LONG POND, Pa -- NASCAR's much-ballyhooed move to double-file, "shootout-style" restarts -- with the lead-lap cars side-by-side at the front of the field -- didn't play a decisive role in Sunday's Pocono 500, but race runner-up Carl Edwards got enough experience with the new system to suggest a change.

"Let the leader start in his own lane, so he has his own row," Edwards said. "The leader would have no one beside him -- he could start inside, outside, do whatever he wanted -- and then the second and third cars start behind him, with the second-place guy having the option [of lane choice].

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That double-file restart, boy, I tell you, it killed us. Aero-wise, my car was good in clean air. ... It was a handful with the dirty air.

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JEFF GORDON

"I think that would be a better way to do it. Other than that, I thought it was great. It was fun. I thought it made for exciting racing. So I think that NASCAR is moving in the right direction there."

Edwards was leading on a restart on Lap 118 and led led the field around the track single-file until cars started into two rows after Edwards went high around the final turn.

Jeff Burton, second at the time, pulled alongside of Edwards inside and the remaining cars followed suit in order. The field rocketed from the starting line in a crowded pack, and fans in the grandstand roared their approval as cars went three-wide around the first turn under green.

Most leaders appeared to choose the outside lane on restarts.

Third-place finisher David Reutimann agreed with Edwards.

"I wasn't close enough to the front to really see what was going on with the leader, but Carl's right -- the leader should at least have the right to be out there," Reutimann said. "He's earned the right to be there, and maybe all the rest of us [should] double-up.

"I'm sure they will refine it and make it better, but I think it came off pretty good for the first time."

Jeff Gordon finished fourth but admitted his team had to work on restart strategy.

"That double-file restart, boy, I tell you, it killed us," Gordon said. "Aero-wise, my car was good in clean air. ... It was a handful with the dirty air."

There was more uncertainty than buzz at the drivers' meeting.

Gordon, Ryan Newman and Elliot Sadler were among the drivers who peppered race director David Hoots with questions in a scene that looked like a crowded driver's education classroom. Racers and their crews sat elbow-to-elbow as Hoots went over the rules in a monotonous voice while an interactive video played on two TVs.

"We understand there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve," Hoots said.

A frenetic finish caused by the double-field restarts at last month's All-Star Race helped convince NASCAR to move to the "leaders first" procedure for points races, too.

"It's no different from the initial start of the race, except that we're going to have to do it over and over again," Hoots said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.