October 24th, 2011 
Journo Ford and Jack Roush made waves this weekend after word seeped out of the camp that the teams were directed to draft exclusively with their manufacturing counterparts. With two Roush Fords in serious contention for the championship it wasn’t a surprising edict – especially not from Jack Roush.
At the end of the race we saw what appeared to be the edict in action as Trevor Bayne gave up drafting with Jeff Gordon to draft with Matt Kenseth. The move was bad news for Gordon who ended up finishing way back in 27th. Bayne and Kenseth finished 15th and 18th.
The help kept Kenseth in contention, moving him to second in the points just 14 back from teammate Carl Edwards. And after everything, not doing damage is the most important thing at a place like Talladega.
The track serves as THE wild card race in the Chase where literally anything can happen. That uncertainty leads teams to do everything they can to control the things they can. This is why you see teams like Roush and manufacturers like Ford letting their drivers know where loyalties need to lie.
In this instance there seems to be some surprise that Bayne switched dancing partners choosing a teammate over a potentially better pairing. But it makes sense when considering what was at stake: a championship, a precarious future and a whole lot of money. Would you not have done the same?
Success in this sport involves reliance on those who are around you. That goes for the Ford teams, the Chevrolet teams, the Dodge teams and the Toyota teams. While the Roush and Ford team orders are the only ones that made the press this weekend there were no doubt similar understandings at organizations throughout the sport. Consider the other teams on track. Who was working with whom?
The Fords were with the Fords, the Chevrolets with the Chevrolets and on and on.
At superspeedways you draft with who brung ya – it’s true for EVERY manufacturer and EVERY team. While it’s unfortunate for those left out, it’s a cold hard fact.
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So why did Trevor get thrown under the bus by Roush Fenway when he took heat for doing exactly what he was told by saying they told him no such thing? It was a pretty disgusting display on Twitter, with Tweets by Trevor getting taken down and RFR denying they said anything.
Someone was lying and you can be sure it was NOT Trevor Bayne!
Jeff Gordon made sure to make the world aware of just how “Trevor-done-me-wrong” and Trevor took so much heat for this it was unbelievable.
Poor kid was screwed if he followed orders and if he didn’t follow them.
Too bad RFR can’t stand behind their drivers or those affected by their organization. It will be a cold day in Hades before I have any respect for the management of that organization again.
I see the merit of sticking together manufacture-wise but you forgot to mention David Ragan who pushed Matt Kenseth faithfully most of the race. I don’t know what happened to him at the end but he gets no credit. David would do well if Roush would give him a bit of confidence. No mention of him, no nothing. Sad.
I have no problem with Bayne abandoning Gordon if Bayne told Gordon that he’d push Gordon unless/until somebody better came along (i.e., a Ford). If he hadn’t, then per the metaphor, you got to stick with the girl you’re dancing with, it isn’t right to dump a gal mid dance.
I understand manufacturers sticking together, but the least Bayne could have done was say no. This is another reason something radical needs to be done to end this two-car drafting requirement. It’s leading to F-1 type team orders, and it really cheapens the win in my opinion. The 31 should be in victory lane just as much as the 33. Before you still needed help in the draft, but the skill of the individual driver matter more. At the end of a race teammates didn’t matter if you had a chance to win, and needed change lanes. The two car drafting is exciting at the end, but it cheapens the competition.
Sounds like a bunch of whining to me. I just wish Dave Blaney would have pull off the upset. A fine finish for a relative independent. A pretty smart partner for BK. Well played!
I’ll cut Trevor some slack, he’s a young buck that probably now realizes there are select times you just gotta go against orders and then stand up for yourself afterwards. If following orders means a worse finish for yourself it would have been better to ‘just say no’ and then argue the absurdity of being asked to give up finish places in the aftermath. I’m guessing there’s not many bosses out there that are going to hold it against you for any length of time for refusing to give up finish places.
