Yes, he was running well and yes he was hanging around the front. But if the race doesn’t come down to fuel mileage, Mears doesn’t win. Period.

And this isn’t to take anything away from him. He crossed the finish line first, he won, and that’s that; that alone should be enough. No mysterious debris cautions to complain about, nothing that felt conspiratorial in any way.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it was a circumstantial win. Tony Stewart was in first and running away; Mears didn’t have as good a car as him or Dale Earnhardt Jr. A late-race caution and we’re looking at a completely different storyline.

Circumstantial or otherwise, it’s still a win. And Mears should be congratulated.

But until he starts showing a little more consistency, it’ll be nothing more and nothing less.

• YES, I ADMIT THAT I was pulling for Stewart. Come on, you mean it wouldn’t have been amusing to see Stewart in victory lane, praising Home Depot up and down?

At Lowe’s Motor Speedway?

The only thing that would have been funnier would have been listening to Jimmie Johnson have to explain why he got beat at his sponsor’s track by his sponsor’s biggest rival.

Where’s the fun if there’s no tension?

• HAD JEFF GORDON NOT CHECKED OUT early, I wonder if he would have dropped by victory lane to congratulate Mears.

I don’t mean to insinuate Gordon as a bad teammate. But knowing that Johnson and Mears are close friends, so it’s not a surprise he would stop by.

I just wonder if Gordon would have dropped by as well in a show of Hendrick unity.

• AS IT TURNED OUT, I didn’t get to see a second of the F1 race in Monaco. I didn’t even get to see the highlights, and that’s a little disappointing.

• AND LASTLY — just because I know you’re sick of seeing those bullets — I do apologize for the two-days-late rambling about the Sunday night race. I just had a lot to mention before I forgot it; we’ll get back to more timely irreverence tomorrow.

(Photo by Chuck Burton/Associated Press)