“I want the rules to be flat across the board”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. on NASCAR’s unlimited restarts aspect 

After last Sunday's chaotic Ally 400 at Nashville Speedway, the entire NASCAR community was left with just one question: how much overtime is too much? Recently, Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed his views on NASCAR stretching last week's Cup Series race into its first-ever quintuple overtime.

A contact between Team Penske driver Austin Cindric and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Noah Gragson brought out the yellow flag moments before NASCAR waved the white flag. However, instead of freezing the field and ending the race under yellow as per the rules, NASCAR stretched the event into its first overtime restart.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he has no issues with NASCAR's multiple "green-white-checkered" attempts. The 49-year-old stated on his podcast "Dale Jr. Download",

"I am completely fine with unlimited attempts. These five overtime attempts isn't happening every other week."

However, he demanded a definitive rule about these overtime restarts.

"Now I could also argue at Daytona and Talladega, maybe even Atlanta, there might need to be a different scenario of attempts but I never love doing different things at different tracks, right? I want the rules to be flat across the board no matter where we go," he added.

Needless to say, NASCAR always tries its best to end a race under green flag conditions. But how long should it wait before the field can turn green is the million-dollar question.

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"I don't think we need to react at all," Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflects on the importance of setting rules

Although Junior didn't have a problem with several overtime restarts, he pointed out that those overtime restarts resulted in several drivers like Kyle Larson and even race-winner Joey Logano either running out of fuel or struggling with fuel mileage. He said on his podcast "Dale Jr. Download",

"That created a lot of the problems on the restart attempts with cars not able to accelerate, cars out of fuel. That created a bunch of our problems in the overtime attempts that we had, so this was sort of a perfect storm. I don’t think we need to react at all. I don’t think there needs to be any change."

Furthermore, a 2004 NASCAR rule states that the entire field must make at least one attempt to end the race under a "green-white-checkered" condition. This means that once the green flag is reinstated after a caution, the white flag will come out signaling one lap to go till the end of the race, followed by the checkered flag.

If there is any on-track incident during this window, the field will freeze and the race will be called under the yellow flag. Evidently, this rule was not followed last week at the 1.33-mile 'D'-shaped track.

In the meantime, as Earnhardt Jr. and others call for some clarity, the Cup Series action resumes on July 7 in Chicago. The 75-lap race, known as the Grant Park 165, can be watched live on NBC Sports and Peacock and heard on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.