NASCAR officials and drivers have discussed the possibility of using the "cone rule" at short tracks such as Bristol Motor Speedway, especially after tactics used at Saturday night's race.
Denny Hamlin admitted to slowing down and going to pit road so he could start where he wanted on a restart, though the strategy didn't exactly work out for him Saturday night.
??guilty. And it worked exactly 0x https://t.co/GmrQ2409QB
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 21, 2017
Related: NASCAR is looking into making this rule change for short track events
NASCAR senior vice president of competition Scott Miller said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that a new "cone rule" is being discussed by the sport's executives.
"As we do here at NASCAR, we're constantly looking at ways to make the races and the action for the fans more interesting," Miller said. "That is a topic that we have discussed a little bit. But we talk about a lot of things and when the final decision comes, I'm not sure what that will be, but certainly it has been a topic of discussion."
The cone rule would give drivers the option of which lane they wanted to restart in following a caution flag. Drivers can then decide on different strategies on where to restart.
Miller said they want to avoid having multiple accidents on pit road, and the cone rule should help with that and some of the gamesmanship that goes on between drivers during a short track race.
"We'll figure out how we're going to address that one and try to move on," Miller said. "Really it kind of only comes into play at a few places. We know when it's possibly going to happen, so we'll try to address that."
Hamlin's strategy didn't exactly work out, but he still finished in the top three. NASCAR officials could decide on something before the 2018 season begins.
(h/t NASCAR.com)