The Daytona 500 was not an embarrassment.

And what happened Sunday in no fashion takes away from the thrilling, edge of your seat, nail biting, and beer cup tossing victory by Jamie McMurray.

Certainly having a pothole in one of the mot historic tracks in the world is embarrassing. Having to repair the same pothole twice, and to stop the biggest race of the year to repair it in front of a national television audience would make anyone want to run and hide in the trunk of a race car.

If indeed they had trunks.

First, let’s deal with the fans. Despite the fact the race ended a few hours late after two delays to repair the track, there weren’t many empty seats come the checkered flag. It’s the biggest race of the season, tickets and travel don’t come cheap, (though one has to give NASCAR some credit for making things a bit more affordable in light of the current economy), and these are fans who would sit thru epic floods or the rapture to see their favorites dice it out.

Then there’s the aforementioned NASCAR.

Despite incessant whining from drivers and crew chiefs alike, NASCAR watches and refuses to take chances with their livelihood. It’s why restrictor plates were designed to cut down on dangerous speeds at certain tracks. Why devices were created to keep a drivers head from snapping of their spinal cords in a wreck. And why the car was redesigned to insure it stays on the track instead of becoming a rudderless missile.

So when the Daytona track started to come apart, they did what any sensible and responsible governing body would do. They pulled the cars into the pits and went about repairing the damage. Caused not by neglect or carelessness, but very likely due to heavy rains and extreme cold weather conditions at a place where usually the only freezing temperatures in winter are inside a margarita glass.

And when it started to flare up again, they repeated the proper thing to do. Dropped the hammer and took the line of thought about nothing is worth risking the lives of their athletes. Not fan excitement or complaints. Not TV ratings. And certainly not doing something where after the fact they could be viewed as trading a life for a few more bucks.

Something perhaps the International Luge Federation, the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, and the extortion masters of global sport, the International Olympic Committee, might have considered and saved a young man’s life in the process.

Finally, those who cover NASCAR only during the days when a free meal is being served in the Press Center.

Every racetrack NASCAR uses must adhere to certain conditions, same as a baseball diamond, hockey rink, etc. And seeing as it’s an outdoor facility, Mother Nature sometimes has a mind of her own and doesn’t get the “play nice” memo. In this case, Daytona Beach, like much of the rest of the Nation, was hit with bitterly cold extremes that wreak havoc on those man-made surfaces not designed for extreme, once-in-a-lifetime conditions.

So when faced with this rare instance, track workers did everything they could to mount an effective repair. Both times NASCAR and the track decided to halt the race instead of risking lives. They did what a hockey rink does when there’s a gouge in the ice, a baseball diamond does when there’s a monster divot in the outfield, or a basketball court when a roof leaks and makes the court slicker than Pat Riley’s hair.

They stop everything. Repair it. Get back to competition when it’s safe for everyone.

They did the right thing. In the correct fashion. Without hesitation. They’ll do it again if necessary. And at a time when certain athletes in certain sports are treated as disposable, NASCAR needs to be commended instead of hammered by the usual band of knee-jerk artists who both pay for and are granted free access.

NASCAR is far from infallible. But in this case, they acted properly.

Jamie McMurray’s victory should thus carry only one footnote.

In this sport, nice guys sometimes do finish first.

Read the entire article here at Ed Berliner's home page, detailing the legacy of Dale Earnhardt in this issue and why there was no way to predict the track coming apart.