The cool thing about watching racing, and watching young Regan Smith, is that while you're sitting there, you can come up with all kinds of scenarios he -- or any other driver, for that matter -- might be considering.

When it came to watching Smith's No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet on Saturday night, as the end of the Coke Zero 400 wound down, you sat there wondering if Smith's career finishing streak would continue, and even more, if he'd get his first career top-10 finish.

Regan Smith

2009 Results

Race	Start	Finish
Daytona	42	21
Las Vegas	18	19
Texas	33	31
Phoenix	9	28
Talladega	6	15
Darlington	29	21
Dover	33	22
Pocono	42	33
Loudon	43	27
Daytona	43	12
Averages	29.8	22.9

As typically wild as Daytona on a hot, slick summer night had been, neither was anything close to a guarantee.

For Smith it was a lot simpler. All he was thinking as he was digging toward Daytona's finish line was scrambling for a couple more spots.

But now it's a fact. Smith's latest effort did extend his running at the finish streak to 51 races, the Cup Series' longest active string, which extends over Smith's entire three-year career since he's never run a full schedule. And even better, despite the disappointment of a top-10 vaporizing, Smith's 12th-place was his career-best.

And best of all, it's made people notice -- people who are in position to really appreciate what he's accomplished in only 10 of 18 races the series has done this season. Most important, the team based in Denver, Colo., has made every race it's attempted.

"He does a good job at looking ahead and paying attention -- he really does," Furniture Row team manager Joe Garone said after the race. "There is a luck factor involved, to be sure, but I don't want to take away from what we see. He is good at looking ahead and making the right decisions. It's incredible, actually.

"He identifies what's going on up in front of him and in most cases it seems like he's able to decide what kind of action's going on. He's always asking on the radio how dicey they're getting up front and if they're getting crazy, and I think that helps him to be prepared and to avoid accidents when they come up, but it is uncanny."

At Daytona, Smith said on the last restart he got separated from Kurt Busch, whom he had worked well with all night, and who finished fifth. The line Smith was stuck in didn't take off well on the final restart, and never really got going. It was game over -- but only for one night.

"He was absolutely moving up and looking at a top-10, but like I said, it takes all those things lining up," Garone said. "You've got to have a little bit of luck [but] he pays great attention to what's going on with the field, he looks ahead and has just tremendous reaction times."

For Smith, who knew he had only a 12-race schedule when he signed to race for Barney Visser's team this season, Garone gave the ultimate payoff on Saturday.

"We're looking at adding some more races as we move forward," Garone said. "We'll announce them later, and we're working hard to get sponsors to run a full season next year. Regan's finishes absolutely led to us thinking about adding races. Man, when you're not tearing stuff up, you're just able to better prepare and better plan and do the things you need to do, so it all helps."

Last word on blocking

Well obviously, we know that won't be true, but Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 finish only provided the latest example of me-first racing that leads to blocking. Hmmm, wait a minute. If finishing first is the idea, then me-first is what it's all about.

But here's the bottom line. Blocking is an integral, accepted, appropriate part of racing, whether it's on a short track, road course or any length of speedway. But willingness to block also demands that you accept, going in, the consequences.

Blocking is an integral, accepted, appropriate part of racing, whether it's on a short track, road course or any length of speedway. But willingness to block also demands that you accept, going in, the consequences.

If you block, the least you can eventually expect is to get roughed-up by the guy you're blocking -- who, if you're blocking him, is faster than you -- and the worst is you might get spun out or wrecked. You decided to block, you accepted the consequences, so get over it.

But here's what's unacceptable. If someone is next to you, even by an inch -- as Tony Stewart was with Kyle Busch on Saturday night -- your ability to block is gone. You're beaten. So you either need to accept that, or accept the responsibility for wrecking yourself and numerous other cars.

And as long as the competitors won't step up and take the responsibility of dragging the offender out behind the proverbial barn and kicking their rear, blocking won't go away.

Interesting crash dynamics

NASCAR.COM's Live Leaderboard application, which is available for every Sprint Cup and Nationwide series race, revealed some fascinating dynamics from Saturday's crash coming to the finish of the Coke Zero 400, which in part revealed how so many guys were involved.

Busch, who tried to block race winner Stewart in the last 400 yards of the race and got spun out on account, obviously had a much slower last lap speed, 179.083 mph. Even Kasey Kahne, who drilled Busch at full speed about 100 yards short of the finish line and dropped Busch's car off his car's hood right about at the stripe, still ran a last lap of 184.706 mph.

The fastest last lap was 187.699 mph, by 16th-place A.J. Allmendinger for goodness sake -- so obviously grabbing a better finishing position badly trumped either personal safety or that of any competitor. It wasn't until you got to 24th-place Brad Keselowski, at 179.748 mph, that a significant drop in speed occurred, which was also reflected by the four other lead-lap drivers who finished behind him: Martin Truex Jr., John Andretti, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon.

But what would you expect? It's just racing, after all. And no caution flag waved though, with the finish line in sight, you would be sadly mistaken to think that would make much difference.

And in case you were curious, Stewart's final lap was in 186.741 mph -- seventh-fastest on the last lap. Carl Edwards, who took a wild throwback dirt racing jaunt through the tri-oval grass, still reached the line at 185.801 mph.

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Who can blame Kyle Busch for being a little bitter? The guy just can't win, literally. But it's definitely not for lack of trying, and Daytona was only the latest example of that. As we've said right along, his potential alone means, despite losing another race off last year's pace, he can still eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck).

Busch got his fourth second-place this season in the Nationwide Series and expanded his championship lead to 172 points over Carl Edwards. And while he screwed himself in Cup, who could blame him for being ticked-off about failing to defend a race he led with less than 400 yards to go.

So at that, he's still at 10 down and 12 to go. His 2008 win total at this point was 12; and what's more troubling is his Cup winless streak has hit 11 races, the longest he's experienced in two years save for the 17-race drought he hit last season, from Watkins Glen to this season at Las Vegas. Busch swept Chicagoland last year, so this weekend will be a prime chance to see Busch in Victory Lane, or silent and ticked off.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.