FanHouse ReganSmith

Let's face it: NASCAR's own rules nearly killed multiple spectators Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.

The scary last-lap crash in the Aaron's 499 involving Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and first-time winner Brad Keselowski is just the concoction NASCAR has cooked up with their set of rules governing the cans and cannots of racing at restrictor plate tracks.

At issue, primarily, is the much discussed yellow line rule that prohibits a driver from going below to advance a position.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, Thursday afternoon's Gatorade Duels at Daytona was a nervous affair because they didn't want to hurt their race cars for Sunday's Daytona 500.

But for four other drivers, just finishing the race high enough in the running order was downright breathtaking.

And for one driver, the feat of qualifying for the Daytona 500 was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

It's a rare feat in NASCAR racing to actually cross the finish line first with the checkered flag waving and not be awarded the race winner's trophy.

A rare feat, of course, until you toss in a set of rules that don't even get the judgment-call benefit of the doubt like a foul in basketball or a strike in baseball.

But that's exactly what happened to Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s rookie driver Regan Smith in October at Talladega Superspeedway. Smith, driving the No. 01, passed Tony Stewart while driving under the painted yellow line 300 yards from the finish, but was declared to have finished 17th while Stewart celebrated his lone win of 2008.

Whaaaaa?

NASCAR has somewhat enforced a rule for many years to curb dangerous passes out of the groove at its two restrictor plate tracks -- Daytona and Talladega -- by saying a car must yield a gained position or it will be forced to make a pit stop if a driver advances position while below the "out of bounds," or yellow, line.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.

Regan Smith may drive for the race team that Dale Earnhardt Jr. left in 2007, but that didn't keep the now-Hendrick Motorsports driver from taking Smith's side after last week's controversial finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

Smith, a rookie in the Sprint Cup series, was denied his first-career win after NASCAR declared his last-lap pass underneath Tony Stewart illegal and gave Stewart the win despite getting beat by Smith to the finish line.

I was thoroughly against the ruling, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his support of Smith clear and questioned NASCAR's judgment on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"In my opinion, the 01 (Smith) was forced below the line," Earnhardt Jr. said on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"The two did make contact – (Smith) was on the inside of Tony and he had no choice other than to move away from Tony and that sends him below the line and in my opinion, the 01 wins the race. I feel like Tony did what he had to do. In the car, everyone would have done what Tony did, everyone would have done what the 01 did. Neither one of them were wrong or right.

"What's curious is when are you forced? Show me some video. I want to know what's forced and what's not. I felt like that was being forced."

And can you argue with Earnhardt Jr.? His statement further exemplifies how confused drivers were on NASCAR's rule, and how they remain to be confused now even after NASCAR tried to clarify the rule this week.

Before the Sprint Cup action gets too fired up again in Charlotte, here's a quick look back at some of the best images of a dramatic weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

In most sports, rules that apply directly to a particular event are known at the very least before said event starts.

In NASCAR, though, only part of those rules in place, and the rest is up to the drivers to figure out based on past knowledge, or more correctly, what NASCAR's future rule will be.

Yes, NASCAR drivers are now expected by the sanctioning body to be as talented as Miss Cleo -- sans the lawsuits and deceptive billing and advertising claims.

Case in point? Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway that Tony Stewart was handed after Regan Smith was disqualified by NASCAR for making a pass that wasn't within the vaguely-stated and otherwise not consistently applied rules.

NASCAR clarified those rules for future use -- Regan Smith no longer has to wonder if he should wreck the leader for a win because that's what NASCAR seemingly wants -- on Monday through a statement from the sport's president, Mike Helton.

"In NASCAR's opinion he was not forced below the yellow line. NASCAR correctly took immediate action to enforce the policy by penalizing the #01 and scoring the #20 as the race winner," Helton said.

"Since the end of the race there has been some confusion as to what is allowable during the last lap at Daytona and Talladega. To be clear, as we go forward, there will be no passing under the yellow line at any time during NASCAR races at Daytona or Talladega, period. This includes any passing below the yellow line near the start/finish line on the final lap."

Well, I'm certainly glad we got that after the finish of Sunday's race, because, you know, knowing the rules might have changed the outcome a bit -- especially after the confusion that even NASCAR's employees had over the rule for the past few months.

NASCAR fans got a pretty doggone good show Sunday afternoon at Talladega -- especially if you're a fan of edge-of-your-seat-for-500-miles action.

But more than the action, what the fans at the track and the ones at home were ultimately left with was a big, big question.

When in the world is NASCAR going to find a consistent, plausible rule book?

I'll state it bluntly: Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s rookie driver Regan Smith got screwed on the final lap of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway after NASCAR handed Tony Stewart the win -- his first of 2008. Smith, they said, broke the out-of-bounds rule by making a pass of Stewart under the yellow line just before the start/finish line.

Smith crossed the start/finish first and had seemingly handed Stewart a seventh-career 2nd-place finish at the Alabama track.

Smith deserved to be doing burnouts.

He deserved to be celebrating an improbable win in victory lane.

And, most of all, he did not deserve to be getting penalized for something a well-known driver got away with en route to a victory at the same track in 2003.

His name? Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Rookie driver Regan Smith crossed the start/finish line in first place at the end of Sunday's Amp Energy Drink 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but it was Tony Stewart who was celebrating his first 2008 Sprint Cup series win in victory lane.

NASCAR awarded Stewart the win after the powers-that-be decided that Smith's move under Stewart as the field came through the tri-oval for the final time was illegal.

For Stewart, it was the best of times as he celebrated a win at a track he's never won at in Sprint Cup competition despite finishing second six times at the track, but for Smith, it was a heartbreaking defeat that left him with plenty of questions -- as well as everyone that watched the race.

Now that we've got all of the -- um -- important details out the way, the focus of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s voyage to Hendrick Motorsports has reached a point that matters.

The competitive side. You know -- the side that Dale Earnhardt Jr. actually left Dale Earnhardt Inc. in favor of Hendrick for in the first place?

First off, Earnhardt's current and future crew chief at Hendrick Tony Eury Jr. will be released from his duties at DEI. following the Oct. 7 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Eury, who has been Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car or crew chief for all but one season since the two broke into the Nextel Cup Series in 2000, will step down after the Oct. 7 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

He will be allowed to take four members of Earnhardt's No. 8 team with him under a deal made by DEI when it agreed to free him contractually to join Earnhardt at HMS in 2008.

According to the article, only one team member has told DEI that they will departing with Eury Jr.

The jump for Eury Jr. will work out nicely as he'll not only get a head start at Hendrick, but Earnhardt Jr. may be in a Hendrick ride following the last October race in Atlanta.

Regan Smith is disappointed that he won't be starting his full-time Nextel Cup career this weekend at Indy, but the young'n is being smart about what he says out loud and that's wise, because all hope is not lost. Yet.

"I'm not worried, I'm not upset, I'm not frustrated. For me, I was extremely disappointed. On Monday, I was planning on going to the Brickyard and starting my full-time Cup career and getting to start it at one of the biggest venues that you could possibly start it at. I was extremely excited about that and looking forward to that. Then on Tuesday, things changed and [I] found out I wouldn't be racing [there]. I was disappointed from a personal standpoint."

I'd be a little more than disappointed--I'd be pissed after getting dissed like that. He's handling things a lot better than some drivers would and way better than I would. DEI hasn't even had the courtesy to sit down with him and discuss his future yet.