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Kevin Lepage States Case for Idiot of the Year

Geoffrey MillerPosted Apr 26th 2008 5:20PM by Geoffrey Miller

Preface: The hardest part of this post was coming up with headline. Everything from "Kevin Lepage's $4 Million Mistake" to "Kevin Lepage Proves Worthlessness" to "Kevin Lepage Nominates Himself for Darwin Award" were all considered. Got an idea? Leave a comment.

As the headline stated, Kevin Lepage made a mistake that most normal human beings don't make when they travel down the highway everyday in Saturday's Nationwide Series event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Also unlike most human beings, Lepage's crash took out no less than 16 race cars from the lead pack. Most amazingly, though, Lepage failed to take any responsibility for the wreck.

The melee began when Lepage had to pit for a loose wheel. Upon coming off pit lane, Lepage's spotter told him that the field was coming out of the tri-oval and that he should stay low. Low for Lepage must have meant right in front of the entire pack as it barreled into the corner at full speed with Lepage still well off pace.
The first few leaders got past Lepage, but when the 3-wide section of the pack caught Lepage's No. 61, Carl Edwards was leading the bottom lane. His No. 60 slammed into the rear of Lepage's car, launching Edwards skyward with 47 laps to go in the event.


The initial impact bottled up the entire pack, causing the day's first "Big One" as cars bounced off the wall and each other. Drivers taken out in the wreck included Brad Keselowski, Patrick Carpentier, Kyle Busch, Stephen Leicht, Reed Sorenson, Steven Wallace, Cale Gale, Kelly Bires, Marcos Ambrose, Edwards, Lepage, and David Reutimann.

Carl Edwards seemed to have been shaken the most by the incident during his interview with ESPN:

"I think [Lepage] just pulled up right in front of the of field and 'Good Afternoon!'", said Edwards. "I'm glad I didn't get hurt there, that I didn't get a roll bar through the floorboard."

"This whole restrictor plate deal is a spectacle, but that could have killed someone."

All because of a stupid, stupid mistake by Lepage and Lepage only. On an ESPN replay, his spotter could be told telling him all of the information he would need about the status of the pack at Talladega. In other words, the incident -- which likely tore about over $3 million worth of race cars -- is all on the Vermont-driver's shoulders.

Lepage is no rookie to NASCAR racing. The 45-year-old made his first Nationwide Series start in 1986 and found himself driving for Roush Racing in the late 90's. Since then, he's been running his own team or driving for various other low budget operations.

Apparently, there's a reason for that.

Think the report on Wikipedia that NASCAR plans to test Lepage for drugs is true? I'm suspecting not, but something needs to be done. Fines, suspensions, drug testing, revoking his NASCAR license -- I say its all on the table.

Mistake or not, that's not a move that can be allowed on a NASCAR race track.

Tags: Aarons312, Aarons499, KevinLepage, NASCARCrashes, TalladegaSuperspeedway

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