So ya want a white/green flag start?

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Just remembered that in 1997 following a caution flag near the end of the 400 miler at Daytona, NASCAR decided to restart the race with one lap remaining. The results were predictable and not pretty. What did the competitors think about it...

NASCAR's Bonehead Move (Commentary)
It is my option that NASCAR made a pretty stupid move in restarting Daytona. I was in the midst of packing everything up and heading to the car when I noticed the lights going out on the pace car. I was stunned that they were re-starting. You could almost predict that there would be some incident at the end and potentially one that cost the race lead a win, if someone had a better re-start than he. NASCAR has been very careful in making the playing field level for all competitors and then it seems they tore it all down by this completely unthought through move. The feel like that a car cannot reach a qualifying speed for two laps so why restart with one? We are truly fortunate that it didn't cost a driver there life. It easily could have. Just my opinion. Had to get that off my chest.

Driver Quotes About That Pepsi 400 One-Lap Green Flag

"That wasn't a shoot-out. That was a slugfest, a wreckfest. They know better than to do that,'' said Dale Earnhardt, who was bumped by Dick Trickle in the incident and finished fourth.

"That's what you're asking for if you do something like that,'' Dale Jarrett said. "People are laying back just to see what they can do. You're just inviting something like that to happen. I know they don't like (races) to end up under caution but things like that are what happens when you throw the green and the white (flags) at a restrictor-plate race.''

"Every fan wants to see a race finish under green and I'm willing to bet every fan doesn't want to see anyone get hurt,'' Kyle Petty said. ``What they had is a recipe for somebody getting hurt real bad. As far as I'm concerned, NASCAR got what they wanted, the fans didn't get anything they wanted because they saw some of their favorites get taken out on the last lap and the same guy that was leading the race before the restart still won the race. Why didn't they just end it under caution?''

Derrike Cope's car was one of several destroyed in the crash, and he was irate, calling the decision to restart the race ''stupid.'' ''They had a great race, and then they had to go and do that to the race. I don't understand their thinking. It bothers me. We're racers, and we're going to go out there and dig for the hole. You don't like it to end under the yellow, but dadgum, it was a great race all day long and a great new winner. What more can they ask for? The guy that made that call ought to be whipped.''

One big winner of that wreck was Ken Schrader, who said: ''We went from 29th to 15th the last lap.''

''It's kind of crazy,'' Joe Nemechek complained, ''to have a one-lap shoot-out when everyone is driving like nuts.''

''I knew when they said 'One to go,' that all hell was going to break loose,'' David Green said. ''And it did. But maybe it was just a little impatience by one guy that messed up a lot of people.''

''We'd been struggling all day,'' Terry Labonte said, ''but we were running fifth that last restart. And I wouldn't have been real mad if it had ended under caution.''

NASCAR's Gary Nelson disagreed with the critics: ''When the track was ready to race, and we were going to restart the race. Unlike the Daytona 500, where the track had oil on it and we were criticized for not starting it. But then the track was not ready. This time the track was ready to race, and everybody came here to see a race, and to race.'' Darned if you do, and darned if you don't? ''From our end, we can't look at it that way,'' Nelson said. ''We came here to hold a race, and the competitors came here to compete. There have been wrecks on the 10th lap, even the first lap. Who knows if it's going to happen on the last lap or not. We race when the track's ready, right up to the last mile.'' (Quotes from JournalNow articles and Orlando Sentinal)
 
I just had a thought - what if they didn't count caution laps? I know that could mess with fuel mileage strategies for some folks, but it would be the same for everyone.

I hate to see races end under caution, but I also don't think it is right to red flag a race unless the track is blocked (or rain). Red flags just for the sake of ending under green don't make sense to me.
 
I don't see why people have such a problem with ending under caution.

I'm fine with it. If I just watched 497 laps of racing, who cares if the last 3 are under caution.
 
They should have been fighting for the lead before then --- get out front and stay there if you can.
 
I don't understand why NASCAR doesn't go by the Green / White / Checkered rule that it has in every series execpt the Winston Cup and Busch Series. It does work in these other series as many have probaly seen with the Truck Series.
 
That "letter" is pure BS.

Trying to place the blame on Gordon fans.
 
Originally posted by paul
That "letter" is pure BS.

Trying to place the blame on Gordon fans.

Agreed Paul, just sounds like LeaJean is an ABGr
 
That is complete BS and should not have even been printed. The columnist should be ashamed to even print something as absurd as that. According to that letter the assumption was that Pepsi bought the WHOLE backstretch section out. Because it wasn't just one section of the backstretch, it was pretty much all of the backstretch that were throwing things out. Whoever wrote that letter is completely biased and is trying to give Jeff Gordon fans a bad name. They should be ashamed at their childish behavior in such an attempt. If anybody is unNASCAR educated it is the person who sent in the letter.
 
LMAO! Obviously untrue BECAUSE, earlier in the race, Jeff was a lap down, these "Pepsi" fans weren't AS drunk, so they would have been able to conceive that by throwing a cushion on the track, they would get a debris caution and Gordon could get his lap back!:D
 
First of all, I dont think she was trying to bash "Gordon" fans, It sounded to me like she was bashing "Pepsi" employees. If they are not NASCAR fans they wont have the respect that the real fans have. I've seen it happen at Baseball and Hockey games. The large "company" groups tend to be more rambunctious trying to sound like a real fan.
 
I've always believed is if it is 3 laps or less let it end under caution if it is 5 or more red flag it, 4 laps is kind of middle of the road it wouldn't bother me it was red flaged or ended under caution.
 
I think a race should only be red flagged if there is a serious problem on the track.

This is car racing, not the WWF. Mickey mousing endings would only lead to trouble.

And it's not often that a race would end under caution anyway (only plate races it seems). So I think we can all live with it.
 
What I don't understand is this writer publishing that letter without any corroboration. It smacks of bias. What happened to checking sources and verifying with other witnesses?
 
The reason why Nascar's Winston Cup series does not have a green-white-checkered like they do in the truck series is b/c the title sponsors do not want that. Title sponsors pay a lot of money to sponsor those races, and they want to run the advertised amount of laps. This is why they also count yellow laps. In the truck series, Nascar tried the green-white-checkered to try and attract more fans to watch that series, b/c they didn't even have enough fans watching to pull in enough title sponsors.

So lately Nascar has been trying to red flag the race if they feel they can get enough laps in of racing. But I like Kenny Wallace's suggestion: since it is a judgement call by Nascar to red flag the race, Nascar should be more consistent with their decision by making a set of formal rules that fans can be aware of. For example, at superspeedways if there is 5 laps to go and there's a caution, we will red flag the race. Any less than that and we will run the race to the end under caution. Something like that could work, at least so fans better understand Nascar's call.
 
again, good info. people do tend to forget about past incidents and get full of p&v in the heat of the moment. oh well, i bet they think about it more than once later onsatisfied
 
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