February 12th, 2010 
Journo I have to commend NASCAR, they really have been listening to all of the sport’s stakeholders and then taking proactive steps to correct things they have identified as problems. Through individual feedback, town hall meetings, and the fan council, the once infallible sanctioning body is realizing that maybe they are capable of making mistakes. We’re getting a spoiler soon and steps have been taken to improve the racing at the Superspeedways (they seem to be working out).
All this is great and I’m happy to see a much more open sanctioning body; in fact I’m excited to see how all these changes pan out. That said I’m beginning to wonder if they’re taking this new found openness a little too far.
Let me step back for a moment. Last week the Bud Shootout ended rather unceremoniously under caution; the result of a green-white-checkered attempt. After this there was the usual grumbling from everybody (but the winner) about the race finishing under caution. Cooler heads tell us the rule is in place because without it, or with more attempts at G-W-C, we end up with a bunch of wrecked racecars and the same result – a race ending under caution.
Obviously though NASCAR felt the need to bend to the pressure and make a change to the “green-white-checkered race procedure” – quickly. So between last Saturday and yesterday NASCAR decided it is now “allowing a maximum of three restart attempts prior to the White Flag under NASCAR’s Green-White-Checkered flag finish. If the leader has taken the White Flag and the caution flag is displayed, the field is frozen and the race will not be restarted.”
While I could be completely off-base here, I think NASCAR is being far too reactionary on something we’ve seen in the past probably won’t work. I’m not alone on both counts. Jeff Gordon said:
“They could do ten green-white-checkereds and we’re still not going to make it to the checkered.”
Mark Martin questioned the rationale behind yet another rule change.
Putting aside the change at hand I think the larger issue is them making changes to established and logical rules depending upon the direction the wind is blowing. I’m a little worried this might become the norm. It’s great they’re listening and making positive changes, but they could stand to give some time to make sure important changes are thoroughly vetted.
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It’s as if there is no real leadership at the top for whatever reason. Rules need to be made with input from teams, fans, officials, then made using some real sense, from actual experience, then everyone lives with it. Action not reaction. Thinking vs knee jerk. It really is getting to be stupid time. Constant weekly/monthly rule changes after 50 plus years of the same show shows the weakness of leadership. Too many Indians, no real chief!
Being from the northeast and seeing this work in the modified series I have always wondered why they couldn’t implement it in all their touring series. However I do see some flaws in this decision, the first is the road courses because just like the plate tracks they always seem to have problems with the green white checkered. I also wonder how this will play into the stratagies with gas mileage when we get to the last pit stops and crews have to decide to gamble on fuel mileage.
I wonder if you felt this way when we had all these crappy changes rammed down our throats back in the 2003-2004 period of useless qualifying,moving the Labor day race to CA,CoT unicars,no more racing back to the line,CHASE crap,wings,no passing below yellows and on and on…. All changes that made me and all of my racing friends quit watching/going to/caring about the sport. Now they are at least showing a willingness to go the other way. Perhaps I might tune back in more often since they obviously found they need to do something. The hard line stance got real old when what they did made no sense and ruined it in my opinion. Thanks for your time.
I think Journo is just concerned that they are going too far to the opposite extreme–making too many (mostly positive) changes too quickly. I for one am very thankful to see them changing a lot of things this year. Uniform start times are #1 on my list. But I think it’s time now to go with the changes they’ve already made and sit back for a while to see how they work out before perhaps making any more.
The only exception would be if they suddenly decided to get rid of the chase! Well, I can hope…
Get rid of the Chase would be numero uno on my list…but…I do question the “brains” behind 3 GWC’s at a plate track…one is usually a wreckfest. AND in an earlier comment the road courses are also dismal on a GWC. I really think it was a knee jerk reaction to implement the change this weekend…they should have waited until California to begin their new rule and see how it pans out. I really hate the fact a team has 3 chances to bring their car home in 1000 pieces…and I doubt unless you are in the top six for the GWC you are going to gain many positions…just a headache, trash heap, and trip to the infield car center. I would like to know who ALL these fans are who complained after the Shootout…I was confused because I always thought the rule was the Shootout was to end under green…but I wasn’t disappointed..I don’t want to see a big smoking pile of cars on the track …. but I guess somehow that is what NASCAR thinks we want….they just don’t get the fans do they?
Joe- A lot of those things weren’t sudden changes. The COT had been in the works for years and the Chase was something we knew about for quite a long time before it was implemented. Other changes you mention were implemented for safety reasons, some of which, like the passing below the yellow line, were much needed. The quick changes I’m talking about (which are changes I don’t think are necessarily bad) are things like the double wide restarts and this current change. Now forgive me, but you say you don’t care and are still taking the time to read and comment here. That makes me think you probably still do care.
Mark Martin is a guy who races for points. He is BORING to those of us who love racing. So why should anything he says be listened to?