NASCAR 'Re-Evaluating' Boys, Have At It for '12

Could 'Boys, have at it' become 'Boys, have at it a little bit, but not too much?'

NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton said yesterday that NASCAR plans to look at its policy on driver conduct on the track for the coming season.

NASCAR loosened the reins on drivers in 2010, allowing them to police themselves on the track and retaliate when they believed another driver had intentionally wrecked them. The incidents intensified in 2011, and NASCAR officials acknowledged that things might have gotten out of hand near the end of the season.

"We reflect on that at the end of the year and the season hasn't started yet, but there are some things that a group of us will sit down and talk about, and that is one of them," NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said Thursday. "There were times that it got out of hand, and we're going to discuss what out of hand really is moving forward."

Pemberton said he doesn't believe the trend of retaliation in general got out of hand, although specific incidents may have crossed the line. Pemberton, who coined the phrase "boys have at it" in 2010, believes NASCAR's original position of allowing drivers to police themselves still works.

"It's working pretty well. It goes in stages," he said. "It works pretty well, then somebody gets outside the box and everybody gets the message and it goes back to working pretty well. But we can't take all of that for granted."

It's going to be a key element of whether or not NASCAR's resurgent 2011 season will carry forward into 2012, based on how long the leash becomes.