NASCAR: A Cautionary Tale From Sin City

This past Sunday's Sprint Cup race was all about the yellow flag, many times it flew (once when it should have and didn't), and all the cautions.

Last season, in the home stretch of the Chase, we were blinded by the yellow flag, races ended in controversy because of it and races were long and boring due to all of the accidents.

Though this latest stay in Vegas wasn't an extended one, it did move slowly, as if the pace car was the lead car for parts of the race.

My first issue is with all the blowouts.

Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon, Jeremy Mayfield, and Sam Hornish Jr. (whom did not get the benefit of the yellow flag)—all except for one of them blew out the right front tire.

Now I'm not a mechanic, but having owned a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu LS that wore on brakes and tires and a buddy who had a 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS that also wore on tires, makes me wonder if there was a suspension change (maybe due to the high winds).

Maybe Goodyear had a bad batch, but in any case, it needs to be looked at—all of these guys could have blow outs, but with the same tire?

I was talking with my girlfriend (whom knows more about NASCAR than I do), and she thought there was a tire issue last year at Lowes Motor Speedway, possibly in the Coca-Cola race, and then it was a bad batch of rubber, but we'll see what spin NASCAR puts on this, no pun intended.

Also about cautions, why is it that Fox never comes back from commercials early to let us know about cautions?

We come back from the break and already the pace car is out, the cars are lined up behind it, and it has been a good 45 seconds before we find out what happened.

When I am at home, I turn the TV sound down and listen to the radio broadcast, it's exceptional and listeners never miss a tire change.

Sam Hornish Jr. hit the wall hard and didn't get a yellow flag. He didn't leave any debris, but it was a good hit, not the bell ringer that Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon had, but a caution should have been given.

And yes, there was no caution for Jeremy Mayfield and his tire problem, but there was no impact either.

Something else that bothered me was that people still cheer when Jeff Gordon crashes. I'm a part-time Jeff Gordon fan (and a full-time Kevin Harvick guy), but I don't cheer for anyone to crash, having crashed that Chevrolet Malibu that I previously mentioned.

I know that impacts hurt long after the car is gone and the street is cleaned.

Fans at football, basketball, and baseball games always cheer when an injured guy gets up from a nasty fall or injury, why can't we have the same respect for other drivers?

I'm not asking for people to go kiss the 24 car; just show a little humanity and dignity.

Outside of that, it was a decent race, a good showing by Carl Edwards for the second week in a row.

Dale Jr. had a good consistent race.

Jeff Burton ran a good race but wasn't terribly consistent (which is usual for him). If Edwards wasn't running away with the race, he would have had a chance, same with his RCR teammate Kevin Harvick.

Next week the guys go to Atlanta, but first there will be testing in Phoenix, let's see what comes of that.