I have to commend NASCAR, they really have been listening to all of the sport’s stakeholders and then taking proactive steps to correct things they have identified as problems. Through individual feedback, town hall meetings, and the fan council, the once infallible sanctioning body is realizing that maybe they are capable of making mistakes. We’re getting a spoiler soon and steps have been taken to improve the racing at the Superspeedways (they seem to be working out).

All this is great and I’m happy to see a much more open sanctioning body; in fact I’m excited to see how all these changes pan out. That said I’m beginning to wonder if they’re taking this new found openness a little too far.

Let me step back for a moment. Last week the Bud Shootout ended rather unceremoniously under caution; the result of a green-white-checkered attempt. After this there was the usual grumbling from everybody (but the winner) about the race finishing under caution. Cooler heads tell us the rule is in place because without it, or with more attempts at G-W-C, we end up with a bunch of wrecked racecars and the same result – a race ending under caution.

Obviously though NASCAR felt the need to bend to the pressure and make a change to the “green-white-checkered race procedure” – quickly. So between last Saturday and yesterday NASCAR decided it is now “allowing a maximum of three restart attempts prior to the White Flag under NASCAR’s Green-White-Checkered flag finish. If the leader has taken the White Flag and the caution flag is displayed, the field is frozen and the race will not be restarted.”

While I could be completely off-base here, I think NASCAR is being far too reactionary on something we’ve seen in the past probably won’t work. I’m not alone on both counts. Jeff Gordon said:

“They could do ten green-white-checkereds and we’re still not going to make it to the checkered.”

Mark Martin questioned the rationale behind yet another rule change.

Putting aside the change at hand I think the larger issue is them making changes to established and logical rules depending upon the direction the wind is blowing. I’m a little worried this might become the norm. It’s great they’re listening and making positive changes, but they could stand to give some time to make sure important changes are thoroughly vetted.