Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ponders One Of NASCAR’s Deep Questions At Dover

The world is filled with deep questions to which there may be no answer: What is the meaning of life? Are we alone in the universe? If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

On Friday at Dover International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. presented another great question: Why does NASCAR have a commitment cone under the green flag?

Earnhardt Jr. was nailed with a penalty at Darlington last week when he tried to pit under green but didn’t get inside the commitment cone. The cone is used to make sure drivers “commit” before the entrance of pit road instead of just diving onto pit road late to fake out another driver.

But under the green flag, Earnhardt Jr. was unsure what purpose it served.

“I had a friend of mine bring it up to me: He’s like, ‘What’s the commitment cone for under green-flag racing, anyway?’” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You’re pretty much committed when you slow down and come to pit road. I kind of thought about that and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty true. It’s really not that necessary.’ But that’s the way the rules are.”

Earnhardt Jr. observed that no one would try to fake out another driver under the green flag. There would be no reason to do it.

“It’s pretty much unnecessary under green flag,” the driver said. “Either you’re going to come down pit road or you’re not. If you get in there too hot (with a late commitment), you’re going to get penalized for speeding; if you miss the entrance (after slowing down), that’s costly. There’s no real reason for a commitment cone at that point.”

In this situation, NASCAR represents the great sage atop the mountain where people go to seek answers. So Earnhardt Jr. brought his question to NASCAR President Mike Helton, who provided the wisdom and insight the driver was searching for.

“He said they were just keeping the rule consistent under green or yellow, and they figured they’d just leave (the cone) out there,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “... I just asked him to kind of think about that rule and whether it was truly necessary to have that rule under green flag. Maybe they will.”