LFL: Regan Smith Won 'Dega, Says Dale Jr.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.

Regan Smith may drive for the race team that Dale Earnhardt Jr. left in 2007, but that didn't keep the now-Hendrick Motorsports driver from taking Smith's side after last week's controversial finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

Smith, a rookie in the Sprint Cup series, was denied his first-career win after NASCAR declared his last-lap pass underneath Tony Stewart illegal and gave Stewart the win despite getting beat by Smith to the finish line.

I was thoroughly against the ruling, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his support of Smith clear and questioned NASCAR's judgment on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"In my opinion, the 01 (Smith) was forced below the line," Earnhardt Jr. said on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"The two did make contact – (Smith) was on the inside of Tony and he had no choice other than to move away from Tony and that sends him below the line and in my opinion, the 01 wins the race. I feel like Tony did what he had to do. In the car, everyone would have done what Tony did, everyone would have done what the 01 did. Neither one of them were wrong or right.

"What's curious is when are you forced? Show me some video. I want to know what's forced and what's not. I felt like that was being forced."

And can you argue with Earnhardt Jr.? His statement further exemplifies how confused drivers were on NASCAR's rule, and how they remain to be confused now even after NASCAR tried to clarify the rule this week.

Earnhardt Jr. especially took exception to the now-apparent policy of NASCAR saying that Smith should have either backed off and not gone for the win or tried to wreck Stewart.

"[Smith] can't sit there and hold his line," said Earnhardt Jr., who left DEI at the end of 2007 to compete for Hendrick Motorsports. "He's going to wreck Tony and probably wreck himself. That's ridiculous to expect someone to be that bull-headed about a situation like that and put everybody in jeopardy just to not be accused of passing below the line."

Ridiculous it is, Mr. Earnhardt.

A black and white playbook isn't a possibility in NASCAR, but something with much less gray with the current one is very possible.