NASCAR Green-White-Checkered Rule

The Aaron’s 312 and Aaron’s 499 will mark the first Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at NASCAR’s most treacherous track since a rule mandating three tries at a green-white checkered was instituted this season.

 The maximum number of attempts hasn’t been reached yet in either circuit, but the mammoth 2.66-mile oval might represent the best opportunity for testing its limits.

 Though Carl Edwards’ airborne crash on the last lap has become the track’s signature highlight, Talladega normally delivers mayhem in much larger packages. Because restrictor plates are placed on the carburetors (choking down airflow to the engine and thus reducing horsepower) here, underpowered cars often races inches apart in large packs at Talladega, whose glass-smooth surface makes handling a breeze.

 One bobble can cause a chain-reaction pileup of two dozen cars. With double-file restarts and an edict nullifying passes on the apron (Edwards’ Ford went skyward because he tried to block the race-winning move of Brad Keselowski, who held his ground and bumped the leader rather than dip below the yellow line), a trio of bonus finishes easily could erase a significant chunk of the 43 starters.

Keep these numbers handy: The record for fewest cars running in a Cup race at Talladega is 14 (26 cars were sidelined by crashes or mechanical failures in the 500-miler on July 27, 1986). The fewest for Nationwide is 17 on April 25, 1998, (and there have been at least five more instances in which more than half the field was out by the checkered flag).

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