Does NASCAR now care more about marketing than racing?

As the Victory Lane police waited in the winner's circle, Gordon stopped his car at the start/finish line, climbed out and saluted his cheering fans. As his team joined him around the winning car, Gordon then conducted his post-race TV interview on the track -- with NASCAR officials tugging at his shoulders, trying to nudge him back into his car and on toward Victory Lane.

And to make NASCAR officials even madder, there was not a Powerade bottle in sight.

Though Gordon insists his on-track celebration was a spontaneous reaction driven by the emotion of his fourth Brickyard 400 victory, he also admitted that he is a bit perturbed by NASCAR's recent actions and didn't care whether he went to Victory Lane or not.

"To me, we take away so much from these victories when we pull into Victory Lane and it's all about getting the interview and it's all about putting the hat on and it's all about mentioning the sponsor," Gordon said. "I just want to jump up and down and hang out with my guys. I lose that (feeling) so often, and I try to get it back, and today I did."

NASCAR's Victory Lane celebrations have become nothing more than boring, emotionless commercials. Why? Because the TV networks make the driver sit inside his car while they show half a dozen commercials. By the time they return to live action, all the emotion has been drained out of the moment. Instead of a spontaneous reaction, it's scripted, and it looks that way.

Now NASCAR is making the situation worse by creating a conflict of interest for many of its top drivers.

NASCAR created the conflict between Powerade and Gatorade by allowing Powerade, the "official sports drink of NASCAR," to place its large plastic bottles on top of the winning car each week. That, of course, is a problem for drivers who have personal services contracts with Gatorade or Pepsi.

To make matters worse, NASCAR allowed its sister company -- International Speedway Corp. -- to sell the rights to all its Victory Lanes to Gatorade. So now, at all ISC tracks, you have Powerade placing giant bottles on top of the winning car in Gatorade's victory lane.

For months, when a Gatorade-sponsored driver like Gordon, Johnson or Matt Kenseth exited their cars in Victory Lane, the first thing they did was grab a bottle of Gatorade and knock the Powerade bottles off their cars.

It sounds a bit extreme that they would go to such trouble, except for the fact that NASCAR apparently told them it was OK to do it.

That's what started this whole mess. First, NASCAR creates a conflict, then it quietly tells its drivers to work around it by just knocking the Powerade bottles off their cars.

When Gordon recently divulged that juicy tidbit, it no doubt created numerous problems for NASCAR, including some angry Powerade executives.

So now NASCAR is fining drivers if they touch those Powerade bottles or somehow block them from view of the TV cameras. In Gordon's case, he had to apologize Wednesday for not going to Victory Lane and kowtowing to Powerade.

Powerade, of course, is loving it, because it is getting more publicity now than it ever would have gotten without the controversy.

Sponsor rivalries have long been a part of NASCAR. Companies like Budweiser, Coors and Miller slug it out for exposure every week. And when Budweiser's driver wins a Miller-sponsored race, it's no big deal. The drivers just ignore the rival sponsor or work around it. There are no hard feelings, no controversies and, certainly, no silly fines.

But, in this case, NASCAR created a blatant conflict by selling the same piece of real estate to two competing companies and then trying to force all of its drivers to play along, even when it puts them in a compromising position.

Gatorade-sponsored drivers should not have to cater to Powerade, and vice-versa. Powerade should never have been allowed to place its promotional bottles on the cars of Gatorade drivers, no matter how much money it paid NASCAR.

NASCAR officials claim the drivers are disrespecting its sponsors. Maybe, but NASCAR is also disrespecting the driver's sponsors by shoving down their throats a product they don't -- and, contractually, can't -- endorse.

It's all a silly, petty, ridiculous soap opera -- one that makes you wonder if NASCAR really does care more about marketing than racing.

This week's prediction: Jeff Gordon. Gordon is coming off his biggest win of the season, is on another hot streak and is the all-time road-course king. He has won four times at Watkins Glen and dominated the road course event at Infineon Raceway in June for his fourth win there. He also has a habit of scoring back-to-back victories. Expect more of the same this weekend.

Also keep an eye on: Robby Gordon. Another road-course ace, Gordon won at Watkins Glen last year, when he swept both road-course races. Robby was off at Infineon, where he wrecked more than once and stumbled to a 34th-place finish. Gordon will be determined to make sure that doesn't happen again. He will likely be Jeff Gordon's biggest threat.

Dark horses: The road-course ringers. Eventually, one of these road-racing specialists is going to win a Nextel Cup event. Ron Fellows, Boris Said and Scott Pruett are all racing at The Glen, and with good teams. Fellows has won Busch and Craftsman Truck races at Watkins Glen and has been a contender in Cup events. He will suit up for Dale Earnhardt Inc. this year. Pruett, driving a Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge, finished second at Watkins Glen last year and was third in June at Infineon. Either could pull off a major upset.