Another “Competition Caution”…

I remember in the 90s ASA used to have what was called a "competition caution" written into their rulebook.  Basically, if a race ran a certain number of laps consecutively under the green flag -- say, 75 laps -- they would automatically throw a "competition caution" to bunch up the field.  Yeah... that's kind of cheesy, but it was ASA so nobody cared.

Fast forward to today and suddenly NASCAR has embraced the term to cover a pre-planned caution period -- usually early in the race -- to check for tire wear.  (Anything for safety, of course!)  I'm seeing this tactic being used more and more and it's really inappropriate for a professional racing series in my view.

It appears that now if even a light rain shower falls on the track any time during the weekend -- even if teams have a practice session afterwards -- NASCAR is quick to have a "competition caution" 25 or so laps after the start of the race... "so that teams can assess tire wear".  This is supposed to be professional racing.  Crew chiefs and drivers are paid an exorbitant amount of money to do what they do.  If they're worried about "tire wear" then let them start with a conservative setup or let them pit whenever they want -- under the green flag.

Today at Dover they finally had a pretty good race for the lead going when it was interrupted by one of these stupid fake yellows.  It broke the momentum of the start of the race and I wonder how many people tuned out because of it?