Prior to this weekend's races at the Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR announced two new restart rules for all three national series. The goal of these two rules is to create better racing and eliminate confusion and incidents on restarts.

In an attempt to eliminate the influence of lapped cars late in the race, NASCAR officials announced any restart coming within the last twenty laps will be single-file. Previously, the rule was a single-file restart happened with ten laps to go.

"We just felt that for the cars that had earned their way up to the top during late stages of the race, it will give them a better opportunity to compete for the win," NASCAR Director of Communication Kerry Tharp said. "So instead of a single-file restart with 10 to go, that will now be with 20 laps to go. The beneficiary rule is still intact as it was; there is no beneficiary inside of 10 laps."

"It's going to change the way you do your pit strategy," Roush Fenway Racing's Jamie McMurray said of the single-file restart rule. "Typically track position was huge with 20 to go because if you restarted tenth you were really lining up twentieth and now with everyone being single-file it will be a lot different."

Trying to prevent the accordion-effect on restarts, NASCAR has put two red lines on the track to try and help keep restarts orderly and consistent. The two red lines are spaced fifty-feet apart and the leader of the race has until the line closest to flag stand to start the race on his own. If the car or truck out front does not bring the field up to green by the time they reach the last line, the flag man will start the race.

"I like the lines they have set up, the fact that you have to go between those two, I think that's wonderful," McMurray added. "Here it's not a big deal, but for some reason at places like Phoenix and some of those tracks they always tend to pile up on restarts, because the leader doesn't go when the starter waves the green flag and the spotters are in the stand saying 'Go, go, go, green' and it ends up being the accordion effect. What they have here worked out really well."

Tharp confirmed to HardcoreRaceFans.com that NASCAR will continue to look at the 50-foot rule and may make it larger in the future.