It is Wednesday and I am still bored from the Talladega race Sunday afternoon. What an embarrassment for NASCAR. Many of NASCAR's critics already knock the "left turn only circuit" for being akin to watching the dryers at the laundramat.

After NASCAR dropped the "no bump drafting in the turns" bomb at last weekend, it seems the drivers collectively decided to make the race as boring as possible by falling in line quickly and just riding out the 500 miles "at 50% throttle," according to Jimmy Johnson during the race. It was boring. No exciting position battles, and very few 2, 3 or even 4 wide battles.

The draw to restrictor plate races like, Talladega and Daytona, is the mass of machinery racing by at nearly 200 mph. If the fans get nervous watching cars race 6 inches from each other, 3 wide, 10 rows deep going into the corners at 180 mph, then they can only imagine what the drivers must be going through. That's fun. That's what racing is all about. I can put a grandma in a stock car, tell her to put her foot to the floor, get in line, and just follow the car in front of you. Where's the fun in that?

Of course fans like to see wrecks. That is just like fans wanting to see a fight at a hockey game. It's exciting. It's fun. NO ONE should ever WANT to see Ryan Newman get cut out of his car. But fans like to see a little more action than Max Papis spinning out alone in turn 3 because his team isn't good enough to give him a competitive car and he is overdriving it at every turn.

The bump drafting in the corners is obviously a safety issue, but I think the drivers made their point and the fans echoed that point Sunday, that the drivers are smart enough and responsible enough to take care of business among themselves and keep it "in house" and not have Big Daddy NASCAR threaten to penalize someone for RACING hard in the corners.

I think NASCAR made one rule modification too many this weekend and we all suffered for it.

MR Pressbox