I think Marlin did this to Jeff Gordon at a race last year, or something like that. However, in that case, I seem to recall Gordon blocking for position and Marlin dipping down AFTER Gordon went for the block. In this case, Kenseth went for the block after Junior was already beside him and by then it was too late.

First off, there was plenty of room between he and Kenseth, so I don't buy the "avoiding an accident" claim.

Secondly, Junior "improved his position" as a result of going below the yellow line. Could he have done it without going below the yellow line? Maybe, but the rule doesn't state that. NASCAR has been very clear about this in the past (at least when they've ruled on it). If you go below the yellow line, without being forced below it (see my first point), and improve your position, you get black flagged.

Third, I'm not sure about all the cautions and all the going back to green stuff, but 8 laps to clean up a wreck? It takes about 3 min (IIRC from the broadcast) to get around Talladega during a caution, so that's 24 minutes. For what? I seem to recall it taking less time for them to fix the guardrail at Pocono last year after Park and Junior's spectacular crash. If you look down the line at the rest of the cautions, the longest one after that was 5, then a 4-lapper, and 3 3-lappers. So what's wrong with this picture?

Fourth, the Busch race was a farce. I can't count how many times I've seen NASCAR let a race continue with a car that has stalled and made its way off the track. I don't recall if the car had made its way off the track, but surely NASCAR could have told the driver something like, "Get your butt off the track or we're docking money and points" if they really wanted to, right?

Lastly, NASCAR indeed knows where their bread and butter is at. Junior puts butts in the seats. Junior sells merchandise. Junior is NASCAR right now, for better or for worse. And what better way to show how big he is than to help him be the only driver to win 4 straight Talladega races? I don't know if there is a conspiracy, but I'll go back to what I said earlier. NASCAR needs to tighten up some of their rules or else, like Revvingparson referred to #9, they're going to start looking more and more like the WWE.

Secondly, what does it matter how long I've thought about it? I have a life I have to live. NASCAR's life is NASCAR. These are decisions that they're supposed to be experts on, yet even as recently as TEX, they still don't know what the rule is about passing coming to the yellow flag. They don't even know their rule about spoilers. They held Steve Park in the pits until his team fixed a broken spoiler attachment, yet other cars were riding around all day with the same problem (all as a result of crashes or other beating and banging). And what about the ESPN article from #7 which points to last year's race and states, "[Junior's] car was found to be below the minimum height requirement after the race [yet he] was docked no points, kept his race victory and was fined less for the incident than a winning driver who had been found with the same infraction earlier that year." Again, no consistency and showing that NASCAR appears to have about as much understanding of their rules and regulations as NASCAR fans do: very little.

As for the pass, there was NEVER any question in my mind about a possible accident. I knew Kenseth never came down far enough for that to happen. Go back to #2 where I said, "Also, it could be argued that Junior didn't really HAVE to go below the yellow line to pass, but seemed to do so in order to make it as safe a pass as possible." But now that I look at that statement, that's exactly what NASCAR is supposed to regulate. You go below the line, even if it's to make the pass more safe than it normally would be, and you get black flagged.