NASCAR Returns to Green-White-Checkered Finish Format

NASCAR’s experiment with the overtime line has officially come to a close. Green-white-checkered finishes are returning immediately.

After over a season and a half of using the overtime line, NASCAR announced that they will be returning to the old green-white-checkered rule, effectively immediately. This change is one that many fans were expecting sometime in the near future.

While the general concept of the green-white-checkered rule will remain the same, the new overtime period will carry an unlimited number of attempts with it in order to ensure that races end under green flag conditions. Before the overtime line was used, the green flag finish attempts total was limited to just three.

The overtime line that had been used since the start of the 2016 season was simply an arbitrary line on the backstretch of each race track, and it was in different places at different tracks. Once the race leader crossed the line in the overtime period, the race was at the point where the next flag ended it. Races could end both under green flag or under caution flag conditions.

This line brought with it an abundance of controversy, most recently at the Brickyard 400 when Kasey Kahne was hundreds of yards away from the line when a wreck took place behind him, yet the caution flag did not fly until after he passed it, which ended the race, making him the winner.

While this controversial ending to the race didn’t tarnish Kahne’s victory in any way, shape or form, it certainly robbed the race of what could have been a much better ending, assuming there would have been enough light to actually finish the race.

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Other controversial finishes that come to mind as a result of the overtime line include the second Xfinity Series race at Daytona and the Cup Series race at Dover earlier this season. At this point, we should not be seeing races end under caution any longer, unless of course more changes are made in the future.

This rule change should also reduce the likelihood of controversial endings to races, although there are still plenty of ways that controversy could strike. If a wreck happens before the leader crosses the finish line at the white flag and the officials do not throw the yellow flag in time to establish another attempt at a green flag finish, you can be sure that fans will talk about it and make a fuss that the race was ended under green when there should have been a caution flag and another more legitimate attempt. At this point, however, all we can do is wait and see how the change works out.

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What are your thoughts on NASCAR changing back to the green-white-checkered finish format from the overtime line? Are you excited for the switch, and do you think that having unlimited attempts it the right way to go? Do you agree with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s opinion on the subject?

Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Also, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.

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