NASCAR changes rule on racing back to yellow flag

Elwood · September 19, 2003

September 18, 2003

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA (TICKER) -- Racing back to the yellow flag, which affected a pair of Winston Cup races earlier this year, was eliminated Thursday, NASCAR officials announced.

NASCAR also modified pit road entry for the Winston Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck series. The rule changes go into effect this weekend at Dover, Delaware and California Speedway.

The new rule will not permit any passing once the caution flag is displayed, which was a problem at two races this year.

The first incident was on April 1 at Texas Motor Speedway. Jeff Gordon was running second behind Matt Kenseth, who allowed several cars to get back a lap under the so-called "gentlemen's agreement." Gordon accelerated to keep the lapped cars behind him and in the process passed Kenseth.

The second incident took place at the road course at Sonoma, California, where Robby Gordon's victory was challenged by Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon. Both accused Robby Gordon of racing back to the caution flag on lap 71.

"We have monitored and continually discussed internally the situation regarding racing back to the yellow throughout the season, and have reached the conclusion that it is time for us to take this step," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "We will eliminate the practice completely and no longer depend on the gentlemen's agreement by the drivers in an effort to further ensure the safety of the competitors."

Other aspects of the rule change as well as the pit road entry modifications will be outlined to the drivers at a combined meeting scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. EDT in the garage area at Dover International Speedway.

NASCAR officials' decisions regarding these new procedures will not be subject to review or appeal.

"We needed to find a better way to do it rather than racing back to the yellow, and the new procedures we are putting in place are the first step in the process," Helton said. "We will monitor and evaluate the new procedures and fine-tune them if needed as we move forward."

mjsmith1223 · September 19, 2003

It's about time. With GPS telemetry they can get the field lined back up in a fair manner for the restart. Good thing they took this step before someone got killed.

Mike

Grand Haven, MI

LarryE · September 19, 2003

thats ghey... there wasn't any gentlemens agreement back in the day.

theres getting to be way to much crap on racing

gmcjoe · September 19, 2003

Good rule.

As you saw in Waltrips in car camera - he about took out Jarret as he sat in his wrecked car

Now Jarrett needs to learn to stay strapped in and keep the steering wheel in place until they come to get him

Elwood · September 19, 2003

I can see both sides of it.

Yeah I guess it is safer, but it's always worked until now. Although now it's going ot be harder for people to get their laps back and come win a race form one or two laps down.

Firetiger(MN) · September 19, 2003

BOOOOOOO!

I read this earlier on Yahoo.

I'm tired of them adding these rules all the time. It's been like this for years and there hasn't been any big issues of racing back to the flag. The problem from how I see it is there aren't enough good ol' boys left in NASCAR. They are these arrogant punks from CA, IN, and elsewhere....you know who you are.

I may be missing something here, but how is a person who is a lap down supposed to get his lap back? Short/no pitting? Ha. That won't go far.

Shadowfax · September 19, 2003

BOOOOO!!

If NASCAR thought they had some unwanted controversy on the gentlemens agreement before, wait till what happens next. You are gonna see guys getting wins revoked because they passed on the last lap coming to the yellow and etc. I can imagine the debacles now.

I wonder when they are gonna stop with all the crap, and put the racing back in the "R" of NASCAR?

gmcjoe · September 19, 2003

I may be missing something here, but how is a person who is a lap down supposed to get his lap back? Short/no pitting? Ha. That won't go far.

Just another reason to stay on the lead lap

Firetiger(MN) · September 20, 2003

I may be missing something here, but how is a person who is a lap down supposed to get his lap back? Short/no pitting? Ha. That won't go far.

Just another reason to stay on the lead lap

Well obviously, but sometime there are circumstances that cause a team to drop a lap and I'm not talking about running slow but rather a tire problem or a small mechanical issue.

I guess I just don't like the fact of reacting for the sake of reaction.

TROYROBO · September 20, 2003

gmcjoe · September 20, 2003

Well obviously, but sometime there are circumstances that cause a team to drop a lap and I'm not talking about running slow but rather a tire problem or a small mechanical issue.

I guess I just don't like the fact of reacting for the sake of reaction.

Obviously that was sarcasm ;)

I can see both sides of it too.

When Jarret was out there like a sitting duck, I started to think I'd rather have a few drivers lose an opportunity at a few points then have someone seriously injured in the process.

We'll see how this plays out...

Truckman031 · September 21, 2003

BOOOOO!!! I can't believe the day has come when they tell you to quit racing, during a race.

Elwood · September 22, 2003

Well, I guess Newman showed that with the new rule you can still come back and win after being a lap down. Of course even he said in his postrace interview on the radio that he didn't think the new rule of letting the 1st car one lap down back was quite right, he thought you should earn it back somehow. But at the same time he was glad he got it back I'm sure.