Imrem: Motor sports mayhem must remain a possibility

Nobody has to tell me that this contradiction makes little sense and might even make me a bad guy.

But on the one hand, I don't want anyone to die driving a race car and on the other hand I want that to be a possibility.

Full disclosure: I'm not a car guy; If I worked on my SUV, the windshield wiper fluid would wind up where the brake fluid belongs.

I was curious who would win the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but the result wasn't paramount.

More intriguing about any race is that these people get into these cars even though they might be pried out dead.

Thank goodness nobody did at Daytona and Joey Logano won what seemed like a pretty clean race.

NASCAR overall is like the Wild West of sports, with all sorts of storylines emerging from the badlands.

The day before Daytona was run, driver Kurt Busch was suspended for allegedly committing domestic battery against the ex-girlfriend he has accused of being a trained assassin.

During the week Danica Patrick, auto racing's most prominent woman, engaged in a shouting match with fellow driver Denny Hamlin.

Kurt Busch's brother Kyle suffered a broken leg Saturday night after crashing into a wall in a second-level Xfinity Series race.

That last item led to me taking a personal inventory of my inner conflict: Endorsing safety measures but wanting catastrophe to lurk on every turn at every corner.

Fellow drivers raged over Kyle Busch's misfortune because NASCAR and individual tracks have been lax in installing what are called SAFER barriers along all walls.

Auto racing already has joined other sports that take safety measures.

For starters, Major League Baseball has nearly legislated the traditional beanball out of the game.

The NFL inches toward making it a violation to look sideways at an opponent, much less touch him.

The NHL has passed rules to limit fighting and is under pressure to eliminate it altogether.

Pretty soon, each will rival golf as a gentleman's game.

Rowdy, rambunctious, reckless NASCAR has been the last bastion of macho sports as we used to know them.

One attraction of a racing event - stock car or open wheel - is that something terrible might happen to a driver.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want - and don't think hard-core racing fans want - anybody to be killed like Dale Earnhardt Jr. was at Daytona in 2001.

Afterward, NASCAR initiated safety measures and good for them for doing so.

Still, doesn't whatever you want to call it - risk, danger, jeopardy - have to be at least part of this sport's appeal.

Maybe it always will be as long as dozens of cars gather on a track, go 200 mph in proximity to each other and are a bumper bump away from disaster.

So play along, fellas. Instead of tweeting about safety, let me maintain the image of guys nicknamed Intimidator, Outlaw and Fireball smirking, sneering and shrugging at worst-case scenarios.

After Kyle Busch's body broke in pieces, however, drivers turned to social media to complain about NASCAR being lax by mandating SAFER barriers later than sooner.

They're correct and should be concerned but I don't want to hear it. I prefer viewing drivers as fearless even if they aren't.

Auto racing won't be auto racing anymore if seems too safe ... not any more than pro football will be pro football if it seems too safe.