NASCAR: "We can’t let restarts get out of hand”

Last weekend at Dover, Del., Cole Custer was called for a restart violation in the Truck race and Elliott Sadler was flagged for jumping the start of a heat race in the Xfinity Series.

Don't try anything

Carl Edwards received a warning on his restarts in last month’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol, Tenn.

“So, what I gather from watching the way they’re policing the restarts is I better not try anything on the restarts because they are on it,” Edwards said Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “They do not want to see any messing around so I believe they’ve laid down the law.

“Everybody knows that they’re serious about it. I got warned at Bristol and it was surprising to me how strict they are being.”

NASCAR closely monitoring every restart

Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said restarts have become a “point of emphasis.”

“Many felt there were drivers trying to game the rules. We have made it clear that we’ll use all of our resources to make a call when needed to on restarts,” he told Motorsport.com. “These are hard calls, but we can’t let restarts get out of hand.”

Matt Kenseth said rules should not be made that can’t be policed, so he has no problem with NASCAR policing the rules that it has.

“They’ve been calling them really, really close, but I restarted second at least two or three times last weekend and I knew that I could not start before the leader and I knew I could not beat him out of the box and that’s the way it should be,” Kenseth said.

“I’m happy they’re policing it, even though it’s really tight. I’m glad they’re policing it tight because the leader earned the right to restart the race. In my opinion the leader should have a clear lane and be able to take off when he wants in that zone and not worry about defending from somebody jumping and not doing it right.

“I’m glad they’re calling them like that.”

Kevin Harvick said most of the start and restart issues are pretty “black and white.”

“When I went to a rookie meeting, that was the first thing they told you. If you were on the front row, the second place car does not beat the leader – ever. No matter what,” he said. “They’re the leader and they’ve earned the right to be the leader.

“There has definitely been less gamesmanship and those calls need to be firm and they should stick to them. It helps everybody realize they aren’t messing around.”