NASCAR had the chance to make a stand and blew it

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The Budweiser Shootout is in the record books, and far from realizing the totally nervous tendencies Friday night's pair of melees in practice the current chassis might have engendered; the thing might have shown the Daytona 500 will be somewhat interesting.

One thing the last 10 laps proved was that Kurt Busch was a helluva racecar driver -- as he saved a long-gone, flat-tired Dodge from clobbering the wall all the way from the entrance of Turn 3 to the exit of 4 -- but very few people could have ever questioned that.

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But if NASCAR wanted to make a real point as its 2008 season opened, it badly missed the mark -- and an opportunity to make a statement about what the limits of its latest "re-invention of tradition," or a return to its traditional emotion, will be.

If NASCAR wanted to get its competitors' attention, the sanctioning body should have sat Busch out of Saturday night's Shootout -- the non-points special event for pole winners that has kicked off the last 30 seasons as the opening event of Daytona Speedweeks.

On Friday night, the opening day of Speedweeks 2008, Busch and Tony Stewart were involved in a fender bender at the end of the backstretch, which deposited Busch's car into the outside wall.

Busch's car bounced off the wall and, with the caution lights illuminated, he barely slowed, ran down Stewart's car on the entrance to pit road and, while still a long way from the actual service alley, drove his car into the side of Stewart's three times, apparently to express his displeasure (watch video).

Less than two hours before the Shootout's green flag, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter reiterated that "no decision has been made on what penalties might be laid down, if any;" though he did say "everything is still being considered."

No one wants to see a rush to judgment, but only 10 months ago a similar situation occurred, between the same two drivers in the same relative position.

As much as NASCAR has said it's trying to reconnect with an alienated fan base, NASCAR might have at least taken into consideration an unofficial, unscientific poll that resided on NASCAR.COM's front page throughout Saturday, including the Shootout.

The poll asked what Busch's penalty should be for his actions. Interestingly enough, as the Shootout's green flag time approached, the number of respondents calling for Busch to be sat out of the race was at 42 percent -- a sizeable number.

You could argue that the number who felt no penalty should be issued -- 22 percent -- was maybe even more notable. But that nearly 30,000 of the more than 70,000 persons who responded favored execution was a pretty resounding voice.

What would it have meant?

Aside from the embarrassing consequences it might have had on Busch's sponsor, Miller Brewing Company -- coincidentally a serious competitor of event sponsor Anheuser-Busch -- and the loss of race-mode track time for Busch and his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge team; the ramifications would have been minimal.

But the impact on Busch and his competitors would have been significant. (Continued)