NASCAR has announced that the number of green-white-checker attempts for Talladega will be reduced to one.
Starting this weekend, both the Camping World Truck Series Fred’s 250 and Sprint Cup Series CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway will be limited to one green-white-checker attempt.
“Following extensive dialogue with the industry, we have decided to make a procedural change at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice-president and chief racing development officer. “In the event the race goes beyond the advertised distance due to a caution, we will use a single attempt at a green-white-checker finish. We take very seriously the responsibility of balancing exciting finishes and safety. We’re confident that this is a positive direction for both.”
There had also been discussion of going to single-file restarts at restrictor plate tracks, but NASCAR decided to leave double-file restarts in place.
NASCAR has utilized green-white-checker finishes since 2004 after the spring Talladega race ended under caution and fans pelted the track with beer cans. It was officially used for the first time in the 2004 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard that was won by Jeff Gordon.
Since 2005, there have been 43 restrictor plate races. Of those, 23 have had green-white-checker finishes (53.49 percent), which statistically means a plate race is likely to go past the advertised distance.
These restarts have at times ended in spectacular wrecks. In 2012, Tony Stewart was leading the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega when he came down, got turned by Michael Waltrip and triggered a 25-car pileup.
The catalyst for this move was the final lap crash back in July at Daytona International Speedway which saw the No. 3 car of Austin Dillon lift off the ground, fly into the catch fence and injure five fans.
Martin Truex Jr. said he thinks, “it’s a good idea just based on past history of what we’ve seen on green-white-checkereds, as far as really just destroying race cars. I think the chances when you go to Talladega of bringing a car home are slim, but if you have green-white-checkereds there, the chance of not bringing a car home goes up pretty dramatically. I think for the owners and everybody involved, I would be OK to limiting it to one. Hopefully, it doesn’t even come down to one.’’
