Drivers
The most visible error this week came in the form of driver errors. This 400 lap race ran 90 laps under caution. Occasionally we see a driver make a silly mistake on the race track but this week seemed to be full of bonehead moves.
Some embarrassing highlights (or lowlights) include race leader Ryan Newman wrecking while entering pit road and the nineteen car pileup that eliminated nearly all of the contenders.
Officials
NASCAR itself didn't have a good day either as the officials made too large of an impact on the race.
I didn't see a good angle of the incident but it certainly sounds like the paddle guy at the end of pit road flipped the stop sign over too soon. Ryan Newman ran the paddle to avoid losing a lap and then NASCAR timing and scoring were unable to come to an equitable decision that everyone, including the television crew could understand.
Another example of NASCAR's error included the utterly inexplicable 25 lap caution period. What in the world were they doing? Lets get back to racing already for God's sake! This extended caution really highlighted NASCAR's own confusion over the Ryan Newman scoring issue.
This entire episode just made NASCAR look bad. I fully expect that they'll review the problems that they had this weekend and that we will not see these same issues again. NASCAR has an excellent track record of learning from, and rarely repeating, their mistakes.
Safety Crew
Matt Kenseth was none too pleased with the safety crew after he wrecked late in the race. The drivers had coasted around for two full laps under caution and no ambulance worker had arrived yet to tend to Kenseth.
I've said it before but it is clearly well past time for NASCAR to follow the lead of the IRL, Formula One and virtually every other major racing league and have a full-time professional safety crew on hand at every event.
Relying on the local EMS teams to staff a NASCAR event is like letting taxi drivers race in NEXTEL Cup whenever the series is in their hometown. Sure they're good at what they do, but doing it for the public and doing it in NASCAR are two entirely different things. The IRL's Safety Safari would never take that long to get to a driver.
In general this weekend's race in Dover was just not a good one for NASCAR. Poor performances across the board really put a temporary black eye on this great sport.
