In the Pits: Nascar rivalries, rule changes bring excitement...

Brandon Apter

I know there are not many Nascar fans that visit this sight, but with some developments over the past weeks, I wanted to shed my light on why I think that Nascar is headed in the right direction and how a recent rivalry has sparked some interest in the sport.

First off, within the past year, Nascar decided to make some changes to the rules. The three most notable ones were allowing bump drafting in the turns on super speedways (Daytona, Talledega), they would make three attempts at a green-white-checker flag if a caution happened in the last three laps to make endings more exciting and finally, they adjusted their restarts to double-file. These are changes for the good. Now for those of you who may be a little cloudy as to what some of this means, let me explain...

Bump Drafting rules eliminated...Bump drafting is one of the more strategic parts of Nascar. On tracks that are super speedways, such as Daytona and Talladega, the drivers get close to the rear of the car in front of them, and bump them. The following car pulls up behind the lead car and bumps into the rear of it, pushing the lead car ahead, to maintain momentum. If done wrong, it can cause a crash that eventually leads to a domino effect depending on the field position of the wreck. Another side of this involves the use of larger restrictor plates, which gives the drivers more horsepower. So...faster racing and more bumping on super speedways, where speeds are normally 175-185 through turns, which leads to bigger wrecks.

Green-white-checker...Up until a few weeks ago, if a caution flag waved in the final three laps, Nascar would make one attempt to for a green-white-checker. An easier way of putting it is that if a wreck happened in the final three laps, they would remove any debris and then take one try at a restart with three laps to go. If they finish normally, the white flag would signal the final lap and the checkered flag, the finish. If a wreck were to happen, the field would be frozen and the race would end. The change they made to that was to try and make more attempts to finish the race normally rather than under a yellow flag. So this gives drivers a few more attempts to make a move and it also gives more late-race drama, which can be very exciting believe it or not

Double-file restarts...Last year, nascar made a significant change to their restart format. After a caution, what would happen beforehand is that the field would set up in a single file line on the outside lane while lapped cars would be on the inside. This made the competition a little dumb because the lapped cars where up front rather than the top drivers. So they changed the format to double-file restarts by place. That way the leading drivers are able to race each other hard after the race restarts. It makes for more interesting restarts with drivers immediately fighting for position.

The latest rivalry...Anyone who saw Sportscenter after this past sunday may have caught a glimpse of the race highlight that involved Brad Keslowski (#12) getting spun and going airbourne, thanks to a nice tap by Carl Edwards (#99). For those who may be unaware, Keslowski was in 6th position at this point with under 20 laps to go. Edwards took some revenge on Brad from the previous year at Talledega, when Carl was in the lead on the final straightaway in the final lap of the race...and was sent into the air by Keslowski, who won the race. Carl did something only Ricky Bobby would do...he got out of his car after the crash and ran across the finish line. If you ask me, this is the kind of excitement Nascar needs. Some people were very iffy about what should have been done after this incident but there is not much Nascar could have done after the whole "putting everything in the driver's hands". Edwards ended up being parked for the remainder of the race and put on probation for three races while Keslowski ended up with a disappointing day as he went from top to bottom. These kind of rivalries are what make this sport worth watching. These cars are so safe that they walk out of them unscathed for the most part. For your viewing pleasure, I figured some would enjoy seeing exactly what these wrecks looked like in real time.

Edwards goes airborne at Talledega
Keslowski goes airborne in Atlanta

I am a Nascar fan and I believe that these changes that have been made are slowly but surely making races more enjoyable to watch. Make sure to stop by for another In the Pits after the next race.
*photos courtesy of Yahoo! Sports