Will NASCAR Rethink The Whole Misbegotten Yellow-Line Rule?

Amid the varied topics for discussion after a very competitive Daytona 500 weekend, one worthy subject has gotten overlooked but requires attention. It is the rule that cars cannot pass other cars below the yellow line at restrictor plate tracks. Throughout the Daytona 500 we saw cars clip the yellow line trying to pass, and backing off to avoid drawing a penalty. The result was usually a jam-up behind the cars in question, including a near-wreck in the trioval when Mark Martin had to jump up the outside into the lead. It has made blocking more of an issue, especially since as Casey Mears put it before the Daytona 500 that has been more of a factor in wrecks rather than push-drafting - notably the jam-up leading to Steve Kinser's flight in the IROC race.

Will NASCAR rethink this whole misbegotten rule? History suggests not yet, but the absurdity of the rule continues to baffle. Put in place at Talladega in April 2001 immediately following the BGN 300, it was almost entirely a panicky rule because NASCAR was collectively scared to death of a wholesale driver park-out occurring during the Winston Cup 500. The rumor had been circulating in the weeks before that Talladega weekend of a driver boycott or park-out following the death of Dale Earnhardt and NASCAR's initial ruling that its roof spoiler package - all but openly blamed for Earnhardt's death in several media pieces, notably an infamously maukish piece by The Charlotte Observor's David Poole in the immediate week after Earnhardt's death - would remain in place.

Following Talladega's BGN 300 that weekend and a loud protest by Jimmy Spencer over drivers passing below the yellow line, NASCAR ruled it would flag drivers for going below the yellow line. It led to Tony Stewart's infamous confrontation with Winston-Salem Journal writer Mike Mulhern after the Firecracker 400 when Stewart passed below the line for fifth and was flagged to the rear in the final laps. Since then there have been numerous instances of drivers flagged for passing below the yellow line and a more-infamous no-call for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega in 2003 - there Earnhardt passed Matt Kenseth on the apron of Turn Three with five laps to go but was not flagged, NASCAR lamely claiming he had "already passed" Kenseth when he got below the line, never mind the two were still nose to nose when he hit the apron and Earnhardt had to go on the apron to clear Kenseth.

It was a lame non-call universally recognized as favoritism by NASCAR toward Junior then and later, poor officiating on a par with infamous no-calls and bad calls in NFL lore. But it also raised questions about the sagacity of the yellow-line rule to start with.

Now we've seen numerous near-wrecks by cars clipping the yellow line and having to hit the brakes to avoid penalty. So NASCAR has some serious rethinking to do here.