ONMC offers experience major sports can't match

What is so cool about watching Nextel Cup Series drivers parade around the track in the back of a pickup truck?

If you ask the 500 or so race fans who whooped, hollered and talked to their heroes at Dover, it's being able to be in a place where no one else gets to go, doing things that none of the other 129,500 fans on hand are doing.

• Send Ron your thoughts

Those 500 were on the backstretch at Dover, which is usually far from the bright lights and glitz of driver introductions. They were in the verge between the infield proper and the racetrack, where the safety crew sometimes hangs out, and they had been there for a while.

When the trucks came rolling around Turn 2, moving at a crawl, that's when the excitement level picked up.

Those 500 fans belong to the Official NASCAR Members Club, NASCAR's only licensed fan organization, and they were happy.

As the trucks came into view, shutters started snapping, drivers started waving inside instead of out, and the 36-foot banner with the ONMC logo started to draw some attention. A few Members had brief conversations with the drivers as they rolled past, usually accompanied by a smile and a wave and a memory that will last for quite some time.

Driver introductions is a big-ticket item for the ONMC, as Members often get to attend the pre-race ceremonies right there on the front stretch. It depends on the track; some, like Richmond International Raceway, Talladega and others, allow the ONMC to form a cordon through which the drivers walk, slapping hands all the way. The manufacturers, like Chevrolet during the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, are happy to work with the ONMC because the Members are well-behaved and know the rules for such events.

There's something about seeing a race fan get so excited about being close enough to their heroes that they can reach out and touch.

Maybe that's what differentiates the ONMC from the other top sports in this country. Can you imagine being on the field when the starting lineups are announced for the Super Bowl? ONMC Members can, because they get to do it nearly every week.

Drivers notice, too. At Richmond, one Member wished Juan Montoya good luck and a safe race in Spanish. Montoya stopped, turned and gave the Member a big smile and a thumbs-up. That race fan went away happy, you can be sure.

Once the pre-race festivities were over, the 500 dispersed to their seats in the stands, richer for the experience. Then the weird stuff started happening on the track.

No matter what ends up happening in the Chase, the Dover race will be remembered for having five cars on the lead lap with less than 50 laps remaining, and the big crash that eliminated several Chase contenders.

For 500 race fans, however, the memory of being the center of attention during pre-race will be kept closer and longer by far.

Learn more

Get directly connected with NASCAR. Join the Official NASCAR Members Club.

• Visit our official site

Extra Points

• Carl Edwards' 25-point penalty could have easily ruined his Chase chances at the stroke of a pen, but with the way the Chase has shaped up so far, it didn't make that much of a difference.

Despite failing post-race inspection for being too low in the right rear -- possibly as a result of congratulatory love taps to the bumper by teammate Greg Biffle -- Edwards is still just five finishing positions away from the lead with eight races to go.

That could have been much worse. Just ask Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose mouth got him in Dutch with NASCAR at Talladega in 2004 and earned him the same 25-point penalty. Junior was never able to overcome the penalty, and while there was no guarantee he would have done so without it, it cost him his best shot at a title.

• NASCAR is very serious about the integrity of the COT, and that will play a role in determining the champion, if not this year then in the next couple. Tony Stewart was low in post-race at New Hampshire, but the damage was deemed to have come from contact on the track and NASCAR let it go.

• Who did Kurt Busch tick off among the racing gods? In both Chase races, he's met with disaster. It was a broken valve at NHIS and a blown tire or something similar at Dover. He finds himself 151 points out after two races, this year's version of the 2006 Kasey Kahne.

• The Kyle Petty-Denny Hamlin deal at Dover could have legs. Petty was incensed with Hamlin, to the point of slamming Hamlin's visor closed while Hamlin was still in the car, and Hamlin, once he got unlimbered from the car, was about 10 feet short of getting into Petty, mano y mano.

It's hard to pick a winner in that one. Petty is taller and has better reach, but Hamlin is wiry and has spirit. Hamlin said he expected Petty to call him this week before Kansas; here's a clue, Denny, don't spend your nights waiting by the phone. That call may never come.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.