To paraphrase DW, “woah it down, boys”.
It’s about damn time. While it’s great to give the lapped drivers a lap back and maybe get them out of your way on the restart, what happened last Sunday was extremely dangerous, unnecessary, and stupid. Calling it a “gentlemen’s agreement” was ridiculous. Good to see Brian France starting things off on a positive note.
The gentlemen’s agreement worked for many many years. But, now that drivers are under immense pressure for a good finish from their sponsors, being a gentleman doesn’t come into play. I worry that some of the great parts of Nascar are going to be abolished with its gain in popularity. In the future, a bump and run may be penalized. However, I’m very supportive of this move. As seen last week, Dale Jarrett and his wrecked car barely escaped being smacked by these cars chasing back to the flag. It’s a safety measure that has to be taken. A race, the money and notoriety that go with, is not worth the potential injury/death of another competitor.
OK, while I don’t truly follow NASCAR, I did happen to watch the end of that race Sunday, at a friend’s who is knowledgeable about the sport. But we came in late, after whatever happened had happened.
So, can one of y’all explain what happened, and what changes it has brought about? I kept hearing the phrase “racing under the yellow” and gathered that when the yellow comes out, you’re not constrained by it until you reach the starting line, so some guys apparently worked on their positions as they passed the still hulk of the wrecked car. Is that even close to right?
What happens is that the leader sets the pace to take the yellow flag. He can choose to let cars a lap down back on the lead lap by slowing down and letting those cars pass him before he takes a caution flag. This tends to piss some competitors off because these lapped cars are having the lap handed to them. It also causes a potential hazard. Where all these cars start gunning to get around the leader. What happened Sunday was the leader slowed down greatly to let someone back on the lead lap and many other cars saw he was doing this and they put the pedal down. Well, the 2nd and 3rd place cars were in the mix because they didn’t know what cars were flying up to them (it could have been someone taking their position) so they sped up. So, all these cars came around to the start/finish line with quite a bit of speed and the wrecked car of Jarrett is sitting in the middle of the track. So, quick reflexes is the only thing that saved a catastrophe.
This racing to the yellow thing has always been ruled by what they call a gentlemen’s agreement. The agreement being if a car was a lap down and was near you, you (as the leader) could choose whether to let them get a lap back. The agreement also includes that ever car stays in the position they were in when the yellow flew, and that they don’t race back to the flag and gain a position. That particular scenario came into play earlier this year when Robby Gordon passed Jeff Gordon for 1st place when they were on the way to take a yellow flag.