Drivers still grumbling about yellow-line call

Rules, rules, rules…. what’s NASCAR without a few controversies every now and then? And, heck, maybe there aren’t enough these days - remember those classic Ford vs. Chevy arguments, which the homogenized common-template winged car has sent to the history books?

And Talladega tends to create those: This time the debate over who won the race, Regan Smith or Tony Stewart, and also a furor over the Carl Edwards-Greg Biffle late-race crash; with Kevin Harvick, caught up in the Edwards-Biffle deal, getting into a shoving match with Edwards here yesterday over some caustic words Harvick said about that Talladega crash.

Edwards had apologized for his over-enthusiastic bump draft that triggered the accident, and Biffle had accepted that.

But Harvick’s words on TV at Talladega didn’t sit well with Edwards yesterday in the NASCAR garage at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Neither Edwards nor Harvick would discuss their altercation, and NASCAR officials said they likewise would have nothing to say about it: “It will work itself out,“ spokesman Jim Hunter said.

“I’m not supposed to know what you’re talking about,“ said Clint Bowyer, Harvick’s teammate. “I think they were talking about a golf game.“

If the incident isn’t over, then it could flare up in tonight’s Nationwide race: Not only are Edwards and Harvick in the Nationwide Dollar General 300 (8 p.m.), but so are several of their teammates - David Ragan and Jamie McMurray on the Edwards-Jack Roush Ford side, and Jeff Burton and Bowyer on the Harvick-Richard Childress Chevy side.

Lingering rain washed out practice and qualifying for Saturday’s Bank of America 500, and NASCAR set the field on the points standings, putting Jimmie Johnson, Edwards, Biffle and Burton on the front two rows for the 7:30 p.m. start. Failing to make the cut: rookie Scott Speed, Derrike Cope, rookie Brad Keselowski and Bryan Clauson.

One of the top stories of the soggy Thursday: fallout from the continuing tire problems this season.

Tires were again a major issue at Talladega, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the exploding tires were so frightening that drivers were running scared.

Now NASCAR executives appear much more willing to consider allowing Goodyear to make major changes in tire designs for 2009, with both a wider tire and a wider wheel. NASCAR drivers now race on 12-inch wide tires mounted on nine-inch wide wheels, which accentuates sidewall problems - which could have been part of the problem at Talladega. Drivers are also entering the corners with a “bump-stop” chassis design that effectively slams the tire hard into the asphalt like a hammer, rather than with a more cushioning entry; that also gives the sidewall a beating. Crew chiefs are pushing Goodyear more vigorously now for tire combinations with more stagger (where the left-side tires are slightly smaller than the right sides) in order to help the cars turn better in the corners.

And on a sad note, legendary NASCAR photographer T. Taylor Warren passed away Wednesday, at 83. Warren has been a fixture at so many NASCAR races over the years, right from the sport’s beginnings. A memorial will be held Sunday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Darlington, S.C. At the request of the family, in lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the National Motorsports Press Association.

So, is the Sprint Cup championship race a little tighter now - because of Jimmie Johnson’s sluggish run at Talladega and that Edwards-Biffle dust-up - or is the NASCAR title now Johnson’s to lose, since he holds a 72-point lead on Edwards, a 77-point lead on Biffle, and a 99-point lead on Jeff Burton?

Biffle and Harvick said the game is now Johnson’s. “Yeah, Jimmie is in the catbird’s seat - do the math,“ Biffle said. “We’d have to make up 11 points every race now to get back up there.

“But we figured there’d be a shake-up at Talladega.“

And what to make of Smith vs. Stewart? That last-lap duel between Stewart and Smith has raised major questions in the minds of many drivers as to what the rules are for the last lap of a race at Daytona and Talladega, where NASCAR enforces an out-of-bounds line.

“I thought if you could see the checkered flag that anything goes,“ Harvick said, echoing a refrain of several other drivers. “I guess I was not clear on it.“

Biffle said there is more to the situation, and the issue could come up again at the next restrictor-plate race - the Daytona 500: “I don’t want Tony mad at me, and I don’t want NASCAR mad at me…. but as the guy leading the race, you’ve got to block,“ Biffle said.

“But where do you ‘cross’ the line?

“In the driver’s meeting they tell us, ‘If you go below the yellow line, you will be penalized; and if you force a guy below the line, you may be penalized’.

“May.

“That’s where I have a question. When are we going to be penalized?

“If we’re not going to be penalized, we need to understand that.

“Regan was forced below the line. And we certainly don’t want to send a message that the next time someone tries to force you below the yellow line coming for the stripe that you’re supposed to spin him out and send him through the grass and have him come back out in front of 15 cars and wreck the whole field.

“If we’re not allowed to pass below the yellow, that’s fine. Two other guys have done it and won - Dale Earnhardt Jr. (in a Talladega Cup race) and Johnny Benson in the Trucks. So we’ve done it twice and it’s been OK; and then this time it’s not.“

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp: “I’ll just reiterate what we said Monday - that you cannot go below the yellow line and improve your position. If you do, you’re subject to penalty. And if you force somebody down there, you’re also subject to penalty. In the case of Regan Smith, it was our determination that he was not forced down there by Tony Stewart, that he went down there on his own accord. And he obviously improved his position. Thus the penalty was assessed.

“Now if we had determined Tony had forced him down there, then the penalty could have been assessed to Tony.“

And what about Biffle vs. Edwards? “Carl and I have talked, and he understands he made a mistake. But there’s nothing we can do about it now,“ Biffle said.

“Once I watched the tape it was clear what happened. He gave me a great push into the corner, and we’d gotten around Tony Stewart. So I wasn’t going to move down the track, because I knew I had a teammate behind me and I didn’t want to hang him out.

“It was just a little miscalculation on his part about how our cars were lined up. It certainly wasn’t his intention to wreck. All we can do is learn from it and go forward.

“No, I’m not mad at Carl. He made a mistake, he said he made a mistake.“

That crash also took out teammate Matt Kenseth: “I was disappointed. I thought Carl knew better. He’s been preaching the stuff about being careful and working together and teammates and all this stuff, so I was disappointed it happened.

“Yet it was an accident, and that stuff will happen.“