Fighting in NASCAR a polarizing vestige of the past

Fans and some drivers applauded the recent NASCAR truck series fight between John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher.

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Rare is the NASCAR truck race that buzzes for longer than a day or two after the checkered flag flies. Last Saturday’s Drivin’ For Linemen 200 nearly came and went without much commotion. And then, with about five laps to go in the 160-lap feature, the Chevy trucks of John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher came together in Turn One.

The incident, which echoed another 10 laps earlier that saw Townley spin out while parrying Gallagher through the same bend, lit a fuse. When the window nets flew down and the harnesses snapped off, Townley and Gallagher stepped onto the track—a perilous move, given that the rest of the parade was in the midst of a cool-down lap—and gave the sports world further reason to disregard drivers as athletes.

While safety workers attended to their disabled vehicles, the drivers grabbed at each other’s neck and shoulders and twirled around until they were rolling over on the tarmac. At one point, Townley hooked his right leg and left hand around Gallagher’s left thigh in an attempt to take him down, only to wind up falling onto his back with his firesuited foe on top of him. At another, Gallagher blocked two hook shots, after absorbing three others. It was all over after 45 seconds, when a NASCAR official mercifully intervened. As for who emerged the victor between Townley and Gallagher (never mind that 21-year-old Christopher Bell had actually won the race), well, that would be as presumptuous as calling what transpired between them a fight. (Both Townley and Gallagher have since apologized for their roles in it.)

As replays whipped around the Internet, drivers scrambled to tweet their takes. Sage Karam, an open wheel racer with a legit grappling background, said: “I will be offering wrestling classes to all drivers of any series.” Ryan Blaney posted a GIF of some sweet WWF takedown action. Tony Stewart, easily racing’s most bellicose personality, pronounced Townley “officially my newest hero. It’s about time someone had the balls to do what they thought was right.”

Brad Keselowski offered one of the few dissenting opinions, writing in part: “Fighting to me is not acceptable in motorsports.” As it turns out, his was also the prevailing view at NASCAR HQ. On Wednesday, Townley and Gallagher were hit with fines of $15,000 and $12,500 respectively—a not insignificant amount of money for a truck driver—and put on probation through New Year’s Eve. It was a bold move for NASCAR. With it, a clear line was drawn between the past and the future.

Unsurprisingly, this judgment did not sit well with a plurality of NASCAR fans, many of whom took to social media to defend fighting as a foundational element of the sport. They readily submitted into evidence the two-on-one fisticuffs that broke out between Donnie and Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough after Donnie and Cale collided on the final lap of the 1979 Daytona 500. Rodney Childers, the crew chief for the No. 4 car of 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, tweeted a quadruplet of frames from the Daytona and Gateway skirmishes, with the caption: “Sometimes you have just had enough.”

GALLERY: Memorable NASCAR Brawls

Memorable NASCAR Brawls

Taking exception to being blocked after the final restart of the 2013 Auto Club 400 in Fontana, Calif., Tony Stewart (who finished 22nd) confronted Joey Logano on pit road after the race. A water bottle (Logano's) and words flew. "He is a tough guy on pit road as soon as one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it,'' Stewart said. "Until then he's a scared little kid. Then he wants to sit there and throw a water bottle at me. He is going to learn a lesson." Both Logano and Stewart have been involved in some of NASCAR's more memorable dust-ups and feuds.

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After some contact during the 2013 Food City 500 at Bristol, Logano paid a visit to former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin on pit road and had to be restrained by JGR crew members. Logano's Penske crew soon joined the fray, which later continued on Twitter: "Hey @dennyhamlin great job protecting that genius brain of yours by keeping your helmet on," Logano tweeted. Hamlin's response: "Why's that ... what would u do?" "Show you some love and appreciation," Logano replied. "Need my address?" Hamlin asked. "Last time I checked he had my cell and direct message button to choose from if he's got a problem ... Otherwise hush little child" The two drivers renewed their battle a week later in the Auto Club 400, making contact and wrecking on the final lap. Hamlin ended up in the hospital.

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A season's worth of tension and conflict came to a head in Phoenix in November 2012 when Bowyer (15) and Gordon collided with seven laps to go. Gordon hit the wall but he had enough time to recover and retaliate by wrecking Bowyer three laps later, eliminating him from Cup contention. Gordon was jumped by Bowyer's crew behind pit road after he climbed out of his car. A wild brawl ensued that police and NASCAR officials had to break up. Both drivers were called on the carpet as guards stood watch outside. Gordon was fined $100,000 and docked 25 points. Bowyer's crew chief, Brian Pattie, found that his wallet was $25,000 lighter and he was placed on six weeks' probation. You can watch this stark human drama unfold HERE

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In August 2012, the two drivers were fighting for the lead at Bristol with calamity lurking for most of a lap when they finally collided and hit the wall.After they came to a stop, a furious Stewart climbed out and heaved his helmet at Kenseth's car as it drove off. "I'm going to run over him every chance I get for the rest of the year," Stewart groused. You can watch the video HERE

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After a late-race crash knocked both drivers from contention in the 2011 Southern 500, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch squared off on pit road. Harvick hopped out of his car and ran toward the No. 18, ultimately throwing a punch through the window. Busch quickly sped off, bumping into Harvick's unmanned car in the process.

