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The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck proposed a yellow-line fix on his Gluckcast podcast after the Kyle Larson controversy at Talladega Superspeedway: treat any part of a tire over the line as out of bounds, drop the “improve your position” test, and always penalize a driver who forces another car below the line.
Gluck said the rule should stay, but that the way NASCAR enforces it now leaves fans and drivers guessing.
NASCAR’s current standard
NASCAR’s Mike Forde said on the Hauler Talk podcast this week that a penalty takes three things: a tire fully below the line, a position gained by going there, and the driver not being forced down by another car. Under that standard, Kyle Larson‘s pass was legal because his tire stayed on the line. NASCAR also said Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar were forced below by Todd Gilliland, and did not penalize Gilliland because it was unclear whether he did it on purpose, as Pit This Time reported.
Gluck: ‘You’re out of bounds, like in football’
“I don’t think NASCAR needs to get in the business of eliminating the rule,” Gluck said. “But I do think NASCAR should maybe change the rule to where if you go over the line, you’re out of bounds. Because right now, your whole tire has to be over the line. You can’t even tell.”
“You can’t see underneath the car, so it’s not a good way to measure it. So you need to just be like, if you go over the line at all, even a little bit, you’re out of bounds, like in football. Second, I think they need to forget the whole idea of advancing or improving your position. That shouldn’t matter. You either are out of bounds, or you’re not.”
He said the driver who does the forcing has to be penalized, too. “If you say somebody got forced down, you have to penalize the other person, which they didn’t in this case, right? That was Todd Gilliland at Talladega.”
Gluck acknowledged the change would put NASCAR in tough spots, comparing it to pass interference in football, with drivers arguing they were forced down. “They’re going to have to make a call,” he said.
The rulings that still stick
Gluck said past rulings that did not line up have made the rule harder to understand.
Regan Smith crossed the line first at Talladega in the fall of 2008 after Tony Stewart blocked him below the yellow line, but NASCAR penalized Smith for passing below the line and gave the win to Stewart. Smith was scored 18th.
The next spring at Talladega, Brad Keselowski, in his fifth Cup start, held his line when Carl Edwards blocked low on the last lap. Edwards’ car was turned into the catch fence, several fans were hurt, and Keselowski won. Gluck said Keselowski had seen what happened to Smith.
Justin Haley crossed the line first in the July 2018 Xfinity Series race at Daytona but was penalized for going below the yellow line, and Larson was awarded the win. Gluck said replays show Haley’s tires were never completely below the line, the same standard NASCAR applied to Larson this week.
What’s next
The rule only comes into play at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta. The next superspeedway race is the Daytona 500 in February. The Cup Series races next at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
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