Post-Race Scuffles Doing More for the NASCAR Chase Than Racing Ever Could

So NASCAR fans, what do you think about this new Chase format now?

When the passion of the so-called “gentlemen of the sport” drivers such as Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth is raised to a level where they get out of their race cars and start swinging at another driver—in this case, Brad Keselowski—how can you not be completely entertained?

The new win-at-all-costs championship format has reignited the fire in a sport that has been begging for years for someone or something to fan its flickering flames. 

Remember, this is a sport that exploded on the national scene only after a live broadcast showed a fight between two drivers in the infield following the Daytona 500 in 1979, which was seen by millions of snowed-in television viewers across the Northeast and Midwest. There is a bit of heritage here, folks. 

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Not only have the recent post-race activities at Charlotte and Texas opened the door to all those “I went to a fight, and a NASCAR race broke out” jokes—which believe me, the execs at NASCAR don’t mind hearing—but they push out these drivers' real personalities, the ones that almost always remain hidden behind layers of political and sponsor correctness.

Keselowski has every right to be a bit frustrated. It’s why he hasn’t been making many friends lately. But how can you blame him? He’s won six races this season, and he’s still having to fight for his life in the Chase championship.

We’ve seen him make in-the-heat-of-the-moment, questionable moves recently, moves like ramming an unbuckled Kenseth on pit road at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago.

Then there's Sunday at Texas, where he was envisioning a hole between Gordon and race leader Jimmie Johnson, a hole that really wasn’t there unless it required he slam into the side of Gordon’s car to get through. What or who gets the blame for this kind of behavior? And do we really need to blame anyone or be overly concerned about the results of these actions?

By the way, it was Keselowski’s contact with the No. 24 Chevrolet that cut down Gordon’s left-rear tire, ending any chance the Hendrick Motorsports driver had of winning the race and automatically advancing to Homestead.

Does it even matter that the post-race fracas between Gordon and Keselowski was started by neither one? It was initiated by Kevin Harvick, who had a front-row seat during the restart and watched Keselowski, a Ford driver, bump into Gordon, a fellow Chevrolet driver and also a Hendrick Motorsports driver. Hendrick happens to supply the engines for Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet.

“I mean if you are going to run into people all the time you are going to have to fight your own fight, so I helped him get into it,” Harvick told a live-television audience after the race. “Yeah, you just try to do all you can do. Obviously it was no-holds barred there with the 2 (Keselowski). He was in bulldoze mode.”

Let’s face it: This new Chase format is making these Sprint Cup drivers do crazy things. And we thought it was a big deal a few years ago when NASCAR exec Robin Pemberton casually said “Boys, have at it,” a comment that opened a Pandora’s box of emotional dramatics, the likes that hadn’t been seen in years and was so desperately needed.

Ralph Lauer/Associated Press

I expect that there will be backlash from some quarters on how this new level of intensity has produced the kind of reaction from drivers that some sponsors will not want to be associated with. But even in this current era of extreme political correctness, the outpouring of passion by the drivers involved with the 2014 Chase is just plain remarkable and should in no way be abated or restricted. 

The sport has suffered over the past half-dozen years with a loss of interest by fans, especially the old-time fans who constantly remind us of “the good old days.” Except those good old days never really existed except in the minds of those who won’t let go of the old familiar names associated with the sport—names like Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace, to name just two.

Today’s best NASCAR drivers—I’m talking about those in the Chase field—are every bit as competitive as the drivers a generation ago and carry that “win at any cost” mentality that pushes a sport to a new level. And frankly, it’s something that may be lost to fans unless they are allowed to witness the outpouring of emotions like those displayed Sunday night.

No one here is advocating violence, so let’s get that straight. The altercation on Sunday night took place on pit road, with NASCAR officials in the mix, policing the action and attempting to stop it, albeit half-heartedly. But when there’s such emotion after a race, it must run its natural course.

Dr. Jerry Punch of the ESPN television crew asked Gordon if the response was a result of the new Chase format.

“It’s emotion that is a part of this Chase and this format as well as towards people that make dumb decisions,” Gordon said after the race. 

“(Keselowski) has been making a lot of them lately. That is why people have been running after him and chasing him down. It’s why his team has got to defend him over there because of what he does on the race track.” 

Keselowski had to know that he was pushing the limits by attempting to make a hole between two cars on the race track that, quite frankly, didn’t really exist. He didn’t care. He was thinking of how badly he wanted the win. He knew going in there would have to be some contact between him and one of the two cars he was trying to get past. Gordon’s just happened to be the one he bumped into.

“There was a hole, and I went for it,” Keselowski told Jamie Little with ESPN after the race. “It closed up and we bounced off each other and kept going. It was just a battle for the win.”

And so you have it. There definitely are two sides to every story—or every fight, in this case.

Keselowski told the media in the post-race press conference that he is a new breed of driver, but he's not that different from the greats of the past.

“You know, I'm not Dale Earnhardt or (F1 great Ayrton) Senna,” Keselowski said. “I read how they raced, how great they were for this sport. They would sit here and tell you they would go for that same gap. I'm not them, but I'm inspired by that, and I'm going to race that way. 

“These guys (Gordon, Harvick) have their own code, and they race differently...that's their right,” he added. “What I'm not going to do is back down. I'm not going to get in the spot where I was in 2013 where, you know, I tried to be exactly what they all wanted me to be, because what they want me to be is a loser, and I'm not here to lose, I'm here to win.”

It's obvious that what Gordon saw as a bad move, Keselowski saw  as “one of those racing deals”; of course it was both. Keselowski drew the longer straw and finished third in the race, which still didn’t do much for his championship hopes. He leaves Texas seventh in points.

Gordon ended up finishing 29th. That has him fourth in points and just above the cutoff for advancement into the final round.

But the real winner on Sunday, lost among the images of bloody faces on both Keselowski and Gordon, is NASCAR.

What more does this sport need to do to prove to its fans, both current and past, that the racing is better and its drivers more passionate about winning, than ever before?

Those fans who still say the sport and the racing isn’t as good as before, well, they’re just not paying attention. Maybe all the post-race scuffling will finally open some eyes to that reality.

All quotes are taken from official NASCAR, team and manufacturer media releases unless otherwise stated. 

Bob Margolis is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association and has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, the NHRA and Sports Cars for more than two decades as a writer, television producer and on-air talent. 

On Twitter: @BobMargolis