New Rule Not a Rule, a NASCAR Racin’ Deal

What in the world is going on in the
NASCAR world?

There have been some strange things
happening this year in NASCARland and it keeps getting stranger. When I think
I’ve heard all there is to hear about the wild and wacky NASCARland, up pops
another story that makes the whole group in Daytona Beach seem like the Keystone
Cops 2001.

We all know that there is no such thing as
a NASCAR rules book, don’t we? We all know that NASCAR keeps it’s headquarters in
Daytona Beach so it can write the Winston Cup rules in the sand, don’t we?

The fans of Winston Cup for years have
wanted to see a green flag finish to the races and for years NASCAR kept telling
us they couldn’t do that if there was a late race caution. It would finish the
races under the yellow flag because it always runs the races the advertised
distances, unless of course, it rains. Then it doesn’t matter. And despite the
fact that the Craftsman Truck Series always runs at least two green flag laps at
the end of each and every race, the big leagues of Winston Cup just couldn’t do
it. They might run out of gas you know.

That was until recently.

More and more with a late race wreck
NASCAR has thrown a red flag to ensure that the fans would see a green flag
finish. But still NASCAR justified their actions by saying that the conditions
warranted stopping the race because the track was blocked or some other excuse.
Anything but what they wanted to really say… "We are going to end this
race under green."

All of that may have changed. We may well
see green flag finishes from now on, but it was NASCAR’s idea. It always has to
be NASCAR’s idea or nothing gets done.

Recently at Richmond earlier this month,
NASCAR threw a red flag for a situation that wasn’t considered to be that
serious, at least the track wasn’t blocked, no long cleanup difficulties and
really no excuse to throw the red flag. It certainly wouldn’t have brought out a
red flag had it been earlier in the race.

Well good news folks.

Mike Helton said NASCAR will continue to
throw a red flag late in races at its discretion instead of running caution
laps, so it can have the potential for a green-flag finish.

Helton said no rule will be made because
there isn’t a way to make a uniform rule. To say that the red flag would come
out for any caution with 10 laps or less left in race could mean a wide range of
miles to race. Ten laps at Martinsville or Bristol would be about five miles,
but 10 laps at Daytona would be 25 miles.

Why is it that every time Mike Helton
speaks, I have to run the statement through my handy dandy "What the heck
did he say checker" to decipher the double talk?

I think it’s great, but don’t call or
write to NASCAR to let them know that you think it’s a good idea, you never see
it happen again.

A new rule that isn’t a rule.

Sounds like one of them "Racin’
Deals," as Richard Petty used to say.

Courtesy of Ron Felix at Insider Racing http://InsiderRacing.tripod.com