Plate racing + new car = fantastic finish
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Smoke rising from the fireworks exploding over Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night wasn't nearly as thick as the billow coming from Kyle Busch.
Yes, Busch was steamed.
Was he mad at himself or Tony Stewart, who won this Fourth of July spectacular when Busch spun out about a hundred yards from the finish line?
We just don't know.
Yes, there was contact from Stewart trying to make a pass coming off the final turn. Yes, Busch was blocking and doing everything to keep the Sprint Cup leader from stealing the victory from him.
Busch didn't hang around long enough to discuss it. He reluctantly went to the infield medical center at the urging of track officials and then ordered his golf cart driver to take him to his motor coach without saying a word.
Busch probably doesn't believe he did anything wrong. Stewart certainly didn't think he did, saying, "If I did something wrong, I'm sorry. I don't think I did."
So who's to blame? Or make that what's to blame?
Restrictor-plate racing in this new car.
This was the second straight plate race in which there was a crash coming off the final turn. There was near tragedy at Talladega when Carl Edwards' car went airborne, landed on the hood of Ryan Newman's car and then propelled into the catch-fence on the final lap.
It was the third time in the past four plate races the finish raised questions. Regan Smith was penalized for going below the yellow line to pass Stewart on the final lap of the October race at Talladega, forcing drivers to go to more extreme measures to block and pass.
That's what we saw at Talladega.
That's what we saw again on this hot, humid night.
Stewart doesn't believe the yellow line was a factor as it was at Talladega, where Edwards obviously went as low as he could to protect the lead. Stewart says there was room to pass Busch high or low.
He also says he doesn't like to win this way, which explained his subdued manner in Victory Lane and postrace interviews.
"It doesn't matter who it is, you don't want the race to be decided like that," Stewart said after his second win of the season extended his point lead to 180 over Jeff Gordon. "It's hard work to get these cars to the racetrack. It's a bad situation.
"It's not bad because we were put in a bad position. It just is what it is. I guess I don't feel as much gratification from winning this race as I probably should because I don't like the way the outcome happened."
The fans probably do. It created the drama that attracts many to plate races.
The networks have to love it as well. A spectacular crash going for the win creates viewers and great highlights.
It also creates danger.
Although fans weren't injured as they were at Talladega, they easily could have been. Busch's car went airborne and into the fence after he spun across the nose of Stewart's car. He went airborne again when Kasey Kahne flew under the rear of his car.
His car was smacked once more by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano, who had nowhere to go.
Busch wasn't hurt physically. But he must have felt beat up mentally. He had victory snatched away in one of NASCAR's top three series for what seemed like the umpteenth time this season, and there was little to nothing he could do to stop it.
Had track officials allowed him he might have walked all the way back to his North Carolina home.
So what can we do to stop situations like this?
"There is nothing to do to stop it," said Jimmie Johnson, who finished second. "You think about the position that the sport is in. One race is boring, there's no racing, there's no excitement. A couple of races there's been exciting finishes and we're worried about the exciting finish.
“Tony didn't mean to dump him. Same thing with Talladega. It's just the product of restrictor-plate racing. Every time we use restrictor-plate tracks there's a question about how we can keep from having the big wreck and things like that, and you just can't.
” -- Jimmie Johnson
"It's plate racing. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't."
He got one thing right. The finish was exciting. Busch made a great pass of Stewart for what appeared to be the win coming to the start-finish line before the final lap. He pulled several car lengths ahead.
Maybe he was too far ahead. Stewart closed the gap coming into Turn 3 and put the nose of his No. 14 car on the rear bumper of Busch's No. 18, getting Busch a little squirrelly. Squirrelly turned to spinning, with Busch so close to the checkered flag he could almost touch it.
"Tony didn't mean to dump him," Johnson said. "Same thing with Talladega. It's just the product of restrictor-plate racing. Every time we use restrictor-plate tracks there's a question about how we can keep from having the big wreck and things like that, and you just can't."
You can't because the new car makes passing so hard, because the trailing car often can't get up enough steam at plate races to blow past the lead car without getting the lead car loose.
Stewart shouldn't feel bad about the win, though. He was in the top three most of the night and led a race-high 86 laps.
And he easily could have been a victim like Busch.
"I was kind of surprised at where we came out of that ordeal," Stewart said. "Not necessarily in the lead, but the direction we were going. It easily could have taken us out of the lead, too."
Oh, and this just in. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s chances of a miracle comeback to make the Chase ended on Lap 78, when he was involved in a 13-car accident that also was a product of plate racing.
"If it ain't done it's got to be close," he said with a smile.
He also was smiling when he said the racing surface was rougher than ever as a result of a flood that covered much of the track a few months ago.
"This track got beat up in the flood, and the track is real rough and a lot slicker," Earnhardt said. "Guys slide into each other a lot more. ... The flood can't come in and do no damage."
Flood aside, the sparse crowd -- and I mean sparse, because the entire backstretch was closed and the frontstretch wasn't full -- saw a good show. And there were a lot of fireworks at the end, although Busch didn't hang around to watch them after finishing 14th to fall to eighth in the standings.
At some point he and Stewart will talk. Stewart doesn't like to let issues like this linger whether he's right or wrong, and in this case he wasn't wrong.
"It is important for me to talk to him about it," he said. "His opinion means something to me. I will have that conversation. I just don't know when it will be."
If he needs to find Busch, just look past the smoke from the fireworks and follow the smoke back to North Carolina.
"It's nobody's fault," Stewart reiterated. "It's just racing. It's a product of the racing. It doesn't mean the environment is bad. It's just the way it is."
David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.
