But the entire broadcast was ruined with an ill-timed set of commercials. And if you watched, you know which ones I’m talking about.

The race is 90-plus laps old, only a handful are needed to make the race official. Rain is on its way, creeping closer. The strategy reflects this; that’s why Jeff Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte elected not to pit.

The race finally goes official with the completion of the 100th lap. On lap 101 or 102 (can’t remember which), TNT decides to break for commercials.

“They’re going to miss the yellow,” I told my wife.

After the final commercial, they quickly cut back to live action. We see the field on the front-stretch behind the pace car and the yellow flag.

What on earth were they thinking? Someone in the truck dropped the ball — badly.

Here’s what we knew before the final yellow: Rain was imminent. Gordon was leading, but Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. were closing quickly. How could you go to break in that scenario?

Viewers were prevented from seeing the turning point of the race: Newman’s near-pass of Gordon as the yellow was displayed. Instead, we had to watch a replay of it.

And the networks wonder why people are disgusted with how the races are presented on TV…

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Evidence 1A.

• NOW, AS I WAS SAYING about eating my words:

Pocono racing is usually not very eye-catching. But that final push to the checkered was some of the best on-track action we’ve seen this year.

Yes, there’s a difference between good racing and good drama, so I maintain that the racing wasn’t great. But as the strategy played out and Letarte’s unreal gamble paid off, it was must-watch TV.

So I’m sorry, Pocono. Kind of.

• DENNY HAMLIN WAS PRETTY CALM for a dude who lost the race because of a bad call on pit road.

Hamlin, who swept Pocono last year as a rookie, again had the car to beat. But on the final caution before the rain — where Gordon stayed out, giving him the win — Hamlin pitted and took four tires.

Nearly everyone else took two tires, leaving Hamlin in the mid-20s. He drove his rear end off, cruising through the field to finish sixth. But the race was the No. 11’s to lose, and they did.

“In hindsight, the risk wasn’t worth the reward. When you get back there, you have to really burn up the brakes and run your car hard — harder than I’d like, especially how good it is,” Hamlin said. “You never know how many cars are going to take two or none, so you don’t know that. We take the smart, conservative approach and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

A few more races like that and Hamlin may start hollering for a crew chief change. Hey, it happened already.

(Photo by Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

Busch had a run-in with Tony Stewart on Monday at Dover. Both drivers wrecked their rides. Busch took the confrontation one step further when he pulled alongside of Stewart on pit road, forcing one of Stewart’s crew members to jump out of Busch’s way.

Through the week, there had been speculation that Busch would be parked for a race — his stunt on pit road led to NASCAR parking him at Dover. But no suspension came of it; instead, Busch was docked 100 driver points, Roger Penske lost 100 owner points and Busch was fined $100,000.

(We can only wonder if Busch yelled for his mommy and screamed as Mike Helton announced his verdict.)

So, he’s racing at Pocono at least.

But then Busch wrecked in Friday’s practice and is now going to a back-up car — at least it happened before qualifying.

OK, so that’s not quite as bad as the pen. Busch will start 27th.

• HEY, WE’RE BACK AT POCONO: Ready for five hours of ugly racing on Sunday?

Even Kevin Harvick admitted that Pocono isn’t as fun since the drivers don’t shift going into Turn 1 anymore.

“It’s not really as fun, but it’s still challenging to get your car to work,” he told SceneDaily. “You’ve got to get off of Turn 3 to make time down the front straightaway, and Turn 1 is really bumpy. So it has different challenges, but it’s just not quite as challenging as it used to be.”

It’s not as fun for Harvick and it’s not much fun for anyone. Traffic is miserable (even more so than your standard Cup circus) and the race takes forever to finish because it’s nearly impossible to run 20 laps without someone wrecking.

On the bright side, Kyle Petty will debut in the TV booth on TNT. That should be interesting, as Petty is one of the most knowledgeable people around.

