LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.

In his state-of-the-sport speech last month at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR Chairman Brian France insisted that changes would be made to the Nextel Cup Series' championship format to bring more excitement to the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup."

In other words, France was preoccupied with finding a way to add more artificial drama to the three-year-old Chase format that he concocted as an attempt to steal Sunday television viewers away from the NFL.

Instead of fretting about the entertainment side of the sport, France should be directing his underlings in Daytona Beach to shore up the competitive side of his family's racing empire.

Sunday's race at the Watkins Glen International road course highlighted a glaring problem with NASCAR's pit-road rules that might just have cost 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch a berth in the Chase.

Busch, a Las Vegas native, was attempting to pit his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge midway through the race when a caution flag came out. Busch's car was approximately two car lengths from the pit-road commitment line when the yellow was displayed and the pits closed.

Busch, perhaps unable to see that pit-road light had changed from green to red because drivers sit so low in their cars, continued with his pit stop and was penalized by NASCAR for pitting while the pits were closed. Leading the race at the time he stopped and clearly driving one of the cars to beat, Busch was sent to the rear of the field - 40th place.

Busch later was involved in a minor accident while running at the back of the field and was relegated to a 19th-place finish after leading 31 of the first 54 laps.

A NASCAR official, after reviewing a tape of the pit-road incident, said Busch had plenty of time - a whole "two seconds" - to avoid entering the pits and getting back onto the track. Or, he could have continued through the pits at pit-road speed (35 mph) without stopping and blended back into traffic.

Although Busch's spotter shares some of the blame for not informing Busch or his crew chief, Roy McCauley, that their driver entered the pits after they had closed, NASCAR needs to step up and address the problem with the pit-road light.

A green, yellow and red system, like the one used for the past 100 years or so on our city streets, would be a good start. Or, just have the green light flash for a few seconds - long enough for a driver or his spotter to notice - before it turns red.

Fortunately for NASCAR, it was Kurt Busch who got hosed by this latest rules glitch. Can you imagine the backlash from fans and media had Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a similar fate and dropped out of the top 10?

Getting to the point

Two-thirds of the way into the season, the championship battles in each of the NHRA's four professional categories remain too close to call.

In fact, the largest lead enjoyed by any class leader is the 83-point cushion Jason Line holds over Summit Racing teammate Greg Anderson in Pro Stock.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Antron Brown leads Andrew Hines by a slim 15 points, while Chip Ellis (45 points back) and Angelle Sampey (51 points off the pace) remain within striking distance.

In the two nitro classes, Ron Capps leads John Force by 48 points, and Doug Kalitta holds an 81-point advantage over Tony Schumacher and Melanie Troxel.

The tight points battles have to come as welcome news to the officials at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which hosts the penultimate race of the NHRA season, the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, Oct. 26-29.

The 2002 fall race at The Strip saw world championships decided in three of the four pro classes (Top Fuel, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Victories by female drivers this season in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series (Angelle Sampey, 3; Melanie Troxel, 2)

Victories by Hispanic drivers this season in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series (Tony Pedregon, 3; Cruz Pedregon, 1)

Victories by black drivers this season in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series (J.R. Todd, 2; Antron Brown, 2)