PRETTY CLEAR OBSERVATIONS, BULLET... No pun intended, but "right on target"..

Now Tony should do Public Service Announcements for the rest of next season at every Jr. race they can get him to explaining WHY you are supposed to listen to the person with the box in their hand...

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"Run what u brung, and hope u brought enough...."

your sitting there with 8,000 hp behind you and yes you see Stewart waving his hand.
Tony then see's AJ with normal routine and Stewart is walking away towards his perch.
AJ signals to stage the car.
Stewart never talks to AJ.
In Tonys mindset he figures all is OK perhaps excess fuwel on track or?
Tony stages car.
How much simpler can it get.
Like I said, look at the video in slow motion and pretend your in the drivers seat.
Use some imanagiation at YOU see Stewart, you are hoping to set a record run, the car is vibrating, you wait for the normal routine from AJ
AJ gives his signal to stage (in the back of your mind you are wondering what Stewart was trying to tell you as YOUR crew chief says to stage and Stewart is walking right by AJ. NO COMMENT from Stewart.
Tony must be thinking--Must of been a false alarm, won't be the first time Stewart has done that.
Mistakes are made

Great post Doug.
I don't think for a minute that anybody's safety was comprimised in any way.It's not like the car was leaking quarts of oil,and the oil didn't cause the car to light up the tires on the hit.

it didn't seem to me like rick was very sure. why didn't he do something when he walked right past alan? this is big pfffffft.

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I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

Not enough! Ron Capps was fined points for an incident last season, was he not? So what's the dilly now???

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In the dictionary under "redundant" it says "see redundant".

As a sportsman racer, when the starter gives the "kill" signal, you shut it off...no matter what. You have no idea why the signal is given. It could be a timing malfunction, a car still on the track...etc. Sure it's frustraiting when you see the sign, but them are the RULES.

For Tony to admit he saw the signal, but chose to ignore it, just shows a intentional disregard of the rules.

My track would of DQ'd me if I did it....but theres a heck of a lot more money invloved with the pro ranks

That's EXACTLY how I saw it. If Rick really wanted to shut down Tony he could have easily. Maybe he didn't want to screw things up for Doug(?) But I think he should have been a little more aggressive. I'm sure it will be a topic of conversation at the next driver's meeting, you know, to make it clear who is really in charge at the line.

Can a point deduction be one of the penalties for this type of violation, or just $$$?

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NITRO! Some is good, more is better and too much is just enough.

John

Looks like this statement is a thing of the past! It used to be true but, for whatever reason, the world champion crew chief appears to have the call for a price and the world champion driver is allowed to ignore what he admitted to seeing deferring only to his crew chief?

I'd say the team ultimately got what they wanted for a price?
How much oil is bad? How much is deadly? Had a fatality occurred as a result of ignoring the official would this entire conversation be different?

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"The Doctor"
www.wannaberacing.com

Bobby,

Thank god nothing bad happened to either driver. I may root for some drivers more than others but I certainly don’t want to see ANYONE get hurt.

I didn’t realize certain crew chiefs had the power to override the decision of the highest ranking official on the race track. Learn something new everyday I guess…..

Just when I thought Rick was in charge……. Wrong again!

Brian.

This one is all on Rick Stewart. How does he give the shut-off order and then watch him stage? If he felt that Tony, his competitor and the spectators were in danger if he ran he would have stood right by the cockpit, motioned AJ over and told him to shut-off.

This never would have happened with Buster as starter. He would have stradled the car, pointed at Tony and told him to shut-off. If he refused he would have discharged a fire extingisher into the injector and then would have thrown it at AJ. He had a command of the starting line.

Every time something out of the ordinary happens on the starting line, Rick Stewart looks confused. The fine is a joke. If I were Don, I'd pay the thing in pennies.

Buster would have walked over and grabbed the fuel shut off. Buster was one bad dude and everyone knows that. One hell of a nice guy as well. With that being said if AJ were my chief and didn't tell me to shut off I wouldn't have either. AJ rules and he definitely proved it with that walkoff grandslam.

I've tried to stay out of this entire subject but after reading this I have to say that you've summed it up perfectly providing that the video we all saw is indeed an accurate representation of all of the actions on the starting line. Since none of us were actually there we don't know specifically what may or may not have been said between Rick, the assistant starter, AJ, etc. We've seen Rick shut down lots of cars in exactly the manner you describe above yet we've also seen him allow Nitro-class runs where a crew member stops a leak with a shop rag so it would seem that it is indeed up to Rick and if he'd really wanted to stop the run, he would've stopped it.

Hopefully NHRA 2-Day will shed some more light on this on the next show.

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http://tinyurl.com/5uz3lt

I don't have a rule book handy, but, does it say anything, anywhere in the rule book that you will be deducted points for not following the chief starters commands?? I think this was a first and the organization dealt with it as they saw fit. Will there be a provision in next years rule book about disobeying the starting line crew or any of the other "officials" during the course of an event?? I think the answer to that is a big YES. The fine imposed seemed to be in line with what those toilet bowl racers get every once in awhile. And answer this for me.....When was the last time a cup racer was deducted points for taking an extra lap or two after being black flagged?? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. A fine....yes. Point deduction....I doubt it. Just my .02!

Late......................Mitch

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"We'll just put another engine in it. That's the way this game is played if you have to." Big Daddy Indy '86/ONFIRE '03

Team Shuemacher needs to read section 19 of their rule book.

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Bob
Doug - 2006 & Greg - 2007 The Real Champs

Imagine if the car piddled on the track getting a pts deduction, and everything else played out the same as it did on Sunday? TS, AJ and crew would be on permanent guard duty and KP.