Comments on: Ask The Insiders Wednesday #21

By: Robyn

Robyn — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:50:32 +0000

Apparently I was wrong about how mid race running orders are determined after a crash. Marty Smith cleared it up in his column today:

“Marty,

How do they determine finishing order when there is a big wreck and cars don’t return to the track? Thanks.

– Brian, Lewiston, Idaho

Good question, Brian. If the wreck occurs before the last lap, NASCAR reverts to the most laps completed in the least amount of time.

In other words, if Brian, Marty and 10 others run 170 laps and wreck, NASCAR reverts to the 170th lap — the last time they crossed the start/finish line — and if Brian arrived there before Marty did, and neither returns to the track, Brian is awarded the better finishing position. It’s time over distance.

At the end of the race when a big wreck occurs, NASCAR looks at the running order at the last scoring loop, and uses any and all available video to see where the cars were running when the yellow flag was displayed. “

By: Robyn

Robyn — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:22:08 +0000

RE: Question #5 from Mark

When the caution is thrown, the running order is set from the previous scoring loop as long as the cars maintain a reasonable speed. This is how I interpret how the field is set:

So those that had no damage, continued based on the order they were running at that loop. The cars that were behind the wreck moved past those that did in the running order. Next comes the drivers that were involved and were able to drive to pit road for service. Their order is determined based on how they exited the pits, just like under any caution. Then comes the cars that went behind the wall. The order is determined based off the order they were running in at the previous scoring loop. Since 9 cars went behind the wall, and Gordon was the 1st of those cars, he was scored 35th.

Gordon would not be penalized with a 43rd place position for “causing” the wreck, unless NASCAR determined that he was driving aggressively. The only position penalty that is usually given out is if you cause a wreck and are in line for the Lucky Dog, you will not recieve it. Then again, I don’t have a NASCAR rule book and am not one who makes, enforces, or lives the rules.

By: Jasson

Jasson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:14:04 +0000

Another add-on to Question #15 about stickers and waxes:

On last Monday’s episode of This Week In NASCAR, Chad Knaus did say that some teams go to the trouble of applying a clearcoat *over* the decals for their restrictor plate cars….

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:51:40 +0000

They actually talked about George’s number 15 question on either Race Day or the prerace show and mentioned that at superspeedways a lot of teams will shoot clearcoat over the decals to smooth it out just that much more.

By: Neon

Neon — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:30:41 +0000

Darren’s #16 question regarding the lack of fender decals reminded me of the oath of King Richard to his mother never to run beer (any alchohol) signage on his cars all of those years. If I recall, he excused himself from Daytona Bud Shoot-outs all of those years. Now w/ Petty/Gillette merger, there is some confusion w/ Kahne’s Bud stuff.
Also, I remember Michael WAltrip ran the Penzoil Pontiac w/ very few decals, as does Penske.

George’s #15 question on stickers and waxes made me ponder this…since most cars are “wrapped” these days, in lieu of traditional “painted” schemes & numbers, are the individual contingency stickers (ie Mahle, Bud, Bilstein, 3M, Edelbrock, etc, etc.) part of the wrap, or adhered individually? And…can you “wax the wrap”? Any experienced “Wrappers” (sorry) out there!