Wednesday, October 26th 'What If' Question

A popular opinion in the NASCAR world currently is that the new style of drafting at Daytona and Talladega does more harm than good. In both racing and entertainment and now added to the list is competitiveness.

This past weekend at Talladega rumors circulated that there had been team orders in the garage that Ford drivers were only supposed to work with other Ford drivers on raceday. Roush Fenway drivers Greg BIffle and Carl Edwards teamed together while Matt Kenseth and David Ragan did as well. Even Chevy drivers and teammates like Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton stayed committed to each other all day.

Things were going smoothly and according to plan until the final two laps. Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon was left without a partner and Ford driver Trevor Bayne said he would work with him. On the restart however, Bayne bailed on Gordon and went to work with Kenseth who also needed a partner. In another twist, Tony Stewart said that Paul Menard was told to dump him so that teammates Burton and Bowyer could go on to win the race.

Fans and drivers have been unhappy about the race all week. Team orders have no place in NASCAR they say. The problem though is not that there were drivers dumping each other at the race, the problem is that it was being categorized as team orders. See, drivers have always hung each other out to dry in plate racing. It's common knowledge that over the final few laps it is every man for himself and you go where you will be fastest and with whom you believe will give you the best shot to get to the front.

Except when fans and drivers heard that there were "team orders" of who could work with who, suddenly it became a sin to be dumped by your partner. Now going forward drivers are going to remember that day in Talladega and as long as the new stye of drafting is around, someone is going to be left without a friend.

But ...

What if there was no public knowledge of 'team orders' @ 'Dega, would fans really care as much about drivers being dumped @ the end? #NASCAR

@philenespanol I think if it hadn't been said on friday that people heard ford drivers were told to work together, no one would have found it suspicious when Bayne went with Kenseth. People get dumped all the time at superspeedways, but it's what surrounds the whole thing with sort of a black cloud.

@JoJo_6040 No. Before the tango, drivers were always movin n dumpin and prob with little orders. Let the drivers drive!

@NancyatStudioN Nope! The team orders are what makes it cheating. We might be mad at a driver for dumping our driver, but we would think they did it as "every man for himself" and we'd get over it. I agree with @TerryBlountESPN who said it has become a Jersey Shore episode on wheels.

Jose L Acero (via Facebook) Fans do not react the way we did if we have no knowledge of team orders BUT we would have had a said to the issue!