NHRA re: The Incident (2 Viewers)

[Rat]

Just curious, how many of you wanted Capps to be thrown out of the race, or suspended, or docked points, or tarred and feathered when he smacked Bazemore a few years ago?

Alan

That's true as well, but 2004 or 2005 whenever it was, it was a mid season race. It didn't hurt any party as neither won (or could have) the title.

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

Just curious, how many of you wanted Capps to be thrown out of the race, or suspended, or docked points, or tarred and feathered when he smacked Bazemore a few years ago?

Alan

As I stated earlier, my issue with "wanting", if you want to call it that, Torrence punished has more to do with my belief that had the shoe been on the other foot that Ferre would've been packing his stuff immediately, and not necessarily with the fact that he put hands on Cameron.

That said, and I know you take a lot of heat for speaking on behalf of the NHRA, can you honestly say that had Ferre been the one to initiate contact that the NHRA would've handled it the same way (what you believe to be the case, anyway) that they will ultimately handle Torrence, if they do at all?

Sean D

 

[Rat]

I think it is already a done deal. You are 100% correct. There has been crickets on the NHRA side besides writing a release on the site that "we will review and comment when ready" as we all already knew. I agree with Sean 1000%. Some new guy qualifies on bump and goes smack # 1 qualifier vs. # 1 qualifier smacking him, damn right the NHRA is not going to react the same. NHRA is not bipartisan.

 

[none]

When things like this have happened in the past the penalties have come in the way of fines and probation, no matter who instigated the incident. I expect that to be the case here. But I have nothing to do with that process. It is usually the established racer taking issue with the "New Guy" who they feel didn't show proper respect or two veterans who have an issue. I can't remember a case where a newer racer has been the one to initiate a physical altercation with a veteran.

Steve's speech last night started with an apology to Cameron and a VERY sincere (in my opinion) apology to everyone including the Jr. kids that look up to him. CAPCO sponsors a number of Jr. racers and programs and he was ashamed of the example he set for those kids who want to race at a high level some day. I have yet to see a professional hockey player do that.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that the tires of the CAPCO haulers got slashed overnight Sunday or maybe some of you think that they deserved it.

Alan

 

[none]

I think it is already a done deal. You are 100% correct. There has been crickets on the NHRA side besides writing a release on the site that "we will review and comment when ready" as we all already knew. I agree with Sean 1000%. Some new guy qualifies on bump and goes smack # 1 qualifier vs. # 1 qualifier smacking him, damn right the NHRA is not going to react the same. NHRA is not bipartisan.

Patrick,
The race was Sunday, yesterday was the banquet. Just when do you think the NHRA officials would have had time to review and make a decision?

Alan

 

[mick]

i don't think nhra should do anything besides make a statement discouraging that behavior. steve made an ass out of himself and will have to live with it.
some great hockey players need to fight, others do not. the great one, wayne gretsky, was protected by his fighting teammates.

 

[ironpony]

When things like this have happened in the past the penalties have come in the way of fines and probation, no matter who instigated the incident. I expect that to be the case here. But I have nothing to do with that process. It is usually the established racer taking issue with the "New Guy" who they feel didn't show proper respect or two veterans who have an issue. I can't remember a case where a newer racer has been the one to initiate a physical altercation with a veteran.

Steve's speech last night started with an apology to Cameron and a VERY sincere (in my opinion) apology to everyone including the Jr. kids that look up to him. CAPCO sponsors a number of Jr. racers and programs and he was ashamed of the example he set for those kids who want to race at a high level some day. I have yet to see a professional hockey player do that.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that the tires of the CAPCO haulers got slashed overnight Sunday or maybe some of you think that they deserved it.

Alan

I did not hear that and that is lower than what Steve did. Hopefully the perps are caught and prosecuted.

 

[ironpony]

Patrick,
The race was Sunday, yesterday was the banquet. Just when do you think the NHRA officials would have had time to review and make a decision?

Alan

Being the magnitude of the incident and when it happened, finals of the countdown, they should of stayed up as long as necessary to resolve this issue.
I am sure you have seen the feed back from NHRA customers on this.NHRA will let it sit for a week till everyone cools down and then will slap Torrence with a 10k fine which is about 10 cents to you and me.

 

[Huge]

Wow, that is the first I had heard about the tire slashing deal. When they catch that or those lynch mob mentality dip shit or dip shits they should make them pay for the tires and physically change them their selves. I bet it would be the last tire they ever slashed.

 

[BaldyLochs]

This is almost like that Cleveland Browns helmet incident last week. What do you say - to the young kids watching “these guys”, seeing them as role models? Be it a kid racing in the JDRL or one who’s got a heck of a throwing arm on a flag football team? Is this how professionals act? Will behaving like this get you far in your profession?? There’s a lot of sides to this, and yes it is a difficult thing for the NHRA to have happened. Do the rules address it? Rules can’t address everything. It sucks all the way around. I’m trying to see how I would feel if I worked in Marketing for a major company, and I talked them into signing an NHRA full pull sponsorship deal in a “big” car ..... and then this happens to the guy who drove the car we were paying to sponsor, with our name on it and on his shirts and hats.

