Last Lap: Is independent officiating the answer?

This week, folks, is bare bones basic. Over the past two weeks, three questionable judgment calls from the NASCAR officials' tower during competition have bemused fans and frustrated competitors.

At Texas, a judgment call late in the Busch Series event likely disallowed Brian Vickers' first career victory. The next day, a judgment call was botched in the Winston Cup event, and could potentially have a bearing on the outcome of the points battle.

To most everyone but Vickers and his team, those are debatably forgivable. Vickers' offense of passing to the left on a restart is in plain black and white in the rulebook, whether or not you agree with it.

	Marty Smith

And NASCAR president Mike Helton publicly admitted the sanctioning body's goof in the Cup event, when they enforced an agreement that isn't even a rule.

But to many, this past Sunday's choice not to black flag Dale Earnhardt, Jr. for a race-winning pass that appeared to take place below the line - an illegal move at Daytona and Talladega when performed voluntarily -- is the proverbial last straw, and raises this week's Last Lap question:

Should NASCAR consider using independent officiating to monitor the events and enforce the rules?

Here's my take, plain and simple: No, it's not necessary. What is necessary is consistency -- first, foremost and above all else. That's all anyone can ask for.

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Even if the rule is utterly ludicrous, enforcing it the same way every time for every individual -- barring an extreme circumstance, of course -- is acceptable and people can move on.

That's how NASCAR was for so many years. Sure, some of the rules sucked, but you knew going in they sucked and if you violated them you knew to expect a penalty.

That's not always the case right now. Inconsistency has quietly crept its way into the control tower.

DukeEarth8: "As far as having outside officials, who would they be? For them to be completely fair, they would have to be paid from somewhere other than NASCAR. Should the tracks hire their own officials? I think that's a far better option than having NASCAR-paid officials. The reason why it would work better is because then the officials would get paid regardless of the outcome of the race."

Though seemingly impossible, Coach K's idea is certainly intriguing. Having individual track officials would help ensure non-partisan rules enforcement.

VIDEO CLIPS Earnhardt Jr.'s controversial pass Play video

And I'm not accusing NASCAR of being biased, but think about it, when you see a guy five days a week you're more likely to cut him some slack than if you only see him six days a year.

According to NASCAR, they employ some 100 officials. Having locally stationed officials would significantly increase payroll for ISC, SMI and Dover Downs.

BlueElephant: "Officials with no conflict of interest in the situation may not be the answer but it's certainly a step in the right direction. NASCAR is supposed to be about STOCK car racing and parity. When will NASCAR invent a template to check for their own potential favoritism and discrimination?"

Foolish question. There is no template for that. You have to trust your guys, and NASCAR does or they wouldn't employ them.

NASCAR requires every official to take three to five tests per year, and in order to retain their position they must meet a minimum score requirement.

Mifs01: "No, NASCAR doesn't need to hire full-time officials, they just need officials with enough (guts) to stand up to Helton and his crew. As far as everyone wining about DEI and NASCAR's inconsistencies -- you must remember that STEVE PARK is a DEI car, but NASCAR penalized him for going below the yellow line and he didn't advance his position.

Nor did he get no where near as far below the line as Jr. His tires touched and went over a few inches and he was blacked flagged for a stop and go.

As far as you Gordon fans complaining about the 24 and 48 not winning -- remember also that Mr. Jeff Gordon went below the yellow line in the same race and NASCAR deemed fit not to black flag him.

But let me ask this to you Marty and the real NASCAR fans. Had it been Kevin Harvick or Jimmy Spencer on the final laps or any laps. Would they have gotten the black flag?"

Yes. And that's the big beef here, that NASCAR is deemed to have shown favoritism towards Junior. Don't believe me? Ask around.

Richard Childress Racing crew chief Gil Martin: "I can promise you, if Kevin Harvick went under that line one half-inch, he was done."

Jimmie Johnson: "Anybody else who ever dances down there gets in trouble."

According to NASCAR, the yellow line rule states that a driver can go below the line at any time if not attempting to advance a position, yet they tell drivers to consider it a concrete wall. Odd.

Kentley: "Absolutely. It breeds suspicion when the people making all the money enforce the rules and/or makes them up as they go along.

Every other major sport does it that way and it's time NASCAR did the same. They are starting to really look silly with some of their "calls" and then compounding it with their explanations of their interpretation of their rules."

I may be wrong, but I think what Kent is saying is that every other sport uses outside rules enforcers. If that's the case, he would be completely wrong.

NFL referees are part-time employees, but are paid by the NFL. Both Major League Baseball and the NBA have full-time rules enforcers. That said, Bud Selig and Paul Tagliabue don't sit in a suite atop the stadium and help make decisions about what happens on the field during competition.

Mike Helton does.

Some people like it that way.

Magiphyre: "I believe it should just stay the way it is. They do need to sit down and figure out how they will enforce the rules, although they did do a good job in calling Junior's pass a legitimate pass. Marlin got black-flagged when it happened to him."

Maggie's not alone. Several folks think NASCAR's chain of command is plenty adequate, including Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Andy Graves.

"NASCAR has got a great show, and I guess we're not going to always agree with all their calls," Graves said. "A dictatorship, I believe, is still the best way to run a racing series.

Related  NASCAR was forced to defend a race-determining judgment call for the second consecutive week, this time after Dale Earnhardt Jr's winning pass of Matt Kenseth with three laps remaining in the Aaron's 499 appeared to take place below the yellow line.

"It seems like the last couple of years here we've gotten the short end of the stick, but it's their show.

"I've never been one to agree on blasting NASCAR in the press. I've always kind of taken the stance that if you have a problem or disagree with a call, you probably need to call Mike (Helton) or John (Darby) or Gary Nelson and talk behind closed doors.

"There's no sense in airing this all out in the public. They will get mad and they can make life difficult. I don't think that's a secret to anyone."

As for Sterling, himself...

"I've been around this a long time. There's nothing you can do on Monday morning that's going to change what happened on Sunday," said Marlin, who was black-flagged under the yellow line rule during the Daytona 500.

"You go bitchin' and moanin', you just make it harder on yourself. If something happens on Sunday, there's nothing you can do about it. You just go on down the highway and come back next week."

So that's what we'll do. Head on down the road and hope for consistency.

That's all you can ask for, after all.

Marty Smith is Senior Writer of NASCAR.com and the opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.