NASCAR officials will be on the hot seat in this afternoon's two 150-mile qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500, trying somehow to police the bump drafting that has become rampant here over the past year.
Drivers are worried about how NASCAR might make its example, since any penalty calls will likely be very subjective.
"I'll be curious to see how they plan to police it," Dale Jarrett said. "It is a quick fix until something more concrete can be done. And Michael Waltrip's idea of eliminating the front bumpers is one of the best I've heard. We at least need to look at moving bumpers back, say six inches.
"Obviously we don't want to compromise safety, but I think there's a way to soften that area up to where if a driver hits another car, they'll think twice, or they'll sustain a good bit of aero-damage."
Tony Stewart put NASCAR on the defensive with his complaints after Sunday night's Bud Shootout that unless NASCAR can control bump drafting "we're going to kill somebody." Stewart also suggested "softer" front bumpers as a deterrent. That was the same suggestion made at Talladega last fall.
Mark Martin called the Shootout "the roughest race I've ever run at Daytona. It had to be a great race to watch, but one of these days soon I'm going to be sitting in a rocking chair watching these things."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shrugged off Stewart's charges, saying that Shootout racing is different from the 500. But the Shootout was 175 miles with nothing really on the line for the 21 in the field, and in today's two 150-mile qualifiers, 15 of the losers will be loading up and heading home.
Earnhardt has a reputation for bump drafting.
Robby Gordon said that restrictor-plate racing "is nutty." But bump drafting, he said, "is an evil necessity, unfortunately. If you're going to be competitive in a restrictor-plate race, you'd better push somebody.
"Tony expressed concerns, and some other drivers have some concerns, too. But Dale Jr. put it the right way - we have to perform for our sponsors."
Jarrett, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who will start on the front row of the first 150, agrees with Stewart.
"Tony is saying the same thing all of us have felt or expressed for some time now," Jarrett said. "You can't even call what goes on today bump drafting. It isn't the same thing it was just a few years ago.
"When I first started racing, you'd get or give the guy running in front of you just a little push to gain some momentum. But the fronts of the cars now are built so stiff guys are knocking the heck out of the person in front of them rather than giving them just a little bump. That becomes a problem, especially if the guy in front doesn't having his steering wheel just right.
"And it doesn't matter whether you're in the turns or in the straights, it's hard to correct the car in that situation."
Still, Jarrett is leery of NASCAR's proposed "no-bump" zones.
"It's sad we are forcing NASCAR into this position of having to make that kind of call," he said. "But we drivers have put ourselves in this position. The drivers can control this. We do have a brake pedal as well as the gas pedal. There needs to be a whole lot more judgment used."
Jeff Burton and Jarrett will lead the field in the first 150, and Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte will be on the front row for the second.
Jimmie Johnson, minus crew chief Chad Knaus, who was sent home by NASCAR for a body-template infraction during qualifying, and will start at the back of the pack in the first race.
Johnson finally addressed the loss of Knaus yesterday.
"What took place was very damaging to our team," Johnson said. "Chad and I accept what happened, and we're trying to move forward, and try to win the 500. NASCAR made the ruling, and we'll live with it and go on.
"All this stuff has put a black cloud over our team at times, and I hate it, Hendrick Motorsports doesn't like it. But in our sport we're paid to push the envelope, we're paid to work hard in the gray areas, especially the crew chiefs, and that's where Chad has had some success.
"It's just unfortunate something like this has happened at the start of the season at the biggest race.
"Darian Grubb, who will be filling in as crew chief, will have to step up and lead the team. I have all the confidence in the world in him; he'll do an amazing job. It means a lot not having Chad here, but he's done a great job training us all.
"We chose Darian (the team's lead engineer) because he sits alongside Chad on top of the box every week, working on pit calls, tires pressures, all the calls."
Knaus had several major run-ins with NASCAR last year, beginning at Las Vegas, where Johnson won only to have NASCAR fail his car in post-race inspection. NASCAR suspended Knaus for that, but he won an appeal.
"I thought that was a big credit to our team, having that overturned, because in the appeals process nothing is ever overturned," Johnson said.
Knaus again drew NASCAR's wrath at Dover in September, although there was no penalty called.
"At Dover, if we were illegal, they would have penalized us," Johnson said.
"NASCAR is doing a great job of being fair. If you look for this call on Chad, it's in line with what happened with Todd Berrier (suspended last spring), that's all you can ask for in the series, keeping the calls consistent."
Johnson said he was unaware of any problem Sunday until after the Shootout.
"And I don't know any of the details, I don't know how far off it was," Johnson said. "I just get in the car and go.
"I sleep well at night knowing Chad is working to get me an advantage. Unfortunately, we stepped over the line, we admit it, and he's going crazy over this.
"I presume he'll come back in a couple of weeks and be more conservative."
• Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com
