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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 26, 2002
Do not look for an explanation from NASCAR officials about what circumstances must exist -- or not exist -- for a race to be red-flagged in the closing laps.
Basically, no one knows.
The Daytona 500 was halted after an accident with six laps left to allow for a green-flag finish. Sunday's race at Rockingham was not halted after an accident with six laps left, and Matt Kenseth took the checkered flag under yellow. What was different?
An official's interpretation. NASCAR president Mike Helton said there were not enough laps left Sunday for the red flag, which stops cars on the track while workers clear debris, because things happen quicker on a 1-mile track such as Rockingham than at Daytona's 2.5-mile trioval.
Helton was definitive about one thing: NASCAR will not put its red flag rule in writing. Such decisions will remain at NASCAR's discretion and, therefore, will remain inconsistent.
Count on it.
RULING DELAYED: NASCAR will announce today penalties against Roush Racing for failing a post-race inspection three hours after Kenseth won the Subway 400 at Rockingham.
An announcement was expected Monday, but NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo said it was postponed, giving no reason for the delay.
Kenseth's No. 17 Ford failed by one-quarter-inch to meet the minimum height requirement of 51 inches from ground to roof. Based on recent precedent, the team is not expected to be stripped of its victory or points.
Dale Earnhardt Inc. was fined $25,000 for a nearly identical infraction after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in October at Talladega. Earnhardt's car failed inspection by only one-eighth.
PARK IS TESTY: Injured Winston Cup driver Steve Park, who has double vision and slurred speech from a head injury sustained Sept. 2 at Darlington, had a successful test Monday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
But he said he is tired of people asking when he will return. "It seems like that's all people ask any more, and I don't know how to answer," Park said. "With a brain injury ... it's not obvious when it's better. I can't talk right. That's just part of the injury. But you don't talk much behind the wheel of a race car, and I can drive the heck out of race car."
Park ran a lap of 176.560 mph at the 1.5-mile track, almost 10 seconds off of the pace of laps of 185.418 posted by Shawna Robinson and Kenny Wallace, who has filled in for Park in the No. 1 Chevrolet.
"We were wide open, and our lap times showed we weren't holding anything back," Park said. "I know I can race now. I just want to make sure when I come back I can be in a position to win."
Wallace hinted Park might return in March -- at Darlington.
"Steve thinks that would be quite a comeback," Wallace said.
RULE NOT TO BLAME: Five engines blew in Sunday's race compared with one a year ago. But few in the garage blamed NASCAR's new one-engine rule, which requires teams to use the same engine to qualify, practice and race.
The engine in Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford quit while he was leading on Lap 143 but not because parts were asked to perform beyond their life expectancy.
"If it would have happened later, you might look at parts like that; but not this early in the race," Jarrett said. "As hard as we try to ensure that pieces and parts aren't going to break, sometimes they do."
CREW MEMBER INJURED: David Bryant, front tire carrier for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet, sustained a broken right leg after being struck by another car early in the race. He was taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., for treatment.
-- Information from Times wires was used in this report.