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Thrilling finish confirms new rule change

Changing green-white-checkered policy makes a difference

Daytona 500Getty Images for NASCAR
Jamie McMurray approaches the finish line to win the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2010 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Last week, as I chatted with a NASCAR insider and it was revealed to me that it looked like the series would modify the green-white-checkered policy to allow multiple restarts, I nodded along affirmatively on the phone.

Of all the changes NASCAR has announced in recent months, I liked this one best. And the longer we chatted, the better I liked it. This one, I predicted to myself, would benefit fans the most, the most quickly and the most dramatically.

Early Sunday evening, I felt like Nostradamus.

Over the years, I had become more and more frustrated with the fact that too many races were ending without an ending.

Cars and trucks would start a race, the action would pick up, it would build toward a highly anticipated wonderful finish and then ... some attention-seeking back-marker would deflate the whole deal by wrecking in the first turn in the GWC.

Call them “Letters to Dr. Ruth Finishes”.

The other changes which NASCAR has adopted during this era of listening to fans and competitors all have some merit, I suppose. Bump drafting, double-file restarts, blade spoilers all have the potential to make the racing better. Except that many seemed like fixes for problems that were more abstract than real.

But making sure that the car or truck which took the checkered flag was screaming at full speed at the finish line, that I liked.

In fact, that I really liked after watching the finish of the Budweiser Shootout last week.

And that I loved after watching the finish of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

It was a real gosh-darn blitz to the checkered flag on the second attempt at a GWC restart. Two great laps of actual racing by the biggest stars in the business and followed by an actual payoff moment.

Sweet. It almost abrogated the frustration of potholes and the hours of the TV time-filling tactic of superfluous happy talk with drivers on pit road.

And my guess is, the finish was not just sweeter for the ticket-buying, big-screen purchasing public, but for winner Jamie McMurray and his team. They won that race. They held off Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and an angry hive of dozens behind that bunch. McMurray got to lift off the gas heading into Turn 1 at Daytona and take what had to be the most satisfying 2.5-mile drive in all of stock car racing.

There is change for the sake of change and there is change that makes a difference. NASCAR opted for the latter with the new GWC rule.

Jim Pedley is managing editor of Racin' Today. Read more NASCAR news at racintoday.com.

© 2012 Sporting News

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