A cut tire had put them behind early, and they spent the rest of the day trying to make up ground. He lost a lap, then gained it back. The car got worse, then better. A long afternoon of adjustments and perseverance and effort seemed finally about to pay off for the No. 33 team in the waning laps last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. A two-tire stop had put Clint Bowyer in the lead approaching what appeared the final restart, and the Richard Childress Racing driver had visions of heading into the off week as the Sprint Cup points leader.

And in an instant, it all came undone. Bowyer faded from the lead on the restart. Jamie McMurray spun. Suddenly seven drivers were caught up in the last, biggest accident of the day. Among them were Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch -- and Bowyer, who wound up finishing 23rd. NASCAR's recently revised rule allowing for multiple green-white-checkered attempts had struck again.

"For guys that have been on the lead lap, the reward should be that you finish up front," Bowyer said. "I got wrecked, and eight cars that finished in front of me, they were nowhere to be found all day long. It makes for good racing for the fans, but it makes you whine a little bit, too."

Lost in the furor surrounding Carl Edwards' intentional takeout of Brad Keselowski is the fact that his retaliatory tap not only sent the No. 12 car flying, but for many drivers completely changed the outcome of the race. Before the on-track altercation and the ensuing yellow flag pushed the event into overtime, Juan Montoya had been steadily narrowing the gap on leader Kurt Busch, and drivers like Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. -- running seventh and eighth, respectively -- had put themselves in position for strong finishes and good points days. Although pit stops before the first green-white-checkered attempt allowed Bowyer to briefly take the lead, both drivers ultimately wound up on the losing end.

"It creates racing. As a fan of the sport, you want to see that," Bowyer said. "But we had to put two tires on, guys that were fast put four tires on. You've got cars crushed up there not running the pace, you've got guys that are trying to win the race that are up front all day long. It just creates an intense situation that sometimes gets out of hand. It did for me."

It was done, they told us, because the fans wanted it. Displeasure with the yellow-flagged end of the Budweiser Shootout -- an exhibition race -- led NASCAR to tweak its overtime procedure and allow up to three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish. Although races had ended under caution for decades, people evidently had no more patience for such a thing. Like double-file restarts, it was another method of injecting a little bit of excitement into a sport trying to revive its television ratings and attendance figures. NASCAR is only following the lead set by other sports leagues, which in down cycles have traditionally made changes designed to juice the offense.

But how much do fans really like finishes under caution? Enough to deny drivers the finishes they deserve, and wreck more race cars in the progress? Because, to a degree, that's what's happening. Fans of Kevin Harvick couldn't have been happy with the revised rule at the Daytona 500, where the extra laps allowed Jamie McMurray to win. Fans of Bowyer and Truex couldn't have been happy with the rule at Atlanta, where both approached the penultimate restart in the top 10 and finished in the 20s. For that matter, neither could fans of Montoya, whose attempt to reel in the leader was cut short. Or fans of Kurt Busch, who had to endure another restart to win. Or fans of Martin, Hamlin, Kyle Busch or McMurray, all of whom wound up with wrecked race cars in an extra period that wouldn't have existed a season ago.

It all begs the question -- who is this rule designed to serve, traditional NASCAR fans whose drivers could well get shafted by the triple-overtime format, or more casual fans who might get turned off by the sight of a finish under yellow on TV? In the garage area, it's clear there are mixed feelings. Everybody understands the need to display the product at its most competitive. But the revised green-white-checkered rule, in tandem with the wave-around policy put in place late last season that makes it easier for lapped-down cars to get their laps back, can lead to some rather unpredictable jumbles at the end.

"They're trying to create exciting races to the end, and they've definitely got it," Marcos Ambrose said. "I think the fans love it. As a driver, I bust my boiler for 290-odd laps trying to stay on the lead lap, and I'm 15th or 16th, last car on the lead lap, thinking, OK, worse-case I'm going to finish 15th or 16th. Then all of the sudden these guys come around and get the wave-around and your day can end up in 31st-place because they get the free pass two or three times in the last 10 laps. That gets me a bit miffed."

Understandably so. Sunday, a handful of drivers who had spent most of the event laps down to the leader -- most notably Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- used the situation to salvage top-20s, finishing ahead of some drivers who were up front before the final round of restarts began. "The way it is now," Ambrose added, "with 10 laps to go, if the cautions fall the right way, with three green-white-checkers, you can gain three laps. You can have a bad day and end up with a cracker for nothing else than cautions coming out."

Is that fair? The answer likely depends on whether your favorite driver benefits from the situation, or gets burned. In a way, even though Harvick had the best car all day and was denied the victory, the Daytona 500 showed the best of what the extra-overtime policy is capable -- a stirring finish of exactly the kind NASCAR had envisioned when it put the rule in place. Atlanta showed the absolute worst, in the form of drivers getting robbed of deserving finishes, the leader having to run another gauntlet, the top challenger getting swallowed on the restart, and team owners having to shell out plenty of cash to repair wrecked race cars.

Either way, a blanket assumption that everybody wins now that yellow-flag finishes are (likely) a thing of the past comes across as a little simplistic. Clearly, a lot of fans -- and drivers -- lost because of the additional green-white-checkered period last weekend at Atlanta. Clearly, given that aggression and patience are typically displayed in inverse proportion on late restarts, we're going to see a lot more wrecked cars. And as a fan, whether you're a winner because of this rule likely depends on whom you're cheering.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Related:
• Busch wins at Atlanta after crashes set up restarts
• Green-white-checkered change | Drivers sound off