Last Lap: Road Rules

Some folks swear the NASCAR rulebook is written in pencil. For the record, my copy is not, though following last weekend's shenanigans at Texas Motor Speedway I'm beginning to wonder if a test for erasable ink is in order.

Presently the sanctioning body can, and does, enforce its written rules as it deems fit, considering the particular situation and its unique characteristics individually each time. Specific ramifications for specific infractions simply do not exist. This leads to inconsistent rules enforcement.

	Marty Smith

I understand that each infraction includes its own specificities, and judging them all the same way is virtually impossible. But a more uniform enforcement policy is in order.

Get caught committing an illegality, receive a penalty under a vague "detrimental to stock car racing" premise. Do it again, pay a completely different price under the same code. Make a split-second decision behind the wheel that the boys in the tower deem inappropriate, you're going to the rear of the field whether you were in the wrong or not.

Brian Vickers was not in the wrong last Saturday.

Sure, by veering to the left of a lapped-car on a restart he technically committed a no-no according to the rulebook. Under normal circumstances, the rule is acceptable, but when Chad Blount's car bobbled, Vickers had a fraction of a second to assess four choices:

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Dive to the bottom, go high and chance hitting the wall in a race-winning car, slam the brakes and stack up the field or just plain run Blount over. He chose the former, and pulled even with Blount's rear wheels at the start/finish line.

The rulebook states that a driver cannot pass another car on the left side before the start/finish line. Vickers was past that point by the time he cleared Blount. If you're running alongside them, have you passed them yet? I think not.

NASCAR said he was in the "act of passing" and showed him the black flag. He was sent to the rear of the field and ended up wrecking the best car of his life, one that almost surely would have carried him to his first career victory.

Vickers was crushed, frustrated, and incensed. Still is, and has every right to be. NASCAR was wrong, and it wasn't their only mistake of the weekend. It was just their worst.

But who holds them accountable? Who issues their penalty? Nobody. That's the issue here, and that's the reason it's time for a rulebook that eliminates - or at worst drastically reduces -- the gray area that allows for so much leeway.

Under the current circumstances, even rules written in black and white are open to interpretation. Was a driver forced below the yellow line at Talladega, or did he go on his own? It's against the written rule for a driver to go below that line, but it's up to a group of individuals to decide how he got there.

What can NASCAR do to make its rules more consistent? The door is wide open on this one:

TheBoy: "First, NASCAR should publish its rule book for the general public's purchase and review. I've never tried to find rulebooks for the NFL and NBA, but as an amateur baseball umpire for many years I bought a new MLB rulebook every year. So why can't/won't NASCAR do the same thing? According to what I've heard and read, it is sometimes difficult for prospective competitors to get a complete copy of NASCAR's rules.

"Secondly, I think NASCAR needs separate, unbiased officials, like all of the other sports. If a group of officials were under annual or multiple- year contract and had no interest in the outcome of their decisions other than fair and consistent application of the published rules, many questions would be eliminated.

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"Those officials would take control of the racetrack when the first car arrived and be in total control of all matters concerning the rules, inspections, etc. throughout the weekend and until the garage closed after the last race.

"Then if violations occurred that required further penalties -- fines, suspensions, etc. - the officials for that race, or a committee of the most senior officials, would determine the penalty and inform NASCAR.

"When Hilton, Darby, et al attempt to 'officiate' the race it creates conflicts of interest that should not be and gives them opportunities to sometimes make up the rules, or certainly slant interpretations, as they go. The hierarchy of NASCAR could act as the body to which very limited appeals could be made."

Aside from misspelling Helton, Boy Wonder did quite well here. A public record that spells out what is and what is not legal would go a long way towards assuring consistent rules enforcement. Maybe then we'd know why a guy can get caught with an illegal part in post-race inspection and retain a victory.

Upsdj88rulz: "First off, I don't think the rules will ever be consistent. NASCAR has shown year after year that they'll make new rules whenever they think it will benefit the sport. For instance every year they start off with rules on car length. Almost every year they start changing it when it seems one manufacturer might have an advantage.

"As long as they can change rules on a whim there will never be any consistency. What needs to happen is the rules are for the whole year. NO CHANGES. If Chevy dominates the year, oh well. You fix it next year. The only reason they keep changing, is the sponsors and manufacturers have so much money tied into the sport.

"Look at the NFL, if you beating everyone by 20 they don't say, you have to give your two best players to another team. (I know, it's all about parity.) If it's not in the book, don't make it up, if it's there enforce it. You're not going to please everyone, but as long as you're consistent, nobody can complain about consistency."

On a similar note:

ActionP24: "I agree with Jeff Hammond -- throw away the rule book since the powers that be don't know how to interpret their own rules anyway. They change their rules mid-race - before a race -- apply a different rule to a different track - whatever happened to just racing?

