Bowyer was robbed in Kansas

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As far as Jimmie Johnson is concerned, Clint Bowyer won the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. Two rain delays, a series of multicar collisions that collected half the Chase field and impending darkness cut the race short to 210 laps.
In the end, Greg Biffle was leading, but there is some debate about whether he followed the rules in the waning laps of the race.
From Johnson's perspective, Biffle was not maintaining pace car speed and thus should not have been allowed to win the race. Biffle was running low on fuel and conserving every drop in the final laps.
"Yeah, the way I've always been told is if you can't maintain pace car speed as people go by you, it's kind of where you fall in," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "Even if you go to pit road and you don't maintain pace car speed and pull back out, that's a problem. I've seen guys get moved back because they couldn't maintain pace then. And they had fuel in their cars and were running and just kind of went to pit road and came off."
NASCAR saw it differently. Ramsey Poston, NASCAR Managing Director, Corporate Communications, said Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, maintained a reasonable speed at the end of the race.
“When the caution came out on Lap 207 the field was frozen," Poston said. "At the time of the caution, the 16 was in the lead and maintained a reasonable speed and was declared the race winner. There is no passing under caution.
“By rule, cars under caution need to maintain a reasonable speed, which the 16 did. If it hadn’t maintained a reasonable speed or the car had come to a stop, then that car would not have won the race. In this instance the 16 maintained a reasonable speed, crossed the finish and won the race.”
Johnson said after the Kansas race that he felt bad for Biffle, but Bowyer should have won the race.
"It's kind of the way that I thought the rule was and we'll just have to see how it unfolds," Johnson said. "The No. 16 had a great car and I'm not attacking those guys by any means, but the way the rule reads and how tough points are right now, every point counts."

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in the Paddock


Tim Haddock covers motorsports — including stock-car and open-wheel racing — for the Los Angeles Daily News.

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This page contains a single entry by Tim Haddock published on October 1, 2007 10:21 AM.

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