it would be the same call Dale jr is a great racer and Nascar legend ur just mad he beat ur favorite
@Traxxas and Nascar Wrong
@SuperNASCARrocks yes I know ur wrong child it’s OK
@JGR4LIFE
Lol good joke he’s not overrated at all
NASCAR was not playing favorites for Jimmie. They were changing the format to keep him from winning championships.
It was sometime around his 3rd or 4th championship that I was just sick of hearing the whining that they were picking Johnson’s best tracks in those final 10 races (but they definitely weren’t). I tend to be a numbers guy, so I went through all the statistics. I picked out all the Chase drivers for the years and put together each individual driver’s best 10 tracks to create a dream Chase for that driver. I then compared JJ’s average finish at THAT driver’s dream Chase schedule and found only 2 drivers that JJ wouldn’t have beaten (and they only barely beat him). I remember one was Gordon, and I think the other was Hamlin or Harvick. They were definitely changing the formats to increase the chances for anyone else to win.
Well this surely prevented Jeff Gordon from winning any more championships!!
@jek 48 plus Homestead wasn’t Jimmie’s best track until he won at Homestead in 2016.
@Run Rafa Run #THEBESTINTHEWORLD Right. If you take out road courses (and Kentucky since it wasn’t on the schedule for a long time), he had the fewest amount of top 5 finishes at Homestead (only 5) and Michigan. Homestead was one of his worst tracks.
11:12 Interestingly how Matt Kenseth was also apart of the Gordon & Bowyer wreck and probably took notes.
Joey Logano was in the 20 in the Bowyer/Gordon wreck. Kenseth took it over the next year
Good video hopefully we can get a part 2 on this topic
Good video. Definitely one of your better topics lately.
I think the Ricky Rudd-Davey Allison incident at Sonoma would count as playing favourites. And it’s another Hendrick driver involved in that one too
That has to be one of the biggest screwjobs in Nascar
Burns my *ss to this day
But the thing is that it’s more about NASCAR being biased to “Royalty Drivers” ( Davey Allison in this case cos he’s the son of Bobby Allison, I kinda thinking of the Allisons of Alabama as NASCAR royalty). Ol’ Rooster was victimized by that
Ricky only bumped Davey.
Denny Hamlin going clear to the freaking inside wall to “Avoid a crash” At Dega winning the race while Dibennedetto got penalized was PRIME FAVORITISM.
Dibenedetto made a late block on willy b forcing him below the yellow line
saying nascar favors denny hamlin of all people is crazy
@VoidLap212 I mean, his podcast is called ‘Actions Detrimental’ for a reason.
Byron got loose infront of Denny Hamlin and he thought William was gonna crash so Hamlin has the right to pull that.
The move on Bowyer by Gordon in 2012 was so obvious and blatant . NASCAR was so transparent with its favoritsm for the 90s biggest name in the sport
Gordon even admitted he should have been suspended for Homestead, a race in which he ultimately won.
One thing forgotten about the 2016 Talladega race that still drives me nuts to this day was that Dale Jr. was about to be lapped, and the caution came out with 7 laps to go when Jamie McMurray blew his engine. Under the caution leading to the GWC finish, Greg Biffle was leading (it would unexpectedly be his final season in cup, too).
Most of the field pitted, but Biffle was in fuel-save and around the time they were ready to restart for the GWC, they ran another 5 or 6 caution laps. Dale Jr. was in 3rd initially. Finally, Biffle was running out, and the second he pulled into the pits, NASCAR announced they were going Green next time by. Dale Jr. took Biffles spot and proceeded to choke twice. Some things are setup too well to be coincidences, and that was one of those times. It was CLEARLY rigged.
NASCAR has always simped for Jr; why else would he have his own graphic (Dale Jr Nationwide Rewind, I think it was called) while having a, not bad at all, but still underwhelming career?