"This sport is getting too methodical - seems the only rule they have not changed is if you've just pitted and a caution comes out you are automatically a lap down. That rule stinks too! If you get caught in the pits then you're screwed but if you have cleared pit road, why a lap down? I don't know - wish they'd forget the technicalities and go back to good ole rubbin' and racin'"

I'll agree the technicalities are nauseating at times. Take Sunday's situation with the gentleman's agreement, for example. Matt Kenseth slowed to a virtual crawl as the caution flag flew to allow teammate Kurt Busch and Ricky Rudd back on the lead lap, but Jeff Gordon wasn't so accommodating. Gordon passed Kenseth to assure the others remained a lap down.

But somehow, NASCAR ruled that Kenseth would remain the leader AND that Busch and Rudd could return to the lead lap. How can that happen? How can two cars advance position and another can't? It seems to me that either Gordon is the leader and Busch and Rudd return to the lead lap, or Kenseth is the leader and the others remain a lap down.

Nope. NASCAR said Kenseth took the caution as the leader, and that only the leader has the option to allow competitors to return to the lead lap. Now hold on. The gentleman's agreement says drivers shall not pass for position racing back to the caution.

It's not even a rule, so if Gordon wants to race back to the caution in order to disallow a competitor - and potential threat to win both the race and championship - back on the lead lap, that's his prerogative.

Oh wait, apparently it's not.

For the record, Tuesday morning NASCAR president Mike Helton stood up and admitted the sanctioning body had made a mistake, shouldn't have interjected into the situation and will take a hard look at bettering the method used in such situations in the future.

Good thing, because their decision Sunday could be bigger than just what happened at Texas. Say Kurt Busch wins the championship by a miniscule margin. Suddenly, the Texas decision is huge.

Personally, I don't understand drivers letting each other get laps back. I understand strategizing for the coming weeks, but giving a guy a lap back after you've worked your tail off to put him in that position in the first place puzzles the fire out of me.

It's racing, after all. Getting to the start/finish line first is the whole reason for being there, and lapping cars certainly makes that easier.

Whether you're the leader or the 18th-place driver, if you're on the lead lap in the closing stages you can win. You never know when a multi-car pileup will happen, and push the 15th-place guy into the lead.

CanadasCat: "FIRST, NASCAR Executives should sit down and READ their OWN history books. NASCAR did NOT make NASCAR the big guy of corporate images in the world of racing. Richard Petty, The Allisons, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt and many more are the PEOPLE WHO MADE NASCAR what it is today.

"NASCAR should go back and review and not re-invent the wheel. STOP PENALIZING THE DRIVERS AND RACE TEAMS FOR CONDUCTING ANTICS THAT MADE NASCAR WINSTON CUP RACING WHAT IT IS TODAY.

"NASCAR started from the dirt and sand with a bunch of guys who looked at each other and said "I CAN BEAT YOU". Corporate image stuff and the almighty dollar have forced NASCAR Winston Cup Racing into following Formula One into the grave.

"REMEMBER: THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT AND THE PEOPLE WHO SPEND THEIR ENTERTAINMENT DOLLARS ARE THE ONES WHO WILL KEEP WINSTON CUP RACING FROM BECOMING OBSOLETE."

For sure, Maple Leaf. Many of the older fans are starting to feel alienated, an inevitable repercussion of rapid growth and popularity explosion. To grow you must change, and hope your fans are willing to accept it.

Bmillssy8: "First, I believe they should not change rules after season starts. They should designate the off-season months as the only time a rule can be changed and maybe a week or two during the season. This not only is more professional, but also is less skeptical.

"For the end of races, it should be a percentage of race left to determine if red flag should be thrown. Obviously, five at Bristol and five laps at Talladega are completely different, but two percent let's say of 500 miles is same."

For years, NASCAR took hell for inconsistently deciding when to finish under caution and when to the throw the red, clean up the track and have a shootout to the checkers. This year, they say if the caution flies with five laps or less remaining in the race, it's over and ends under caution. End of story.

Races that end under caution are anticlimactic at best, but at least the competitors and fans know what to expect these days. It's a start.

AmyLuvsJr: "How about typing up a book and put all the rules in it and all the different scenarios that could possibly occur. Time constraining? YES! Waste of time? NO!

Impossible? Yes!

Punisher29: "We can start by having King Helton come down from his ivory tower, put away the crayons that he uses to write the NASCAR rulebook and have DISCUSSIONS with people who ACTUALLY DRIVE! Maybe a driver advisory board (evenly organized with veteran and younger drivers) meeting for a brief period (between sponsor commitments) on a monthly basis would help. Too many suits that aren't flame-retardant are making too many decisions that affect NASCAR negatively these days. Give the drivers a bigger voice."

I love this idea. Choose six drivers, including one rookie, to sit on an advisory board to discuss rules and their enforcement with NASCAR. Players unions keep the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball in check when difficult topics arise. And since a driver's union seems out of the question, such a board would help keep tabs on the sanctioning body. Great idea, Big Pun.

This is not an easy fix, but it is necessary.

Here's some more proof: Joe Nemechek was found to have an illegal front spring after winning the Busch Series race NASCAR stole from Vickers. Nemechek was fined $25,000, but allowed to keep the victory.

Issue a victory to a driver with an illegal car? Something's got to be done.

Marty Smith is Senior Writer of NASCAR.com and the opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.