Restart Questions Abound at RIR

At Richmond International Raceway, the finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 came down to balls and strikes" on Saturday night.

As questionable as the timing of Clint Bowyer's spin on Lap 393, so was the final restart with three laps remaining in the race. Technically, race leader #27-Paul Menard should have crossed the start-finish line first  controlling the restart. But eventual race winner Carl Edwards was nearly a full car length ahead at the line. When NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton addressed the teams in the pre-race drivers meeting, he promised competitors that while many may have some questions on restarts tonight" the sanctioning body reserved the right make "a judgment call on. OK?"

"There are balls and there are strikes. Sometimes you dont like the call; sometimes we dont even like the call we have to make," Pemberton said. "I just want to remind everybody: Do not put us in that position where we have to make the call. Because more times than not, it isnt going to be in your favor  and we dont want to do that, OK?" Ironically, in the same meeting, Edwards had a question regarding another element of restarts. He broached the possibility of future use of video replay to review the drivers positions for the "lucky dog" or beneficiary position where the first car one lap down returns to the lead lap.

Although NASCAR insisted it would continue to use scoring loops to line up the cars, a review of the final restart would have clearly shown Edwards car beating Menard to the line. At Dover earlier this year, Jimmie Johnson was black-flagged for a similar offense and was assessed a drive-through penalty that cost him a potential win.

On Saturday night, however, Menard took two tires on his last pit stop to gain track position. His Menards Chevy was first off pit road. But coming to the line, Edwards claimed Menard was at a big disadvantage with grip" after electing to take two tires. He took off," Edwards said. I waited until he went to go. As we were going, his car actually touched my door. I think it surprised him a little bit or something. He turned a little bit. I heard his engine speed up. He spun the tires. At that point, I mean, I really have a choice to either lift off the throttle and wait for him to try to gather it up  I've never seen a guy able to gather up too quickly when they spin that bad  or go and hope NASCAR understands that he spun his tires. In this case they did. They understand he came up and hit me and spun his tires."