Thursday, August 4th 'What If' Question

It wasn't the first time that it's happened but being one of those rare occurrences it became a big story.

Saturday night at Lucas Oil Raceway Brad Keselowski went to victory lane in the Nationwide Series race, how he got there though was a little more complicated. On the second to last restart Justin Allgaier's No. 31 caught on fire, he was running second at the time and would had lined up to the outside of race leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

After finally deciding to pull off of the racetrack, NASCAR did not order him to, Keselowski was moved into the second position. Except, he was running fourth at the time, on the outside of the second row. Elliott Sadler who was running third believed that he was going to be moving up a position, however NASCAR ruled that because the cars had already doubled up for the restart, it's the line that moves up, not the position. In this case, the outside line that Allgaier had been in moved up when he dropped out.

That's where all the trouble started. Should NASCAR have allowed the cars to double up when Allgaier should have been pulled off the track long before he was. There was also what some called the problem of NASCAR re-issuing the caution for Allgaier when they had already been given the one-to-go sign from the flag stand.

Either way, Stenhouse Jr. and Keselowski were on the front row and Sadler stayed third. On the restart Keselowski and Stenhouse got into a shoving match that Keselowski prevailed on, putting the NNS regular and dominate car on the night back to second and battling with Sadler. That's when Sadler got loose and spun and was the hit by the No. 33 of Austin Dillon, ending both their nights.

Keselowski went on to win another race for the Cup regulars, Stenhouse Jr. finished third and Sadler finished 16th. As Keselowski celebrated, foul was called by Sadler and others who said that Keselowski shouldn't have been able to restart where he did and because of it, the NNS regulars suffered. Sadler lost more points in the championship fight and Stenhouse Jr. was the strongest car of the night and most likely should have been celebrating his second win and earning maximum points.

NASCAR didn't back down from their explanation that once the cars lined up drivers may not pull out of line. They also referred to last year when Kyle Busch won a Nationwide race the same way. He was lined up fourth when Keselowski ran out of fuel, he then moved to second and won the race. Going forward this is a rule that some have said they would like to be looked out.

But ...

What If Elliott Sadler restarted second instead of third, would he still have wrecked & does Brad Keselowski still win from fourth? #NASCAR

@Lady31RCR Can't really say who would have won..or wrecked..I will say I HATE the move up rule..Elliott earned 2nd..BK did not!!

@ronsracing88 Sadler would have won and not wrecked. I still do don't understand how the 31 was allowed to line up for the restart on fire.

@cruetten Sadler would not have wrecked, and he would've gone on to win that race.

@MattEmbury Stenhosue wins the race, Sadler had nothing for him before the yellow. #NASCAR

@smokinace88 I think Brad could have or to be honest it could have been a duel for the win Ricky and Brad had the best cars IMHO