You'd be hard pressed to find someone who hated the uncertainty of NASCAR's red flag rule more than Sterling Marlin.

Two weeks ago, when a race was red flagged -- meaning NASCAR officials parked the cars on the track to clean up a wreck before restarting the race at full-throttle under the green flag -- Marlin had to get out of his car to pull his fender away from his tire so the tire wouldn't blow when he gunned his engine. Had the race ended under a yellow, the tire rubbing against the fender wouldn't have been a problem. His tire probably would've gone flat, but he still could've paraded around the track long enough to win.

	Sterling Marlin felt he had been bitten by NASCAR's rule-bending in two straight races.

One week ago, when NASCAR threw a yellow flag with five laps to go and allowed the race to end under the yellow flag, choosing to bench the red cloth this time, Marlin finished second to Matt Kenseth without an opportunity to stage a challenge for the victory.

Two weeks ago, NASCAR said there was enough time to blend excitement and safety. Last week, they felt they could only have one at the cost of the other.

Although it is quite possible NASCAR made its decisions based on the right things -- a blend of entertainment and safety -- it did not make the decision based on consideration for the teams.

For even if NASCAR achieved its desired balance, its inconsistent ways of ending races prevents teams from drumming up strategies because they don't know what will be thrown at them if there's a wreck late in the event. If a field goal is worth three points on one possession and just one point on another, how could a football coach decide when to go for it on fourth or bring on the kicker?

"It's hard to make a call if you don't know what's going to happen next," Marlin said. "Whatever they want to do is fine with me, I guess, as long as they make it consistent and keep it that way."

That, to the drivers and teams, is the real issue. Who cares whether the race stops or continues? Just don't bite me one week with a stop and bite me the next by continuing. And the drivers believe a consistent rule can be determined without compromising entertainment or safety.

"I think NASCAR has always done their very best to put on a good show," Jeff Burton said. "In my opinion, NASCAR does a better job than all other forms of motorsports of understanding that the reason we have racing is so people can come and watch it. That's how we make this program bigger. (But) what they won't do and what does make it confusing is that they're not going to say that every single time we're going to do this in a red-flag situation."

Two possible solutions have been batted around the garage area to achieve this much sought-after consistency. The first way, though, still stirs debate: NASCAR could ensure that a race end under the green by extending it. For instance, last week NASCAR claimed that if it were to stop the cars, clean the wreck, open pit road for repairs and then restart, there would only be one lap left for green-flag racing. But give NASCAR the ability to extend the race another two or three laps and there would be enough time for a safe, exciting green-flag restart.

The problem with that, however, is it still disrupts teams' strategy. If a team decided not to pit with 40 laps to go because they can make it 40 or 41 laps with the fuel they have, to extend the race would force them to pit for fuel and restart at the back of the field with only three laps to go.

"I don't agree with the green-white-checker deal," Burton's crew chief Frank Stoddard said, referring to extending the race by one green flag lap, one white flag lap and then end with the checkered. "I think we figure the race on being a 500-mile race and it becomes real pivotal when it comes to fuel mileage."

But the second solution, although sometimes compromising excitement, will offer consistency. NASCAR could simply set a number of laps to go (and the number could be different for short tracks and long tracks to account for how much time it takes the drivers to complete one circuit) that would act as a cut-off. For example, if the yellow comes out with seven to go at a short track or five to go at a long track, a race can probably be red-flagged and restarted for at least a three-lap shootout.

"I don't care how they decide to end it," Johnny Benson said. "If they have to stop the race or we go green-white-checker it doesn't matter to me. It's their call. If they want to do the red flag thing, then let's do it every week. I'm not sure why they did what they did (last week). I'm sure they had their reasons. I think the bottom line is they just need to be consistent in whatever they do."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.