Rules aren't always what they appear in NASCAR

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- It was only appropriate that a race defined by chaos and confusion ended with a heaping helping of both. As the final vestiges of daylight streamed over the grandstand at Kansas Speedway and the Nextel Cup cars at last crossed the finish line, the number 07 flashed to the top of the scoring monitor in Clint Bowyer's pit box. Black-clad crewmen whooped and traded high-fives in a celebration that lasted only until they noticed Greg Biffle's car being pushed toward Victory Lane.

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"This is bulls---!" one exclaimed, as something was slammed to the ground. "We won the race!"

And with that erupted the kind of controversy NASCAR can't seem to get away from, another credibility issue for a sport that fights too many battles of that sort already. Greg Biffle was credited with a victory in Sunday's LifeLock 400, a much-needed win for a much-liked competitor trying to return to championship form. But he didn't cross the finish line first. That honor went to Bowyer, who passed Biffle under caution as the No. 16 car appeared to run out of gas. According to scoring monitors, Biffle actually placed fourth -- behind Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, and Casey Mears.

Bowyer's crewmen, remembering the Montreal Busch race where Robby Gordon was pinned deep in the field because he couldn't keep pace with the caution car once Marcos Ambrose spun him, believed their man the winner. So did many other competitors in the Nextel Cup garage. But Biffle was the driver out front when Juan Montoya shredded a tire with two laps remaining, when NASCAR officials determined that the twice-rain-delayed, twice-shortened event wouldn't go to a green-white-checkered finish because of impending darkness, and when the cars came around the final turn.

But then he slowed, he dropped to the bottom of the racetrack, and other cars went on by.

"Everybody was slowing down trying to figure out what he was doing," said Jeff Gordon, who finished fifth. "We were almost at a stop to run his pace, and the pace car was driving away, so we all just starting going by him. So in my opinion, he's not the winner of that race."

Johnson, credited with a third-place finish, agreed. "If you don't maintain pace-car speed, you don't hold your position," he said. "And it was clear to everyone that he couldn't do it. If he could have, he would have stayed on the bumper of the pace car to the finish line. So in my opinion, where he coasted across the finish line relative to the other cars that could maintain pit-road speed is where he should finish."

With point margins so narrowed by the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- only 14 points now separate leaders Johnson, Gordon, and Bowyer -- every position matters. Which is why Richard Childress Racing owner Richard Childress and general manager Mike Dillon were in the NASCAR hauler after the race, arguing their case to series officials even as Biffle's team sprayed celebratory champagne.