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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
PEMBERTON: Doubling Up
We got a glimpse last month in the All-Star race of how riveting the racing becomes with the double-file restarts...
Randy Pemberton  |  Posted June 04, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Randy Pemberton on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
NASCAR deserves a standing ovation because this week’s implementation of the double-file restart in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series could possibly be the best thing ever to hit to the sport.

We got a glimpse last month of how riveting the racing becomes with the double-file restarts in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It makes perfect sense to allow drivers on the lead lap to go head-to-head when the green flag waves instead of battling those a lap or more down and stringing out the field within a circuit or two. It’s an overdue move but a great reaction by NASCAR after witnessing the potential effects and hearing from drivers and car owners last week in a meeting.

NASCAR’s goal is to give fans the best show possible and this is a significant step in that direction. Short tracks across the country have operated this way for years and it’s what race fans around the United States are accustomed to seeing.

Expect the intensity and competition to ramp up on each restart because the field won’t be so strung out. The new car has made the cars so much more competitive and running such similar speeds that even the lap-down cars are strong when the green flag waves. But the downside to that is that these cars battle the leaders just enough to stick their noses in there and break up the pack of lead lappers. However, this new policy will keep intact the lead pack until the leader finally makes his way around the track and starts putting cars a lap down.

There have been complaints lately about lack of sufficient battles up front and for the lead, but this new rule should remedy that. The competition amongst the leaders hasn’t dissipated – it was just stifled by the tendency for the field to spread out. Now that we’re lining them up double-file, the frontrunners will be able to duke it out and put on some of the best racing we’ve seen in the modern era.

Don’t feel sorry for the lapped cars in this deal. Sure, they’ll be lining up behind the lead lap cars but they’ll still be scrapping for the “lucky dog” award every time the caution flies. To be quite honest, we rarely have seen a lapped car line up inside the leader and overcome him to get a lap back on the restarts. That just doesn’t happen much anymore, so the new policy will have a negligible effect on the lapped cars. They’ll still have the same opportunity to earn their lap back the old-fashioned way.


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