Joey Gase was upset with Dawson Cram after Gase’s car sat wrecked between turns 1 and 2 at Richmond Raceway. The team owner of the No. 35 car climbed out of his car and tore his rear bumper, which was loose, off of his car. Gase went down the track and threw the bumper at Cram’s car.
NASCAR announced on April 3 that Gase would be fined $5,000 for his actions on track. Did the penalty fit the crime, and how could these moments serve as a marketing idea for mid- to back-tier teams?
Also, what should be done to the restart zone after confusion as to what constitutes the restart zone?
Frontstretch‘s Jared Haas answers this week’s questions on NASCAR Mailbox on Frontstretch‘s YouTube channel.
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Jared Haas joined the Frontstretch staff in May 2020. During his time at Frontstretch, Jared has grown the Frontstretch YouTube channel from less than 200 subscribers to well over 23,000 subscribers.
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The restart zone was a good idea, but Nascar has shown that it lacks the balls to make a tough call, particularly on the race’s title sponsor’s car. If its a ‘judgement call’, go back to a line and put the otherwise useless starter in charge of making that judgement.
As for throwing things at cars, “its all fun and games until someone gets hurt,” has become how Nascar has chosen to govern since Dale Sr was killed. Its fun to watch, but there needs to be a price paid publicly even if Joey Gase is paid $5000 to use his actions in commercials under the table.
NASCAR wants drivers to show some personality… until they do.
So predictable they hit Gase with a fine. It was the best thing we saw all weekend too.
Give me break to the until someone gets hurt crowd. Since when has anyone ever been hurt by that? Good grief.
There have been a few high-profile incidents in recent years of people being injured or killed from walking on a hot racetrack. Don’t kid yourself. Remember there used to be no speed limit on pit road either until someone was killed.
Ok…. lots of grey area here.
I was referring to drivers tossing objects once they get dumped… but then your post reminded me of the unfortunate incident with Tony Stewart at the NY sprint event . But that also brings to mind one of the most repealed video clips, Tony tossing his helmet at fellow driver many moons ago.
Kind of like the NFL, outlawing big hits by defensive payers, then playing those same big hits over and over as PR for TV ads.
I was surprised it wasn’t more