Tough to change rain-delay rules in NASCAR.

Byline: Dave Kallmann

MILWAUKEE _ After three months of anticipation and 10 days of buildup, to see the Daytona 500 end early and with the cars sitting silent on pit road has to be considered a huge anticlimax.

Ideally, all 500 miles would be run and the race would serve as a test of both endurance and performance for man and machine.

Everyone among the 180,000 on hand would get their hundreds of dollars worth, and a sizable TV audience would be spared the silliness that accompanied the two delays that preceded Michael Waltrip being declared the winner Sunday.

But let's deal in reality.

What happens when rain hits a racetrack? Like it or not, the action necessarily stops. And when that precipitation lingers, and all indications are that it will continue for 24 hours or more, at some point a decision needs to be made.

NASCAR's policy has been this: If a …