[media-credit name=”Credit: By John Harrelson, Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”245″][/media-credit]Watching the last two laps of the Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen unfold live left many holding their breath, sitting on the edge of their seats and wondering what just happened. There were wrecks, grass flying, taking and giving of the lead before one car came out unscathed at the finish line.

But upon various replays and testimony, the last two laps were anything but classic. It never should have unfolded that way. Kyle Busch was headed toward his second win of the season, first since May, and what would have been a much-needed good run. Instead his race ended like many have in the last two months, not at the front.

Coming to the white flag Busch started yelling on his radio that there was oil all over the track. He started sliding, fighting to keep his No. 18 M&M’s Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing on track. Behind him as the battle for second heated up between Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose, they too reported the track was covered in oil. They too started to slide around.

Busch never made it to the inner loop, sliding through the oil going through the ‘S’ turns he was hit by Keselowski and spun. He would, however, manage a seventh place finish. Don’t count on it being a silver lining as fights to make the Chase and sits outside of a Wild Card position. He needed Sunday’s win. Instead he leaves 14th in points heading to Michigan next weekend.

Afterwards as he left the track he said, “I have nothing good to say.” It was all the comment he would provide about the dramatic turn of events.

But others were saying plenty. Between the choruses of cheers and applause for what will go down as one of the best laps of racing at Watkins Glen, and perhaps the season, there were a few unhappy campers. Labonte had left plenty of oil on the track that it quickly became undrivable, however no caution was called.

Keselowski and Ambrose raced back for the finish. Swapping the lead, running off the track, sliding through the corners. It all looked good and fun, but inside the cars it was gut wrenching, muscle tightening, just trying to hang on and making it back in one piece.

As the two slide off turn six and headed for turn seven, either one could have won the race. Ambrose was able to turn his No. 9 Stanley Ford from Richard Petty Motorsports a little better to the right than Keselowski, who went sliding toward the wall in his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing.

Keselowski finished second, loving every minute of what just took place. It wasn’t a win but it was what he called great, hard racing. To him, all was right in the world.

“Just fun. We leaned on each other, we bumped each other,” said Keselowski afterwards. “We were both cool about it and didn’t dump each other. This is what I think racing in NASCAR is supposed to be, hard-nosed, going for the win, bumping and rubbing without any of that intentional wrecking nonsense. Marcos gets that. I enjoy racing with him.”

Keselowski believes that because of events that occurred on Sunday, it’s why NASCAR has become so popular. Hard to disagree, everyone loves a great finish. No one will forget the 1979 Daytona 500, or Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch at Darlington. Or the finish of the 2007 Daytona 500 between Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin as the field wrecked behind them.

And just like that Daytona 500, the debate will rage about why there was no caution. With cars sliding all over the track, some spinning out and Busch going from a three second lead to being spun out while in the lead, NASCAR officials let the race proceed.

At the time, it seemed ridiculous as it unfolded. Clearly the track was comprised, numerous drivers, including Keselowski and Ambrose, claiming that it became undrivable. But no caution was displayed. And considering that Labonte had laid down the oil before the white flag, the race wouldn’t have ended under yellow conditions.

There would have and should have been a restart. Either way, the fans would have gotten an exciting finish. Maybe the same kind of excitement that unfolded on Sunday, just with different circumstances and with track conditions that were ideal.

Ambrose, who called the ending chaos, admitted the track was covered in oil and initially thought he had blown up. Yet, he still said that NASCAR made the right decision to let the race play out.

“Big shout out to NASCAR, a lot of people saying should they have thrown a caution or not,” Ambrose said after the win. “No one wants to see these races finish under caution, bunched back up in these two-by-twos, make it a random finish.

“We had the three fastest cars duking it out for the win. That’s the way it should be and I think they made the right call.”

His statement will see mixed reviews. Double file restarts have often created exciting racing, Sunday playing its part. Off the race’s four caution periods, the restarts saw drivers taking advantage of the field being bunched up. That included Busch, who took the lead by going from third to first heading into turn one, having made it three wide.

But perhaps with all the cheering and breath holding that was going on, whether there should have been a caution and if the oiled mattered, will fall into the background. It was an exciting finish, which seems to be important to everyone. That it for what it was worth and hope for another one next weekend.

NASCAR, who have always found themselves in a “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” situation, did so again Sunday. But managing director of competition and Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said corner workers did not see oil on the track and he personally didn’t think it was that bad.

Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition, also told reporters at the track that they didn’t feel there was oil on the track. Had there been, they would have had to make the decision about a caution.

NASCAR had gotten reports of Labonte trailing smoke, not leaking oil. Therefore, no caution.

Additionally said Pemberton, “We didn’t get a confirmed report that there was oil on the track.”

[media-credit name=”Credit: By Tom Pennington, Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”237″][/media-credit]Marcos Ambrose is the King of the Road in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and his numbers at Watkins Glen prove it. In four starts prior to Sunday’s Finger Lakes 355, Marcos posted four top-5 finishes and went to Victory Lane in last year’s race at The Glen while posting an average finish of 2.2 in those four starts. When the race started on Sunday afternoon everyone’s eyes were on Ambrose who was the heavy favorite to back up his effort from 2011 and by day’s end he didn’t disappoint.

When the race went green. Juan Pablo Montoya led the field into turn 1 but Kyle Busch seized early control as he took over the lead for the first time of the afternoon. It was very apparent from the early going Kyle Busch had a strong M&M’s Toyota Camry pulling away from the field in the early going leading three times for a race high 43 laps on the afternoon.

Brad Keselowski proved to be very formidable all afternoon. Leading 37 circuits around the 2.45 mile road course. Ambrose,Keselowski, and Busch proved to be the class of the field all afternoon combining to lead 88 of the 90 laps and all three played a huge role in the race’s deciding lap.

