Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The new pitting arrangement, in turn, sets the stage for a new style of side-by-side restarts.
After Sunday's TranSouth 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, which had few lead changes on the track and set a record for fewest yellow flags (three), NASCAR President Bill France Jr. and Vice President for Competition Les Richter met Tuesday evening and announced the changes Wednesday.
"We feel this will be a very positive change in procedures that will enhance the on-track competition and maintain a good degree of safety on pit road," Richter said in a statement released by NASCAR. "If more adjustments are necessary, we will make them."
Starting with Sunday's Valleydale Meats 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) International Raceway, the field of stock cars again will be designated odd or even by their qualifying positions.
Then, on caution periods, cars with odd designations will be allowed to pit - and change tires - on the first lap after the pits are opened. Cars with odd designations can pit on the second lap.
On the double-file restarts, odd-designated cars always will line up on the inside row and even-designated cars will line up on the outside row.
"Essentially, that will put two cars on the lead lap side-by-side on the restart," NASCAR spokesman Chip Williams said.
The order of the two rows will be determined by who gets out of the pits first, which means that intense competition for quick pit stops should thrive again on pit road during yellow flags. With 50 or fewer laps remaining in the race, cars in the lead lap will be allowed to move to the front of their rows, ahead of lapped cars.
NASCAR officials plan to continue a strict new penalty they announced last weekend in Darlington. Any car spinning 90 degrees or more or making contact with another car on pit road will be penalized at least five laps.
The 1991 pit rule, which essentially had ended pit stops during caution periods, was instituted to increase pit-road safety in the wake of crewman Mike Rich's death in a pit accident last November at Atlanta.
But with the end of yellow-flag tire changes, a whole new style of racing emerged that featured long stretches of green-flag racing and a field scattered all over the track. Strategy became far more important, but fans complained in letters to racing publications that Winston Cup races had become boring because there wasn't as much wheel-to-wheel racing.
Dale Inman, crew chief for Richard Petty, an outspoken critic of the pit rules, said of Wednesday's change, "I think it's certainly going to make for better racing. There hadn't been too good a race on the race track these past several races. I think it's going to get the sport back to what Winston Cup racing was all about the past 30 years."
Inman said, however, that he wonders whether the new modification will be fair if the leader is designated as an even-numbered car. Inman said he thinks he would much rather be designated an odd-numbered car and "pit on the first lap and be on the inside" because he thinks those cars will get an advantage.
"Of course, you can picture in your mind how it works, but until we really do it, we don't know how it's going to work," Inman said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB