The NASCAR "Lucky Dog" Rule Explained

In NASCAR, the "lucky dog" rule says that when a caution comes out, the first car 1 lap behind the leader gets to move back onto the lead lap. It may sound simple, but here are some parts of the rule that make it very confusing. If the car that would have gotten the lucky dog was involved in the caution, nobody gets the lucky dog. If the caution comes out with 10 or less laps to go, there are no lucky dogs. There are 12 points on the racetrack where the position of each car is measured when a caution comes out, so the first car a lap down when the caution comes out is not always the person who gets the lucky dog. Confusing? I think so.

So, what is the reason for this complicated rule? In NASCAR, when a caution would come out, cars could race back to the start/finish line. NASCAR decided that this was not safe because safety workers needed to get to cars immediately and sometimes crashed cars would be in the track. When cars were aloud to race back to the line, leaders of the race would sometimes slow down and let lapped cars that were close pass. When NASCAR changed the rules, they decided that cars should still have a chance to get back on the lead lap when the caution came out. This rule also gives the fans another race within the race to watch. This rule has had some controversy though; many people argue that it is giving a driver who was not good enough to race on the lead lap a chance to compete for the win. Some drivers will sometimes use this rule to there advantage by using strategies that will put them a lap down, then when the caution comes out, they will get back on the lead lap and have a chance to win. Still, the lucky dog rule is a big part of every race, whenever the caution comes out everybody is anxious to hear who the lucky dog is.