(Photos by Terry Renna/Associated Press [Busch] and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office via AP [Hilton])

Tony Stewart owns the place, literally, so there was no shortage of Cup stars: Carl Edwards (who held off Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon for the win), Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman were there. So were Truck series drivers Aric Almirola, owner Ray Evernham and NHRA drivers Ron Capps and Cruz Pedregon. In the photo to the right, that’s Kevin Harvick leading Pedregon.

In the few pictures I’ve seen, the cars were mocked up to look just like their Cup counterparts, a pretty cool deal.

Stewart himself was knocked out on lap 17 in a wreck with Bobby Labonte. But it was just for charity — specifically, Stewart’s foundation and the Victory Junction Gang Camp — so Labonte didn’t feel the need to seek Kurt Busch-style retribution. Plus, Labonte’s not that kind of guy.

And it’s hard to knock Stewart the day after. Twenty thousand people showed up to see the race, with that money going to charity.

We like to see these kinds of things because it reminds us that these drivers are human. Certainly, it’s not that much of a stretch, since the format only changed the cars and the surface. They’re all still professional drivers, after all.

But there’s a change-up aspect to it, more than the difference between Pocono and Richmond. It’s like when we watch golf and we see PGA Tour regulars hit it into the drink on No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course.

Hey, you think, I could do that.

Maybe you or I couldn’t drive a Cup car. I dare say we couldn’t, not without a lot of practice. But we’d probably adapt a lot quicker to modified car, even it was on dirt.

• A NOTE ON TOMORROW: As you may have read, Forest Park’s baseball team is heading off to Newport News for the Group AAA semifinals. I’ll be heading down there to cover the game, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to post.

It’ll probably be later in the afternoon, but I’ll make a concerted effort to get to it.

Since I usually try to post early in the afternoon, I figured the head’s-up would be appreciated. It’s either that or I post it during the game, which I’m certainly wouldn’t be appreciate by my bosses.

(Photo by Teesha McClam/Dayton [Ohio] Daily News via Associated Press)

Busch, unhappy with Stewart, skidded to a stop next to him on pit road. Busch came flying in with such velocity that one of Stewart’s pit crew members had to jump out of the way. NASCAR penalized Busch for rough driving and parked his car.

So, with that in mind, let’s preface the following opinion with this: It’s absolutely impossible to defend Busch in this instance, particularly for what he did on pit road. Of course, he had every right to be upset with Stewart — who’s never at fault for anything that happens around him — but to take it onto pit road is taking a giant broad jump over that proverbial line. He’s done enough to warrant a suspension.

Now that we have that behind us…

If — if — NASCAR suspends Busch for Sunday, that wouldn’t be a surprise. We harp on NASCAR for its lack of consistency; I remember seeing people being spun out on pit road under circumstances that are more than accidental. Yet, perhaps until now, Kevin Harvick remains the only big-name driver in recent memory to be issued a one-race suspension (and, if you’ll recall, that was for incidents that happened in the Busch and Truck series).

It may feel like I’m taking both sides of the argument: he deserves to be suspended, but he shouldn’t be. But that’s not the case. If Busch is suspended, then I’d think his actions are at least as severe as others we’ve seen — Stewart questioning the integrity of the sport, etc.

Of course, Stewart’s words didn’t have the capacity to bring direct physical harm to someone. And I understand that.

NASCAR seems to want to draw a line in the sand. They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.

But if that’s the case, then show us you’re done messing around. Legislate this silliness out of the sport. Get more liberal at parking people when they deserve it; and suspend whoever deserves it, whether it’s Morgan Shepherd or Dale Earnhardt Jr.

That won’t happen, because controversy equals ratings. And NASCAR doesn’t want to hear the complaints of fans and, more importantly, sponsors when their driver obliterates the envelope.

Maybe they will. Maybe if Busch is suspended, this will start a new era in which NASCAR really, truly cracks down.

Somehow, I doubt it.

(Photo by Terry Renna/Associated Press)