NASCAR’s Biggest Fan - Ron Ripple

It was 1979 and a beautiful afternoon for a race in Daytona, FL. Thousands of spectators showed up for one of the most spectacular events of the year. This was the first race where CBS broadcast a race from start to finish and the drivers, crew, and fans were pumped full of adrenaline. (Those days people would only get to see bits and pieces of the race on TV) The race was thrilling with position changes going on everywhere… a huge battle was going on for first place between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison with record speeds. Richard Petty was in third and at least a half a lap behind the battle for first. Who won? Well take a look below to see what happened on the very last lap!

Not sure if you recognized him, but Bobbie Allison was the darker haired gentleman explaining how he stopped to give his brother Donnie a ride to the pits. He was a lap down and the real reason he stopped was to get a few fists in on Cale. Bobby later described the incident with Cale: “For some reason, Cale kept hitting my fist repeatedly with his nose.” These are the stories that are still talked about today! Who remembers the win in 1980? (guarantee it’s not many) It’s incredible events like these that keep the lasting memories of races that helped bring NASCAR where it is today. This is a competitive sport and it just goes to show that drivers are humans and they HAVE emotion. The whole fight was broadcast on CBS and guess what happened to NASCAR ticket sales?… they skyrocketed through the roof.

What are your thoughts on NASCAR’s view on letting men be men?

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Robby Gordon is appealing his 100 point penalty as well as his crew cheif’s $100,000 fine and suspension. Gordon goes on to explain that the illegal bumper was a complete accident and clerical error that had nothing to do with his team. He explains the nose they put on the car was shipped to them from Dodge’s distributor and was a nose that had notyet been approved by NASCAR officials. Gordon states that he’s not appealing the whole penalty, but he is appealing the harshness of the penalty. He’s complaining that it was a clerical error and it wasn’t meant to have a competitive edge over his competition. He’s saying it’s too harsh of a penalty and it’s perposterous that he’s getting the same penalty that someone recieved last year for adding a substance to their fuel.

I have to agree with Robby Gordon on his frustration and the harshness of the penalty. If you’re going to penalize him for a human error and an honest mistake then make it a minor penalty. Penalize him 25 points, fine his crew cheif $10,000, give his team a slap on the wrist and maybe take away their beer supply for a week. I just find it hard to believe NASCAR is penalizing them for something so minor but they won’t penalize Kurt Busch or Tony Stewart for damaging each other’s car or punching each other in the face.

The NASCAR officials are an interesting breed, I guess they’re just lucky I’m not handing out the penalties because I would hit them where it hurts. Yeah you know what I’m talking about… the Beer consumption and Racer’s Parties.

What’s your opinion on this whole issue?

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WOWWWWWWWW…. so there were some serious teams from this past weekend’s Daytona 500 that got penalized for some sort of infraction. The biggest penalty went to Robby Gordon after inspectors found an illegal bumper on the front of the car. NASCAR officials gave him a 100 point penalty, fined his crew cheif $100,000, and suspended his crew cheif for 6 races. Overall it dropped him from 9th place down to 40th place. Another team that got penalized last weekend in the Craftsman Truck Series was my boy Todd Bodine. He was penalized for an infraction the inspectors caught before qualifying. So the good news is he still won the race fair and square, but the bad news is he is penalized 25 points, his crew cheif fined $10,000 and his crew cheif is suspended for 4 races.

Here’s the news I know a lot of my readers are going to be extremely concerned about. Dale Earnhardt Jr was penalized 50 points for having an illegal spoiler on his car. His crew cheif was fined $25,000 and also given a 6 race suspension. The good news is it was for the Nationwide Series which still leaves him in the hunt for the Sprint Cup Series. Of all the drivers from this past weekend’s race… I would have never guessed we’d see Dale Earnhardt Jr’s name on the list of penalized drivers. It’s just unfortunate these teams aren’t following the rules and are trying to get away with little modifications. Can’t these teams just race fair and square and follow the rules?

The biggest news from this past weekend’s race is Officials found a hidden bottle of NOS in the trunk of Kurt Busch’s race car. Supposedly he hit the button on the last lap of the restart to give Ryan Newman his push to victory. The question that is confusing officials is how did he get that bottle through inspection the morning of the race. HAHAHAHA… I’m only kidding!!!!! Kurt Busch didn’t have a bottle of NOS in his car, but I know I had you going because the way he pushed Ryan Newman to the front of the pack on the last lap of that race is unbelievable.

Anyway, let me know what your opinion is on the infractions. Why would a team put an illegal part on their car the first race of the season?

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For those of you who missed the final restart to finish for whatever the reason might be… Watch it below! Stewart was leading and then out of no where, Team Penske (Newman and Kurt Busch) slam to the front and never look back.

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