I'm a little bit surprised at the uproar caused by the way the Brickyard 400 was run. Of course it was a fiasco. There is no doubt that the first 150 or so laps were forced to be divided into 10 to 12 lap dashes, separated by "competition yellows" (or the more than occasional "tire blowed up yellow"). And that's not really racing, right?

A race in a premier series such as NASCAR's Sprint Cup should be relatively unfettered by contrivance once the green flag drops. Formulas are derived and tweaked from season to season in an attempt to produce door-handle to door-handle racing - the type of racing the fans of this series seem to want. Sometimes the formula is tweaked mid-season - as it was just this week in an attempt to level the playing field (Toyotas had "too much" horsepower, despite meeting all design guidelines set by NASCAR for the season). But once the green flag waves on a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday night, it should be up to the drivers, their crews, and the equipment. If one is dialed-in better than the others, bully for him. If he opens up a huge lead, bully for him!

But it NEVER is that way. And Sunday just served as an exaggeration of what the sanctioning body does in just about every single race.

Why the indignity now? What was so different between yesterday's race and all the others?
Many will maintain the difference was the fact that NASCAR threw the caution every 10 to 12 laps, in order for teams to have the opportunity to put on a new set of tires due to extreme tire wear. And they'd be right - but only due to the reason for and frequency of the yellows.

I maintain that yesterday's race was a nearly perfect extension of NASCAR's general philosophy of operation. If a race is going in a direction the sanctioning body deems troublesome, it does not hesitate to force it's fat little fingers into the dynamics of that race in an effort to artificially produce the outcome it wants.

So we ended up with a seven lap trophy dash? That is no different than 80% or more of the races anyway. Gone only was the illusion that a genuine race took place during the preceding 153 laps. The mechanics of the melodrama were TOO exposed for racing fans this time - it was TOO obvious how artificially contrived the "racing" was. It was boring.

Yes, it was boring. Just as it nearly always is (until the last seven laps).