Double-file restarts have altered NASCAR races
Tony Stewart predicted that Sunday’s race at Infineon Raceway would be a free-for-all, saying that the road-course race would feature plenty of “crazy driving” and would turn into a “no-holds-barred wrestling match.”
Is Stewart a prophet?
No. He’s just been paying attention all year and made a rather easy prediction given the nature of racing this season and the tight turns on the 1.9-mile road course.
Stewart was right.
When all was said and done, there were more than a dozen cars wrecked and more than a few angry drivers.
Clint Bowyer was mad at AJ Allmendinger.
Joey Logano was made at Juan Pablo Montoya.
Boris Said was mad at Brad Keselowski.
Jeff Burton was mad at poor Marcos Ambrose, who accidentally dumped Burton after his infamous bungle cost him the race.
And Jeff Gordon had half the garage mad at him.
None more than Martin Truex Jr., who got wrecked by Gordon and then was involved in another wreck on a restart thanks to the position Gordon put him in with the first wreck.
Truex ripped Gordon and vowed to get even. But Truex also got to the real heart of the matter in disparaging Gordon.
Most of the wrecks occurred because drivers were put in bad positions due to the nature of racing today.
The culprit is NASCAR’s double-file restarts, which were implemented last year to even competition and make the racing more exciting.
It has certainly worked, but for a price.
And the price has been more wrecks, more torn-up race cars and more angry drivers.
“It just comes down to every week we have these double-file restarts and everybody’s head just gets all ridiculous,” Truex said Sunday. “Everybody loses their head and drives like idiots. It just doesn’t make any sense. … It’s just stupid, it’s uncalled for.”
Though Gordon flat-out spun Truex in an earlier battle, it was the ensuing restart that created a pile-up that knocked Truex and others out of the race.
Gordon had his own troubles on restarts.
“Those restarts, you know they are going to be wild and crazy and you knew guys were going to be making it three- and four-wide and you just had to get really, really aggressive,” he said. “It happened to me, and I did it to guys, so I’m as guilty as anybody.”
NASCAR’s double-file restarts have led to some of the most controversial wrecks this season and led to some of the biggest feuds, including the dust-ups between Gordon and Matt Kenseth at Martinsville and Jeff Burton and Kyle Busch at Charlotte.
It also has led to green-white-checkered restarts in five races this season, including twice in the Daytona 500 and a maximum of three times at Talladega.
Those and other late restarts usually lead to mayhem and there has been plenty of it this season.
Take the sport’s biggest stars, most hungry for a win or desperate for a good finish that might help them make the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and put them in the pressure cooker of a double-file restart, especially late in a race, and chaos is going to reign.
We’ve seen it often this year, and it will continue to happen. The intensity level is already ramped up because the competition has been keen this year, with drivers scratching and clawing to keep up with Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson and a fierce back-and-forth battle among drivers in danger of missing the Chase.
It’s expected to be even hotter over the next 10 weeks leading up the Chase, and each double-file restart will be more intense, especially those of the green-white-checkered variety.
And as long as the competition remains heated and sparks continue to fly, there will continue to be angry drivers.
Should NASCAR intervene and put a stop to the madness?
Absolutely not.
The double-file restarts and green-white-checkered finishes have led to some of the most exciting racing we’ve seen in years. The possibility of a crash and two drivers spitting fire only adds to the drama and suspense.
It needs to continue – even if it does mean more torn-up cars and angry drivers.
