The media, myself included, most drivers, and a flood of fans hounded NASCAR for weeks, if not months to "do something about racing back to the yellow." Driver's safety MUST come first. Lets freeze the field at the drop of the yellow and let the safety workers get to the wrecked cars faster and let the drivers get out of their burning cars, etc.

So, NASCAR said they were looking into it and if the drivers couldn’t police it themselves then they would have to step in. Well, the drivers all complained about cars racing back if they were the "sitting duck" in the track, but they all raced back if they needed that lap back or didn’t want someone else to get their lap back. Kind of hypocritical.

In the drivers' defense, the aero-sensitive cars they are forced to race each week are not very good at passing. The IRL is having more exciting races and more passing, that is not good for NASCAR.

So what is a driver to do? If he is down a lap, he must race hard when the yellow comes out to get up to the leader to get that lap back because he most likely wont get it back by racing up there in the "dirty air".

If he is the leader, he isnt going to want to give someone their lap back that is a threat to win or close to them in points.

And if he is the leader and his teammate is down a lap, then he will slam on the brakes and practically stop on the track to let the team mate go by.

But if second place doesn’t want that team mate to get his lap back, he will try to pass the leader and force the leader to keep going.

How many times have we seen drivers pull up along side the leader during a caution to let them know how mad they are that they didn’t allow them to get their lap back? Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Petty, Greg Biffle and Robby Gordon all come to mind.

What about Harvick and Robby Gordon at Sears Point? What about Jeff Gordon passing the leader to keep guys a lap down after the caution came out? And what about Newman, Elliott and Waltrip at Loudon?

NASCAR was forced into saying enough is enough. Read the following guest article by Kevin called, You Get What You Get. It's short and sweet and sums it up perfectly.

Almost everyone in the media and the drivers are pleased with the new rule regarding no racing back to the yellow. But, there are mixed feelings and a lot of people are upset with the "getting a lap back" rule.

When the caution comes out, the first car scored one lap down or more gets a free pass around and a lap back. Some say this isnt fair and drivers should have to earn their lap back.

Matt Kenseth said, "A free pass isn't really racing". This is the same Matt Kenseth that slows EVERY caution if he is leading to let all his team mates back on the lead lap.

Tony Eury Sr said, "It's a stupid rule, and it's going to be stupid as long as they use it." Let's see how he reacts next time it comes into play and allows Dale Jr back on the lead lap.

Any driver or team that has slowed to let their team mates back on the lead lap, or had their team mate slow to let them back on the lead lap, can not criticize this rule.

Let's look at the big picture and put it in perspective. Every caution before this rule, you had "team orders" that allowed 3, 4, 5 or more guys a free pass back on the lead lap. And in this mix, you had wrecked cars, burning cars, etc, in harm's way.

Now, we have only 1 car getting back on the lead lap and no one in harm's way.

If the leaders would not have slowed down to let guys back before, this wouldn’t be an issue. We would still have dangerous situations with drivers in harm's way in a wreck, but no one is complaining about that rule change. Everyone likes that. The only complaints are about the lapped cars.

So everyone who says that giving a car a free pass is not real racing and is bad for the sport should actually be happy with the new rule because it allows LESS free passes each caution then what we had happening prior to the new rule.

The only possible change to the new rule would be to let the first car CLOSEST to the leader by track position to get a lap back, not the closest in scoring position. Or, to only allow the first car in scoring position a lap back IF he is less than 1.5 seconds (or some logical number) behind the leader.

But, if you put it in perspective, The charitable laps back and generous gifts of laps back are actually reduced. This means only the fast cars will be battling for the win.

Isnt that what RACING is all about?

Thanks and keep reading!

Rob
RobFaiella@insidethepitbox.com