OPINION

By Matt Crossman

updated 11:43 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The manufacturers are going bankrupt. The sport lacks sponsors, Pettys and drivers with personality. At some point this year, there likely will be a race that doesn't have 43 cars, a distinction that perhaps matters little but would nonetheless be symbolic of the sport's struggles. Rain fell Sunday, prematurely ending the race. The sky fell all offseason for NASCAR.

What the sport needed was a Daytona 500 that would get race fans talking about something other than the economy. And that's exactly what it got — and it's not because Matt Kenseth won. It's because Dale Earnhardt Jr. electrified an otherwise relatively controversy-free Speedweeks by rear-ending Brian Vickers, causing a big wreck and further fueling a feud between himself, by far the most popular driver in the sport, and Kyle Busch, by far the least popular — or at least the driver rooted against most passionately. Busch's car was destroyed in the melee caused by the Vickers-Earnhardt crash.

"It was just unfortunate that two guys got together that were a lap down and were fighting over nothing," Busch said.

NASCAR will get something from that nothing. The controversy is sure to follow the sport across its opening weeks as the history between Busch and Earnhardt is revisited and hashed over. Last season, Busch and Earnhardt tangled twice — at the spring and fall Richmond races.

Earnhardt and Vickers have history, too; in 2006 at Talladega, Vickers won after causing a last lap crash that took out Earnhardt, who otherwise likely would have won.

On Sunday, with sullen skies overhead, Earnhardt was driving with uncharacteristic aggression, trying to make up for two mistakes he made on pit road. The first time, he never pulled into his pit stall because he didn't see the sign. The second time, he pulled in, but his right front tire was on the line, and because he never pulled completely in, he was penalized one lap.

Junior was still one lap down when the wreck occurred. He was chasing Vickers, who also was a lap down but in the "lucky dog" position — the first driver a lap down gets put back on the lead lap when the caution flag comes out (unless he is the reason for the caution). Earnhardt tried to pass Vickers low. Vickers moved down to block him, and Earnhardt, instead of slowing, hit Vickers, and the contact caused Vickers' car to turn right — never a good thing on an oval, and even worse considering the whole field was bearing down on him.

The incident re-ignited talk about favoritism, that NASCAR enforces two sets of rules, one for Earnhardt and one for everybody else. In Saturday's Nationwide Series race, driver Jason Leffler was penalized five laps for doing essentially the same thing Earnhardt did — at least that's how Vickers saw it.

"Typically, NASCAR would, in the past, black flag people five laps for (what Earnhardt did), but I don't know if they're going to do that today," Vickers said.

He was right; Earnhardt was not penalized. NASCAR's response: It was a racing accident, while Leffler's was intentional and avoidable.

Slideshow   Daytona 500 winners Take a look at every driver who has raced to victory in The Great American Race. more photos

Earnhardt blamed Vickers for sideswiping him and forcing him off the track and nearly into the grass. Earnhardt said he was trying to maintain control of his car and get it pointed in the right direction, and that if he had eased off the gas, he might've gotten hit by somebody behind him. "He ain't too happy about it, but what the hell, he was driving like a damn idiot," Earnhardt said.

Meanwhile, a disappointed Busch — the guy with the black hat to Earnhardt's white — said he was "100 percent" certain he would've won the race if not for the wreck. Busch, who led a race-high 88 laps, didn't name names in discussing the incident, but he didn't have to. "It's unfortunate that a guy that's messed up his whole day on pit road and screwed up that he has to make our day worse," he said.

Busch's day got worse, indeed. But NASCAR's got better.

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