NASCAR officials explained the rule in the pre-race drivers’ meeting and again in the crew-chief handout before the race. “Drivers must race above the double yellow line,” the handout reads. “If in NASCAR’s judgement, a driver goes below the double yellow line to improve position, that driver will be black-flagged. If in NASCAR’s judgment, a driver forces someone below the double yellow line in an effort to stop them from passing, the driver may be black-flagged.”

The rule was established in 2001 at Talladega and sister track Daytona International Speedway as a safety measure after a series of incidents where drivers dipped to the apron to make passes and, in certain instances, lost control in the infield grass to cause multi-car stack-ups. The aftermath has meant fewer brazen low-lane passes but has opened up race officials up to making judgment calls (think: pass interference in football or a block vs. charge call in basketball).

Sunday’s results sparked a post-race motion from NBC Sports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. — a dominator at Talladega and Daytona in his racing days — to abandon the rule. But some of Sunday’s top finishers were quick to scuttle that thought, wary of a return to the heightened lawlessness of superspeedway racing from 20 years ago.

“Sometimes when you go below the yellow line, it’s not totally your fault, but it is the rules,” said Ty Dillon, who finished a career-best third. “It comes down to a mental decision, am I going to lift or go below the yellow line. We know the rules before we get here. I think if you were to open it up and take the yellow line away, you’re going to have guys blocking all the way down to the grass, have twice as big of wrecks.

“I don’t think we want to open up that can the worms. We have plenty of race track we can go four‑ or five‑wide on. It’s a product of what we do. I don’t see anybody at any fault for any reason. I don’t think anybody tried to bend the rules to get an advantage. I think it’s just a product of what happens here.”

Said Miller: “I mean, outside of putting a wall there, I don’t really know what more we can do. I do sincerely believe we need the rule. You see all the real estate that’s around here. If we started having cars running 12-wide down the back straightaway, imagine what would happen when you get to Turn 3.

“I think it’s important that we continue to have a rule. You get out there in the heat of battle, things happen. It’s hard when there’s all that real estate down there, but you just can’t do it. I don’t think that we can eliminate it. I think it would be a mess. We kind of are where we are.”

Hamlin said the two earlier calls that affected Logano’s day set the tone and established precedence for how the rules would be enforced. He also said his final-lap maneuver wasn’t purely intended to gain an advantage but was for survival in “flat-out avoiding a wreck.”

Hamlin said he’d previously been on the receiving end of the rule’s sting.

“Finally they put their foot down and said, ‘this is the rule, we’re going to enforce it,’ ” Hamlin said. “You can’t as a leader, wherever you are, use the yellow line as a defense. You have to play within the boundaries that they set. In NFL they had force‑out rules, things like that. They got rid of it. It’s the same kind of thing.”

JRM No. 1 Chevrolet disqualified after post-race inspection at TalladegaThe No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has been disqualified for an infraction found after Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega SuperspeedwayNascar
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