Leland Honeyman reacts to ’embarrassing’ NASCAR restart blunder

NASCAR introduced the choose rule a few years ago, which is their own take on the choose cone commonly used at short tracks around the country. It’s a V-shaped painted box on the frontstretch and it’s purpose is simple:. Drivers may choose which lane they wish to restart in for double-file restarts.

At tracks like Martinsville, the inside is obviously favored while the outside is clearly better at some other circuits. Drivers will even give up track position just to get in the preferred lane while some will gamble, snatching up free spots while taking the lane nobody wants. However, there are some tracks where the choose doesn’t really matter all that much either. It has also stopped the practice of drivers slamming on the brakes while exiting the pits in order to end up in the lane they wanted to be in for the upcoming restart.

If a driver fails to choose and runs over the painted box, they get penalized and sent to the rear of the field. There has been several situations where drivers have been indecisive, flicking their car to the left or right at the last possible second. Sometimes they fail and are penalized as a result. It’s not that rare to see, but Saturday at Talladega, we saw something we really haven’t seen before.

Leland Honeyman Jr. was approaching the choose for a late-race restart and while he originally seemed committed to the bottom, he changed course abruptly. The car fishtailed and he made it around the box in time, but not without spinning completely out and even hitting the outside wall. He was sent to the rear of the field anyway for “impeding the choose” with his spin, rebounding to finish 13th.

Honeyman reacted to the snafu after the race, posting on social media: “Well that was embarrassing. Atleast we came back pretty much net zero there at the end. Thank you to Mezrano Law and my CFR crew for for everything. We will see you at Texas.”

He later posted another message, joking about the somewhat comical incident: “Team told me I was up next for Tokyo drift 2 try outs.” A replay of it can be seen below: