NASCAR says no problem with Texas restarts: NASCAR vice president
for competition Robin Pemberton broke almost a year-long vow not to
listen to talk radio on Monday morning. "In three minutes, I was done,"
Pemberton said with a laugh. That's because fans were outraged that
#48-Jimmie Johnson, #2-Brad Keselowski or both jumped a restart, meaning
they left early to gain an advantage, and weren't penalized in the
closing laps of Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Pemberton said for a driver to be penalized it has to be an obvious
violation as it was earlier this year in the Nationwide Series race at
Indianapolis with Elliott Sadler. He said that wasn't the case in
either situation on Sunday involving the two drivers battling for the
championship.
According to NASCAR rules, the second-place car can't beat the
first-place car to the start-finish line on restarts. Johnson, according
to television replays, beat Keselowski to the line on the final restart
by anywhere from a few inches to a foot. Pemberton said when it's that
close NASCAR is reluctant to make a call because you don't know whether
the leader manipulated that or not. "When you went to double-file
restarts this is what you had,'' he said. "You can't govern the restarts
to the transponder, because then you're into regulating someone getting
to the line and rolling out of the gas and getting the guy on the
outside black-flagged. If anybody thinks those games don't happen, then
it's obvious they're not paying attention."ESPN)(11-6-2012)
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