Kevin Lepage moving above the blend line too early while exiting pit road with almost the whole field of cars doing about 190 mph coming straight at him with nowhere to go. I’m not a Carl Edwards fan, but man am I glad to see him walk away from that one.
Please see the YouTube.com link provided. Included in it is Kevin’s interview after the ‘Carnival of Carnage’ caused by him and his spotter.
O.K. Kevin here goes;
1) You are wrong, the blend line is way past turn one.
2) Of course your spotter is good, she is your wife. Did you forget to mention that on TV?
3) The first half dozen cars did not clear you, the first two did.
4) You have been racing for quite a while, and how far ahead can you actually see when your nose is stuffed right up the backside of another car? Even if your car was flouresent pink no one two cars back could have seen you.
5) It is the other team’s spotters that are to blame? I guess they all forgot to look into their crystal balls before the race so they would know that you were going to come up over the blend line too soon. You came up over the blend line just as the pack got to you, what are the other spotters to do? They had no time to react to you and your mistake!
Kevin, suck it up and admit you are wrong. Take responsibility for your, and your wife’s, actions.
I’ll be back tomorrow for the rest of my Talladega observations, including my replacement driver prediction for Dario.
Update: Lepage apologizes after all:
“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 think it was his team that made him apologize, but you never know)
“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.” (Heel? Really? I was thinking Jackass)
“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.” (I could be exceptionally cruel here, but I won’t, it would be uncalled for)
Lepage said if he could do it over, he would have let the leaders by before blending on to the track. (hindsight is 20/20 baby) - nascar.com
In the absence of any solid drug testing by NASCAR, and given the recent Aaron Fike admission, Kevin Harvick took it upon himself to at least do something that was within his limits to police drug use in NASCAR.
Like NASCAR, Harvick’s own race team, Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) really had no testing policy of its own, until now. KHI’s Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series drivers and crew chiefs have been tested, and an independent testing company has been hired to test the rest of the company.
“I’m proud that we went home (after Phoenix) and made ours right,” Harvick said. “We’re considered a drug-free environment at KHI. … Hopefully everyone will follow suit, and I think it would be good for our garage.”
Kevin also went on to say that he wished that every team in NASCAR would do the same and that NASCAR could introduce required drug testing for every yearly garage pass (hard card) it hands out.
“Have an outside source come in and randomly drug test the teams as they submit their approvals for a hard card. You send your drug test [paperwork] with it, and that would make it a lot easier on NASCAR.”
In other words, “You want in the garage area? Then pee in a cup please. Thank you.”
But Harvick didn’t stop there, he also suggested one other thing. Something that I’ve always thought should be done, but has never been done.
“If you wreck or something and you have to go through the infield care center, it should be just standard procedure to take a drug test even if you’ve been through there 10 times in 10 weeks,” Harvick said. “I think that would fix a lot of the questions that we have and be a pretty simple solution.”
Smoke finally gets a Dega win albeit in The Nationwide Series.
What in the hell was Kevin LaPage thinking!!?? When I watched and listened to him give his live statement to millions watching the Tele my thoughts were almost sympathetic. He is either very stupid or just plain deaf, dumb and blind. I’m sorry, but I need to blast this idiot. Mistake… I suppose it was and they are all entitled, but to then justify it and blame the pack barreling at him at 180 mph was just downright ridiculous. I only live about 2 hours southwest of his hometown and he reminds me of the stubborn hard nosed attitudes of so many people that live in these parts. I am a midwesterner having lived in the Northeast for 30 years and like the wonderful Southern hospitality, the Midwest is also friendly and on the humble side of life. The Northeast, for the most part, is anything but! The demographics here are far different than anywhere in the Country and LaPage is no different. I suppose that is where my sympathy comes in, because as long as I have lived here it is part of me that will never get accustomed to or understand. That mistake could have easily taken the life of another driver. I hope LaPage rescinds and feels some responsibility today.
