Position is always there for the taking -- even if it isn't (cont'd)

Busch's knee-jerk reaction, of course, is inexcusable, something the driver himself seemed to realize immediately afterward. Even though replays show Busch was in complete control of his car and might not have hit Jason Lee even if the crewman hadn't leapt out of the way -- harkening back to the old days, when a mechanic stood at the top of the stall holding his driver's pit sign -- he fully deserved to be parked for the remainder of the Dover event, and hit with a penalty that may very well keep him out of the Chase.

Busch penalized

Kurt Busch was penalized 100 points and fined $100,000 for his Dover actions on pit road.

• Complete story, click here
• Pemberton responds to penalty
• Busch thought he would sit out
• Pate: Penalty doesn't fit crime
• Garage mixed on penalty

"There are a lot of people in the garage who believe he got off easy. One hundred points is huge, though," Jeff Burton told reporters at Pocono Raceway. "You think about it, there are 13 races to go until the Chase, and he's got 100 points to make up in addition to what he has to make up already. They parked him. Not only did they penalize him that 100, but whatever he lost not being able to get back out there the other day, he lost those points, too. Maybe that was only three points, I don't know how many it would have been. But it's something, and it's a pretty severe penalty."

But Stewart isn't completely blameless here. "My biggest pet peeve with guys is not giving and taking," he said on his satellite radio program earlier this week. This from the same guy who wrecked Busch when he committed late to a corner at Talladega three years ago, who didn't give a faster Jamie McMurray any room at Phoenix last year, who didn't back off the throttle the little bit it would have taken to prevent Monday's dramatics. "There was not a lot of give and take right there," TV commentator Larry McReynolds said as the accident unfolded before him.

That's because give and take, at least the concept as we're meant to understand it, is fiction. Drivers are too competitive, too stubborn, too unwilling to yield. They don't even have to be near the front -- in the era of the free pass, a lapped driver is just as liable to cause a headstrong pileup as someone racing for the win. Young drivers are born of short races on short tracks where they're taught to get to the lead as quickly as they can. It's difficult to show patience in a sport built on position and speed, and where the objective is to hold on to both.

So they try to cram themselves into patches of asphalt that aren't big enough for the both of them, and they wreck and they argue, and sometimes they draw fines and penalties from NASCAR. Then the real give and take ensues -- they give their cell phone numbers to a personal assistant or public relations rep, take calls from the guy they wrecked with last weekend, and smooth over the incident so the cycle can start all over again. If only it were that simple on the racetrack.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.