Kevin Lapage's boneheaded move

[Old Sunshine Fan]

Talk about putting your foot in your mouth!

Lagage in Nationwide Race yesterday:

First he pulls out in front of on-coming cars, THEN he says if those car's spotters couldn't see him - those teams need to get different spotters.

His claim that the drivers were told in the drivers meeting to pull out at that point on the track was quickly corrected... the announcers said the drivers were told they could put right tires (ONLY) over the yellow line IN TURN TWO and all four over the line COMING OUT OF TWO... Lapage came over the line going into turn one. (Makes me wonder what he was doing during the drivers meeting)

THANK GOD no one was seriously hurt or killed by this bonehead move. Like Edwards said "I.m just glad a chunck of roll bar didn't come through the floor board and into my body".

LAPAGE won't be getting many Christmas Cards this year from fellow drivers.

OSF

[RSB]

What a dumbass. That's what you get when you have a "BROAD" spotting for you...JUST KIDDING! Don't they have mirrors in those cars????? Idiot.

[Old Sunshine Fan]

Broad

WOW... now if I said that, I'd have some crazy person saying I am like BUBBA lol.

I didn't mention what he had for a spotter, but in this case, it probably didn't matter anyways as he really thought he was right in what he did.

After causing that multi car wreck.. he wanted to blame everyone in Al. except himself.

Sure hope you dont get grief over the BROAD thing... some people have thin skin U know

OSF

[ovalracer44]

What a dumbass. That's what you get when you have a "BROAD" spotting for you...JUST KIDDING! Don't they have mirrors in those cars????? Idiot.

Wait until Carol Wicks sees this. you are in deep doo doo

[billy badd]

OSF, I agree completely, it was an incredibly stupid move, cost a lot of teams a lot of money, and thank goodness no one was hurt. Keep in mind that the merge line is different at different tracks, so why couldn't NASCAR paint a red line in the NO MERGE area, at each track, and then change the line to green in the MERGE area. It doesn't seem like it would be to difficult to do, and then there would be no question who's the dummy. billy

[Todd McCreary]

the merge line is different at different tracks


irrelevant.

it doesn't matter where the merge line 'officially' is, when a three wide pack is bearing down on you, you do NOT swerve out on the track when you're still 100mph down on them.

the fact that he broke the track regulation is just icing on the cake.

it was against the rules. it was dumb. it resulted in major damage and came close to hurting some people. after it was all over and done with he's still claiming he was in the right.


he deserves a couple race suspension at the least.

[billy badd]

Should the spotter be suspended also? Is the driver totally to blame? They were told in the drivers meeting not to blend in on the turn. With the new seats, and the rear spoiler, the driver can't see very well, and it should have been the spotters responsibility, not only to help him blend in at the proper place, but to remind him not to enter the track on the turn. Common sense would have prevented the accident, but then, some people are lacking a bit in common sense. Also what about the car that hit Dario full speed, and he was 8 seconds behind when the accident happened. Another genius at work. Where was his spotter? Two major incidents that could have, and should have, been avoided. I don't know the answer, but maybe the spotters that spot at Talladega should have some qualifications. The drivers have to pass a NASCAR test to race there, maybe the spotters need something like that. billy

[carolwicks]

oval... im too tired...lol

just got home from sea world. too tired to fight. roflllllll... lepage did screw up in a major way but every racer has screwed up more than once....it did suck...just his turn. i heard the BUSCH won again!!! ARGHHHHHHHHH! is there no stopping him. i hate to say this but the kid can drive the wheels off a race car. have to give him that!
OZ

[Todd McCreary]

Should the spotter be suspended also?

why? she did her job, she told him that the field was bearing down on him. she can't physically grab the steering wheel and prevent him from yanking the car out into the racing lane with no warning.

which is what he did.

i was wrong about the "three wide" though. saw the full replay on Wind Tunnel tonight, it was a regular two car draft coming up. they didn't go three wide till they had to start dodging a moron.




Is the driver totally to blame?

as with commercial truckers, ship captains, airplane pilots and railroad engineers the final blame always rests with the person at the controls.

the fact that he not only ignored clear track instructions from the pre-race drivers meeting but his own spotter makes this an order of magnitude worse.





Also what about the car that hit Dario full speed, and he was 8 seconds behind when the accident happened.

i'm not happy about that but you see that at all levels of racing these days. i take solice in the knowledge that there are very few incompetents who can afford to fund themselves into a major ride for any length of time.

my personal unwritten ( not that there's any reason why this shouldn't be in every track's rule book but i've never seen it ) rule is this:
if a lap car, for any reason, interferes with the leaders he should be black flagged and warned.

if he wrecks one of them he should be thrown off the track.

there's nothing wrong with being uncompetitive. stay out there, learn the track, improve your car and your line ( kind of like Jeff Gordon the other week or Junior last year ). but be aware of your surroundings and don't interfere with the show or the competitive racers.

i've had that 'rule' ever since i watched Erin Crocker almost wreck Steve Kinser out of 2nd at Eldora when she was three laps down. she was sweeping the corners from an apex in turn 3 to the wall in turn 4 which didn't allow any room for a leader who had the misfortune to catch her in the corner.

you might say she didn't know he was there ... but the leader had just gone past her less than 5 laps after a restart. she knew faster traffic was coming and she couldn't be bothered to check her surroundings or to give a lane.

it's really too bad that isn't a real rule. just this Winter Series Jeff Choquette got stuffed in the wall halfway down the New Smyrna back stretch by a back marker while he was in the lead. there's way too much of this that goes on by people who aren't even contending for anything.

[john tenney]

From NASCAR.com:


Lepage apologizes for Nationwide Series accident
By The Associated Press
April 27, 2008
09:02 PM EDT

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Kevin Lepage apologized Sunday for starting a 15-car accident in the Nationwide Series that he initially insisted wasn't his fault.

Lepage started the crash at Talladega Superspeedway when he was coming out of the pits with 47 laps to go Saturday. He tried to blend back onto the track as the pack of traffic raced toward Turn 1, effectively entering the racing line at half the speed the rest of the cars were traveling.

Carl Edwards practically ran over Lepage's car to trigger the massive wreck (watch video). Lepage insisted it wasn't his fault, but took responsibility after reviewing the footage and called it the biggest mistake he's made in his 25 years of racing.

"After reviewing the tapes of the accident I realize I need to apologize to NASCAR, the car owners, my fellow competitors and, most importantly, the fans," he said in a statement released by his team, Specialty Racing. "I made a huge driver error by blending onto the racetrack in the wrong area. This caused a multi-car accident and changed the outcome of the race for many teams.

"I'm so thankful that no one was hurt considering the number of cars involved."

Lepage vowed not to make the same mistake again, and said not accepting blame initially made him look like a "heel."

"There is not a single person to blame for this huge mistake except myself," he said. "I have worked very hard over the years to gain the respect of NASCAR, the owners, competitors and the fans, and it will take a long time to gain it back after what happened."

Lepage said if he could do it over, he would have let the leaders by before blending on to the track.

[billy badd]

Thanks for your take on it Todd. I wasn't aware that the spotter had told him that the traffic was about on him, but he should have known. I know the "buck" stops here with all forms of work at the top, but in the situation with the new cars and seats, the driver will have to rely more on the spotter and crew chief. To me that would be scary. When I was racing we could see almost all around the car. Things have changed for the better. You guys are fortunate to have all the safety devices.

The deal with Dario was very unfortunate, and I have no problem with slower cars, but being 8 seconds back and still hitting him in the drivers door....

Thanks again Todd. billy

[Frasson118]

This story reminds me of my favorite Nascar quote of all time. Kenny Schrader was running test laps at Daytona, wide open, headed for turn 1. Derrick Cope pulls out of the pits, straight up the banking, directly into the path of Schrader, who couldn't avoid plowing into the car going less than half of his speed.
Of course, they asked Kenny what happened, and he says "it was completely my fault... I totally underestimated how stupid Derrick Cope really is"

[Todd McCreary]

Thanks again Todd. billy

no problem. as FASCAR officials will tell you, i'm pretty much willing to mouth off about everything all the time.