Over the years, the Daytona 500 has provided viewers with no shortage of memorable celebrations. There was Darrell Waltrip, screaming into the microphone, almost like he had to convince himself that he had just won his sport's biggest race. There was Jeff Gordon, speaking on a bulky cell phone to leukemia-stricken team owner Rick Hendrick, then slipping out from behind the steering wheel and banging the top of his car. There was Dale Earnhardt, accepting that long line of congratulations from all those crewmen and climbing to the roof of his No. 3. There was Dale Earnhardt Jr., stopping on the finish line, his teammates rushing toward him in a red blur.

Daytona 380

The Daytona 500 came up 48 laps short thanks to Mother Nature. Did NASCAR make the right call in ending the race early? Read the debate in this week's Head2Head.

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Through it all, from decade to decade and race to race, there's been one constant -- bright Florida sunshine. Maybe it's because weather that looks warm on television is irresistible eye candy to viewers watching in more frozen climates. Maybe it's because blue skies seem fitting for a day that's all about celebration and rebirth. Regardless, starting and finishing the Daytona 500 during daylight hours gave the event an intangible quality that somehow made it seem grander than it already was. Sure, Mother Nature didn't always cooperate. But most years she did, and the results were spectacular -- sunlight glinting off car hoods and the ripples on Lake Lloyd, hotel towers and the ocean looming far in the background, palm trees swaying in the breeze. It all screamed Daytona.

Things are different now. When Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500 last weekend, he celebrated at night, with fireworks flashing overhead. The start of the Great American Race has been gradually pushed back in recent years, in part to accommodate a burgeoning West Coast audience, and in part because NASCAR chairman Brian France believes major sports events -- taking a lead from the Super Bowl -- should end at night. No question, Daytona International Speedway looks spectacular under the lights, the cars appear faster and brighter, fans don't need quite as much sunscreen. But at the same time, the Daytona 500 loses a part of its allure.

The issue here, though, isn't solely cosmetic. The events that transpired in Sunday's 51st running of NASCAR's biggest event were directly affected by a late start time that gave officials little room to maneuver once rain began to fall. The decision to end the race 48 laps short provided plenty of ammunition to the more conspiratorially-minded -- no shortage of those in the fan base -- who know that Sunday is the highest-rated television viewing night of the week, and that nobody wants to mess with The Simpsons. Rest assured, Fox Sports honcho David Hill was not in race control alongside NASCAR president Mike Helton, series director John Darby and event director David Hoots.

But you have to wonder -- had the Daytona 500 gone green at say, 1:30 p.m. ET instead of 3:30, would NASCAR have waited? Over the radio during the red flag, NASCAR officials were plainly concerned about "losing the race track," or the point where the surface becomes too wet to dry. Winning car owner Jack Roush said he was told it would have taken at least three hours to dry the 2.5-mile facility. The radar looked bleak, with a blob of dark green stretching across the Florida peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. But before Kenseth had finished celebrating in Victory Lane, the rain had stopped. During the dark drive north on Interstate 95 after the race, no windshield wipers were necessary. Had the race started earlier, and finishing deep into the night been removed from the equation, would NASCAR have tried to wait it out? And would the Daytona 500 have a different champion as a result?

Those are not questions NASCAR needs, not in these difficult economic times when the sport is doing everything it can to entice more people to buy tickets, and certainly not in relation to the one event on its schedule that draws the largest crossover audience from other sports. Daytona is NASCAR's biggest and best chance to win the hearts and minds of fans that don't typically follow racing and something like a rain-shortened event leads to ridicule. Filling in for Jim Rome on his immensely popular syndicated radio program, host Jay Mohr -- no stranger to NASCAR, having appeared at the postseason banquet in 2005 and '06 -- called Monday "the day after Bud Selig ran the Daytona 500." Selig, of course, being the baseball commissioner who put a World Series game on hold for a day and a half due to rain.

That game, though, was eventually played to its conclusion. In NASCAR's defense, predicting the weather in one exact spot is a highly inexact practice. Bringing everybody back to finish the race on Monday wasn't really an option, given that the event had passed its halfway point (and was thus official) and competitors were staring at a long trip out to Auto Club Speedway in Southern California in the ensuing days. Absolutely, given logistical issues and the relatively short span of public attention it's dealing with, NASCAR should do everything in its power to crown a Daytona 500 champion on the day the event is scheduled. But it also should do everything to ensure that the full distance -- or as much of it as possible -- is run. Is that too much to ask?

No, it's not. Granted, rain doesn't affect the Daytona 500 every year. The last time it occurred was 2003, when Michael Waltrip won an event halted after 109 of 200 laps. But until they build a weatherproof dome over Daytona International Speedway, such an event is always a possibility. Other than the winner, nobody likes a Daytona 500 that's stopped halfway or three-quarters of the way to the finish, especially given how cars can go from the lead to 20th place in one lap on the restrictor-plate track. An earlier start would build in something of a buffer, allowing NASCAR to squeeze in its biggest race if rain is arriving late, or giving the sanctioning body more time to wait out the wet stuff if it shows up early. Yes, Fox would lose its valuable, big-ticket, prime-time lead-in. Maybe they can show a Digger and Friends cartoon instead.

Besides, it's just the right thing to do. The Coca-Cola 600 is NASCAR's big day-to-night race, not the Daytona 500. Daytona International Speedway's July event is run under the lights, not its February showcase. The Daytona 500 has suddenly become this amalgamation of other things, and lost part of its identity in the process. Watching the Daytona 500 on television growing up, so much of the appeal was the atmosphere, the blue sky and the palm trees and the knowledge that somewhere it was already warm. Somehow, seeing Darrell Waltrip scream "I won the Daytona 500!" illuminated by fireworks and spotlights just wouldn't have seemed the same.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.