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
