Pardo's wreck eerily similar to Gordon's

 Pardo’s crash, although it appears more violent, is eerily similar to a crash Jeff Gordon experienced last year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

  Unless you are a fan of NASCAR Mexico, you probably didn’t even realize that a tragedy occurred this past weekend with the death of racer Carlos Pardo.

  You can find the video of the horrific crash on YouTube if you want to see how Pardo was killed, but I would advise against it.

  Pardo was clipped by Jorge Goetters going into Turn 1 and slammed passenger side first into a wall. What I can’t figure out was if it was a concrete wall or water barrier … or both. The car disintegrated on impact and water, fuel and debris flew a hundred feet or more. The first thing I thought when I saw the video of the accident was that it looked eerily similar to the crash that Jeff Gordon had at Las Vegas in 2008.

  Watching it reminded me of the conditions that NASCAR used to race under here in the states … and how some small town tracks still do. NASCAR has come a long way in the safety arena but this latest accident proves more can be done. Sure, the race was in Mexico, where safety conditions are as good as they are here, but it was still a NASCAR event. That being said, NASCAR, as a sanctioning body, should not allow any series racing under its umbrella to do so in unsafe conditions. Regardless of the cost, the sanctioning body should ensure that all of the tracks carrying its moniker have the highest caliber of safety — whether in the United States, Canada or Mexico. My personal opinion is that Pardo’s death could have been avoided if there had been safer barriers around that track and had the wall been configured differently.

  Well, I predicted this next issue was going to get very ugly before it was over and so far, I have not been disappointed. In the ongoing saga of NASCAR vs. Jeremy Mayfield or vice-versa, the sanctioning body has filed a motion in U.S. District Court claiming that a supposed expert being used by Mayfield does not have the credentials that he boasts about. I don’t know the answer but I am not surprised that NASCAR is pulling out every trick it can think of to make this situation go away.

  In filing No. 13 with the U.S. District Court, NASCAR claims that statements regarding the education, certification and licenses held by and made by Harvey MacFenerstein are not true or valid. NASCAR claims that its independent research has found “third party” evidence that disproves statements MacFenerstein has made regarding his education and the certifications he claims to hold and that because of those findings Mayfield’s case should be thrown out and sanctions should be assessed against Mayfield, his attorney Bill Diehl and MacFenerstein.

  Over the years covering various court cases, I have seen a lot of these types of allegations. First, this is a basic defense tactic: “They are lying about something, so you must throw their case out of court because nothing they’ve said has any validity.”

  Personally, I don’t think this latest revelation will be the death nail to Mayfield’s claims against NASCAR. Did he violate NASCAR substance abuse policy? I don’t know. For some reason, I don’t think so. And it’s likely that even when this case is over, no one will know for sure if he failed the drug test or NASCAR’s testing procedures are flawed. To me, NASCAR is a pretty arrogant bunch and that goes a long way in my book as to why they wouldn’t want to admit they could have a flawed drug testing system. It’s no secret that failing a NASCAR drug test has dire consequences — two people have already committed suicide after being caught. For a NASCAR driver, failing a drug test is, at the very least, the kiss of death for a successful and continued career.

  In other news, it looks like Carl Long will have to wait a little bit longer to find out if NASCAR’s career-ending penalties will be overturned by National Stock Car Racing Commissioner Charles Strang. Long made his final appeal to Strang on Monday, hoping that he could convince Strang that the penalties assessed would not only destroy his career but were unjustified in light of the circumstances. Long, who works a full-time job for one team and owns a fledgling race team of his own, was fined $200,000, docked 200 points and suspended from the sport for 12 races after the engine he planned to use in the Sprint All-Star Race was found to be one-one thousandth-of-an-inch too big. The belief throughout the garage is that the engine was so old and used up that it could have been caused wear and friction. Testing on the engine that showed it had between 30 and 50 less horsepower than others in the garage goes a long way in supporting that theory. Long had raced the motor numerous times this season because he could not afford to replace it.

  And finally, it doesn’t look like Kentucky Motor Speedway will be getting a Sprint Cup race next season. According to Speedway Motorsports Chairman Bruton Smith, the track will not get a race until a pending lawsuit is dismissed and that isn’t likely to happen in time for the announcement of NASCAR’s 2010 schedule, which comes out in a couple of months.

  Smith promised a race at the track this year but that didn’t happen. Now, it looks like Sprint Cup racing won’t make its Kentucky debut until at least 2011.