'Can they do that?'

By DAVID GREEN

We racing folks sometimes dismiss and/or disrespect the attitudes and behavior of those in what we call the stick-and-ball sports world. "It's a racing thing," we say. "You wouldn't understand."

It's always a good idea, though, to consider the value of other observations. Take, for example, a comment from Joe Morgan, the hall-of-fame second baseman who was part of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the 1970s and now does color commentary on baseball for ESPN.

Sunday night's baseball telecast took one of its regular breaks for a sports update, and the highlight clips concluded with a look at the Jeff Gordon-Matt Kenseth incident during the USG Sheetrock 400 earlier that day. When ESPN threw it back to the baseball crew, Morgan had an incredulous comment: "Can they do that?"

Oh, yeah -- they can do that, Joe.

Juan Pablo Montoya's blockbuster announcement that he will move from Formula One to NASCAR next year upstaged the controversial conclusion of the race. That surely diverted some attention from Gordon, who spun Kenseth out of the lead and went on to win.

The incident is hardly cut and dried. Was Gordon's bump deliberate, reckless or wholly unintentional? Only he knows for sure. But if he truly was unable to avoid Kenseth Sunday, he's not nearly as skilled a driver as I thought he was. I don't doubt Gordon's incredible driving skills, so that leaves me to believe he either took advantage of an opportunity to dump Kenseth or he didn't give a rip whether he dumped him or not.

Kenseth is no angel. He's won races by using similar tactics. He gained a third-place finish in March at Bristol when he bumped Gordon into a spinout in a late-race duel. That netted Kenseth a two-handed shove from a furious Gordon on pit road after that race ended, and the shove earned Gordon what NASCAR considers "punishment" -- a fine and probation. I suppose that means he'd by God better not angrily shove another driver on pit road after a race, or else!

Gordon demonstrated a clear advantage in speed as those final four laps loomed. However, if Kenseth raced him cleanly and he wasn't fast enough to cleanly pass Kenseth, he didn't deserve to win.

NASCAR encourages drivers to do what Gordon did by giving their blessing to shameless mirror-driving. Kenseth did some of that Sunday, but he wasn't blocking Gordon when he got dumped. He was merely overtaking a lapped car. Deliberately, recklessly or unintentionally, he got knocked out of the way.

Defenders of this tactic use the hackneyed "rubbin' is racin'" or split hairs by suggesting it's OK to "move somebody out of your way as long as you don't wreck him" or it's OK to "spin him out if you don't put him in the wall" or the like. But most advocates of dirty driving have one thing in common: They don't like it when their favorite driver is the victim.

Should we attach any significance to the fact that an outsider like Joe Morgan was shocked to see the tactic that one race car driver used to beat an opponent? Perhaps we should.

Perhaps if tells us that you don't have to know a lot about auto racing to know that it's not very sporting to wreck your opponent in order to beat him.