The side-by-side finish of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville a few weeks ago started a debate about the role of team racing in NASCAR. Message boards and chat rooms were all flooded with similar questions:  Should teammates race each other differently than other drivers? To what extent should teammates be allowed to help other? Is team racing good or bad for the sport? The fact is, NASCAR is a team sport, and teams, drivers and owners should take the necessary actions to ensure the greatest overall success for the team.

For the final fifty-two laps of the race at Martinsville, Gordon rode the bumper of Johnson and clearly had the faster racecar. Unfortunately for Gordon, Martinsville is a one-groove race track and he had no way of getting around Johnson without bumping him. Gordon was told via radio communication not to wreck his teammate, so he simply followed Johnson for the remainder of the race.

After the race Gordon was noticeably upset about having to ride in second and concede victory to Johnson, but the alternative is too risky. Maybe Gordon is able to loosen up Johnson, pass him and go on to score the win with Johnson in second place. The more likely scenario, however, is that Gordon wrecks Johnson while trying to bump him out of the way. Even worse, Gordon and Johnson could both be collected in a wreck. Gordon might be upset for a few days about passing up an opportunity to win a race, but in the long run Hendrick Motorsports is better off.

Johnson got the win, and Gordon finished second to increase his lead in the point standings. Gordon shouldn't be that upset anyway since he has been the beneficiary of team racing in the past. When Gordon won his first championship, Rick Hendrick paid for extra cars to qualify for the race, so even if Gordon wrecked or had mechanical problems enough cars would be available to intentionally stop running to secure Gordon the title.

Multi-car teams dominate the sport of NASCAR because of their ability to cooperate and work with one another. Teammates pit by each other, draft with one another and share information about track conditions and setups. In fact, Johnson was the slowest car in practice at Martinsville, so he borrowed Gordon's setup for the race and the results speak for themselves.

The team owners are pouring millions of dollars into their race teams and they are the bosses. They have the right to order team drivers to take certain actions, even if it means telling a driver not to pass another driver. During the course of a 36-race season, the five-point difference between first and second position isn't going to make a difference anyway.

On the opposite end, the problems currently faced by Robert Yates Racing are a perfect example of the negative results of teammates failing to work together. At a 2001 race at New Hampshire, Ricky Rudd led teammate Dale Jarrett on a restart with five laps to go. The two teammates were also first and second in the standings, narrowly ahead of Gordon who also happened to be third in the race. On the restart, Jarrett rammed into the back of Rudd, both drivers slid up the track and Gordon got by both of them to pick up the win and the lead in the standings.

Gordon would never give up that lead and went on to win the title. Rudd didn't get along with Jarrett after the incident, stopped sharing information with Jarrett and left the team a few years later. Jarrett has never been a contender since, and Robert Yates went from contending for titles year in and year out to owning a team that is lucky to finish in the top 10.

Seeing the obvious benefits of structured team racing, it amazes me that teams don't take more of an advantage of the situation. For example, if a team car that is in contention for the win needs a caution, have a team car that is running poorly intentionally spin out to cause the caution. This maneuver would be even more useful under NASCAR's current green-white-checkered finish format, which states that a race is over as soon as caution occurs. A teammate of the car leading the race at the time of the green-white-checkered could wreck immediately and lock up the win for their teammate. Just think, Mark Martin could have won the Daytona 500 earlier this year if teammate Joe Nemecheck had wrecked on the final restart.

If NASCAR doesn't like this practice, then they will make a rule to eliminate it. Right now there isn't any rule, and in a sport where teams are constantly pushing the gray area of the rulebook I don't understand why the teamwork aspect isn't utilized better.

Some fans disapprove of team racing and support the every driver for themselves approach to racing. Maybe it comes from playing other team sports throughout my life, but I kind of enjoy when team cars work together. It adds another element of strategy to the to the sport, and it is interesting to see the various ways that different teams have their drivers work with each other.

Of course if drivers are too obsessed with their own statistics to intentionally wreck so that a teammate can win, NASCAR can add a stat. Like a bunt in baseball, drivers that wreck to secure their teammate a win can be credited with a sacrifice. Plus, the new stat would an extra category to my fantasy NASCAR leagues.