This new double-file restart rule looks so easy......but.....

  
Maybe the real action will come with one-to-go, when NASCAR has to sort everything out (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   POCONO, Pa.
   NASCAR's new double-file restart rule sounds so simple, but the devil may be in the details.
   Ah, but won't that be the fun of it, says Kyle Busch, trying to figure out how to use the new rule to your best advantage.
   The purpose of the rule is clear: to put the leader of the race at the head of the pack for every restart, rather than sometimes, as last week, being stuck back in the middle of the pack behind cars that are not quite a full lap down yet.
   And NASCAR president Mike Helton says the leader -- not lap-down cars -- will restart at the front of the field "99.8 percent" of the time with the new double-file restart rule.
   It's that other point-two percent that is unclear.
   "When David Hoots (the Sunday race director) gives the signal 'one-to-go' (before the restart) any cars that are ahead of the leader (on the track) will be 'waved around' to the rear of the field," Helton says.
   NASCAR's Robin Pemberton amplified:
   When the one-to-go is given, the lineup for the restart will be
   1) Lead-lap cars to the front;
   2) Lap-down cars that haven't pitted will be next;
   3) the Lucky Dog car (getting the free pass back to the lead lap);
   4) all the cars that have just been waved around to the rear of the field;
   5) and then any penalty cars.
   "We've been working very hard on this for a long time, to get every scenario buttoned up…and we know we haven't seen everything yet," Pemberton said.
   One goal was to make the race clearer to fans, by not sticking the leader in the middle of the pack.
   "The only way you can get waved around (to gain most of a lap) is if you are (with one-to-go) ahead of the leader and behind the pace car," Pemberton said. "And you would get waved around whether you're one lap down, two laps down, or three laps down…."
   Busch is already trying to think it all out: "It depends on where you're at, first. 
    "If you're at Martinsville, Darlington, Indianapolis, then you're not going to be able to do much. 
    "Places like Texas, Atlanta, Michigan, here at Pocono, areas where you might have a little more room, it won't be so bad. 
    "It's really going to be odd to see how exactly the outside lane works (on restarts) because if you're stuck in the outside lane, and the inside lane boxes you up against the wall, then you can't go anywhere. 
    "It's really going to be tricky.
   "But once you get to the corner….like Michigan, you’ll be able to go five-wide into the corner…
   "I will be curious to see how it all plays out. 
    "I look forward to it. It's a change. It's something new, and it should be fun to try to work through it and try to find the loop holes that will help me be a little bit better on restarts.
   "You'll see a lot of restarts like the last 10 laps at the All-Star race now.  I think the beginning of the race everybody is going to be calm; I don't foresee anybody really needing to take any chances, until probably 50 miles to go, maybe less than 100 miles to go. 
    "Depends on how you have planned your day out: if you still have two more pit stops, you don't need to worry about it.  If you’ve got one more pit stop, then you need to 'ante-up' and get your track position before that last pit stop, so then your crew can get you out front. 
   "You have to play it like that."