Johnson wants changes / Gordon code of conduct was violated

• Johnson wants changes to NASCAR officiating: #48-Jimmie Johnson called for major changes to the way NASCAR officiates races on Wednesday, four days after two high-profile incidents at Richmond International Raceway continued to be the talk of NASCAR. Johnson proposed halting a race with a red-flag to review any questionable circumstances, similar to an NFL-style replay timeout. "In my opinion, if there is a question they don't know, they need to stop the race immediately," Johnson said during a promotional event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Red flag, pits are closed, figure it out and make the best judgment they can. Because trying to go back on Monday or Tuesday to fix the situation is just too much, and then I learn something about a ripple effect." NASCAR announced the largest penalties in its history late Monday night after reviewing actions taken by the Michael Waltrip Racing team to manipulate the outcome of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup field. Initially, NASCAR said it saw nothing wrong with what MWR did which included having Brian Vickers make a late-race pit stop to give up a position in the race, which helped teammate Martin Truex Jr. make the Chase. NASCAR later removed Truex from the Chase with its penalty. Stopping the race for an incident like Clint Bowyer's suspicious spin -- he said after the race and in his first public comments Tuesday since the penalties that he did not spin on purpose -- would have been hard for some people to swallow, but also "the lesser of the evils," Johnson said.(USA Today)(9-12-2013)
  
• Gordon say code of conduct was violated at Richmond: #24-Jeff Gordon said he's dealt with an unprecedented level of anger and disappointment after his team was essentially robbed of a Chase for the Sprint Cup berth on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. In the final laps, Clint Bowyer and teammate Brian Vickers made unnecessary pit stops that allowed Joey Logano to pass them on the track; Logano ended up with one more point than Gordon to remain in the top 10 and secure a Chase slot. "When I found out later how they manipulated it, that was anger on a whole 'nother level," Gordon said Wednesday before playing a charity kickball game to benefit pediatric cancer research. "It's hard to describe and it's disappointing. You realize people all want to do things for their teammates to help them, but you also know there are certain lines that have to be drawn with that." Gordon said after hearing about everything that happened during the race, his team "deserves to be in this thing." He spoke as if the possibility of making the Chase still existed after learning of suspicious radio chatter involving David Gilliland and Logano, but he declined to comment on that situation until he knows more.
  Though Gordon said he could have been more aggressive on the final restart like shoving other cars out of the way or possibly even wrecking them he only went as far as he deemed fair under the code of sportsmanship. "There are certain morals that are still involved with what you're comfortable with doing and not comfortable with doing," he said. "And it has an effect on far more people than we could ever understand. That's what I've really learned through this situation: It's way beyond me and you, it's way beyond the sport, it's beyond the fans. It reaches out much further than that. And that's what is so important for NASCAR to work on maintaining and also us as competitors, we have a responsibility there as well."(USA Today)(9-12-2013)