Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

With all of the events of last night’s race occurring on Halloween weekend, has this sport turned into a soap opera so to speak? Has it become “As NASCAR Turns”? The obvious plots are there, but there are sub plots as well. I will try to go into them here.

Seven debris cautions. We here in Canada like to muse “good ole Jacques Debris has made an appearance”. Seven seems really excessive. Throw in the fact the debris wasn’t shown on all occasions and heads begin to scratch by the populace that is the NASCAR fan.

Clint Bowyer strangely putting his car into the wall when it appeared he had it saved. As he did in Fontana early in the year, the wreck in the last few laps of a race with Jeff Gordon leading has almost become expected. Couple that with Richmond last year where it was determined by NASCAR that Bowyer’s spin was intentional to prevent Gordon for getting into the Chase. Was it subtle payback for their feud a couple of years back that culminated in Phoenix with Gordon wrecking Bowyer?

Brad Keselowski today must feel alone on an island. All I can say is “wow”. I am not sure he has any allies at the moment save his team mate Joey Logano. Let’ put a list together of who wants to put their hands around his neck:

Jeff Gordon

Matt Kenseth

Ryan Newman

Kevin Harvick

Tony Stewart

Denny Hamlin

Carl Edwards

Kyle Busch

Kasey Kahne

That’s a lot of wins, a lot of championships amongst that group that have issues. This is just off the top of my head. Somehow with all the expertise amongst these veterans of the sport, should Keselowski advance to Homestead, he is not winning the championship. He has too many enemies. Unlike Dale Earnhardt who was respected for the way he raced, I get the sense that the driver of the blue deuce is not. No one fears him. Earnhardt would not only stick you in the fence, he would give you a whoopin’ in the garage too.

As NASCAR turns. It has a ring to it and now we have to ask if all of the extra stuff is adding or detracting from the actual racing.

Michael Eliadis is a contributor at beyondtheflag.com and on the FanSided network. Please be sure to follow us on Twitter: @Beyond_the_flag and “Like” us on Facebook