Sorry BLkflagagain he jumped it. I have nothing against Baker either just to let you know. I was directly inline with the backstretch line and Watson had not hit it yet. He was atleast 30 ft off of it still. This rule has been consistent with Sunset in the past aswell as many drivers have tried that move.
I agree he did jump to the inside of the #10 before Watson took off. maybe they talked about what's acceptable and what's not on restarts at the drivers meetings. And since we weren't really there it's hard to say if the call was good or not.
I took 5 minutes to think about what you guys are saying and while I understand it I think that giving the cars in second and third a free pass persay isnt fair the lead car had to pass it why shouldnt all the other cars??? Yes I agree doulbe file restarts are exciting but imo so are watching the cars behind the lapped cars and what they will do. Infact its the excitement of not knowing if they will go high or low around them adds to it. I like the fact 10 laps or less lappers go to the back not all tracks run the same.
Daisygirl...passing under green and on a restart are two different things;
Under green the lapped car is instructed to get out of the way, the faster car is moving quickly and he gets to run his groove without all the variables. (which I will talk about next)
On a restart, such as last night the lead car (Watson, who was hard enough to keep up with as it was) gets to pull away without obstruction. The 2nd, 3rd etc. has to deal with a slow car that blocks them from moving. His restart, which groove he'll run and if he'll even keep it straight become variables.
It is not exciting to see one car pull away while all the other top drivers get held up by a slow car. I can't for the life of me finding one up side to the current format unless you want to leave early. Whether it was Walters, Morrow, Baker, Witty or Watson that had that poll on the restart, the race would have been over!
As far as the restart issue and Baker look at the video Danka posted. Pass it when Watson hits the line as Danka was sitting very close to me, we had the same view. When Watson hit it, Baker was already half way past the 10.