Gordon Wins Pocono Due To Rain - Conspiracy??

Jeff Gordon won the Pocono 500 after a yellow flag was brought out for rain on the 105th lap. Newman was just about half a car length away from completing the pass for 1st place at that moment.

I was amazed (OK, not really) at how the internet lit up with everyone yelling that NASCAR and Gordon were in bed together. Supposedly (I did not actually here it) seconds before the yellow came out and Gordon was being passed, Gordon came on the radio and said something to the effect that his breaks had gone and he needed help........then the yellow dropped.

Let's set this straight. If the flag had dropped 30 seconds prior or 10 seconds later (Newman would have probably passed), there probably would not be this "conspiracy mentality".

Newman, being the classy guy that he is, even said that it was raining on that end on the track on the prior lap and that by the time they came back around, the yellow should have been thrown because it was raining hard. He did not seem to have a problem with it at all. It even almost seemed like he backed off a little to let Gordon stay in the lead.

That could also be because he may have got a better finish than he would have if the race continued. Congradulations to Newman on the 2nd place finish, but in all reality Truex JR, Hamlin and some others had very good cars.

Here are some of Newman's quotes on the deal.

"Unfortunately, the rain came on the wrong lap," Newman said. "I'm not mad by any means. I won my first race because it rained out and got too dark. I guess it's only right I lose one that way at some point."

"It rained on me the lap before that, and when we came back around it rained even harder," said Newman, who led twice for 20 laps. "It was pouring at that point. It's all in safety. ...

"Obviously we were four feet short, but there is no controversy about it. In future reference, there was no way to get the race started back again. They would have had to make a controversial call at that point to shorten the race to a certain lap number with certain teams off sequence. We felt like we had it all figured out until they called it."

Of course the Tony Stewart/WWE comments were brought up as well. And while I KIND OF agreed with Stewart only because there does seem to be a lot of "debris" cautions and some do seem to fall at the right times for certain people, I did not buy into it being a big conspiracy.

And I am not going to allow myself to fall into for this race either. Newman did a great job. He got his 3rd straight pole (4th of the season) and finished 2nd for the last 2 races. He led laps again this race - about 20. He comes out of Pocono with 4 poles, 3 top 5's and 6 top 10's. 5 of the last six races have been top 10's. Can't really complain about that. Newman and his #12 Alltel Dodge team had a slow start this season and seem to be picking up steam now. 1 or 2 more good finishes and Newman will be in the top 12 for the chase. He is currently only 22 behind twelth.

So, all you Newman fans.......be happy. 2nd place is great and his win(s) are coming.

To all you Gordon haters (I am pretty much in this catagory) - oh well....he got another one, but I really don't think NASCAR made the desicion wether or not he was going to win.

Mike