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Nascar and Racing

Restarts Produce 'One Heck of a Show'

Posted Jul 12, 2009 4:01PM By Geoffrey Miller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Sprint Cup

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Chicago Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR Jeff Gordon Denny Hamlin Mark MartinWhat was a bit of a snoozer to begin with at Chicagoland Speedway Saturday night ended in a fashion that was anything but.

In a three-lap sequence of events starting on lap 250 of the 267 lap race, the race lead switched three times between the guy who had dominated the second half of the race, a guy looking for his first win since 2006 and the guy who dominated the first half of the event.

And that's not even the beginning of how crazy the pack was just behind them, all thanks to NASCAR's recently-implemented double-file restart rules.

Mark Martin -- the first-half dominator -- obviously prevailed over, or escaped from, the mess that was brewing behind him for the final time on lap 252, and went on to score his fourth win of 2009 after leading a whopping 195 laps.

But those restarts nearly spelled the end for Martin as his car's dominant handling started to fade some in the later stages of the race -- until the aforementioned three-lap sequence after the restart on lap 250 brought him right back to the front.

In fourth at the time, Martin watched as Jimmie Johnson got loose in the in the lead, allowing Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers to sneak underneath. Their reign at the front didn't last long as they raced side-by-side back to turn one where Vickers got loose, shot up the race track and nearly took out himself and Hamlin.

Martin, ever the cagey veteran, was there to slide by and take the lead.

Without those double-file restarts that put the leaders side-by-side after every caution period, however, it's likely that Johnson -- he wound up 8th -- could have sailed off into the Chicagoland darkness for his first win at the track. But thanks to NASCAR's rule change in June to make the restarts identical to the field's starting order that wasn't meant to be.

In fact, it was such an issue after the race that many fans talked about the "chaos" and other "hectic" adventures the restarts produced.

"They certainly make things exciting," said Johnson. "They give everybody a chance and when you can group everyone up that close and they can see the front and they know the checkered flag is not far away, the racing just gets really intense."

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Ryan Newman managed to work up a 6th-place finish thanks, in part, to taking advantage of some of the intense racing that Johnson described near the finish.

"It's cool. I think it is good racing," said Newman. "There are times when it's going to be to your advantage, and times it's going to be to your disadvantage, but you've just got to be there for the taking."

Johnson's teammate Jeff Gordon secured a 2nd-place finish thanks to a late pit stop for new tires that allowed him to negotiate the chaotic late restart dashes a little better than drivers with old tires. After the race, he made note that while the restarts making the driver work harder, the intended purpose of the rule change wasn't to make racing easier.

"It's not for us. It's for the people in the grandstands and the people at home," said Gordon. "I think it's a great move. I think it changes how we have to race one another. [...] To me it's always crazy on the double file restarts. It's exciting, man. That's putting on a heck of a show."

Kasey Kahne, who finished third, said that he felt the restarts left him about even after the race.

"The restarts, I like [them]," said Kahne. "I still think it's a great change that NASCAR did. I lost some, I made some again. Same as every week. I lose three of the restarts and win three of the restarts. I don't know, 50% is not too bad."

Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton -- a guy who's trying to battle through a horrendously tough year for the normally top-notch operation -- wasn't too happy with the restarts after getting bit by them for yet another week during a wreck late in the event.

"Double-file restarts four weeks in a row and I have been in wrecks four weeks in a row," said Burton. "I know it is exciting to watch and I am sure it is exciting to talk about but my perspective right now isn't really good. It has been four weeks that wrecks happened in front of us and we have been in four of them. I am about done with them."

Obviously, luck and timing have been playing into Burton's misfortune, and after the thrilling laps NASCAR fans got to see Saturday night, convincing NASCAR to revert back to the old rules would be a tough job.

"Man, that was exciting at the end. Holy smokes," said Carl Edwards. "The fans got their money's worth on that second or third-to-last restart."

Tags: Carl+Edwards, Chicagloand+Speedway, Chicago, Jeff+Burton, Jeff+Gordon, Jimmie+Johnson, Kasey+Kahne, Lifelock.com+400, Mark+Martin, Sprint+Cup

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