Ball of confusion - The Fans Speak Out - Letter to the Editor

Auto Racing Digest, June-July, 2002

I don't get it. One week NASCAR stopped a race because of a late crash and then had a mad dash to the finish line, but the next week it didn't and finished the race under the yellow flag. I love NASCAR, but its constant rule changes and inconsistencies drive me nuts. In the NHL they don't have overtime one day and a shootout the next. Baseball doesn't alternate between extra innings and flipping a coin to determine a winner. Now that NASCAR has joined the big time, its time to adopt one rule and stick with for at least a season at a time. There are pros and cons to both approaches to dealing with late-race crashes, and I won't argue which way is the right way, just that there needs to be one way.

Ray Slattering
Rockford, Mich.

NASCAR needs to be more consistent, but it also needs to have races which fans want to watch! I don't see any problem with extending the end of a race if the drivers are under a caution flag, unless that means that racers are going to try to purposefully cause crashes in order to give their teammates more of a chance to win races.

Alessandro Gioradano
New York City