I like racing. Stock car, sprint car, motorcycles….if it’s got wheels and runs fast, I like to watch it. Now granted, I tend to watch and follow the NASCAR Nextel Cup more than any other series because I like stock car racing and it’s supposedly the big time when it comes to that style of racing. Not to mention that the whole purpose of this website is to get bragging rights on our favorite NASCAR Nextel Cup driver. However, there are occasions where NASCAR just really makes me mad. I guess this is where you click on “read more” to find out why.

Still with me here? Ok, let’s take on a pet peeve of mind when it comes to NASCAR. The biggest problem I have is that supposedly there are a set of rules that governs what is acceptable or not with stock car racing within the Nextel or Busch series under the NASCAR title (not to mention all the other minor series that carry the NASCAR name). Good luck to anybody outside of the France family tree that can actually read those rules!

Any time there is any slight bit of a controversy, you have one of two crown prince of comedies come up to give their standup for the week. On the front stage you have Mike Helton, a mouthpiece for the France family, who will basically parrot the rulebook that nobody outside the family ever sees. Now whatever Helton can’t blow off to the media, he passes on to John Darby, the official NASCAR Nextel Cup director.

This past week at Talladega there was an issue with Tony Stewart being labeled as an “aggressive driver” due to certain racing incidents that involved him. Because of those incidents and also because of similar incidents in the past regarding Stewart, it was decided that Stewart should sit down with Darby to discuss what happened.

And the results were? “It went real good,” Darby said. “As normal, when we’re up in the front of the trailer with the door shut, that’s where it stays. But we had a real good conversation. We’ll be alright.”

Ok, so they had a nice conversation with tea and cookies and Stewart doesn’t seem to be on the usual double-secret probation that he got before. So far so good, at least if you’re a Stewart fan.

I guess everything is just peachy keen with Stewart….but wait, what about all the controversy then with the finish under caution? Well, hot dog! Darby is lucky to get to speak about that too! To quote Darby: “At the point that the caution came out, essentially, even squeezing everything as tight as we could — quickie yellow with one to go and all the rest of that stuff happening at the same time — ultimately the teams would have come to a green and white flag.”

What the heck? “Quickie yellow with one to go?” Was he even watching the same race or was there another Talladega Nextel Cup race that went on that I missed? That must be the case seeing as NASCAR never makes a mistake.

Be that as it may, I’m assuming he was referring to the same Talladega that occurred this past week. But even then, Darby must have slept late that day and missed the drivers’ meeting prior to the race where it was announced that the red flag would not be displayed if there are five laps or less to go when a caution comes out. Not that it should matter if he slept late because that particular rule is one of the more knowledgeable ones that the media is actually aware of even though nobody outside of France, Inc. can see the mythical rule book. So why is Darby even defending whether the race should have finished under caution if it was announced that no red flag when less than 5 laps to go? Even the drivers themselves didn’t dispute the outcome because they were told it would happen.

Now I disagree with that particular rule myself because 5 laps at Talladega is different than 5 laps at Martinsville. Obviously, the fans didn’t like it either given all the beer cans thrown unto the track. But even then, Darby went and stuck the other foot in his mouth by saying this:

“It’s also a fact that it takes over a full lap for the cars to even come back to speed, so at that point are you really racing, or just having two drag races on who can get back through the gear boxes the quickest and back to the start/finish line?”

“Above all of that, when you look at the safety of the drivers involved, it just wasn’t worth that jeopardy.”

Hey, Darby! How many laps do you get for qualifying for a race? Last time I looked a driver only gets 2 laps around a track for a qualifying run and the pole position for this race was at 191 mph! If the drivers were allowed to race with 2 laps to go, I think you would still see a good race. And your talk about “jeopardy” for a final race run makes it sound like the 183 laps prior to the last caution was a piece of cake!

Geez, what an idiot! It’s races like this one and media puppets like Darby that gives NASCAR a bad name. The beer cans thrown on the track is just a sign of things to come.