NASCAR gets double-file rule right; now it must fix long races

Maybe we can try triple-file restarts when the Sprint Cup Series returns to Pocono Raceway in eight weeks.

That might be the only way to inject any kind of life into racing at the monstrous triangular racetrack.

Sunday's Pocono 500 was NASCAR's first race using the new double-file restart rule put into play to add some excitement into the series.

It went off without a hitch and despite some who thought there would be problems with the new format, Sunday's restarts did give fans some side-by-side action when the green flag flew after caution periods.

Unfortunately, that excitement didn't last for long.

Like all other Pocono races, once the field got strung out in a single-file parade around the gigantic 2.5-mile track, the afternoon was mostly a follow-the-leader affair.

There was some drama in the closing laps as fuel mileage and strategy started to rear its head. But that kind of drama is not what most fans pay their hard-earned money to see or to sit down in front of the tube to watch.

Give NASCAR credit, the double-file restart rule is a good one and a direct response to many fans' cries for more racing and added competition.

It's just that any 500-mile race at Pocono is going to be a strung-out affair with on-track passing being an aberration and not the norm.

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A simple fix would seem to be shortening the 200-lap grinds to a more tidy 400 miles. A shorter and tighter race would heighten the urgency of teams and divers who no longer would simply have to make laps as they do in the pair of Pocono races currently on the schedule.

But opponents of that logic cry that a cut in length of an event should result in a reduced ticket price.

Apparently there are some out there who believe a parade of droning stock cars simply running circles is in some way considered a sporting event.

It's not.

It should be about racing and passing for the lead and competition, not just biding time until the checkered flag is near and then praying you have enough fuel to get to the finish line.

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As NASCAR searches for ways to generate better television ratings, a four–plus hour snoozer at Pocono is not the calling card to draw more fans to the telecast.

Some drivers agree that cutting back the length of Pocono races would be in the long run a good thing.

The debut of double-file restarts worked out fine. However, it won't save us from a boring, 500-mile race. (Getty Images)

"I think the races are too long here," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said when asked about the issue. "I think that's obvious. I think NASCAR thinks it's too long, but the people in charge of that will not change it for whatever reason. Just for spite maybe, I don't know. But they don't have to be out there running."

Jeff Burton is another who sees nothing wrong with shortening the distance of each race for the betterment of the product.

"I think 500 miles was almost a status symbol in the day," Burton said of how the current Pocono distances came to be. "A track needed to have a 500-mile race. They've even gone so far as to calling races a '500K.' I don't get the number. I think what matters is that the quality of the race is the best that it can possibly be.

"And this is a track that has the potential to put on a better show at 400 miles. I think [shortening the race] is worth a shot. I don't think the fans would be disappointed about that. It doesn't really matter what the teams think, it matters what the fans think. What the heck, if the fans don't like it you can always go back to 500."

But, unfortunately, track management doesn't see things that way and we seem stuck with the marathons twice a year in the Pocono Mountains.

"How do you think my television people are going to feel?" said track owner Joseph Mattioli of the suggestion to shave 100 miles off each race. "They're going to lose a whole hour of material. If it was something really logical why I should do it, I would do it. But not for the sake of pleasing a couple of auto racing writers."

With all due respect, making a Pocono race three hours versus more than four would please many more people than a lowly motorsports reporter.

It's time NASCAR works with track management to make it a reality and continue the sanctioning body's crusade to make the sport as appealing and interesting as possible.

Until then only the road course races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen will beat Pocono in the Sunday afternoon nap department.