Wreckin' is Racin' at Daytona

Saturday night at Daytona was pretty much everything we have come to expect this season from an event at one of NASCAR's two restrictor plate tracks; another race, and another wreck at the checkered flag.

Just like a few weeks ago at Talladega, the finish of the Coke Zero 400 was filled with smoke and sparks and fans on their feet as a last-lap wreck added a heavy dose of excitement to Tony Stewart's second win of the season.

With the exact same scenario playing out two consecutive plate races - the flood gates have already begun to open, with the media condemning Daytona and Talladega for being too dangerous and pleading, as Mark Aumann does in his latest NASCAR.com article, that something must be done to prevent the same result in the future.

Now, as exciting as they may be, I agree that there is nothing good about a wreck. Good cars get destroyed and drivers can get hurt - and when it comes down to it, I'll take a photo-finish over a last lap wreck 10 times out of 10.

The thing I can't understand, though, is why everyone is so surprised. There have been big wrecks at Daytona and Talladega ever since guys have been racing there. When you have 43 drivers running inches apart at 190 miles an hour with a ton of money on the line - stuff is going to happen. It is nothing we haven't seen before, and we will definitely see it in the future.

But this week we will see all kinds of articles and opinions saying how things at Daytona and Talladega have finally gone too far, and something needs to be done.

But what? People will be quick to raise questions, but woefully short on actual answers or suggestions - mostly because there really aren't any.

Some may say NASCAR needs to get rid of restrictor plates. Then we will just see cars wrecking at 215 mph instead of 190. We've already been down that road; it didn't work then, and it won't work today.

Others will say to knock down the banking at Daytona and Talladega. Theoretically, that might actually help, but let's try to be realistic; there is no way tracks are going to spend that much money because it might prevent a wreck. Besides, the two last-lap incidents this year have been on the front stretch, anyway.

The real answer resides with the drivers themselves. Both the Edwards and Busch wrecks were caused by one thing - blocking. The size and speed of the track may have made things worse, but if the drivers weren't blocking so hard, no contact would have been made and no wreck would have happened.

Both Edwards and Busch were faced with a decision - do they hold their line and finish second or third, or block for the win and risk wrecking? They chose to block, and they both wrecked. It was within their control - they made the decision.

So while the critics criticize and the experts expound - the answer ultimately lies with nobody but the drivers behind the wheel. If they want to stop last lap wrecks, all they have to do is race clean.

Until then, we shouldn't be surprised to see more of the same when we get to Talladega in the Chase.