Published: Nov. 5, 2014
New championship format cause for tension, area crewman says
Jackson’s Emmer in middle of battle
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
What NASCAR drivers, owners and crew members are going
through and fans are seeing is unlike anything the sport has experienced.
It’s all because of the new Chase for the Sprint Cup
championship format.
“The tensions are high, the stakes are high; every single point
and position means a lot,” said Greg Emmer, a native of Jackson who is a
front-end mechanic for Carl Edwards’ No. 99 car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series.
“Nobody has gone through this before,” he added. “The
pressure throughout the Chase has just escalated.”
On Sunday, a fight broke out on pit road after the race at
Texas Motor Speedway between the crews for Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski.
Gordon, a four-time series champion, was unhappy with a
late-race move by Keselowski and approached Keselowski, the 2012 series
champion. The two were separated until Kevin Harvick appeared to push
Keselowski toward Gordon and a melee broke out. The crews pushed, shoved and
appeared to throw punches.
On Tuesday, NASCAR announced it suspended and fined four
crew members (three from Gordon and one from Kasey Kahne, a teammate of Gordon)
and fined Gordon’s and Kahne’s crew chiefs $50,000.
“While the intensity and emotions are high as we continue
through the final rounds of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the actions
that we saw from several crew members Sunday following the race at Texas are
unacceptable,” wrote Robin Pemberton, NASCAR senior vice president, competition
and racing development, in a statement. “We reviewed the content that was
available to us of the post-race incident along pit road and identified several
crew members who crossed the line with their actions, specifically punching
others.”
Sunday’s fiasco was the second in four races NASCAR has had
to deal with.
All the hostility is the result of a change to the
championship format and it may get worse Sunday.
“I think the format has forced the drivers to take a lot
more opportunities and chances than they have ever before,” said Robbie Reiser,
an Allenton native and the vice president of Roush Fenway Racing. “You’re
seeing more aggressive driving because of it.”
The old format had 12 drivers qualify for a 10-race p l a y
o f f system for the championship.
This year, 16 drivers were made eligible for the
championship with 10 races left in the season — the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
This year, NASCAR changed the format where the bottom four
drivers in points after every three races was eliminated from the Chase, unless
that driver won a race. If a driver won a race, he would advance to the next
round.
On Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, the final
elimination will be made. At the last race, which is Nov. 16 at Homestead-Miami
Speedway, the final four drivers still eligible for the championship will
compete in a winner-take- all race for the series championship.
Going into Phoenix, the top-eight drivers in points are
separated by 18 points. One slip-up could cost a driver a championship.
Emmer said under the old format, at this point in the
season, two or three drivers would still be battling for the title. Now eight
drivers are still eligible for the championship.
Edwards is one of those drivers still eligible.
Emmer said crew members get involved in drivers’ problems
because they put as much effort if not more into each race with car setups and
repairs.
When the change was made, Emmer and Reiser weren’t fans.
However, Emmer likes it now.
“I think it’s great for the sport,” he said. “As a fan, has
it brought more attention to the Chase? It’s kept people interested. For the
last couple of years, the NFL has been the No. 1 sport. What NASCAR did was it
came up with something interesting and I think they found it.”
“Everybody is scratching for everything they can get,” he
added. “That’s the environment NASCAR has set up.”
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