There were two unfortunate occurrences at the Pepsi 400 at the Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

First, Dale Earnhardt Jr. reneged on his pledge to his DEI teammate Michael Waltrip to help him win the race. He had told him that in the drivers meeting.

Waltrip had run interference for Dale Earnhardt Jr. twice in helping Earnhardt Jr. win last year’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21.

Earnhardt Jr., running second to Waltrip with three laps remaining, elected to go for the win by sailing up the outside groove. He said that’s what his late father, Dale Sr., would have done and he also felt he owed it to his crew to go for the victory.

It turned out to be a big mistake as three cars passed him to the inside as he got hung out to dry. Waltrip won the race and Earnhardt Jr., who would have probably finished second if he had upheld his pledge, finished sixth.

This was poetic justice.

If you tell a teammate you are going to help him or her win, you must stick to that.

If not, you’ve broken a valuable trust which is very important to the success of the team.

Earnhardt Jr. said later he decided he would help Waltrip only until the final 10 laps.

Teammates should race each other for the win. I would have agreed with Earnhardt Jr.’s decision if he hadn’t told Waltrip he would help him win.

Or if he had said he’d help him until the final 10 laps.

If teammates do race each other for the checkered flag, they should be somewhat controlled because they don’t want to take each other out and allow somebody else to pass them.

The second issue, which resulted in angry fans pelting the speedway with anything they could get their hands on, was the fact the race finished on a caution flag.

A caution flag came out with three laps to go and it was decided by NASCAR officials that they didn’t have time to clear the track of debris and set up a one or two-lap dash to the finish.

The fans are the primary reason the Winston Cup series is flourishing and they were understandably livid. They paid good money to see a thrilling race and to have it finish on a caution is anticlimatic, to say the least.

Every Winston Cup race should involve a two-lap dash to the checkered flag.

One announcer said it could have created a dangerous situation with all those cars bunched up with two laps to go.

But it’s up to the drivers to race with some semblance of self-restraint.

It’s a long season, 36 races to be exact, and it’s important that drivers respect each other.

They don’t have to like everyone they race against.

But payback in auto racing can lead to injury and also endangers everybody else in the field.

Family Feud meets Twilight Zone

Doesn’t the battle over the body of late Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams turn your stomach?

His son, John Henry Williams, apparently wants his father’s body taken to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona to be frozen.

Williams’ daughter, Bobby-Jo Ferrell, said her father wanted to be cremated.

She insists her half-brother wants to sell their father’s DNA for profit.

The danger here is if the DNA did produce another human being, it could produce another John Henry Williams.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231 or by e-mail at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.