DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Thursday morning (Feb. 11), NASCAR announced a change to its green-white-checkered finish format. Now, instead of just one attempt to finish the race under green – we’ll have three.
“We want to do all we can to finish our races under green-flag conditions – the fans want to see that and so do the competitors,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice president of Competition. “We felt that putting a cap at three attempts to finish the race under green is the way to go. It gives the fans what they want and it also gives the teams a better opportunity to prepare for their end of race strategy.”
The rule came under scrutiny Saturday night, when the exhibition Bud Shootout ended under caution after a multi-car wreck with two laps left. The tweak moves the concept back towards its original rules, where there were unlimited attempts to finish a race under green.
However, Pemberton noted if the caution comes out on the white-flag lap, the rule remains the same – the race is over no matter how many GWC attempts have been used.
The change goes into effect for each of the sport’s top-three series effective this weekend.
About the author
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.
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