Johnson Wins at Sonoma....but should he have??

Hey guess what! An actual post about NASCAR on nascarkyle.blogspot.com! (I think I have maybe had two others.)

Jimmie Johnson captured his first ever (yes folks there was something he hadn't accomplished) at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. The casual observer of this race would come to the natural conclusion that Johnson won the race fair and square, without controversy, with a little help from a Marcos Ambrose mistake. This however is not the case. In 2007 Greg Biffle was awarded a win at Kansas Motor Speedway under caution when he was actually the third lead lap car to cross the finish line. Similar to Ambrose today, Biffle was attempting to save fuel by turning off the engine and coasting. In this process he would fall behind his competitors, only to return to first with the engine back on. Unfortunately Biffle did not get back up to the first spot before the checkered flag, crossing the finish in third. Nascar awarded the win to Biffle. This made many people angry, including me because Biffle clearly surrendered the lead, caution or not. However, when NASCAR made the decision to award the win to Biffle the sanctioning body set a clear precedant allowing this type of action.

Three years later, Ambrose uses this technique and NASCAR takes away the opportunity to win. Was it the right call with no precedants? ABSOLUTELY! But with the 2007 precedant? NO! NASCAR director John Darby was quoted as saying the Biffle situation was different because Biffle's car continued moving and the two cars behind him sped up to make the pass. Sorry Mr. Darby, the situations are the same, and if there is a difference, Ambrose deserved to be restored his position more. At least he had fuel. The only reason Biffle was still rolling at Kansas was because it was at the very end of the race. Ironically the driver that had the win stolen that day in Kansas when Biffle surrendered the lead was none other than Jimmie Johnson.

Thank you NASCAR for once again for your inability to make consistent calls and for ruining an otherwise fantastic race.