NASCAR had the chance to make a stand and blew it

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Budweiser Shootout is in the record books, and far from realizing the totally nervous tendencies Friday night's pair of melees in practice the current chassis might have engendered; the thing might have shown the Daytona 500 will be somewhat interesting.

One thing the last 10 laps proved was that Kurt Busch was a helluva racecar driver -- as he saved a long-gone, flat-tired Dodge from clobbering the wall all the way from the entrance of Turn 3 to the exit of 4 -- but very few people could have ever questioned that.

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But if NASCAR wanted to make a real point as its 2008 season opened, it badly missed the mark -- and an opportunity to make a statement about what the limits of its latest "re-invention of tradition," or a return to its traditional emotion, will be.

If NASCAR wanted to get its competitors' attention, the sanctioning body should have sat Busch out of Saturday night's Shootout -- the non-points special event for pole winners that has kicked off the last 30 seasons as the opening event of Daytona Speedweeks.

On Friday night, the opening day of Speedweeks 2008, Busch and Tony Stewart were involved in a fender bender at the end of the backstretch, which deposited Busch's car into the outside wall.

Busch's car bounced off the wall and, with the caution lights illuminated, he barely slowed, ran down Stewart's car on the entrance to pit road and, while still a long way from the actual service alley, drove his car into the side of Stewart's three times, apparently to express his displeasure (watch video).

Less than two hours before the Shootout's green flag, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter reiterated that "no decision has been made on what penalties might be laid down, if any;" though he did say "everything is still being considered."

No one wants to see a rush to judgment, but only 10 months ago a similar situation occurred, between the same two drivers in the same relative position.

As much as NASCAR has said it's trying to reconnect with an alienated fan base, NASCAR might have at least taken into consideration an unofficial, unscientific poll that resided on NASCAR.COM's front page throughout Saturday, including the Shootout.

The poll asked what Busch's penalty should be for his actions. Interestingly enough, as the Shootout's green flag time approached, the number of respondents calling for Busch to be sat out of the race was at 42 percent -- a sizeable number.

You could argue that the number who felt no penalty should be issued -- 22 percent -- was maybe even more notable. But that nearly 30,000 of the more than 70,000 persons who responded favored execution was a pretty resounding voice.

What would it have meant?

Aside from the embarrassing consequences it might have had on Busch's sponsor, Miller Brewing Company -- coincidentally a serious competitor of event sponsor Anheuser-Busch -- and the loss of race-mode track time for Busch and his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge team; the ramifications would have been minimal.

But the impact on Busch and his competitors would have been significant.

Threatening language has always been a part of technical bulletins and the rule book: "...the driver, car owner and crew chief are subject to a fine, and/or disallowance of qualifying time, and/or loss of Championship points, and/or loss of finishing position(s) in the Event, and/or disqualification, and/or suspension."

Quite a laundry list of possibilities, eh?

But never -- if you consider $100,000 fines, 100-point deductions and six-race suspensions minor -- has a major step been taken.

This would have been the chance.

Sitting Kurt Busch out of a race -- even an exhibition event that in the big picture is inconsequential -- would have been significant. It might have delayed the onset of the next case of "the red mist" erasing a driver's every thought of reason and using his car as a 3,400-pound weapon.

The current schedule of sanctions hardly seems to work to great effect. Despite being on probation -- albeit for difference incidents -- for more than half of last year, Busch and Stewart have not proven to be quick learners.

The on-track confrontation at Dover last June that caused Busch to drive his car to within inches of Stewart's on an active, fully-occupied pit road; looked shockingly similar to what happened Friday night (watch video).

Specifically, it appeared that Busch moved his car from one lane on the racetrack to another that just so happened to be occupied by Stewart's -- and Stewart didn't appear to cut Busch one-quarter-of-an-inch of slack either time.

The result in both cases was Busch in the wall, followed by an irrationally agitated response.

All things considered, allegations of taunts by Busch being answered by one of Stewart's fists while in the NASCAR trailer for their initial defusing session should be answered next week when the sanctioning body issues whatever -- if any penalties -- it decides upon after "thinking it over," as Hunter put it.

Another non-point event remains for Busch between now and the Daytona 500: Thursday's Gatorade Duel qualifying race; but Hunter refused to be drawn into speculation of whether suspending Busch from that would be considered.

"One of the things that people overlook is how competitive this sport is," Hunter said. "They're running around out there 190 miles an hour, they're inches apart -- the flick of a finger or the bat of an eyelash is the time they have to make decisions. And in reviewing what we've seen so far, of that accident, it was a racing accident.

"What happened afterwards -- our guys have got to control their emotions when they're in that racecar. We can not let things get out of control on that racetrack, so I think that's the reason they're thinking this one through.

"We'll make a decision, and whatever that decision is, some people are going to like it and some people aren't going to like it. And we know that."

For now, NASCAR's admonishment that "we have made it very clear to these two drivers that it's in their best interest to put a lot of space between themselves and not put us in the position of having to make a judgment call -- they need to understand that and I think they do," as Hunter put it, will have to serve (read more).

But somehow, that seems to be a pity when such an otherwise strong statement could have been made, for the benefit of the rest of the garage full of competitors.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer