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Where NASCAR is concerned, my mind is a ball of confusion.

These words I'm writing on a Wednesday, not particularly different from any other Wednesday. The fireworks have subsided from the simulated Independence Weekend battle simulations. Food is mostly digested. Guitar is leaning against the couch, within reach. I expect it's going to take a music break to finish this column.

Vaguely, I remember Brad Keselowski winning in Daytona Beach and an Xfinity race on Friday night in which the outcome was determined by "trust us, we're right, as usual" NASCAR fiat.

Or maybe it was a NASCAR alfa romeo.

Que sera, sera.

The next race is in Kentucky, at a track where I once spent a month one week. I'm sure it's gotten better.

My weekly quibbles notwithstanding, the racing is satisfactory. It's not the racing's fault that Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn't won a race yet. It's not the racing's fault that Kyle Busch and Keselowski have won three. The Chase, hanging in the air like a full moon that most media outlets already think you can touch, will consist of 16 drivers, and all 16 are expected to drive cars, and 16 drivers and cars are more than enough to determine a just champion. In fact, 16 are enough to get in the way of a just champion.

It would be comforting if so many questions of NASCAR weren't still answered, "It is what it is." Beginning an answer "at the end of the day," at least provides some small measure of hope.

A straight answer is a needle in a haystack, the smallest fish in the vast Pacific, and a write-in vote in the presidential election.

At the end of the race, NASCAR officials won't say how much money was won or how many people were there. They'll get angry in the off chance that anyone questions their accountability. It won’t be I. I’ll not be there. I’ll read the transcripts, though, and be disappointed. Imagine how disappointed I’d be if I were there. You’ve a better imagination than I.

They get away with it. They have, though risk and reward, guile and intimidation, money and power, molded their world to suit their needs, and it's always been the case ever since the Streamline Hotel in 1947.

They’re just got more lawyers now.

Ain't that America?