Feb 16 2009
Earnhardt, Vickers and the Lap 125 Caffeine Crash
It looks like lap 125 of the 2009 Daytona 500 will be with us for a while.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers got together and caused a wreck-fest, the Big One, if you will. Whether it’s ultimately remembered as the Lap 125 Caffeine Crash, Red Bull vs. Amp Energy Drink, or just another no-brainer dumb move by the driver of your choice, remains to be seen.
One thing is sure – the 2009 NASCAR Cup season is off to a controversial start. The other “sure thing” is that neither of these drivers intentionally wrecked.
To believe some of the Monday morning headlines, Junior has already ruined his season, he has no more respect in the garage, and clearly doesn’t have enough focus find his pit stall, much less coordinate his steering wheel with his right foot. There are even suggestions that he intentionally got back at Vickers for his 2006 Talladega stunt, where he (Vickers) crashed his teammate Jimmie Johnson and Earnhardt in order to get his only win to date.
Then comes the Junior Nation, claiming Vickers was driving in his rear-view mirror, as he admitted in the post-crash interview. Junior claims Vickers pushed him down nearly to the grass. (He did).
Vickers claimed, “I beat him to the yellow line, and then he just turned us.” The finish line is not yellow – I checked.
The Vickers fans are calling for NASCAR to penalize Junior. Why? He was doing what Hendrick Motorsports pays him to do, racing the #88 car to the best finish possible.
It really is shame about all the good cars that crashed on Lap 125. Some serious contenders lost any chance of a decent finish. But whose fault was it?
We are all free to our opinions – NASCAR has already made the official call.
My opinion? It doesn’t matter, but yours does!
Congratulations to Matt Kenseth, winner of the 51st Daytona 500!