On an unrelated note…somebody please tell Michael Waltrip that he’s supposed to push “the other right” side of the bumper in front of him when they’re in the turns…
Jeff Gordon was understandably upset with Trevor, but I’m sure once he cooled off he realized what Trevor was up against. The article said it all. Trevor was doing what he needed to do to keep his career alive. Now if he can just help his cause by doing better on drivers tracks he’ll be ok.
Trevor needed a running partner when Jeffy asked him, and then something happened to Ragan, so the call came in for Trevor to fall back and switch to Kenseth.
Trevor had no choice with either situation. He got screwed out of a good finish.
@Neon said:
“A pretty smart partner for BK.”
I have to agree. If BK goes all the way, and at this point it’s a very distinct possibility that he will, this will be one of the things people look back on and go “wow, talk about checking the ego at the door and doing whatever it took”.
Very smart on Blaney’s part as well and a well deserved trip to the virtual podium.
I guess I can see “team orders” applying to members of actual teams: RCR helps RCR, RFR helps RFR, etc. However, that’s a far as it should go. No Ford helping Ford – once your teammate is out of it, you’re a free agent. Yeah, Gordon got screwed (was Bayne not aware of this mandate when he got into the car?), but Bayne’s career hangs by a thread – he had no choice. Did he tell Gordon in advance that word had come that he had to dump him? “Hey, Jeff, I’ve been told I can’t push you. I’ll stick with you for a couple more laps to let you find someone else, but then I gotta get away or they’ll fire me. Sorry.”
As for the tandem racing, like all Talladega racing it has its own fascination. I don’t find it any better or worse than pack racing. A classy move by Bowyer escaped notice. Burton expressed surprise that Bowyer made his move so early. Bowyer said he did indeed make his move early so he and Burton could race to the line.
I only tuned in with about 25 laps to go, but like everyone else had heard about azzhat Jack Roush’s orders to everyone using a Ford engine.
Two things surprised me. First was that Gordon didn’t pair up with Mears because he didn’t have his radio channel in the car. So what? They only had a couple laps to go and could easily run that far without talking to each other.
Second, had neither Gordon nor Gustafson heard about the Ford team orders? Bayne and his team were way wrong to agree to something that they wouldn’t honor, but why would a Chevy team expect them to?
The next time little Trevor (the supposedly clean cut Christian hypocrite) needs some help from Jeff he probably shouldn’t expect much. Better ask forgiveness for lying in your next prayer meeting, altar boy.
Does anyone have a clue why the Penske cars drafted with other teams rather than each other? Not once did I see any of the three Dodges lined up together, and I think that they almost always were the pushees, not the pushers. Brad was with Dave Blaney (TBR Chevy), Kurt was with Regan Smith (Furniture Row Chevy), and Robby Gordon was with Trevor Bayne (Wood Brothers Ford). Are the Dodge noses an issue when pushing?
Well, here we are again. Jeff Gordon’s race must have been more important than Matt Kenseth’s race. Not. Only Jeff Gordon and his fans are whining again, as usual. By the way Kenseth at least tried to run up front and lead laps all day. What had Jeffy done besides get Mark Martin crashed out? What made it important for Trevor Bayne to make a damned deal with Jeffy anyway? Jeffy was supposed to be drafting with Casey Mears on that last restart. Jeffy makes the kid feel terrible because only Jeffy counts, except when Jimmie counts more.
I want to add to the Bayne/Gordon deal. Poor Trevor had no choice but to go with Kenseth. The Wood Bros would have been punished by Jack imo if he hadn’t. I agree with Andrew, JG has probably realized this now too. I just hope he and Trevor can remain friends.
I’m going to ask here not expecting an answer. What were the HMS drivers in the back thinking waiting so long to move up front? Who issued those team orders?
Regardless of the circumstances, he did lie. Would it have been career ending to not do what he was instructed to do? Possibly, but maybe, his integrity would have been rewarded by a better opportunity with another owner somewhere down the line.
