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NASCAR America: Why NASCAR was right not stepping into Sunday’s drama (video)

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The only party that should be making up the unwritten rules in NASCAR are the drivers according to Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton.

Depending on which driver you may be a fan of, some of you may have felt NASCAR should have stepped in to act as referee in some of the dramatic episodes of Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

There was plenty of drama to go around, including the Denny Hamlin-Chase Elliott tangle late in the race that potentially could wind up costing Elliott a chance to advance to the championship round at Homestead. What happens if Sunday was his best shot, and Hamlin took it away?

There also was the Kevin Harvick-Ryan Blaney “discussion” after the race, although the two kept banging fenders throughout the race.

On Monday’s edition of NASCAR America on NBCSN, analyst Jeff Burton gave a very eloquent take on why NASCAR was right not to get involved (the whole video is above). Here’s part of what Burton had to say:

JEFF BURTON: “NASCAR is not going to step on, nor should they, and set a rule that says if you spin this guy out on purpose, we’re going to penalize that. If you start that, you’re judging events, you’re judging racing. That is not good at all. … It’s the values between one driver and another driver. If you’re a Denny Hamlin fan and he won the race, they’d be saying ‘my guy did what he had to do to win and I’m proud of him.’ Other people would say ‘that was ridiculous, it was uncalled for.’ … In this case, you’re going to have different opinions within the driver community, but clearly, wrecking someone to win a race or win a championship is going to be viewed as pushing a line. But we’re defining these rules as this playoff format develops.”

Do you agree with Burton’s take?