Daytona 500!

The Daytona 500 was an outstanding event. It showcased NASCAR at its best: a competitive race down to the final yards, the stars running well, giant wrecks, someone finishing in the Top 20 upside down and on fire.

Of course, not that the drivers- a crew who as a collective is increasingly removed from their sports reality- get it. Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle and Ken Schraeder all went on NASCAR Weekly yesterday to whine about NASCAR refusing to throw the caution as the field wrecked behind Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.

Look, no one is anti-safety. But NASCAR has a hockey helmet problem. The NHL mandated helmets to protect players’ heads- and stick fouls to the head sky-rocketed. Putting the helmet on players’ heads removed the collective responsibility to police your stick to keep your peers from getting hurt.

NASCAR’s never ending emphasis on safety has achieved a similar effect. Face it, everything racing is sacrificed to the safety mandates: the endless cautions for debris, the prolonged cautions for clean up, etc. And for what? These guys simply don’t race with that respect generated from fear anymore. Daytona isn’t marred by endless crashes because of the plates or competition- but by the fact these guys don’t think they can get hurt. You wouldn’t see half the craziness, the running with wounded, ill-handling cars- if these guys thought they could get burned alive or crushed.

Now sure, it is fun to bash NASCAR for "inconsistency" on the caution flag. You get to sound like a knowledgeable race fan talking about the vague conspiracies that are “rife” in NASCAR.

But one place these France people are VERY consistent, is their desire to have a green flag finish. If Mark Martin didn't know this (which I seriously doubt)- than shame on him. Why do you think they have this green-white-checker rule in the first place? Why did they throw the red flag and have us sit for an interminable delay? Because the people who watch and FOX want race to the flag finishes.

Between the Cup, Busch, and the trucks last year there were races featuring a last lap incident, not directly involving the leaders, where the leaders were allowed to finish- and only then the caution thrown. Don't say this scenario was unexpected or inconsistent; it happens.

You might not like it- but don't say it is wildly inconsistent. I sense what limited distress exists over this is more a desire to see Mark Martin finally win one of these- than any real fault with NASCAR.