Stopping at the end of pit road might come to an end – NASCAR talks the pending “Cone Rule”
Stopping? Why? To avoid a restart in the incorrect lane.
It became an issue this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Denny Hamlin found himself coasting, 3 wide at the exit of pit road. He would have come out in 3rd, a stab of the brakes to avoid that.
Only problem was, nobody else wanted to come off 3rd either. They all hit the brakes. This resulted in a stack up at pit exit. 3 cars blocked the exit and a whole pile of cars lined up behind them.
Denny Hamlin told Autosport, “We caught them a little bit in that last run, but I restarted on the bottom so many times that it’s one of those weekends where I would love that cone rule where you can pick what lane you want to go in on restarts.”
The 3rd place finisher concluded, “I’d be willing to start 12th on the outside versus third on the inside. It’s just I got killed on restarts all day, but we did a really good job of bouncing back and good finish.”
Denny Hamlin also stated that it’s been a discussion point in the NASCAR driver’s council. They are working on a change. What kind of change?
Cone Rule
NASCAR told Bob Pockrass they are looking into a new “cone rule”.
What’s that mean? It means that drivers would be allowed to pick the lane they restart in. Currently, only the leader is allowed to do so. They are considering an option that would allow every position to pick their desired lane.
That means a driver would be allowed to lose positions on the race track, before the green and after leaving pit road. That would certainly allow the race off pit road to continue as usual.
But that’s not the only option on the table. NASCAR officially stated they are looking at multiple options.
Author: Shane Walters
Links
Denny Hamlin
Website | Facebook | Twitter
