Pictures Are Perfect to Decide This Finish

Candid cameras -- used by spectators -- essentially determined the outcome of a race that was thisclose back in 1959.

Historians got to thinking about it after Ricky Craven had won NASCAR’s Winston Cup race at Darlington, S.C., last Sunday. Craven’s victory, by about three inches, or .002 of a second, over Kurt Busch was called “the smallest margin since NASCAR introduced electronic timing in 1993.”

But it couldn’t be called the smallest ever because in 1959, in the first Daytona 500, the margin between Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp was so close it took three days to determine that Petty had won.

With no finish-line camera, Bill France called on anyone who had taken a picture of the finish to show him.

After studying all of them, he decided Petty had won.

Trivia time: Which Atlantic Coast Conference school has never reached the Final Four?

Win-win: This just in. All scholarship athletes who entered Stanford from 1992 to ’95 graduated within six years.

And, in other stunning news, every day of the week still ends with the letter Y.

Kidding aside, Stanford deserves the kudos because it is the only school in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament to accomplish that feat.

“The university and athletic department share the same mission: We admit student-athletes, not the reverse,” Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland told Bloomberg News.

Get over it: Former Watford striker George Reilly, who scored the game winner against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup soccer semifinal in England, had his right ear bitten off by a fan of the losing team earlier this week.

Did we say the game was played in 1984? We repeat ... 1984.

Reilly, now a bricklayer, was working on a site in Corby, England, when a fellow worker attacked him, and according to media reports, said the word, “Plymouth,” into Reilly’s other ear before making his getaway.

“I can’t believe someone held a grudge for that long,” Reilly told the Sun tabloid newspaper in Britain. “I know people have strong loyalties, but this is taking it a bit far.”

Hatchet buried: This could be a reality show. Strong-willed friends fall out, feud continues for several years, then the antagonists meet and make up in time for newspaper deadlines.

Former star Charles Barkley and Phoenix Sun chairman Jerry Colangelo are friends again, apparently.

“The bottom line is, we did meet and we agreed to bury the past and move forward,” Colangelo told the Arizona Republic. “Charles said it has been a burden on his heart for some time, and he really missed the feeling of being welcome and comfortable here.”

Trivia answer: Clemson. Note: UCLA beat Florida State, 81-76, in the 1972 championship game. Florida State joined the ACC in 1991.

And finally: Two runners, on a quest to complete marathons on all seven continents, recently put a checkmark next to Antarctica and have three more to go.

“I’ve got a great picture of us running down the road with a penguin waddling along next to us,” Bob Bundschuh told the Kansas City Star.

-- Lisa Dillman