In theory, NASCAR's overtime procedure is there to give fans "unlimited" attempts at a green flag finish. In execution, NASCAR's overtime procedure all but ensures if there is an incident on the final lap of a race the fans will not see a green flag finish, And in this humble cone's opinion, if you say you're going to give the fans a green flag finish, well, we need to give the fans a green flag finish.
So how do we do it but do it safely?
Well, first, we need to ensure we aren't racing back through an accident zone. Some fans think we should race back to the checkered flag regardless, and I used to think that way, but that's not a possibility anymore. So no racing back to the checkered when the yellow comes out on the last lap.
That doesn't mean we end under yellow though. But the solution is really simple. If the caution comes out any time in the final two laps, including on the last lap before the checkered flag, we need to freeze the field, clear the track, line them back up and do it all over again. As many times as it takes. Yes, UNLIMITED attempts at a Green-White-Checkered finish.
The overtime line can still be used to determine a clean restart. Call it "the restart line" and if they wreck before the cross that line, realign the field in the positions they were in and do it again. But in my opinion it should have no bearing in when the race finishes.
There is always the "but, what if we're there until Tuesday night trying to get a finish?" Yeah, what if? How about we look at history and let that guide us instead of nonsense.
Only once in the Truck Series' nine-year history of unlimited GWC attempts was there more than three attempts. The last race before unlimited attempts were outlawed by rule was at Gateway in 2004 and it had an unbelievable four attempts, and every fan there that night and those watching on TV still talk about the finish of that race.
If we aren't going to finish under green, that's also fine. Just end the race at the advertised distance every time. I am 100% okay with that too. But if we say we are going to finish under green, we need to finish under green. And races need to finish at the same place each and every week, at the start-finish line. If we don't disqualify "winners" for failing post-race tech because the fans deserve to leave the track knowing who won, then they also deserve to know where on the track those winners will be determined.
