NASCAR Notes: Green-yellow start to Russ Friedman 400

Green-yellow start to Russ Friedman 400

In an effort to dry the racetrack after afternoon showers, NASCAR officials ran several laps to improve track conditions at Richmond International Raceway before the start of the Crown Royal Presents the Russ Friedman 400.

After nearly a 20-minute delay, track officials opted for a green-yellow start. The competition caution lasted six laps before the green flag dropped. Pole winner Brian Vickers benefited from the green-yellow start, earning five bonus points for leading under the yellow.

The improved racetrack conditions didn't help Vickers much. He eventually lost the lead to Jeff Gordon on Lap 23, then fell back to fourth before reaching 50th lap.

Reutimann hopes for better Darlington result

Darlington Raceway is next on the Sprint Cup schedule, and David Reutimann has mixed emotions about going there.

"I don't think I have learned to get around that place," he said. "Now that they have repaved turns 1 and 2, it's so fast, almost superspeedway fast. It's a narrower track, and the sensation of speed is so much higher."

Last year, Reutimann had problems that had nothing to do with the way his car handled or other drivers.

"It's the only race in my entire life that I felt like I wasn't going to have the opportunity to finish," Reutimann said. "I was absolutely worn out and sick, and we didn't have the cool box right.

"I remember being 100 laps in, and I asked how many laps were left. I knew something wasn't right. I stepped up my training program because I didn't want to have that feeling again. That place is difficult enough when things are going right."

Gordon: Bump drafting is a Talladega issue

Bump drafting has been a much-discussed topic at RIR this weekend. Bump drafting last week at Talladega enabled Brad Keselowski to push Carl Edwards to the front of the race. Keselowski went with him, and when Edwards attempted to block Keselowski's pass on the low side of the track, Edwards nicked Keselowski's car and went airborne.

The question for the drivers has been whether bump-drafting should be prohibited.

"I think you've got to look at it as a Talladega issue," Jeff Gordon said. "At Daytona, the handling is such an issue that you don't do the same things.

"They did such an amazing job paving that racetrack [Talladega] and there is so much grip that you can literally push a car all around the racetrack. It was done throughout the day, and it was done on the closing lap."

Burton defends yellow-line rule

One reason Edwards and Keselowski made contact at Talladega was that Keselowski refused to drive below the yellow line on the inside of the track.

In 2008, Regan Smith did that in order to avoid contact with Tony Stewart. Smith crossed the finish line first, but Stewart was awarded the race when it was ruled that Smith violated the rules by going so low.

"It's easy to say the yellow-line rule was bad in that situation," Jeff Burton said. "You forget why the yellow-line rule is there. It has prevented way more wrecks than it has ever caused. We used to enter the final lap of Daytona five and six wide. It created a major problem."

Burton also had some thoughts on bump drafting and blocking.

"If you don't bump draft, you can't run in the front," Burton said. "If you don't block, you won't run in the front. If you just drive around there, don't bump, don't draft, you run in the back.

"It's easy to say don't bump draft. But it works. That's what I get paid to do. I get paid to get the most out of my race car. If that means push somebody, I'm going to push them."

Burton did have a solution for racing at Talladega, but he didn't particularly care for it, and he thinks the fans will dislike it intensely.

"Make the cars drive so bad that they get spread out," he said. "Separate everybody. The fans are going to hate it because we have given the fans a look at something they don't want to give back. Rightfully so. It's fun to watch.

"I don't know how we fix it. It's a complicated issue."

Pit stops

Denny Hamlin watched Friday night's Lipton Tea 250 from the grandstand. The former Chesterfield resident was a Nationwide winner at RIR in 2008. . . . Greg Biffle doesn't just have a need for speed on the racetrack. His street car is a GT500 Mustang that he says can go a quarter-mile in 10 seconds. It's also got air conditioning and a GPS. He says that despite the impressive numbers, it's a street-legal car with a stock Ford engine. "It's pretty amazing that a car from the factory will run 10-flat quarter-mile," he said with a smile.

Ryan Newman reviewed the results of this week's tire testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and concluded that Goodyear is making steps in the right direction to avoid disaster, but the company isn't there yet. "I would say it was a small gain," he said. "It was a small gain in respect to the number of laps we could run. The tires still are not ideal. I know Goodyear is still working on that. It is just a tough situation, man."

Matt Kenseth isn't taking any chances with disease. The driver washed his hands after meeting with media after Friday's Nationwide race. - Michael Phillips, Paul Woody and Ralph N. Paulk