Chasing the Dream; NASCAR is suffering from some small fields.

Byline: AL PEARCE NASCAR had seen enough. One half-speed lap without a crew or pit tools convinced officials Joe Ruttman wasn't all that serious about the Subway 400 at Rockingham. So they parked him after one mile of "competition" at the North Carolina Speedway. His last-place payoff was $54,196-for one mile.

By contrast, third-place Jamie McMurray ran 400 miles, used about 15 sets of tires and earned $96,425. "That was sort of a sham, and we don't condone it," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said of the incident. "That shouldn't be the way drivers go ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.