Pretend for a moment you are regan smith on the final lap of today’s race. coming off of turn 4, you are right behind tony stewart. you had held back to make your move. you make it, and it’s a great one. you had juked him from up high to down low. you get position on tony underneath him with the momentum to pass him. but now, tony being as competitive as any other driver out on that race track, is coming down to not only block you, but cut you off and crash into you if you are still in that position. so here’s where you have to make your choice:

a) you hold your line and momentum, stay in the throttle, let tony crash into you, spinning him toward the inside wall near the exit of the pits. you will probably crash as well, more than likely taking out a number of cars, angering these drivers, their owners, and fans, not including tony and his legion of fans.

b) you do whatever you can to avoid making contact with tony, including going below the line and backing out of the throttle, forfeiting any chance of victory, and possibly falling out of 2nd place as well. i’m sure nascar would appreciate this move the most, as it takes all of the burden off of them, and handing it all to you. tony probably thinks he made the greatest move, and he greatly deserves the victory.

c) or finally, you do just what regan did today…what every racer on the nascar circuit would do. you just drove 499.9 freaking miles, and you tell me you are going to just throw the chance of your very first victory in the spring cup series away? and just because tony makes a competitive, but very reckless move. a racer is not a racer if he doesn’t make that move.

nascar got this all wrong this afternoon. i fully understand the reason for having the yellow line rule. but, has nascar ever penalized someone for pushing somebody below the yellow line? i don’t believe so. i recall nascar saying in one of their drivers’ meetings that they will do this when jeff gordon asked them about it. i heard andy petree saying in the broadcast that the yellow line rule is not in effect on the last lap. i do not believe this is entirely true, but i do recall a competition director or someone of that same level saying that if you can see the checkered flag, anything goes.

i have just gotten angry over the past several years over nascar’s inconsistency with some of their rules. that is the main reason for me writing this pretty darn long post. another one of these inconsistencies i am speaking of is in the 2007 daytona 500 when they didn’t throw the yellow flag when the wreck was well underway. they instead waited for harvick and martin to cross the start/finish line. yet, in the previous year at the fall race at talladega, nascar threw the caution for a wreck that was taking place in turn 3, well behind the leaders on the last lap, rather than letting them race back to the caution. this would have given them ample time to slow down (turn 1, turn 2, the entire freakin’ backstretch) before they got to where the wreck started after the race had concluded. i believe jeff gordon won that race and that brian vickers was the one who wrecked to bring out the caution.

nascar just needs to be far more consistent with their rulings, and i would love it if they would come out and explain more of the decisions that are made in their tower during some of these races. i know, sometimes i’ve seen mike helton come on tv and give some explanations, but that is something that i would love to see more. i feel really cheated on today’s race. and let me say, i am not a tony stewart-hater, i love what nascar has been, in general, since i was in the 2nd grade. it just seems sometimes nascar plays puppet-master a little too strongly.

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