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NASCAR America: Overtime rules reexamined after Dover finish

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Dale Earnhardt Jr., a one time member of the NASCAR Cup Drivers Council, has said it may be time for NASCAR to consider changing overtime line rules outside of Daytona and Talladega.

Sunday’s Cup race at Dover International Speedway ended when a caution came out during an overtime finish.

But since Jimmie Johnson had already passed the overtime line halfway down the backstretch, the caution effectively ended the race.

Afterward, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a Periscope video that even though he helped come up with the idea of the overtime line, he believed it should only be used at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

On NASCAR America, Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton shared their thoughts on the rule, which was implemented after how the fall 2015 Talladega race ended.

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t in favor of (having) it everywhere else, anyway,” Jarrett said. “I think at other race track we could get in enough overtime (restarts) that generally you could finish a race by doing it that way. ... Just because someone decides we need to change this, we can’t just make rules and then all of a sudden change.

Said Burton, “I think it’s important to remember how you got here. The reason the overtime line is there is so that NASCAR can roll safety (crews to accidents). ... As a fan, I want to see every race end with the checkered flag flying at the start-finish line. As a competitor, the complexity of that is, how many times are you going to do that? Fuel mileage comes into play. A lot of things comes into play. Just remember how we got to where we are.”

Watch the video for the full discussion