The thing was, Trevor wasn’t working with another Ford most of the race. He was the poor lone wolf since Kenseth had Ragan, Edwards had Biffle, Gilliland had Kvapil, Ambrose had Allmendinger, and Terry Labonte had Andy Lally. Trevor was hooked up with Robby Gordon, of all people. He ran 80% of the race not being ordered to link up with another Ford. Then with 2 laps to go he gets a “Team Order” to work with Kenseth?
Horrid. If Ford is going to be issuing Team Orders, why’d they let FRM park the #55 an leave Trevor out in the cold to begin with? That would have left them with a even number of cars until attrition set in.
As for the Penske guys not working together, it has to be noted that very few Chase guys worked with each other. The exception was Johnson/Earnhardt and Stewart/Newman, but Newman got knocked out early.
Starting pair-ups:
These 5 Chasers had non-chase teammates to work with:
Edwards — non chase Biffle
Kenseth — non chase Ragan
Gordon — non-chase Martin
Harvick — non-chase Menard
Kyle Busch — non chase Logano
The next 4 had to pair up, for lack of anyone else.
Johnson paired with Earnhardt, both Chase, but Martin was already spoken for.
Stewart and Newman paired up, since they had no other teammates to draw off.
Penske was a bit odd- both drivers were in the Chase, and they never paired together, instead went with single-car Chevy partners:
Keselowsi with Blaney
Kurt Busch with Regan Smith
Not really a surprise, since I don’t think Busch thinks a whole lot of Keselowski. That or Penske thought having the 2 cars separated would lessen the risk of both getting taken out. It worked out for Brad.
The big loser was Denny Hamlin, who got stood up at the dance. I’m actually surprised that Gibbs didn’t run a 4th car with Brian Scott, or heck pay Parsons to have McDowell help out with the #66. I guess they figured Hamlin is so far out of contention he could just flounder. Sad.
Of course attrition mixed it up at the end. But the top 6 finishers all held to their original pairings.
been looking back through archives and cant find any footage can anybody tell me when the last time a chevy pushed a ford to the win at a plate race or better yet pushed a ford to the lead and didnt dump them. and when did the chevy drivers decide that fr9s should power chevys i mean if they are being push to the front by them they are happy but when they have to race against them they whine and cry. ford [roush] team orders BIG DEAL there was also [chevy] hendrick team orders martin ordered to stay out to keep edwards from leading laps under caution. imagine if martin had pushed edwards to the win, wouldnt happen why? team orders or boywer pushing kenseth nope team orders.brat cowslowski was a lone manufacture why didnt gordon try to run with him oh yea he would have had to race him for points and no fr9 looks like chevys need to shut down their engine shops and lease roush/yates engines and save some money and maybe pay back that bailout money afterall tax payers need a break.
Carole: Apparently Ragan’s engine was going sour at the end of the race.
Craig: Amen.
Marc: I don’t know why Kurt and Brad didn’t run together, but I do remember that the 22 and the 78 were partners all the way back to Speedweeks in February, and the 36 worked well with Penske cars in the spring race at Talladega (until Kurt turned him).
nascaroots: When McMurray won in the 26 at Daytona in 2007, Jeff Gordon was the one pushing him — against another Hendrick car, no less — until Biffle and Edwards pushed Gordon out of the line and got behind McMurray.
We first off….Jack has everyone in the FORD camp at his mercy. He’s made it clear he HATES toyota from day one, doesn’t like KURT BUSCH.
He has all fords motors program, chasies, equipment. So it’s either do as JACK says, or you won’t get JACK. This doesn’t surprise me, what took place at Dega.
I don’t believe a word printed, stated, expressed by JACK-O. He is a conniving, manipulative who has to have it his way or no way.
I wish Trevor the best of luck, because JACK-O has cut off people for less, let another one get away JACK-O….remember Ford loss KASEY many years ago???
Bad things happen to evil people, hasn’t jack seen he been given several SECOND chances ?
Has it ever occurred to anyone that Trevor had every intention of pushing Jeff and, indeed, was doing so, until David Ragan fell out and THEN he was told to switch?
Ergo, he did not lie?
I cannot believe I an still so angry at this two days later….seriously…I am so disgusted.