Final move by Busch was one too many in the end

Kyle Busch got what he deserved Saturday night in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, right?

Well, it's not quite that simple. Or at least it shouldn't be -- no matter where you stand on the Kyle Busch Love-or-Hate O-Meter.

Whether or not Busch "deserved" to get turned by race winner Tony Stewart with the checkered flag in sight is going to be a matter of great debate for days, weeks, maybe even months to come. For Busch, make that years to come.

Coke Zero 400

Unofficial Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
2.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
3.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
4.	Carl Edwards	Ford
5.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
6.	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota
7.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
8.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
9.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
10.	Elliott Sadler	Dodge

• Results | Laps | Photos

There are sure to be two camps on this one -- those who feel Busch attempted to block the hard-charging Stewart once too often and a little too late, and those who feel the hard-charging Stewart was charging too hard, with little or no regard for Busch's safety and general well being.

The opinion here is that Stewart did nothing wrong and was racing for the victory, as he should have been. After Stewart took a look to the outside and was blocked once legitimately by Busch, Stewart put a second move on and clearly got his front bumper on the outside of Busch's right-rear bumper.

It's easy for a casual observer to say this -- and much harder to execute in a split second, obviously, for a driver hurtling toward the checkers at 180 or more mph -- but it was at that instant that Busch made the critical mistake of trying to place a second block on Stewart.

It was too late -- too late for Stewart to back out of the run he had on Busch, and too late for Busch to get over to effectively block him again. The end result was predictable.

Busch got turned and Stewart went on to win his second race of the season.

Calling it right

Making the call right in the TNT broadcast booth Saturday night was a Kyle by another name, as in Petty. Give him and color analyst partner Wally Dallenbach credit, too, for making the right determination in a split second -- or at least over several split seconds with the additional input of an all-important series of replays.

But they got it right when they absolved Stewart of any wrong-doing.

"Here's what happened, just like what we talked about at Talladega and have talked about before: block me once, that's OK; block me twice, you're going up into the grandstands or you're going into the wall," Petty said on the TNT race broadcast. "That's what happened. The 18 made two swipes at him -- one to the inside and one to the outside." (Continued)