FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Double-file restarts and the chance for multiple attempts at green-white-checkered finishes are certainly changing the end of NASCAR races and late-race strategy.
Or is it even strategy anymore?
"It's a crapshoot," Kyle Busch said.
Going into today's race at Texas Motor Speedway, four of the seven Cup races this season have already gone to NASCAR's version of overtime with extra laps. Two of those included multiple restarts after the scheduled final lap.
"It has really made finishes less predictable," four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said. "I don't know if there really even is a strategy now. It's more what the masses do."
Adding to those changes already in place, the spoiler effect is likely to come into play in Texas.
Even though the rear spoiler replaced the wing on the back of the cars two weeks ago, the biggest change at smaller tracks was the more traditional look.
The spoiler had minimal impact on racing at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track or even the mile-long Phoenix International Raceway. But that could be much different at the 1 1/2-mile high-banked Texas track that is one of the Cup circuit's fastest.
"I'm hoping it will be a little different so we get an opportunity to shake things up and maybe take advantage of the change," Carl Edwards said.
The only three-time winner at Texas, Edwards hasn't won a race anywhere since the 2008 season finale.
"I think no matter what happens here, there's going to be a verdict on the spoiler," Jeff Burton said. "If we have a great race, if we have a poor race, there's going to be a determination that the spoiler was really good or the spoiler was really bad."
But Burton, the only other multiple winner at Texas (1997 and 2007), was quick to caution that it will take some time for "all the teams to get tuned into" the change.
"If we have a good race here, I think that's a good sign, honestly," he said. "If we have a bad race here, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. ... We kind of just need to run the race and see how the race goes and then make a determination after that. "
Three years ago, NASCAR phased in a new race car that replaced the spoiler with a wing, and the Car of Tomorrow has been used full time since 2008. The wings were taken off last month after several tests, the first with drivers (only four) on the track coming at Texas in January before an open test at Charlotte last month.
"Everybody has to keep in mind, it's just like when we came out with the CoT car initially in the first place, it's an adjustment phase," Tony Stewart said.