Flag fury

Are rules of caution causing confusion?

When NASCAR announced last year that it was changing the rules governing caution flags, Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby warned it might take time to get everything figured out.

“I can assure you it is a work in progress,” Darby said in September at Dover, a week after Dale Jarrett spun and was in the middle of the track at New Hampshire as cars sped toward him racing toward the yellow flag. That situation triggered the rules changes that still are causing confusion, most recently during the controversial finish of Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

“But you can come to a thousand of these races and there’s always something new just around the corner,” Darby said in announcing the new rules.

So where do things stand now, after Jeff Gordon was judged by NASCAR to be barely ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. when a caution came out on Lap 184 of Sunday’s Talladega race — a decision that ultimately gave Gordon the victory?

Based on conversations held with NASCAR officials this week, here are some answers:

Q. Why is NASCAR now “freezing” the field at the moment the caution comes out?

A. In the interest of safety. Before the changes made last year, cars were scored based on how they came across the start-finish line under the yellow flag. There was a “gentlemen’s agreement” that supposedly prevented drivers from racing for position once they knew the caution was out. But drivers desperate to make up lost laps often sped up to try to pass the leader instead of slowing, defeating the purpose of the caution. The gentlemen had ceased to agree. NASCAR stepped in and said the field would be be “frozen” at the time the caution comes out. Passes made after that point would be nullified.

Q. So when, exactly, does the field freeze? Is it when a wreck happens, when the caution call comes from the tower or when the flag waves?

A. Well, there’s the real question. When asked for a clarification of that this week, NASCAR worded its response as follows: “The field is frozen when the caution flag is displayed AND/OR the caution lights are illuminated.”

Q. Who controls the lights and who decides when the flag is waved?

A. Nextel Cup Race Director David Hoots is most often the person who says “put it out” over the radio when there’s a problem. He’s talking to the flagman at the start-finish line. Each track also has a set of caution lights controlled directly from the tower.

Q. So how do they determine who is in what position when the yellow comes out?

A. NASCAR now has added several electronic scoring loops embedded in each track’s surface to the one at the start-finish line. When a caution is called, each car is scored based on the loop it most recently passed. That gives officials a starting tool to put the cars in the proper order. Video replays are then checked to see if passes were made in the areas between those loops after the car passed one but before the yellow came out.

Q. Why can’t they just use the GPS stuff they have in each car that television uses to get data for its broadcasts?

A. NASCAR says the GPS systems aren’t reliable enough to depend upon for scoring. If the helicopters used to link all that technology can’t fly because of bad weather, for instance, that system won’t work.

Q. Why not just revert back to the previous lap’s official scoring?

A. That’s been suggested, but NASCAR says — and they’re probably right — that that would bring up an equal number of issues that would be difficult or confusing to sort out. Say, for example, the second-place car has been working on the leader for 20 laps at a short track. He makes the pass coming off Turn 4 and a wreck happens in Turn 2 all the way behind them. If the caution comes out, his pass is nullified.

Q. Why didn’t NASCAR throw a red flag Sunday to allow the field to race the final laps under green?

A. Before each race, NASCAR determines the lap after which it will not use the red flag and announces that number at the drivers’ meeting. Sunday at Talladega, that was Lap 183. Once the field had completed that lap, the red flag wasn’t an option. Brian Vickers’ spin happened on Lap 184.

Q. There wasn’t much stuff on the track after Vickers’ wreck. Why couldn’t they clean it up and go back to racing without using a red flag?

A. They ran out of laps. As the field competed Lap 184 on Sunday, Vickers wrecked and the caution came out. The pace car picked up the leaders as they ran Lap 185. Because of scoring issues, NASCAR this year began closing pit road the first time by to sort things out and for safety reasons. That means that pit road could have opened on Lap 186. This would have been a “quickie” yellow, so lead lap and lapped cars could have pitted on that lap. The field would have reformed on Lap 187 and could have gotten the “one-to-go” signal, but as they completed that lap they were coming to the white flag. When they came back around, the cars completed Lap 188 and the race.

Q. Couldn’t they have “hurried up” and given the field the green and white together?

A. Sure, but NASCAR would have been violating its own procedures. Fans sometimes say they want NASCAR to put down rules and procedures in black and white and stick to them, but some of the same fans then want them to deviate from those rules in certain situations. You can’t have it both ways.

Q. Why doesn’t NASCAR extend Cup races to ensure a green-flag finish? It does it with a green-white-checkered in the Truck Series.

A. NASCAR has always answered that question by saying that Cup races are run to the distance given on the entry blank for each race. Teams map pit strategies based on a 400- or 500-mile distance and NASCAR says it wouldn’t be fair if, for instance, a car lost positions because it had to make an extra pit stop for fuel only because a race was extended beyond the advertised distance.