Okay so "rob" may be too strong of a word to use when describing what happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Saturday night in Richmond, but I'm willing to bet the farm that it's the cleanest word coming off the tongues of Junior fans after that debacle.

Just to reset, Denny Hamlin (a Joe Gibbs Racing driver) dominated the Crown Royal 400 all night.  He had a tire go flat with less than 20 laps to go and was passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead.  Junior pulled away from Kyle Busch (another Gibbs Racing driver) as Hamlin sank back through the field with his deflating tire.  Earnhardt was poised to take home his first win in 2 years, a span of 72 races before he was "Busch" whacked. 

First, Hamlin stops on the track with 7 laps to go.  He claimed he couldn't get to the pits.  The caution flag waved as Junior had built a sizable lead on Busch.  Somehow, Hamlin manages to drive to the pits once the yellow flag was waving.  NASCAR penalized Hamlin 2 laps for intentionally bringing out a caution.  Keep in mind, Hamlin's teammate Kyle Busch benefited from the caution flag.  He now was within striking distance of Junior on the restart.  Striking distance indeed.  A lap and a half after the green flag dropped, Busch had a clean run to the inside of Earnhardt.  Junior gave him room then tried to close the door on the outside heading into turn 3.  Busch didn't give Junior room.  The two bump.  Junior spins into the wall.  Busch whacked!

Earnhardt limped home 15th while Clint Bowyer held off Busch to pick up the "gift" victory.  While most Earnhardt fans will point the finger (not the index by the way) at Busch, He's not the real problem.  While he could have given the 88 car a little more room, it was an unfortunate incident between two hard racers.  The problem is with Busch's teammate Hamlin.  Busch commented that Hamlin deserved to win the race but his flat tire robbed him of the win.  Flat tires are part of racing, stopping on the track to get a caution is not.  NASCAR felt his deliberate act was worthy of a penalty.  That penalty didn't do Earnhardt any good.  Maybe NASCAR should look at penalizing teams to prevent "Busch" League racing.