ONCE UPON A TIME..........................

That is the beginning line to so many Fairy Tales most of us grew up hearing. And the last line of most was "And they all lived happily ever after". The story in between those two lines is usually one of morals and adventure. After yesterday (Sunday) at Martinsville, let's just think of it as "Once upon a time" there was a sport that attracted fans because of the participants, the excitement and all the other things that grew the sport to be the second most popular sport in the country, second only to the NFL.

Then, problems began that did not involve a giant and a beanstalk, nor a witch and a poison apple, nor a lady in a tower with very long hair but instead involved the writer of the story making one bad decision after another that drove away fans, threw the core fans "under the bus" and continued to pursue such ridiculous ideas as "The Chase".

Attendance at once full venues now is pathetic. Television ratings are so low they will soon be in the negative numbers. Still it continues. With all the magic of a Fairy Tale, NASCAR managed to make a joke of itself yesterday trying to figure out the line up after the caution where half the field was in the pits when the yellow came out. Twenty-nine laps under the caution while the braintrust in race control tried to figure it out. THEN, even though he was on the front row for the restart, Kyle Busch wasn't satisfied with NASCAR's decision and then he had to put up with uncooperative teammates keeping him in fifth.

Somehow, I don't think this story is going to end with "they all lived happily ever after".

Martinsville was tedious to watch on Sunday. I spent way more time watching NFL Panthers beat Arizona. That long gaffe yellow flag while David Hoots and the NASCAR kiddie corps scoring crew tried to figure out who was where was ridiculous. If they didn't know wtf was going on, the red should have been thrown. This is what you get, though when that stupid wave around and lucky dog totally screw up the race. Do away with the wave arounds and all this free pass crap. I'm all for going back to the old lineup method. Make drivers work to get their lap back or stay on the lead lap. Racers who manage to put cars laps down deserve to retain what they raced for. I hate all this Mickey Mouse wave around pro wrestling-like crud that has runined the real racing and drivers fighting to stay on the lead lap or get their lap back. Wave around racing is weenie racing. Put the racing back in racing and kill all these rules to reward underperforming drivers.

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Jimmie Johnson, Rick Hendrick and Chevy "got the call" at Martinsville on Sunday. What a BS finish. Tim, you'll be pleased to know that no Toyotas were involved in mowing down those 22 unfortunate spectators after the race. A GM Chevy and a Chrysler Jeep nameplate were the two vehicles who provided the parking lot mayhem. Want to bet that after Homestead there'll be three 7-Time Cup champions in an effort to gain media attention. Of course, there'd need to be an asterisk beside JJ's 7th, just like Roger Maris' 61 homeruns. Maybe if a channel started showing reruntapes of races from the beginning of NASCAR through the 90s, it would have better ratings than today's live NASCAR telecasts.

Dave. I totally agree with everything you said. Completely. However, I do object to you using my friend, Mickey Mouse's name invain. You will be fined for that!!!!!

Sorry, Mickey!

I seem to remember the exact same thing happening to Marcos Ambrose at Sonoma circa 2010, but instead he got moved back to the position he was in when he restarted.

Hmmm... guess who won that race?