Thoughts on Texas and late race #NASCAR cautions.

These restart wrecks late in the race are getting beyond a joke. Now I’m not Jeff Gordon fan, but the guy had the best car, was cruising to a win that would have broke a bit of a streak when Rooty had his spin.Differing pit strategies shuffle the pack, but we barely get the green waved when the 99 and the 14 tangle and we get the big one and a red flag.

OK, it’s racing, but it isn’t a demolition derby, so what do we need to let the races run out without all this stupidity? I would start by penaliing any driver that causes a wreck on a restart by stripping the driver and owner of any points for that event and parking them for the next one to try and get the message across.

I’d also look at the question of pitting under caution in the late stages. It screws up the race for teams that have used their strategy well and got themselves a decent postition. I don’t hold with the argument that it makes the race more exiting – especially the phantom “competition caution” – if NASCAR want a 30 lap sprint them they should just run them and not waste everyone’s time with a 500 miler. So let’s try a new rule. If there is a caution with, say, 30 or less laps to go you can pit for new tires and/or fuel, but you go to the back of the pack for the single file restart.

For me the only good thing that came out of the Texas race at the weekend was that Mark Martin got a decent finish after some bad luck (and wrecks).