Double-file restarts add new twist to road racing (NASCAR.com)
June 21, 2009
When NASCAR recently announced its new double-file restart rule, in which leaders of races no longer line up single file along the outside of lapped cars and are free to battle each other side-by-side for positions, everyone wondered what kind of impact it would have on Sprint Cup races.
So far, it hasn't been that big a deal.
But then the Sprint Cup Series has not visited a road course—until now. Sunday's Toyota SaveMart 350 at will offer the first such road-course test for the new rule, and drivers are wary of what it will mean.
"My strategy is going to be to survive, to be quite honest," Jeff Burton said.
Carl Edwards added: "I didn't even think about road courses when I heard that double-file restart thing. I was thinking about Martinsville and Bristol and those places—but I now have a feeling that the places where that new rule is going to have the biggest impact are on the road courses, here being first and then Watkins Glen being second. I think it will be great for the fans. I think it could be extremely frustrating for the drivers, if it goes bad."
The potential problems lurk in the first two turns after the start/finish line on the road course—especially the second turn that sits at the top of a hill and encompasses a quick and severe blind turn to the right. Burton said restarts even under the old rules were difficult, but are likely to become far more treacherous now with the race leaders fighting hard with each other for position.
"I've got to tell you that of all the hardest restarts we do all year, this one is probably the hardest," Burton said. "Going up the hill and getting to the top of the hill and having to make a 90-degree turn, the speed difference between the guys still going up the hill and the guys on top of the hill having to make the turn is huge.
"Every year we see people get run over because the closer rate is so high. It's hard to anticipate two guys in the front getting bottled up more than you're anticipating, and it's just like a freeway. The cars behind them get slowed down, but the cars behind them don't get slowed down quite as much—and it just keeps on going like that. It's just bumper-car tag up there."
Edwards was quick to agree.
"The first turn is not that big of a deal," Edwards said. "But that second turn, where you can't see over the top of the hill and it's about a 110-degree, 120-degree radius, that's going to be wild right there."
Kurt Busch admitted he is going to be nervous under the new conditions for restarts. He also said he's fairly certain one bad caution likely will now breed another.
"It's going to be a logjam. It's going to be a parking lot. It's going to take two laps for it to settle out," Busch said.
"Normally, we have one of those at the initial start [of the race]. And so there are going to be many opportunities for extra yellows to happen, I believe, because cars are going to be going off in Turns 2 and 4, and having issues in Turn 7 with running into each other. We're just going to be up on top of each other that much more due to the new double-file restart rule, and it's a very congested race track to begin with."
Edwards added that the late cautions in the scheduled 110-lap event will be the most agonizing—if you're up front. If you're toward the front but not quite there, it could work to a driver's advantage, he said.
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"The whole idea is to make it exciting—and it will sure be exciting," Edwards said. "If I'm leading this thing or running second or third, that double-file restart is the last thing I'm going to want to see. But if I'm running eighth or something, it'll be just fine."
One of the few drivers to downplay the potential for mayhem on the road-course restarts under the new rule is three-time defending points champion Jimmie Johnson.
"You just take it as it comes," Johnson said of racing at one of the few tracks where he has never won. "I think there has been a lot of concern about the double-file restart here, and I don't know what the big concern is. I guess I'll have to get in the race and see what the potential problem would be. But to me, it doesn't seem like it's a big deal."
Johnson obviously appears to be in the minority amongst the drivers, although Burton said he is trying to see some positives, too.
"The positive to it is we've seen a lot of moves made up there because everybody tries to get to the bottom and a lot of people try to dig something out by trying to go to the outside [on restarts]," Burton said. "So you end up in a real awkward position on top of the hill—because someone tried to make a move to go from eighth to third. That gets real awkward. We're not going to have as much of that because there isn't going to be anywhere to go.
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"I'm as curious as everyone else is to know how that's going to work. It works OK at the start of the race—but it's a different mentality when it's 100 laps to go versus when it's 10 laps to go. With the fuel-mileage game and all that stuff going on, man, I don't know what's going to happen. I'd watch closely because I think it's going to be pretty interesting. My strategy, like I said, is to survive it."
Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.
Toyota/SaveMart 350 Lineup Pos.DriverMakeSpeedTime 1.Brian VickersToyota93.67876.4752.Kyle BuschToyota93.41576.6903.Marcos AmbroseToyota93.13876.9184.Tony StewartChevy93.03977.0005.Kasey KahneDodge92.99177.0406.Martin Truex Jr.Chevy92.98177.0487.Ryan NewmanChevy92.94777.0768.Elliott SadlerDodge92.94177.0819.Boris SaidFord92.93877.08410.Matt KensethFord92.92277.097
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