Tough week for NASCAR with actions of Smoke, fans

Excluding those occasions when people have died in competition, this may well have been NASCAR's all-time worst week.

It all began innocently enough last Saturday night when Tony Stewart was a no-show at the Subway Fresh Fit 500 post-race news conference. Now while that act certainly got under the skin of NASCAR and put a burr under the saddle of a few journalists, it was by no means a show-stopper. It was simply a matter of Tony not being ready to make nice while being mad at ... something.

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After Sunday passed with no word, we all kind of got the feeling that something big was going to go down on Tony's satellite radio show Tuesday night.

Big? Try nuclear.

Imagine NASCAR's dismay as one of its wildly popular and most influential personalities -- not to mention a two-time Cup champion -- calls its very integrity into question by accusing it of manipulating the outcome of races and comparing it to professional wrestling.

Hello, NORAD?

As Tony learned early Friday morning, you shouldn't mess with the tail of a tiger unless you're prepared to deal with its teeth. Clearly he wasn't. Never before have I seen Tony as contrite as he was speaking to the press following his Friday morning coffee with Mike Helton, John Darby and Robin Pemberton (watch video).

E-mail me all you want about how you think the new-school NASCAR is sucking the personality out of the sport. But before you do, ask yourself if old-school Bill France Jr. would have waited until Friday to put a professional wrestling smackdown on Tony? Or would Bill France Jr. have not suspended Tony outright for at least one race?

Considering the billions of dollars in television broadcast rights and race team sponsorships that such accusations put at risk (not to mention your and my loyalties to the sport), Tony got away relatively unscathed.

On a more fundamental level, NASCAR also came face-to-face this week with what I think is a greater threat to its long-term viability, that being the three-headed monster that was Talladega Superspeedway, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Day. It was the perfect storm that everyone saw coming.

Let's start with the beer can throwing morons at the root of it all. How long do you suppose the sport can survive in its present state when all hell breaks loose every time one of its once and future champions has the gall to win in your almighty presence (watch video)? (Continued)