The answer to your question about why Dale Jr. had his own graphic is right there in the name if it was indeed a sponsored segment by Nationwide. It’s not that different from the “Toyota Driver Update” we still see today on the broadcasts. And you know what? Dale Jr. being the most popular driver at the time probably sweetened the deal for NASCAR’s broadcasting partners when Nationwide Insurance approached them with the idea.
@Nathan StroudIt’s very different from the Toyota Driver Update, because it is in regard to anyone in the field driving a Toyota. It’s not based on one specific driver. The Dale Jr Nationwide yadda yadda is specifically for Jr, because he was NASCAR’s golden child before Chase Elliott.
The only reason NASCAR gave the win to Tony Stewart in the 2008 talladega fall race is because he was a big name driver. It’s was a much better outcome for sponsors and the media if Stewart won instead of Smith. If the roles were reversed, they would have penalized Smith with forcing him below the line.
Jimmy would be nothing without chad. He was the mastermind. Funny how when he was made competition director for all 4 hendrick cars suddenly all the cars were doing well
The whole “Kenseth vs Logano” incident was also what sparked (or at least helped along) the current policy for repairing a damage car (something I *still* don’t agree with NASCAR on and want gone ASAP), so in a way NASCAR was potentially biased on two fronts when it came to that incident.
yup, it’s the Matt Kenseth rule
2 situations I clearly remember that I felt was favortism were both in the early 90s. The first was the Ricky Rudd spinning out Davey Allison and getting black flagged as was mentioned by others in the chat. Another incident was a time where Dale Earnhardt Sr’s pit crew was allowed to run down into turn 1 and change his tires when a wheel was left loose and came off. Unfortunately I cannot remember specifically what race that one was but I know it happened.
1990 fall Charlotte race.
there was also the ’93 Coke 600, he was needing a caution and dumped the 68. And there was another race (maybe Wilkesboro in the mid-90s) where he was a lap down or something, and NASCAR threw a caution to figure out the running order and gave Dale his lap back.
I will say this, if that whole Martinsville incident that happened Jeff would’ve never won that race
How about the 08 Dega race that they robbed from Smith and gave to Tony?
I’m pretty sure that Brock Beard did a breakdown of North Wilkesboro 1990 and found that Brett Bodine actually won. I think he used a short pitting strategy.
Yes, he did. Brett and his team just pulled a fast one in terms of strategy.
As an F1 fan in addition to NASCAR this video has me thinking about 3 times (out of many) that F1 played favorites. The first one happened in 1989 when FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre personally DQ’d Senna from the Japanese GP because he used the escape road to get back on track after his incident with teammate & title rival Prost. This cost Senna the World title & Senna would get. Then in 1994 (again involving the World title fight) the stewards absolutely refused to penalize Michael Schumacher after he intentionally rammed Damon Hill at the Australian GP which resulted in Hill DNF’ing & Schumacher winning his first World title. Lastly there’s the period from 2000-2004 where F1 & the FIA was accused heavily favoring Ferrari (especially when it came to the technical regulations & things like team orders) so that Michael Schumacher could win the majority of his 7 World titles. Heck the FIA even took away wins from Schumacher’s teammate Rubens Barrichello twice during the 2002 season (Austria & Indy) because they wanted Schumacher to win & set the record for most wins in a season at the time. This favoritism continues to plague F1 as they have been accused of this with the Red Bull dynasty with Vettel from 2010-2013, Mercedes with Hamilton/Rosberg from 2014-2020 & Red Bull again with Max Verstappen recently.
Austria 2002 was purely Ferrari team orders, nothing to do with the FIA (besides, I think Ferrari were fined for not having their drivers on the right spots on the podium), and at Indianapolis Barrichello kept the win (Schumacher said he tried and failed to stage a dead heat). The main ‘Ferrari International Assistance’ controversy I can think of during that time was when Michelin were told to change their tyre construction with three races left in the 2003 season, which might have impacted McLaren and Williams, who were challenging Ferrari for the title.
Brett Griffin stated on DBC that a high level exec suspended Matt because their kid’s favorite driver was Logano. Furthermore, that same exec apparently then later apologized to Matt for it.