[h=2]NASCAR considering 'cone rule' for restarts[/h] Monday, 21 August 2017


By Kelly Crandall / Images by Logan Whitton/LAT & John Harrelson/LAT















A popular short track concept is under consideration by NASCAR.
The "cone rule" is a simple idea where a physical cone is placed on the track and drivers will go either to the left or the right for which lane they want to restart in. Making it intriguing is the possibility a driver deeper in the field moves toward the front if he or she chooses the opposite of the popular lane choice.
NASCAR's senior vice president of competition Scott Miller told SiriusXM Radio's "The Morning Drive" the sanctioning body has so far only gone so far as to talk about the cone rule.
"As we do here at NASCAR, we're constantly looking at ways to make the races and the action for the fans more interesting. That is a topic that we have discussed a little bit," Miller said. "But we talk about a lot of things and when the final decision comes, I'm not sure what that will be, but certainly it has been a topic of discussion."
The gamesmanship played on pit road over the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway is what sparked the conversation. Denny Hamlin tried a few different times to check up at the exit of pit road in order to find himself in an even-numbered position. Hamlin desperately wanted to restart in the top lane, which was the optimal lane to be on restarts in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.
Unfortunately for Hamlin, it didn't work but his actions didn't go unnoticed as it wasn't the first time NASCAR has seen drivers pull such a move.
"We're certainly going to look at it. What we saw go on that everybody's talking about was pretty obvious. Ironically it didn't quite work out – sometimes those things don't," Miller said. "That's something we don't want, because we don't need accidents at the end of the pit road with people checking up.
"We'll figure out how we're going to address that one and try to move on. Really it kind of only comes into play at a few places. We know when it's possibly going to happen, so we'll try to address that."