NASCAR back in Victory Lane

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bashing NASCAR has been easy pickings the last few seasons.

With its changing formats, confusing rulebook, subjective scoring, sinking ratings and miles upon miles of mindless left turns, NASCAR has taken its lumps in its ascent to the top of American auto racing.

Now it’s time to give credit.

An exciting opening month has pumped much-needed life into NASCAR, which has so far delivered on its pledge to return to basics. Decent racing, strong personalities and some juicy dramas have suddenly made it fun again.

The past week proved that.

It started with a flurry of activity from the NASCAR appeals committee. The group issued a handful of rare reversals on season-opening penalties, including a whopper that likely saved Robby Gordon’s season.

In rescinding the 100-point deduction to Gordon and lifting his crew chief’s six-week suspension, Gordon is no longer in danger of having to fold his team because of the errant front bumper at Daytona.

Then NASCAR hammered Carl Edwards, stripping him of his points lead because the cover was missing from his oil tank following last week’s win in Las Vegas. In its harshest penalty yet, Edwards was also docked the 10 bonus points he earned with the win and would have carried into the championship race.

And then things got really interesting.

Toyota executive Lee White, long silent while Jack Roush has railed against the Japanese automaker’s inclusion in NASCAR, pounced on the opportunity to tweak the team owner. In intimating that the Roush Fenway Racing team deliberately cheated in Edwards’ Vegas win, White sounded a message the rest of the garage subscribed to.

As driver after driver lined up to assail Edwards’ team, Roush grew enraged and focused most of his furry on White, who once worked for the car owner.

“I was not complicit, Carl Edwards was not complicit … and I’m going to treat Lee White and Toyota for their accusations like they were an ankle-biting Chihuahua and be done with it,” Roush grumbled.

The backbiting was fascinating to watch, and joined Gordon’s appeals saga and the drama over Edwards’ illegal win and ensuing punishment as yet another headline-grabbing moment for NASCAR.

White got the last laugh in this latest battle with Roush, from Victory Lane, where Toyota spent Sunday night celebrating Kyle Busch driving a Camry to its first Cup win. Busch had to beat five Roush cars to do it, including fourth-place finisher Greg Biffle.

“I’m a little overwhelmed,” said White, the vice president of Toyota Racing Development. “Everybody associated with this organization are at a level of people that I have rarely been associated with in four decades.”

The excitement didn’t end when the winner crossed the finish line, either.

Tony Stewart led a trio of NASCAR stars in railing against Goodyear and the underwhelming tires the manufacturer brought to Atlanta. The criticism from Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was so intense, Earnhardt encouraged reporters to attend Monday’s tire test at Darlington Raceway.

Of course, he wasn’t one of the three drivers participating. But in crashing the test for Gordon, Biffle and Ryan Newman, Earnhardt turned a nondescript event of unmarked cars making individual runs into a media attraction.

It’s been that kind of month for NASCAR, which can’t seem to do much wrong right now. Aside from the debacle three weeks ago in California – where NASCAR foolishly tried to outrun the rain and started the event when the track wasn’t ready then stubbornly tried to squeeze in the race between showers – everything else has been on the money.

And the ratings reflect it. Sunday’s race in Atlanta scored an overnight rating of 5.6, up 19 percent from last year. Of the four events this season, only California – which ran on a Monday morning because of rain – did not post increased ratings over 2007.