Lowe’s Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler seems to have become increasingly frustrated at how much of the blame for what happened in the Oct. 15 UAW-GM 500 at his track is being dropped in his lap.

On Friday at Martinsville, Va., Jeff Gordon said tracks should not be allowed to alter their surfaces without consulting drivers, NASCAR, Goodyear and other experts.

The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer noted Gordon’s comments in Saturday’s paper, and on Monday, Wheeler sent another e-mail about Gordon’s remarks. Wheeler listed eight types of consultation the track did before grinding the track with a machine from Arizona-based Pennhall Co. That included, Wheeler said, “extensive consultations” with NASCAR and Wheeler’s conversations with several drivers.

“The problem was NOT technically the track,” Wheeler insisted. “It was probably the best prepared in the history of this speedway. How could we break the all-time record it if was not?”

Indeed, speeds were significantly higher on the ground surface than before. The track record jumped 5 mph from last October to this fall.

“I am and will not accuse anybody of totally causing this problem,” Wheeler said. “I am just tired of getting all of the blame.”

Fair enough, but Wheeler needs to know that he’s not going to get absolution, either.

The fiasco that was the UAW-GM 500 happened because everybody involved thought about how things might work out and not enough about how they could go awry.

The factor in the racing equation that changed most dramatically at Lowe’s Motor Speedway this year was the track itself, and Wheeler must accept that those changes contributed to difficulties in May and again in October.

It sounds easy to say that Goodyear should have tested tires after the May race, but the politics of tire testing in the Nextel Cup are complex. Teams want to test more than they’re allowed to, and for every team picked for a tire test, five or six other teams believe they weren’t selected because of some grand conspiracy.

NASCAR had ample opportunity to step in, too. In that post-midnight session with reporters, everyone involved acted surprised that the Cup race turned out like it did. But 24 hours earlier, the Busch race was a mess, too, and as far back as September, when Cup teams tested, cars were popping tires and hitting the wall.

The teams have a role, too. Every team plays with air pressure in every race, and as competitive as the sport is the boundaries of common sense are pushed beyond recognition. As NASCAR tightens rules governing suspension systems the teams ask the tires to do more and more work in terms of how cars handle.

Everybody needs to stop worrying about who gets blamed for what happened in the UAW-GM 500 and start making sure next year’s problem is figuring out who should get credit for fixing it.