[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by Bassdogs

While also not a fan of fuel milage races, I am even more in amazement by the green/white/checker to make races more exciting for the fans. What anyone who has watched at least 2 races recently knows, is that being a dominant car or building a comfortable lead as the laps wind down, is of little value. 9 out of 10 times a yellow flys [usually caused by an out of the picture car] bunches up the field for a sprint to the finish. As a purist for racing, some call for a back "to the good old days" as a solution. I see the benefit in many of the changes implimented in the last 10 years, but the g/w/c is bad. Otherwise, if you don't have enough fuel, who's fault is that?

I'm ambivalent about the G/W/C Rule. I find it more satisfying than finishing under the yellow, when there is a wreck with, say eight to go, and the cars motor around under yellow until they finally complete the advertised number of laps.

One thing I DO have a problem with is the "phantom yellow," especially when it's used as a "competition yellow," to artificially bunch up the field to prevent one, two or three cars from lapping the field. This is manipulation of racing taken to the extreme.

In the 50's and 60's (a.k.a. "The Bad Old Days" to some of the new fans) Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson or Fireball Robert would win by multiple laps on the field. But they had exciting racing because they were running side by side back in the pack. Today, unless one of the stars in mired back in the pack, the TV acts like no one past 5th exists.