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Foes don't agree on call for Marlin

Though NASCAR made a mistake, some believed there should have been a way to penalize Sterling Marlin for his. Others saw Sunday's events as poetic justice.

Where people stood depended on where they ran.

Marlin got away with speeding on pit road when NASCAR officials failed to communicate at the time. Marlin went on to win the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas.

Normally, when a driver speeds entering the pits, the infraction is radioed to the official assigned to that driver's pit. When the crew is finished working on the car, the driver is held 15 seconds.

David Hoots, NASCAR's event director, radioed instructions to the official in Marlin's pit three times, but the message was not received. Officials do not know why.

NASCAR did not bring Marlin back onto pit road to asses the penalty because doing so would have been unfair to Marlin.

"It was our mistake," series director John Darby said. "Had we brought him back in, it would have probably wound up costing him a lap, and that's not a just penalty."

Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for Tony Stewart found it unfair that another contender was allowed to get away with an infraction.

"We had another caution; they could have held him," said Zipadelli, whose driver led 76 laps. "The bottom line was that he sped on pit road. They caught him. They didn't do the right thing."

Owner Robert Yates, whose drivers, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd, were not in contention, thought Marlin suffered enough the two previous weeks when he was on the wrong side of NASCAR's arbitrary red flag decisions at Daytona and Rockingham.

"He's already had a couple of bad weeks," Yates said. "Maybe it was good to let him slide one time if they didn't communicate."

The best answer would have been to hold Marlin at the end of pit road, where an official with a paddle tells cars whether to stop or go onto the track. Because everything happened so fast, no one thought of it.

ROLLING THE DICE: Geoffrey Bodine, who has not raced since finishing third in the Daytona 500, plans to run 10-12 Winston Cup races this season and hopes to be full time in 2003 with increased support from the Miccosukee Indian Gaming Group. In addition to Talladega, Daytona and Homestead, Bodine has a commitment for Indianapolis, Phoenix and the fall Atlanta race, with more to come.

BOWTIE BLUES: After watching NASCAR give aerodynamic concessions to Ford and Dodge at Daytona, Chevrolet teams believe Sunday's results show it is their turn.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson finished sixth at Las Vegas, the only Chevrolet driver in the top 14.

"Anyone who watched the race saw that Chevrolets weren't competitive," said Doug Duchart, NASCAR Group Manager for General Motors Racing. "If NASCAR wants to continue to have Chevy drivers run at the back, then they won't change anything."

Ironically, Johnson's finish could keep NASCAR from making changes. It shows a Chevy can run well, and that perhaps other teams need to work harder to match that result.

PARK UPDATE: Steve Park will test twice this week at Darlington in hopes of returning to the No. 1 Chevrolet for the March 17 race at the track where he was injured six months ago. Park still has blurred vision and slurred speech, and has not been cleared by doctors.

WINDS OF CHANGE: Joe Gibbs Racing, which fields Pontiacs for Bobby Labonte and Stewart, is building a Chevrolet to examine how it performs in the wind tunnel. The team is developing a new Pontiac for NASCAR competition next season, but does not rule out a switch to Chevrolet.

NUTS AND BOLTS: Voting for the National Motorsports Press Association's most popular driver award has begun at www.nascarpopulardriver.com. ... The top five drivers at Las Vegas -- Marlin, Jeremy Mayfield, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman and Stewart -- will be eligible for a $1-million bonus at the Coca-Cola 600 in May in Charlotte.

-- Times wires contributed to this report.

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