Team sport of NASCAR sometimes costly for driver

When NASCAR decided to allow owners to run more than one car, for better or worse, the sport changed. Gone were the days of every man for himself; now, "team orders" would become the norm.

But this season, the "have at it, boys" mantra the '10 season will be known for seems to have gone from drivers policing the sport to a win at an all costs mentality -- something the owners are well aware.

When it comes to teammates, the expectation from the one who cuts the paycheck is race clean, but don't take each other out. Yet, this season that hasn't been the case.

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have had numerous on-track tangles this year, and it got bad enough that owner Rick Hendrick had to step in and pull the two drivers into a meeting. Two drivers with a combined eight championships and 132 victories had to be reminded how to drive around each other.

At the All-Star Race, Denny Hamlin could have kept it clean when Kyle Busch went to the outside, but instead Hamlin squeezed Busch into the wall, opening an unnecessary can of worms. Joe Gibbs immediately realized the potential harm to his team and talked to both of them right after the race.

NASCAR remains all about victories, but now a driver has teammates, and the rules are different. Like it or not, NASCAR as it is now is a team sport. It's at its best when Kurt Busch is beaming when he pushes then-teammate Ryan Newman to the Daytona 500 victory.

It was at its worst Saturday night in a race that ultimately meant nothing.

For all of the talk about teammates and all this stuff, NASCAR, at its core, is an individual sport. Don't get me wrong, I get that there are teams and all that jazz, but out on the track, it's 1-on-42.

Don't believe me, let me ask you something. When Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 in February, was Juan Montoya part of the celebration? As Jimmie Johnson was winning four consecutive Cup titles, was Jeff Gordon on the stage with him?

That would be no and no.

Does the owners' championship carry near the weight of the drivers' championship?

There's a reason why that also would be no.

This sport is about the drivers, first and foremost. In fact, you almost never hear about teams unless there's a rift, as there was Saturday night between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

If Hamlin were to have let Busch take the spot, how exactly would that have helped Hamlin? Would he have gotten a bonus from Joe Gibbs for keeping the peace amongst his team? If so, would that bonus have been bigger than the seven-figure prize that was mentioned on FOX roughly 9,000 times Saturday night?

Again, no and no and no.

After Hamlin stifled Busch on Saturday, after hearing that Busch was waiting for Hamlin in Hamlin's hauler, I asked my wife, "What was Hamlin supposed to do?"

I bet if you ask anyone other than Busch, the answer would be the same.

To win the race.