 

[Huge]

This is almost like that Cleveland Browns helmet incident last week. What do you say - to the young kids watching “these guys”, seeing them as role models? Be it a kid racing in the JDRL or one who’s got a heck of a throwing arm on a flag football team? Is this how professionals act? Will behaving like this get you far in your profession?? There’s a lot of sides to this, and yes it is a difficult thing for the NHRA to have happened. Do the rules address it? Rules can’t address everything. It sucks all the way around. I’m trying to see how I would feel if I worked in Marketing for a major company, and I talked them into signing an NHRA full pull sponsorship deal in a “big” car ..... and then this happens to the guy who drove the car we were paying to sponsor, with our name on it and on his shirts and hats.

The best way to find the answer to that is talk to a marketing firm for any of the Nascar or Monster Supercross teams. Nhra teams has a scuffle every few years with very little blood shed or teeth dislodged. But the other two series has this on a regular basis with some blood shed and some dental work required.

 

[stitcherbob]

Just curious, how many of you wanted Capps to be thrown out of the race, or suspended, or docked points, or tarred and feathered when he smacked Bazemore a few years ago?

Alan

Well......
I’m sure that Baze was asking for it....so...

 

[stitcherbob]

Who would have had access to the haulers to do that? That should be something for the local police to investigate due to being over a certain monetary amount if all of the tires were damaged

 

[Tom Slick]

I personally feel that the reaction, or shall I say over reaction from this scuffle has been entirely overblown. Nobody knows what caused Steve to get physical with Cameron as there is no audio of what was being said to one another. The NHRA has apparently told both drivers to keep what was said between the two of them to themselves. For all we know Cameron made a remark that would have made anyone of us smack the guy. We simply don't know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Steve's actions. He should have kept his cool and been more mature and professional about the incident. Steve seems to have a little bit of a history of being a hot head and that's in his DNA and his competitive side is aggressive. I would assume that once he cooled down he realized that he made a mistake, was embarrassed by his actions and he took little time to come out and make a public apology.

I'm sure that most, if not all of you have been in a similar situation where you over reacted based on someone else's actions and lost your cool. I know I'm not perfect and back in my racing days I have certainly over reacted and not kept my cool on a few occasions. Just imagine the pressure that Steve was under. A championship is in the balance, a few days earlier you loose a close family friend, you feel like another driver did you wrong on the starting line and you have tons of emotion and adrenaline pumping through your veins after making a 300+ mph pass. Kind of a tough situation to hold it all back don't ya think.

We are all humans and we are an imperfect species. Steve is human and made a mistake. He apologized on several occasions. And just remember, most of us have all been bitching over the years on these very message boards about how boring and PC the drivers are. Now you got some real drama and guess what. You all go and jump on the PC band wagon.

 

[Dan]

It happened sunday night after the finals as fans were leaving so everyone had access we were on the end of a row.....3 on Steve's truck and one on Billy's......and when everyone was booing a capco car coming back after first round was our guys(Billys) getting booed we didn't know what even happened at that point it was kinda funny they got back and asked us what did we do lol

 

[Jack]

There is no discussion of what constitutes penalizing points in the rulebook. If that's ever to be an option it needs to be stated.and I'll bet the penalties for bad behavior will be stated more clearly in the future. Sounds like he sincerely apologized in a very public forum and knows what he did is not acceptable. Fine him an appropriate amount for his bad behavior and get on with life already. None of us have ever had a bad emotional moment in life leading to a reaction that we later regreted, right?

 

[Rat]

This could be way overblown, but the fact is we do not know and a small group if not anyone will ever really know. Maybe it is just a weird deal that fox is now doing WWE weekly and the point is that even if this is a small start, the NHRA is not WWE like.

 

[Jeff]

If Steve was not well off financially exactly none of this would be said. Sad but predictable.

Slashing a big truck tire is no easy feat, you are not generally gonna be able to do that with the knife in your pocket.

 

[Huge]

I personally feel that the reaction, or shall I say over reaction from this scuffle has been entirely overblown. Nobody knows what caused Steve to get physical with Cameron as there is no audio of what was being said to one another. The NHRA has apparently told both drivers to keep what was said between the two of them to themselves. For all we know Cameron made a remark that would have made anyone of us smack the guy. We simply don't know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Steve's actions. He should have kept his cool and been more mature and professional about the incident. Steve seems to have a little bit of a history of being a hot head and that's in his DNA and his competitive side is aggressive. I would assume that once he cooled down he realized that he made a mistake, was embarrassed by his actions and he took little time to come out and make a public apology.

I'm sure that most, if not all of you have been in a similar situation where you over reacted based on someone else's actions and lost your cool. I know I'm not perfect and back in my racing days I have certainly over reacted and not kept my cool on a few occasions. Just imagine the pressure that Steve was under. A championship is in the balance, a few days earlier you loose a close family friend, you feel like another driver did you wrong on the starting line and you have tons of emotion and adrenaline pumping through your veins after making a 300+ mph pass. Kind of a tough situation to hold it all back don't ya think.

We are all humans and we are an imperfect species. Steve is human and made a mistake. He apologized on several occasions. And just remember, most of us have all been bitching over the years on these very message boards about how boring and PC the drivers are. Now you got some real drama and guess what. You all go and jump on the PC band wagon.

Here is A link to a pretty good article that Bobby Bennett did about it.

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[TR]

If Steve was not well off financially exactly none of this would be said. Sad but predictable.

Slashing a big truck tire is no easy feat, you are not generally gonna be able to do that with the knife in your pocket.

Aside from the inconvenience I’m sure their entire fleet is insured to the hilt, so not a financial hit, ergo the slasher didn’t accomplish much. Not good but not fatal.