No No Its Ok For The Super Bowl To Be Only One Half - Just Read OUR Rules - NASCAR

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. February 21, 2003; Jenna Fryer writing for the AP reported that fans and drivers weren't the only ones disappointed with the rain-shortened Daytona 500.

As it turns out, NASCAR also wasn't thrilled with the early end to its biggest race of the season.

"It's our Super Bowl, too, and the way it ended was personally disappointing to me," Winston Cup director John Darby said Friday. "After watching the race that long, it had just reached a point where it was all starting to come together and was about to get interesting."

Michael Waltrip won Sunday's race when NASCAR called it after a second hour-long rain delay. The event ended 91 laps short of its scheduled 200.

Waltrip had no qualms about winning that way, but there was some grumbling over the decision from others in the field.

Because 109 laps had been completed, the race had passed the halfway point and was considered an official event. With no evidence that the rain would let up, NASCAR officials determined it would be impossible to resume on Sunday.

Coming back on Monday to finish it was not considered an option because the event was already official.

"The general practice that we've always been pretty solid about, that's no big secret and is not going to change, is that if we get past halfway and you can't complete it that day - that's it," NASCAR president Mike Helton said.

Darby said NASCAR made the only decision it could, based on the rule book.

"As bitter and disappointing as it might seem, our decision is in black and white," he said. "If we make an exception because it is the Daytona 500, then later in the season when we are in the middle of 20-straight weeks of racing, we've opened up a can of worms when we try to come back on a Monday to finish a race that is already official."