Only Yesterday: Over Overtime? How NASCAR Got to Nashville’s Mayhem

After Sunday’s (June 30) five-overtime ending to the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, some watching were left wondering how much overtime was too much, with some calling for NASCAR to change the rules to limit the number of late restarts in races.

Why?

If you didn’t see Sunday’s race, Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson tangled just before the white flag. Under current NASCAR rules, because leader Denny Hamlin had not taken the white, the incident forced a restart.

And from there, chaos ensued.

So, how about that overtime?

Though it hasn’t always been called “overtime,” NASCAR has had some kind of rule in place since mid-2004 that ensures at least one attempt to end every race under a green flag. Prior to that, NASCAR Cup Series races ended at the scheduled distance, regardless of whether under green or yellow flag conditions, unless weather cut it short.

Pointing to some other series, including the Craftsman Truck Series, which would restart races in an attempt to finish under green, fans clamored for the same in the Cup Series.

NASCAR instituted the new rule at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July of 2004. Cars would make one attempt at a two-lap “green-white-checkered” finish: cars would take the green flag, then the white signaling one lap to go on the next time by the start-finish line, with the checkered flag ending the race. If the caution flew at any point during the attempt, the field would be frozen and the race would end under yellow.

The first time the rule came into play in the Cup Series was the 2004 Brickyard 400, and there was a lot to take away from that first time. There was no lead change on the green-white-checkered; Jeff Gordon led at the start and led both laps to win. The GWC only added one lap to the total distance, as the race restarted on what would have been the white-flag lap.

While runner-up Dale Jarrett couldn’t challenge Gordon, who won his fourth Brickyard 400, there was hard racing for position in the pack. Fans saw the race end under green, which was what everyone hoped for. Below is the two-lap run.

But a few drivers’ finishes were adversely affected by the restart: Casey Mears and Ricky Rudd had flat tires (Rudd has his right-front fender heavily damaged) and Mark Martin’s engine let go on the final lap.

The risk of that, though, was part of the reward. The GWC was popular with a lot of fans because it created hard, close racing thanks to the restart, more so in later years when NASCAR went to double-file restarts. It could be argued that nothing that happened on the GWC couldn’t also have happened on the last scheduled lap under green.

The first time the GWC changed the outcome of a race was the 2004 season finale. That race may be better remembered as the first championship race under the 10-race Chase system where Kurt Busch avoided pit-road disaster to win the title.

But the GWC shook things up before Busch hoisted the trophy.

Tony Stewart had the lead at the restart, but Greg Biffle came away with the win. He was able to get by as title contenders Gordon and Jimmie Johnson took Stewart three-wide behind him.

The original GWC rule remained in place through 2009. It was a success with fans, except sometimes the races still ended under caution — those last-chance restarts got pretty gnarly at times. Maybe NASCAR needed more attempts at finishing under green.

In 2010, NASCAR amended the rule to three attempts. If the caution flew during the initial GWC run, it’d re-rack the field and do it again. And again, if necessary. 

The first race out of the box, it was necessary.

The rule rolled out for the 2010 Daytona 500, a race already known for multi-car crashes as the cars ran on the ragged edge every lap.

The race featured two GWC runs to determine a winner. Kevin Harvick led the field to the first restart. Because Daytona, the field didn’t make it to the white flag that time, and Harvick lost the lead to Biffle. The race ended after the second GWC, but Biffle didn’t fare any better than Harvick had from the lead, as Jamie McMurray took the win.

Shockingly (or not), the first time all three attempts were needed to end the race was later that spring at Talladega Superspeedway. This time the tables were turned on McMurray, who led to start all three GWC restarts only to get nipped by Harvick at the line. Easy come, easy go.

To the surprise of nobody, that summer’s Daytona International Speedway race also took extra laps to finish, though they only had to do it once. Clint Bowyer led at the restart but spun, giving the win to Harvick.

The three-attempt rule, for the most part, was a good, concrete way to officiate. While the total number of extra laps under caution was a variable, teams could make at least a ballpark estimate on fuel mileage. There was a hard line when they knew the race would end.

Generally speaking, after the first year of superspeedway anarchy, most GWC finishes weren’t demolition derbies. Most only took one, maybe two attempts to settle things. Daytona and Talladega did have a higher risk level because of the nature of the racing there, but it wasn’t really a game changer.

The current payoff system changed that a little bit. With the fall Talladega race in the playoffs as an elimination race, the stakes increased dramatically. The 2014 edition took two attempts to complete, and teams were leary of multiple restarts with the possibility of multiyear crashes because a bad finish for a contender could end title hopes, one thing when it was his own fault, but another when he got caught in what’s been all but inevitable at those tracks forbears.

in 2015, NASCAR reduced the number of attempts for the fall Talladega race to one. At least in theory.

That didn’t go well either, because coming to the green for the GWC, Martin Truex Jr. got into Johnson, sending him sailing through the trioval grass. But because the caution was displayed immediately, leaders Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not cross the start-finish line to make the attempt official, so, NASCAR tried it again.

Again, cars spun as the race restarted, but this time, NASCAR decided that Logano had crossed the line, making the race official, with Logano as the winner. 

The problem was, to fans, the two restart situations looked nearly identical. Because it was an elimination race in the playoffs, many fans felt that Earnhardt Jr. was unfairly eliminated by being deprived of a chance to race for the win.

In reality, the change to one attempt at superspeedways was a good one, but fans were up in arms over Earnhardt and the close finish. In 2016, NASCAR tweaked the rule to an earlier version of the current overtime rule, officially naming it “overtime” for the first time.

Under the 2016 edition of overtime, unlimited attempts would be made to restart the race, but instead of a two-lap free-for-all, they’d run to a predetermined “overtime line” (which was in a different location at every track, not at all confusing). If they crossed that line, the race would end under caution if it came out.

So, unlimited attempts, but an arbitrary location to when those attempts ended. Good idea, anyway.

NASCAR adopted the current rules in 2017. The so-called overtime line became the start-finish line on the first lap. If the leader made it back to take the white flag, the race would end with the next flag, yellow or checkered. If they didn’t get that far before somebody caused a caution, they’d try again.

Sunday’s race at Nashville was perhaps the inevitable consequence of the rule as written. And it was ugly: a total of 13 cars were involved in incidents that took place after the scheduled distance of the race. Fuel mileage relegated the best car in the field to 12th place as the race went a whopping 31 laps past the advertised distance. Several drivers have asked for a revision back to a set number of attempts after the outcome of the event. 

Fans have had mixed reactions. Will NASCAR make another change, perhaps reverting to three tries as some drivers have suggested? Or have they given fans exactly what they asked for? It depends on who you ask. History’s funny like that sometimes.