Kyle Larson crosses the Start/Finish line at Talladega Superspeedway in 1st place. It’s a miraculous, Earnhardt-esque rally beyond belief for someone who has so notoriously struggled to find success on Superspeedways. At long last, one of the greatest racecar drivers of our generation has finally conquered his Achilles heel. But… his left-side tires ever so barely went below the double yellow line in the tri-oval. The weight lies on NASCAR’s shoulders to make one of the most crucial calls that they have ever had to make as a result of this rule. If Larson keeps the win, he will take a 73-point lead into Martinsville and, barring disaster, will clinch the title. This is a championship-deciding call. NASCAR gives the thumbs up. No penalty. And the NASCAR corner of Twitter/X goes into an uproar; the most unnecessary and inconsistent role in NASCAR history strikes again.
NASCAR clearly picks and chooses when they want to enact the rule. Earlier this season at Atlanta, Bubba Wallace was penalized for going under the line to save his race car, and while not actually physically passing any other cars, he was still deemed to have advanced his position and was subsequently stripped of his 2nd-place finish.
In 2004, in the early days of the rule, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a late-race pass at Talladega that was ultimately for the win and was clearly below the line, and there was not a peep from the officiating team.
In the 2020 Fall Talladega race, Denny Hamlin put all four tires below the line to make a pass that also was for the win, and it went completely uncalled.
In the 2019 Summer Daytona race for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Justin Haley performed a carbon copy of what Kyle Larson did on Sunday and was ultimately penalized.
There is no reason for this rule to exist. It serves no purpose. It causes more problems than it solves.
2009. Spring Talladega. I don’t think I need to remind you what happened in this race, but just in case. It is the Final Lap, and Carl Edwards is trying to prevent a young Brad Keselowski from getting past him. Keselowski goes high; Edwards blocks. Keselowski goes back low; Edwards blocks again… but it’s too late. Keselowski is there. Keselowski, knowing the rule, keeps his car where it’s at above the double yellow line and allows Edwards to turn himself around across his nose. You’ve seen it enough to know what happens next.
Just months prior, Regan Smith gave leeway to Tony Stewart in the same situation and was clearly forced below the double yellow line, yet his win, which was rightfully earned, was stripped from him and given to Tony Stewart.
I needn’t say much more than I already have. But I’ll leave you with this. Abolishing this rule would not change anything. If you go back and watch the Superspeedway races of old. There were no issues. There was not an epidemic of drivers going miles out of the way to make a pass. It never caused more incidents; if anything, it prevented them. You could even make the argument that keeping the cars in such a tight, confined space leads to more incidents. Maybe, just maybe, if that rule didn’t exist, Joey Logano might not have ended up on his roof on Sunday. And potentially Riley Herbst might not have suffered one of the worst hits in NASCAR history.
We have to stop doing this at some point. It’s wholly unnecessary and just takes away from the excitement of these races. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that when I’m watching a race at Daytona or Talladega or Atlanta, I don’t want to have to think about if the winner is gonna end up 30th because they went 3 inches below an arbitrary line. It hurts the entertainment factor of the sport. And I can’t imagine that NASCAR loves seeing nothing but fans angrily screaming at each other on the Internet about how Kyle Larson went below the line or how he didn’t go below the line. The truth is, we shouldn’t even have to discuss it in the first place.
Image: Screenshot of Broadcast via NBC
Editor Addition: Make it black and white or kill the rule altogether. The yellow line is a wall; if your tire falls below the first yellow line and touches the second line, you get a black flag. Period. 1/2 the tire? Black Flag. 1/4″? Black Flag.
There is way too much interpretation on the rule.
