Green-white-checker rule is 'yellow'

By DAVID GREEN

Green-white-checker has me seeing red -- again. This ludicrous rule, instituted as a method of pandering to spoiled fans demanding to be "entertained," has shown its most ridiculous flaws in the past two races.

Races at Chicagoland last week and New Hampshire yesterday have caused an inordinate shakeup in the Nextel Cup driver points standings, much of the instability due to the dumb and wrong-headed rule designed to help ensure finishes under competitive circumstances.

David Poole correctly points out in his rear-view mirror piece that the rule penalizes all teams equally, and the ones that gamble on fuel mileage take that gamble knowingly. My complaint is not in defense of any specific victim of such a gamble, but in criticism of the policy that adds that wrinkle to the overall picture.

The rule was adopted after NASCAR had to scrutinize its scoring loop reports, or review video tapes, or make a hurried phone call to Miss Cleo or somebody, to decide whether Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. happened to be ahead at the moment the caution flag flew near the end of a Talladega race a couple of years ago.

Gordon, it was decided, was the leader -- and, consequently, the winner as the race ended under yellow-flag conditions. That yielded a barrage of garbage on Gordon's car, a barrage of criticism against NASCAR for "cheating" its fans out of the excitement of a green-flag finish, and the cowardly decision to cave in to the criticism.

This decision did not emerge from a vacuum. NASCAR had pointed itself down this road as early as 1996, when it took the unprecedented step of throwing the red flag just a few laps before the end of a race at Richmond, Va., for no other reason than to try to avoid a finish under caution. Thereafter, the chance of recurrence of such a travesty became, as Poole would call it, "part of the game."

That NASCAR has taken some of the whimsy out of the rule by clarifying when and how it will either stop competition or add extra laps is akin to the notion of polishing a piece of excrement. A bad rule is a bad rule, whether it's vague or clear.

The fateful 1996 precedent surely altered the outcome of the race, but did not yield the desired result; a subsequent incident merely allowed the yellow and checkered flags to wave over a different driver. Use of the rule last week at Chicagoland and again yesterday at New Hampshire accomplished nothing except adding laps that were largely inconsequential with regard to deciding who won or even who deserved to win, but which had radical effects on the makeup of the championship standings.

Again, I'm not rallying to the defense of any driver who lost ground nor criticizing any who leapfrogged forward in the standings. I'm merely suggesting that such movements unfairly skew the points standings in an environment in which the importance of the points has been magnified.

The green-white-checkered rule does not add to the value of the entertainment provided to the race fan. Most finishes under green as much less dramatic (and, it would seem, more entertaining) than races such as Richard Petty's 1984 Firecracker 400 win over Cale Yarborough or other races in which the green flag was not out when the predetermined distance was completed.

Last week at Joliet and especially yesterday at New Hampshire, the stupid rule helped NASCAR stage a Keystone Kops-style finish to a race that was already bizarre enough.