Sunday's Talladega finish brought out the worst in you.
As everyone knows, 22-year-old Cup driver Brian Vickers took out Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Jimmie Johnson to win the UAW-Ford 500.
There were myriad factors that made the incident one of the most controversial race finishes in recent memory, including the following:
Prior to Sunday's victory, Vickers was winless in 106 Cup starts and by all accounts desperate to score a win.
Additionally, Vickers is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season to drive a Toyota next year for Team Red Bull - a move which surprised many and fed into the animosity of the anti-Toyota crowd.
Since announcing his departure from HMS, rumors have swirled that Vickers has been shunned by his teammates and locked out of team meetings.
Vickers has never fully recovered from the tragic loss of his best friend and career partner Ricky Hendrick who died in a 2004 plane crash; Ricky was the only son of Vickers' current team owner Rick Hendrick. In a post-race interview, Brian dedicated the win to Ricky's memory.
In terms of popularity, Vickers always faced an uphill battle as a member of the Hendrick team alongside Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. As a racing entity, HMS is considered the antithesis of fan favorite Dale Earnhardt, Inc., and other more widely accepted teams.
Vickers won the 2005 Nextel Cup Open in a similarly controversial last lap punt of Mike Bliss.
In Sunday's race, Vickers was a non-Chase contender who kept two Chasers from a potential win. Both Earnhardt and Johnson desperately needed a good points day in their bids for the championship.
Neither Earnhardt nor Johnson has won a title and both want one badly. Earnhardt's highest points finish was third in 2003, while Johnson finished second in both 2003 and 2004. Earnhardt has the additional pressure of living up to his father's legacy of seven Cup titles.
Sunday's incident occurred in a restrictor plate race, where the entire bump drafting/slam drafting issue has been a hot topic of late. Further, Talladega Superspeedway is and always has been Earnhardt territory.
Vickers exacerbated the situation with his televised post-race comments, in which he admitted regret for having spun Johnson but not Earnhardt Jr. - in fact, he asserted that Earnhardt's block on Johnson precipitated the entire incident: "That is the last thing I want to do is to get in to Jimmie. But when the 8 chopped him and Jimmie swerved, I just got him."
While Earnhardt was philosophical about the turn of events, Johnson did not attempt to conceal his anger. In a Tuesday morning teleconference, Johnson was still unappeased by anything Vickers had said: "If I look at the interviews and the quotes and the message that Brian left me, I wouldn't take it as an apology by any stretch of the imagination."
Ultimately, while everyone is entitled to an opinion, no one but Vickers knows whether his actions in the closing seconds of the race were intentional, a matter of poor judgment, an outright mistake, or simply the result of multiple factors which place it under the heading of a "racin' deal."
That being said, the aftermath of Sunday's race has brought out some deplorable behavior in many NASCAR fans.
Immediately after the race, the track was littered with debris thrown in anger by onsite fans who were upset at the way Vickers won, as well as who he prevented from winning.
Internet message boards and chat rooms lit up some of the most vile, hate-filled comments ever aimed at a race winner.
On Monday's Inside Nextel Cup program, host Dave Despain reported that, based on email he'd received, nothing short of a public lynching of Vickers would satisfy enraged race fans.
Additionally, Lowe's Motor Speedway Chairman Bruton Smith will be providing extra security for Vickers this weekend, stating, "We want to make sure Brian has an uninterrupted weekend here and that he is able focus on his driving duties. We will offer security escorts in and out of the Speedway and anywhere he feels he needs our assistance."
NASCAR fans, get a grip.
Let's not give credence to all those stereotypes about racing fans as obnoxious, uncivilized boors.
Try and remember what your mother taught you about being a good sport and losing graciously.
If nothing else, take a lesson from Junior himself, who had a lot more to lose in the race than any of you.
"I've been there where he (Vickers) is today and where he was during that last lap," Earnhardt said after the race. "It's easy to see how what happened could have happened."
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
You Can Read Other Articles By Rebecca
