NASCAR season lackluster no more as 'Dega fulfilled wish, as usual

NASCAR has been looking for a way to get back in the public's eye for a while.

Boy did it get its wish.

After a controversial rain-shortened Daytona 500 to open the year, the first quarter of the NASCAR season has been filled with rather lackluster racing.

There have been a few good storylines including the struggles of Dale Earnhardt Jr., the renaissance of Mark Martin and the success of Tony Stewart as an owner/driver.

Carl Edwards added to the spectacle at 'Dega, climbing out of his wrecked car and jogging to the finish line. (US Presswire)

But none of that has really been enough to put NASCAR as the front-page story of any sports sections or the lead story on nightly sportscasts.

Until last Sunday.

The spectacular Talladega finish was obviously eye candy for the TV folks. There's nothing like a 3,400-pound stock car flying through the air and tearing down a fence protecting thousands of spectators sitting in the grandstands to get the television folks all jazzed up.

And Carl Edwards doing his Ricky Bobby impression by climbing out of the car and running on foot across the start-finish line was the cherry on the TV footage sundae.

However, there was more to the Talladega day than just what happened on the last lap and had those theatrics not happened, the race's two other major melees would have been the topic of conversation.

A 14-car pile-up only seven laps into the race and another 10-car tangle late in the race sidelined more than their share of favorites. Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick were all victims of the infamous "Big One" that the restrictor-plate tracks are known for.

NASCAR hasn't known what to do with Talladega since the Alabama track was born in 1969. The inaugural race made headlines, as the first and at this point last boycott by NASCAR drivers who refused to race at a track deemed unsafe by the stars of the sport.

None other than Richard Petty helped form the Professional Drivers Association 40 years ago and led a boycott of 30 drivers who packed up and left on the eve of the first Talladega NASCAR Cup race.

The mammoth 2.66-mile track was just too fast for the safety of the drivers and both Goodyear and Firestone were not convinced either had built a tire capable of running speed well over 200 mph safely.

Unfazed by the strike, NASCAR founder "Big Bill" France climbed into a car and ran 50 laps at speed to prove his creation was fit to hold a race. The next day without most of the top names in the sport, a 36-car field ran the first Talladega 500, a race that was completed without serious incident and forever made veteran driver Richard Brickhouse the answer to a trivia question.

Despite the cries from many drivers and team owners over last Sunday's latest Talladega spectacle, it's unlikely a boycott or strike will happen when the series returns to the track in November.

What that means is once again 43 drivers will strap into their cars knowing the chances are very good they or their cars won't come back in one piece and that they'll have better odds of being involved in an accident rather than winning the race.

The odds are also pretty good that it will be the top story again on November 1st.

R.I.P. D.P.

If you're someone who follows NASCAR racing closely you certainly knew the name of David Poole, the veteran journalist who died of a heart attack on Tuesday. Poole was someone who made a name for himself in the sport by really following one simple rule -– being himself.

Poole, who covered motorsports for the Charlotte Observer for 13 years and was the co-host of a popular morning show on Sirius NASCAR Radio, made no apologies for being aggressive, somewhat crabby and straightforward in his job. He was never afraid to ask the tough question or being critical on any topic. His outrage over Talladega and his perceived danger of restrictor-plate racing in general the last few days was a fitting last reminder of how Poole approached his coverage of the sport.

Whether it was Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush or Brian France, the entire NASCAR world knew who he was and respected him for what he did. Poole was in many ways the conscience of the sport and viewed NASCAR in a lot of ways through the eyes of the fans.

Since his passing he's been referred to as the "Dean of NASCAR journalists," which I guess is a nice way to send Poole out. But I saw him as more than that, more than just someone who watched a race and then recited back to readers and listeners the events of the day.

David Poole was the soul of the sport, someone who saw it beyond a simple sporting event. He knew how much NASCAR meant to thousands of people who read his columns or listened to his radio offerings and was sort of the unofficial watchdog of the sport.

My heart goes out to his wife, their children and grandchildren.

The media centers will feel very empty in his absence and NASCAR in general will be much poorer because of it.