Dear NASCAR, a rule is a rule.

As some of you may have seen, when the field of today's Nationwide series took the green flag at Dover, pole-sitter Ryan Truex was not the first car to the start-finish line. Unless you were paying very close attention, the fact that Joey Logano inched ahead of him to the line would go unnoticed.

Start of today's NNS race at Dover

When I saw this, I rewound the recording and played it back several times, catching the point where the cars crossed the start-finish line. As the picture clearly shows, the nose of Joey Logano's 18 car beat the 20 car of Ryan Truex to the line. Restart rules state that cars are to stay in line until they've passed the start-finish line, and the leader of the race must cross the line first.

At Richmond this year, we saw second-place Carl Edwards jump the restart on Tony Stewart by a long shot, because Carl was unaware of the fact that he was in second. Carl was black flagged within laps as NASCAR deemed that he jumped the restart and beat leader Tony Stewart to the line.

Carl Edwards black flag, Richmond

Though the margin of Carl Edwards jumping the restart is far greater than Joey Logano's, did they both beat the leader to the line? Yes they did. Is beating the leader to the line a penalty? Yes it is. So, why is the penalty enforced in the event of a major rules infraction, but not a minor infraction?

If a professional basketball player steps three feet out of bounds, the ball is turned over to the other team. If that same player steps an inch out of bounds, the ball is still turned over to the other team. A rule is a rule: if a player steps out of bounds, no matter how small or large the margin is, the ball is still given to the other team. Shouldn't it be the same in NASCAR? Whether the second-place car beats the first-place car to the line by several inches or several hundred feet, did they still violate the rules? Yes.

My point is that NASCAR should be more concrete with the enforcing of their rules. A simple rules violation like Logano's today should not go unnoticed, just as stepping an inch out of bounds in basketball would not go unnoticed. There should be no grey area as there was today. NASCAR, all I'm saying is: a rule is a rule.

Don't you agree?