NASCAR Blows It Again: 2009 Daytona 500 Was An Officiating Travesty

Before I start this rant....er, article, I would like to congratulate Matt Kenseth for winning the Daytona 500, the supposed "Super Bowl" of NASCAR.

He made the right move at the right time, and, with a little help from Mother Nature, captured the sport's biggest prize, albeit at the expense of Reed Sorenson. Hey, you wanna make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs, right?

With that being said, NASCAR did turn this race into Super Bowl XLIII in at least one aspect: Questionable officiating. And just like the big game, the bad calls went both ways.

Early in the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was penalized for being outside of his pit box. The NASCAR rule states that only the right rear tire of a car may be outside the box during a pit stop.

Junior's right front tire was mighty close, but it didn't look like it went over the line. At best, it appeared it was on it. Any way you slice it, NASCAR saw it as a penalty, and put him down a lap. A little severe for something so small that affected no one else, and technically didn't violate the rule. Why not just put him to the tail end of the longest line?

A couple cautions later, the leaders were again on pit road. A heated race-off ended with Jeff Gordon clearly in front of Kyle Busch when the two reached the orange cone at the end of pit road. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that where the scoring takes place? Or did NASCAR decide to change the rule back during this morning's drivers meeting?

To be fair, Busch was ahead of Gordon when he exited his pit (the first on pit road). But he trailed at the cone and yet NASCAR still placed him in front of 24 on the restart. The point is moot as Busch was eventually caught up in a wreck that Gordon survived, but it still raises the question: Does NASCAR know its own rules?

The wreck that claimed the cars of Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, and others was started by Dale Earnhardt Jr., no doubt about that. Brian Vickers attempted a legal block and a frustrated Junior refused to let off the throttle, sending Vickers spinning across the track in front of nearly the entire field.

Overly aggressive? Yes. Dangerous? Extremely. Penalty? Yes, unless you're NASCAR, then no. This is probably exactly what Mike Helton told the officials: "Hey guys, if we penalize this guy again, the fans are going to start leaving because they'll think we're targeting the most popular driver. Maybe we should let this one slide so they'll stay and buy more stuff."

And finally, the worst call of them all was making the rain delay an official race at 6:48 PM EST.

Are you kidding me? That's like ending the Super Bowl after the third quarter. The track has lights and jet dryers. Wait it out!

Remember that debacle at California almost a year ago? That race wasn't called off until well after midnight. Granted, it wasn't an official race at the time. Even so, as a NASCAR official, you have to give a rain delay at least an hour to clear up.

Today is President's Day. Half the country doesn't have to go to work. They would have stayed up to see the biggest race of the year in its entirety.

New year, new season, new teams, same questionable officiating. NASCAR still has a lot of work to do.