Tail end of the lead lap cars

R

racerx11

Guest
The leader should restart the race at the front of the field when a caution comes out. Just because guys get caught a lap down by an untimely caution is no reason to punish the leader by starting him midpack. You are either a lap down or you are not. The pace car should always pick up the leader. Now if NASCAR wants to keep the race exciting by keeping more cars on the lead lap, maybe they could start them at the end of the longest line.

When you stack all those cars upfront about to go a lap down, the drivers become desperate, and do desperate things that cause big wrecks that the leader will have to drive through.
 
what is the point of starting people ahead of the leader. does that make them a lap down.
 
Originally posted by millermagic@Jun 7 2004, 12:37 PM
what is the point of starting people ahead of the leader. does that make them a lap down.
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No, it puts them in the way.
 
another one of the things that i don't understand from nascar
 
Here's the way it happens folks. The cars lineup behind the pace car in the order that they are in at the moment of caution with the pace car getting in front of the leader.

You can easily have a car 38th place laps down inbetween the 1st and 2nd palce car because that is the way they were running at the time of the caution.

Now cars choose to pit. They pull down pit road. Coming off of pit road, all cars that pit line up behind those who didn't.

Cars that stay on the track are in front of the cars that pitted.

If a car is running 3rd and the first 2 pit, the 3rd place car is now in front of them. Works the same with lap down cars.

There is a penalty for pitting. It is that you line up behind all the cars that didn't pit.

Don't see how you really could change that part of it.

What I would like to see is the elimination of the Lucky Dog pass coupled with waving all the cars inbetween the leader and the pace car around. The only way to get your lap back under this would be to outrace the leader or take a pit startegy gamble.
 
Thank you Tony..........you explained that much better than I could! :) And I might add it's not always slow cars on the tail end of the lead lap...........it's often very fast cars who pitted under green and the caution came out. They were physically ahead of the leader but nearly a lap down at the caution. And, quite often the leader behind all those cars on the tail end of the lead lap are actually some of the slower cars. I think it's a pretty good rule.........gets confusing sometimes and it does sometimes present problems for the faster cars. But those guys get paid to deal with it. The good ones will deal with it and find a way to get past them. And I'm still not at all sure it was the cars at the tail end of the lead lap that caused the big one at Dover. :rolleyes:
 
It was Mikey Waltrip that caused the big one at Dover. But the point trying to be made is because the leader has to start back midpack, there's atleast 20 cars up there driving like crazy trying to stay ahead of him. The way to avoid that is simple, do it exactly the way all the short tracks across the country do it. If you're 14th, you go back behind the leader in 14th place. Lap down cars should also be lined up in the position they are in, in order. Not a car 6 laps down and a car 4 laps down in front of cars 1 lap down that may actually have a chance of racing the leader and getting his lap back.
 
I can agree with the cars more than one lap down starting in front of the one lap down cars. But if the 14th place car who is a lap down at the time of the caution doesn't pit during the caution and the leaders who did pit get back out after that 14th place car crosses the start finish line, they are ahead of him timing wise.......but the 14th place is ahead of them on the track. He got his lap back, but does he deserve the bonus of a free trip around the track? Those cars on the tail end of the lead lap things happen mostly during green flag pit stops.......it's often the faster cars in front of the leader anyway. Yesterday's thing was just one of the many bazaar happenings of that race.......I'm not ready to change the rule because of that very weird race. :) Yeah, I know, it's been problems in the past (on occasion), but generally it's just an annoyance for the leaders..........makes them work for their win! :D
 
DE_W while I don't totally disagree with you that yesterdays race was 1 of the more bizzare and it more of a problem than usual.
Yes they should get the trip around and get their whole lap back, after all they made a decision to stay out and gamble and they did pass the leader by not pitting. At the tracks I raced at, those cars didn't go around the pace car to circle the track cause they were already on the same lap, that would put them a lap ahead. But on the 1 to go they pull over to the right and fall back to their correct position, if they don't fall back far enough, the flagman signals 1 to go again and admonishes them to get in their proper position. If they still haven't by the next lap they get black flagged for a 1 lap penalty
 
Okay..........but that would have to happen on the back stretch or sometime after they cross the start finish line...........otherwise they lose a lap with the electronic timing system!! :)
 
Hey DE_W, how much problems lining the cars back up at Irwindale Sat? :p Darn sure didn't take 40 laps to figure things out. :)

I swear half of the confusion NASCAR is having is caused by the method they use.


Hey, I'm ready for The Toyota Allstar Showdown, and Turkey Night at Irwindale.
 
Nope no problems at all..........but they don't pit during the races either!! :D And those guys are racing multi-million dollar teams for multi-million dollar sponsor either!! But you're right about the methods they use.........it's unique. It's really gotten bad with the no racing back to the yellow rule.......and that was about as big a contributor to yesterday's long fiasco as anything. That and having to fix the barrier that Ryan tore up and dry the pit road from all the water that got knocked out it!! I think if FOX (or was it FX) had shown what was going on most wouldn't be so up in arms about the long caution. Ryan really stunk up the show with his pitting when pit road was closed.........they finally put him back a lap. Something they should have done the first time he pitted while they were trying to repair the barrier.


Oh.............and Turkey Night is already marked on our calendar!! Hope Tony shows!! :cheers:
 
Well, now that you mention it............... I thought last year they made a rule that if you spun on pit road you lost a lap? And IMO I disagree with if a guy violates multipule rules which requires him to go to the end of the longest line all he has to do is go to the end of the longest line. Break 2 or more and you lose a lap. again, IMO Ryan should have lost 2 laps for the pit road incident.
 
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