Full speed ahead for NASCAR

The transfusion of NASCAR into our bloodstream the last 10 to 15 years has been mostly painless. An occasional pinprick. A slow IV drip.

It seemed amusing to watch, especially from afar in California. Sure, there were a couple of races a year in Fontana. But the places it really mattered were populated mostly by people who still had Confederate flags around the house and began sentences with “Y’all.”

When marketing people started to call NASCAR stock car racing “America’s fastest-growing sport,” it was easy to dismiss as the hyperbole of some ad executive.

To those of us who grew up in the Midwest, the Indianapolis 500 was the American signature for fast cars. A day in May, with Sid Collins on the radio, describing every twist and turn at incomprehensible speeds, was as good as it would ever get.

Racing belonged there. No need to whistle Dixie.

How things have changed.

The sports pages were stuffed with NASCAR news last week. It was Daytona 500 week, but it was much more. It was conflict, controversy and a race that would not only be watched on television by 17.5 million people but would end in heart-pounding drama and fascinating controversy.

Quite possibly, they were talking as much NASCAR around the water coolers of L.A. on Monday morning as they were Kobe and the glitzy, overblown NBA All-Star game.

How did this happen? How did the Daytona 500 become America’s new pace car?

If the Indy 500, and Indy car racing in general, hadn’t already started losing ground to NASCAR, they shot themselves in the foot for good in 1996, when the circuit split into two factions. Now, if you can name five drivers in the Champ Car World Series and five in the Indy Racing League, you’ve been spending too much time with your carburetor.

The stock car circuit had done handsomely for advertisers of products targeted at those wearing blue collars that covered red necks. But it had moved on from there, into the three-piece-suit boardrooms of Madison Avenue.

The fan base was not only massive, but growing. Suddenly, NASCAR, which never would have marketed deodorant to millions who had never pondered the concept, had fans who would.

Still, as recently as six years ago, NASCAR’s imagery leaned to the good-ol’-boy mentality, which said, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying!”

Then Dale Earnhardt died.

NASCAR was faced with something so big it didn’t know how to handle it. Now it wasn’t just reporters from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or the Rocky Mount Telegram calling, but the New York Times. “Nightline” was as interested as Billy Joe Bob’s weekly “NASCAR Hour” on Saturday morning Charlotte radio.

Newspapers ran investigative series. Columnists who seldom stepped outside the lines of a baseball diamond or a football field got cranky. And soon, tracks were installing soft walls and NASCAR was mandating the use of HANS devices -- head and neck restraint systems.

Helton and NASCAR could no longer do as they pleased when they reported to a mostly friendly Southern media and an agreeable fan base. Now, the country wanted accountability.

Which brings us to last week and to Sunday’s race.

NASCAR sent five drivers out to race without their crew chiefs, each of whom had been suspended for rules violations. Five drivers also had points deducted before they’d even had a chance to earn any. Suddenly, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying!” was replaced by, “We cannot afford to embarrass our corporate sponsors.”

NASCAR had made it. It was now, beyond doubt, a big-time, all-encompassing national sport. The Fox TV numbers for Sunday were huge, a 10.1/20 rating/share that translates to several points higher in the rating category than the Kentucky Derby or the Masters.

Last year’s Indy 500 had about half the ratings. And the No. 3 city in TV ratings for the Daytona race Sunday, with a rating (21.6) more than twice the national average? Indianapolis.

The NASCAR show is here this week, with the Auto Club 500 on Sunday at Fontana. The California sell remains a bit rougher. The rating/share for the Daytona 500 in Los Angeles was 4.3/11.

But the Daytona finish will keep the interest high everywhere, no doubt.

Kevin Harvick won the race by the length of a Valvoline decal, edging out Mark Martin, a fan favorite. When Martin was leading on the last lap, an accident began directly behind him and Harvick. Soon, cars were flying around like dice on a craps table. But the yellow caution light didn’t go on until one of the cars flipped over and skidded down the track on its top. By then, Harvick had passed Martin and held on for the win.

The problem was, NASCAR rules dictate that the yellow caution light go on immediately for an accident, and that once the yellow comes on, positions on the track are frozen. That means, if normal procedure had been followed, Martin would have won, not Harvick.

The next few days will bring stories and commentary. There will also be stories about the irony of an organization spending the week preaching rules and enforcing them, and then not following them itself.

No matter. In our current sports world, buzz translates to bucks. For its transgression, NASCAR may be forced to apologize all the way to the bank.

The people at the Indy 500 can only wish they had these problems.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.