Busch was in command coming out of turn 1 when his Toyota skidded sideways and Keselowski’s No.2 Dodge Charger caromed off the side of the No.18 car while taking the lead. Ambrose who had been patient all day long saw his opportunity. Coming out of turn 5. Ambrose used a bump and run to pass Keselowski to the outside heading into turn 6 and was able to hold off a hard charging Keselowski over the final two corners to score his second Watkins Glen victory in row.

Jimmie Johnson proved once again that he was back in championship form on Sunday. Johnson used a very quiet and workman like performance to score a third place finish and to take over the championship points lead by one point over Greg Biffle. Johnson,Ambrose, and the rest of the Sprint Cup Series heads to Michigan International Speedway next weekend for the Pure Michigan 400. Busch is the event’s defending champion.

[media-credit name=”Credit: By John Harrelson, Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]One of the craziest final laps we’ve seen in awhile needs some breaking down. A lot of different story lines made up the final lap. When the white flag flew, we all thought Kyle Busch was going to win. Halfway through the final lap, we thought Brad Keselowski was going to be the winner and after the final lap was over, we knew Marcos Ambrose was the winner. At a track where we’ve never seen a last lap pass for the win, we saw three Sunday afternoon in Watkins Glen. It all started when Bobby Labonte in the No.47 started leaking oil on the track with two laps to go, NASCAR saw the oil but they didn’t think it was enough to throw a caution so they let the leaders race back to the finish. Then taking the white flag was leader Kyle Busch followed by Keselowski and Ambrose.

Busch started to slip around heading down hill into turn one and that allowed Keselowski to catch him. By the time they were in turn two Keselowski was there and going up the esses Keselowski got into Busch spinning him out. That wreck cost Busch a race everyone thought he had won. Busch did manage to get going again and finish in the seventh position. After Busch was out of the way, Keselowski was the leader followed by Ambrose who was close in tow. Going into the inner loop, both Keselowski and Ambrose started to slip in the oil and both ran off course in the inner loop but managed to stay close to each other entering turn five.

Keselowski made a big slip in the oil exiting turn five and he got loose enough where Ambrose could pass him for the lead. Ambrose managed to clear him and they went off into turn six. In turn six, Ambrose got loose and slid off into the run-off area and Keselowski closed the gap. They were side by side going into turn seven but Keselowski slipped on the exit of the corner and Ambrose powered to the lead and crossed the finish line first.

The wrecking wasn’t done though, last week’s winner Jeff Gordon slipped in the oil and spun around in turn seven and he hit the inside wall before pit road. Gordon did re-fire and ended up with a 21^st place finish. The oil on the track cost Gordon his second wild card spot and now Gordon needs to win if he wants to get into the chase.

A wild, wild last lap at Watkins Glen resulted in a driver getting into wild card contention and another falling out. Some drivers will never forget this lap but some hope they forget about it soon.

[media-credit name=”Credit: By Jerry Markland, Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”232″][/media-credit]NASCAR once again further soured its reputation following the Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen by manufacturing the end of the race. Kyle Busch had the dominant car of the afternoon and made a daredevil move on the final restart to pass both Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose to take the lead. Busch had a pretty decent gap with about 4-5 laps to go.

The tide was just about to turn. Bobby Labonte blew up crossing the start finish line and no caution was thrown by NASCAR. Really? All of a sudden, Marcos Ambrose and Brad Keselowski began to close in on Busch significantly. Something had also broke on the No.18 car according to Keselowski which had begun leaking even more fluid on the race track. Busch went wide going into turn 1 and heading into turn 2, Keselowski made contact with the No.18 which sent him around and into the wall. Ambrose and Busch then duked it out for the win slipping and sliding in all the fluid.

Jeff Gordon did not have a good car all day long until the final run and had made his way up to 10th before heading into turn 11 on the outside of Matt Kenseth. Gordon hit oil and crashed. Gordon went from 10th to 21st on the final turn. NASCAR pretty much gave the finger to all the race teams and did this purposefully to create a manufactured ending. The objective of this was to have a surprise winner in the race. This can be seen as either a success or a failure depending on your personal definition of “surprise winner.” Now, you can’t blame NASCAR for what happened to the No.18 or the No.47?

You can blame NASCAR for putting the safety of the drivers in danger by not throwing the caution. Do any of you remember the 2004 MBNA “A Salute To Heroes” 400 at Dover? Casey Mears had blown up in the back straightaway and clearly had leaked oil all over the place. Kasey Kahne at the time was leading Mark Martin was on his way to his first career win. Kahne hit the oil coming into turn 3 and wiped out and numerous other cars crashed as well. Jeff Burton and Brian Vickers spun and collected some damage. Most notably, Matt Kenseth pounded the outside wall and had a decent car throughout the afternoon and he was none too pleased with NASCAR.

So, there is really only two explanations for what happened at the Glen this afternoon. Either NASCAR didn’t know about the oil (Fat Chance) or they let it go to create an “exciting” finish. I’m going to be quite frank with all of you and say outright that today’s race was boring. There was not much action at the front for the lead. If you don’t factor in green flag pit stops and how guys can get some extra points for running a couple extra laps, we really only had three leaders during the race. NASCAR’s objective was to keep the race green and let the oil change the result. It failed on all parts.

Busch spun off Keselowski. I don’t think oil factored in much to the equation of him spinning out. Yes, Busch was slipping in oil, but he attempted to block Keselowski’s attempt to take the lead and it failed. This created a scenario between Ambrose and Keselowski. If these two were to all of a sudden spin in the oil this would have also factored in Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, or even Sam Hornish Jr. into the equation.

All I have to say is this new 2013 model can’t come fast enough and I sure as hell hope it’s worth watching.