Insider's View: Wally Dallenbach

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- The NASCAR rule to race back to the start-finish line when a caution comes out drives me crazy. We have been so lucky for so long that a serious or fatal injury hasn't been the result of the rule. What I would love to see is that when a yellow comes out, positions freeze on the race track or things revert back to the last full lap. Other series operate this way and it's time NASCAR does.

	Wally Dallenbach

It was great that Mike Helton admitted a mistake was made last week in Texas when Jeff Gordon was put back in second place even though he legally passed Matt Kenseth in the race back to the line after caution was displayed. The "gentlemen's agreement" among the drivers is to not pass under these conditions but I think both guys did what they had to do.

Matt was going to give his teammates Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch their lap back, so he slowed up. Jeff didn't want that to happen so he passed Matt.

I've been on both sides of that fence so I understand. But I think NASCAR needs to get rid of the gray area and make a rule that everyone abides by. The "gentlemen's agreement" deal leaves too much room for something similar happening again.

I've also never been a big fan of letting guys get their laps back. You race your butt off to keep everyone as far behind you as possible until a caution comes out and just like that, the leader lets up and allows people to come back around. I know Matt was probably following team orders and letting Roush teammates by him, but I still don't like it.

There probably won't be too many guys getting a lap down at Talladega this weekend because with restrictor plate racing, everyone's pretty much all together anyway. I think one of the keys at Talladega will be on pit road.

Keep your eyes on guys that come in under green and plan on taking two tires or fuel only. If they come in too hot, which is easy to do, they'll lock up their brakes and flat spot the tires. And when that happens, you have to change all four tires which takes up some valuable time and could completely take them out of the race.

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I hate picking guys to do well at restrictor plate tracks. I may as well pick four names out of a hat. Of course you have to look at the DEI team because they've been the dominant plate force the last few years. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Michael Waltrip will certainly be contenders on Sunday.

But I have a feeling that there's a very good possibility someone will finally beat the trend. I think everyone is tired of getting beat so badly at the plate tracks and quite frankly, it's been a little boring to watch the same two guys run up front at every race.

A lot of teams have stepped up their plate programs and the Robert Yates Racing team strikes me as a duo to watch. I can't see Yates, who used to be the plate master, taking another bitter pill this weekend so watch for Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler to be factors.

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