Final move by Busch was one too many in the end (cont'd)

Both Petty and Dallenbach quickly agreed that Busch's first attempt to block Stewart was "fair." But once Stewart got his left-front bumper on the inside of Busch's right-rear, all bets were off.

"He had that one coming," Petty said of the race-winning boot that Stewart ultimately gave Busch. "When you cut back across the hood of somebody after you've blocked him once -- and Tony put the bumper on the outside of him, he was there -- that's what is going to happen."

It immediately caused flashbacks to what happened in April at Talladega, by no coincidence the last restrictor-plate race that had been run on a superspeedway this season. That was when rookie Brad Keselowski got a run on Carl Edwards and nearly sent Edwards' No. 99 Ford flying into the frontstretch grandstands.

Final Laps

Tony Stewart spins Kyle Busch on the final lap, to set up a spectacular wreck, and win the Coke Zero 400.

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If you will recall, Edwards quickly stated afterward the Keselowski had done nothing wrong.

"We saw this same thing at Talladega with the No. 09 car of Keselowski. He stuck his car in there and drove it, put it where it needed to be. And that's the way it was," Petty said Saturday.

Double-standard?

Busch did not appear to be in such a forgiving move toward Stewart following Saturday night's fracas. He reportedly headed straight from the remains of his smoking carcass of a car toward Victory Lane, where it seemed he wanted a word -- and not of a congratulatory nature -- with Stewart.

As much as an altercation between the two former Joe Gibbs Racing teammates in Victory Lane might have been entertaining to the masses, it was fortunate he got intercepted by some security types who instead directed him to get checked out at the infield care center.

In his own post-race news conference, Stewart admitted that the way he had won left a mildly bad taste in his mouth. But you'd better believe that not long after he left the media center, he quickly washed that out with a swig of champagne -- or more likely, since it was Stewart, a few large gulps of a Schlitz beer, followed by more Schlitz beers.

A win is a win is a win.

One more important thing for everyone to remember here is that in the wake of Saturday's incident, there can be no double standards. The next time Kyle Busch is in position to pull the same stunt to claim victory, he has every right to do so without everyone screaming that it's a foul play.

And maybe, just maybe, these guys will start realizing that as long as the rules remain the same for restrictor-plate races, the best move of all at the end of one of these crazy deals might be to give guys a little more room to genuinely race each other to the checkered flag -- instead of "mirror racing" and concentrating so much on blocking the guy behind that you end up essentially wrecking yourself.

That's probably the largest lesson there for the taking from Saturday night. But will anyone truly take note?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.