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Tempers flared between Ryan Newman and Joey Logano following an Aug. 15, 2010 race at Michigan. Logano's No. 20 wiggled, careening into Newman's left rear quarterpanel and spinning him out. The two confronted each other after the race, with Newman shoving Logano before track officials broke up the altercation.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR

In one of NASCAR's most unexpected spats, veteran racers Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton brawled after a November 2010 wreck at Texas Motor Speedway. The two became entangled under caution on lap 192, and Gordon's No. 24 Chevy was pushed into the wall. Infuriated, Gordon walked over to Burton and the two began an on-track shoving match along the Turn 2 wall.

Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kevin Harvick spun out Joey Logano during the second-to-last lap of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 in June 2010. That didn't go over so well for "Sliced Bread" or his father. Logano and Harvick went jab for verbal jab with one another, with the most memorable comment coming from Logano: "It's probably not [Harvick's] fault. His wife wears the firesuit in the family and tells him what to do, so it's probably not his fault."

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Denny Hamlin angrily confronted Nationwide driver Brad Keselowski after his car was spun out at Dover in September 2009. Furious, Hamlin shoved Keselowski and the skirmish continued until crew chief Tony Eury Jr. intervened. This bout had roots in 2008 incident during a Nationwide Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in which their crews had scuffled. "You throw a rock, I'm going to throw a concrete block," Hamlin threatened.

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR; Al Bello/Getty Images

NASCAR doled out dual six-race probations to Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch after they used their cars as battering rams during practice for the 2008 Budweiser Shootout. Whether Stewart threw a punch at Busch while both were being admonished in the NASCAR trailer has never been confirmed.

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The carryover from an Oct. 5, 2008 incident at Talladega found Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick in a shoving match three days later in the garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR, Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth got into it after a 2006 race at Bristol. Kenseth spun out Gordon during the final lap of the race, sending him to a 21st-place finish. When the two left the track, Gordon confronted Kenseth and angrily shoved him before being escorted away. Gordon would later spin out Kenseth while the driver was in line for a victory at Chicagoland.

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After a late-race dustup in 2004 left Kasey Kahne with a 36th-place finish and Tony Stewart in Victory Lane, both drivers' crews fought it out on pit row.

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After sending Kevin Harvick into the wall during the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 in 2003, Ricky Rudd was confronted by Harvick and the two began to argue. The yelling soon escalated as Harvick allegedly threw his HANS device at Rudd and jackman Mike Scearce jumped on the hood of Rudd's car.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

A feud between Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle came to a head when the two brawled on pit road after a boot from Biffle sent Harvick into the wall at Bristol in 2002. Harvick infamously called Biffle an idiot for his actions on the track.

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Involving at least 25 people, the fight between Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip was one of the most storied of 1980s NASCAR. When all was said and done, Waltrip famously said of Wallace's Winston victory, "I hope he chokes on the $200,000, that's all I can tell him. He knocked the hell out of me." (Send comments to siwriters@simail.com.)

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The 1979 Daytona 500 played host to one of NASCAR's most memorable brawls as Cale Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison tangled in the sport's first 500-mile race to be televised live in its entirety.

The bare-knuckle brawl at Daytona, which CBS cameras made a point of lingering on, is rightly credited as the event that vaulted NASCAR into the national consciousness. But much time has passed since then, and NASCAR, understandably, has mellowed. The Daytona 500 isn’t a gapers block anymore. It’s a meticulously choreographed production that millions tune in to specifically for the racing. The Drivin’ For Linemen 200, by contrast, is a ways down the must-watch list, something a bleary-eyed viewer stumbles upon while clicking between Olympic trials and Law & Order reruns.

For as much traction as Townley vs. Gallagher found on social media, it didn’t exactly pull Daytona-sized ratings. (Fox Sports 1 averaged 593,000 viewers for the telecast, not bad considering the truck race was preceded by a 90-minute rain delay.) It hasn’t created much hype around the drivers’ next meeting, at Kentucky Speedway on July 7. It hasn’t exactly sparked a mainstream interest in motorsports. That could be because ordinary tastes have mellowed too.

Fighting, a popular sideshow not just in NASCAR but in plenty of other non-combat sports too, seems to have gone out of style. For proof, look no further than hockey, which inarguably has done more to normalize fighting than any other non-combat sport. Since instituting and enforcing a series of peacekeeping measures in the early-90s, the NHL has seen incidents of violence fall to historic lows. The junior Ontario Hockey League has been at the forefront of an effort to curtail fisticuffs with tough new penalties as prospects make their climb to the NHL.

The fact that scores of hockey fans continue to watch anyway suggests that fighting simply isn’t the essential thrill it used to be. Really, it seems like the fights that inspire giggly discussion nowadays are the ones that break out in other sports (see, LeBron-Draymond; or Bautista-Odor).

Like hockey, racing is already a contact sport. (To wit, Stewart, after booting Denny Hamlin out of the way en route to snapping a 84-race losing streak at Sonoma, said of his finishing move: “If it had been a street fight, [Hamlin] would have had two black eyes after that.”) By leaving their cars and duking it out on track, Townley and Gallagher risked more than doing intentional harm to each other. They risked being run over.

Since the 2014 death of the sprint car racer Kevin Ward Jr., which occurred on a hot track, NASCAR has pursued pedestrian trespassers with swift aggression. The moment Townley and Gallagher turned away from an idling ambulance toward each other, they were doomed. What happened next was embarrassing, sure. But by stepping in, NASCAR now puts an instructive spin on things. The next pair of drivers who find themselves in a similar state will think twice before having at each other. NASCAR fans shouldn’t call that a punk move. They should call it progress.