The Choose Rule and Why Short Tracks Don’t Always Use It

The “Choose Rule”, “Cone Restarts”, “Madhouse Restarts”, whatever you call them allowing drivers to choose the lane they want to restart in has become standard in professional auto racing, except the ARCA Menards Series, which doesn’t allow drivers other than the race leader to choose their lane for restarts.

Even though it is widely accepted at the professional level, many local short tracks don’t allow drivers to choose their lane for the restart. Some call it a “scoring nightmare” while others feel it “causes chaos”. The upcoming Ohio Wheelman Series event at Lorain Raceway Park on May 23rd will utilize what the series calls “Cone Restarts”. Cone Restarts involve a choose cone that drivers choose the left or right lane when passing the cone, which is located at a designated spot on the race track, usually the start-finish line. Drivers can choose the favored lane or gamble and take the opposite lane, likely moving past cars that chose the favored lane. In a non-cone restart, the field is lined up based on running position at the time of caution (or the last completed lap), odd-positioned drivers to the bottom (left) lane while even-positioned drivers are placed on the top (right) lane.

At Lorain Raceway Park in particular, the weekly program includes a restart rule that the outside car sets the pace while the leader restarts the race. In a Choose Cone scenario, the leader and the outside vehicle could be the same vehicle. The simple fix is to state that the outside lane leader sets the pace, while the inside lane leader restarts the race.

The Open Wheel Series do not use double-file restarts many times, for fear of touching wheels and triggering major multi-car pileups. But for stock cars with double file restarts, the choose cone seems to be the best way to set restarts.

There are obvious exceptions; a driver causing the previous caution should line up at the tail of the longest line, not having a chance to choose a lane. Lapped vehicles should also fill in behind the lead lap vehicles.