Should The “Phantom Debris Caution” Happen In Every Race?

By Guest Columnist Jim Fitzgerald

Time and time again, we have heard it. We have heard it from the competitors, from the commentators, and from the fans. A driver seems poised to win a race holding a substantial lead, and with a very limited number of laps left, the yellow flag comes out flying. This or course brings the field to each other’s bumpers for a late race finish, not to mention the opportunity for one, two, or even three “green-white-checkered” attempts.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. The fans love to see a competitive race with an equally competitive finish. A ten second lead does not really lend itself to a thrilling finish, and the fans get “cheated” out of a millisecond margin of victory. The problem lies in the fact that the driver who had the ten second lead, with ten laps to go, is not always assured of getting the victory that they seemed to have locked up just a few moments ago.

We are all in favor of some great racing, great action, and great finishes. If that were not true, we would be watching something else. NASCAR seems to listen to the fans more and more these days, going with the double file restarts and the “have at it boys” attitude. So, if the fans were clamoring for more exciting finishes, it only stands to reason that NASCAR may have been listening again.

So, how does NASCAR give the fans more exciting finishes?

How about bunching up the field with fifteen laps to go? That does not seem like such a horrible idea, except for the fact that currently, it is not done with any type of uniformity.

Sometimes we have a caution. Sometimes there is no caution. Sometimes when there is a caution, the fans are let in on WHY we have a caution, and that is usually debris. So, sometimes we see the debris, and sometimes we just hear about it.

Now, we need to get to the real crime here. That crime is the fact that the sport we love continues to lose credibility when the television and radio personalities -- and the competitors themselves begin firing the “phantom” debris questions. Was it? Was it not? Did you see it? I can not see it. When the credibility of a sport is threatened, that sport itself could be in for a battle which is severely uphill. Remember when we all thought wrestling was fake with scripted outcomes, but no one ever really told us? There were news stories and magazine articles, and a few incidents when there was an offending wrestler and a soon-to-be-in-pain news person. No credibility.

We may be facing the same thing in NASCAR with these “scripted endings.” Drivers have substantial leads, only to have them erased so the fans get the hopefully exciting finish they are paying for.

Is it time for a change in the rules of NASCAR again?

Are we at the point where we are all disappointed if the margin of victory is more than two seconds?

If it's time for NASCAR to say, “Okay…we hear you -- let’s have us some good close racing finishes where we tear up a bunch of racecars.”

Picture this -- let’s go to Daytona next February -- okay -- bad choice. Let’s choose California, or Dover, or some other non-restrictor plate race. Now, let us assume that NASCAR has put into play a rule where a caution is thrown, somewhere within the final thirty miles of a race, and only NASCAR knows when, but it is PRE-DETERMINED before the race starts. Maybe it is kept in a Halliburton-type case in the middle of the front stretch for all to see like on “Deal or No Deal”, and it is only revealed after the race is over to placate those who will still cry “foul” because their driver didn’t win.

Whatever the case, there is a predetermined number of miles between thirty and fifteen when a caution will be thrown. All this does is bunch up the field. No pit stops allowed… if you pit, you go to the back. This leaves the fuel strategies in place, only slightly adjusted because the crews will KNOW that the caution is coming.

So, we have the makings of a competitive finish for the fans. We have a credible method to ensure that this happens by making the number visible to all after it happens, and we have the credibility of a non-scripted finish, with nothing left for the television and radio (and Internet writers) to cry foul about.

Back to wrestling…eventually the wrestling organizations came clean. “Yes, it is scripted, but they are a heck of a bunch of athletes, right?” The popularity of wrestling went through the roof after they came clean, so it is time for NASCAR to pull the strings, where we all can see them, and do so before it is too late and the fans lose respect for the sport?

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.