NASCAR Effectively Kills 'Boys, Have At It'

by Julian Spivey
“Have at it, boys,” was a statement made almost a decade ago in 2010 by former NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton. The statement was made because some fans had felt the sport had become too sterile and drivers were no longer allowed to police one another on the track.
​
But we would learn over the years that “have at it, boys” or “boys, have at it” (as most called it) wasn’t an allowance to do whatever you pleased on the track in retaliation to others. In the past NASCAR has suspended drivers like Kyle Busch (one week in 2011 for intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr. in a truck series event) and Matt Kenseth (two weeks for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano in the 2015 playoffs) for essentially safety reasons.

The problem is that, much like with other things in the sport of NASCAR, the governing body isn’t consistent with its rulings in such events. Jeff Gordon was not suspended in 2012 for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer in Phoenix being likely the biggest example of this.

Many assumed that the days of “boys, have at it” and drivers policing themselves on track were done after Kenseth’s 2015 suspension set a precedent. But, if you were to wreck someone under green flag racing conditions you could honestly likely get away with it, as long as you didn’t make it look as intentional as Kenseth did with Logano.

During the most recent NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, June 16 there was an incident during caution where former series champion Johnny Sauter intentionally wrecked Austin Hill for intentionally wrecking him under green the lap prior. The whole thing began when Sauter had bumped Hill out of the way a few laps before. Basically, Sauter put an accepted racing move on Hill and Hill didn’t like it so did something generally accepted as a cheap move by wrecking Sauter. Sauter got his revenge by effectively ruining Hill’s day after Hill had basically ended his … that is the definition of “boys, have at it.” That is the way NASCAR had run for literally decades. People are split on the way that Sauter got his revenge by intentionally putting Hill into the wall under a caution when other trucks were running at slower pace speeds and NASCAR has seemingly determined that any driver doing this going forward will be suspended. But, to me it feels like the worst suspension in the history of NASCAR. If anybody was at fault in this whole scenario for me it’s clearly Hill who took a bump and turned it into something dirty. Sure, it might have been to everybody’s preference, including mine, had Sauter waited until after the race and knocked Hill’s teeth out with his fence instead of using his truck as a de facto weapon, but in that scenario it’s possible Hill could’ve gone on to win the race and how would Sauter have felt then?

Much has been made about how NASCAR has been losing audiences both on television and with attendance at the race tracks over the last few years and something like what Sauter did on Sunday is a great way to get people talking about this sport – you’ll notice I haven’t written anything else about NASCAR recently, but was passionate enough about this topic to write this piece. Suspending drivers for having emotion and standing up for themselves is bad for the sport and this suspension of Sauter (easily one of the series’ five most popular drivers) for this upcoming weekend’s race at Gateway Speedway outside of St. Louis, where there isn’t another NASCAR series racing this weekend, is going to negatively impact that event. 

---