NASCAR Racing: RESTARTS, ted musgrave, brendan gaughan

Question
On restarts are when are cars allowed to start passing one and other ie before the start/finish line?

Answer
Cars may pass before the line on a restart, however it cannot be an inside pass, it must be to the outside. That is why a lot of times you'll see the cars restart as close to the wall as possible. This is most commonly seen when a restart takes place with less than 10 laps to go when the cars line up single file. However, this rule can be quite tricky at times. Ted Musgrave lost the NASCAR Craftsmen Truck Series championship over it in 2003. It was the final race of the year and he had the point lead (not by much, over Travis Kvapil) after Brendan Gaughan who had the lead coming into the event wrecked in the event. He was restarting a few trucks back in line, when the truck in front of him had problems getting up to speed and indeed was protecting the high line, Ted swerved to the left to avoid causing a wreck and ruining his chances to win the championship but when he swerved to the left, he passed the truck to the left (inside) before the start finish line and had to serve a drive threw penalty instead. I think it is a good rule personally, it makes it a bit challenging to pass, but it can also be stupid at times, such as with the Ted Musgrave incident. I hope this answers your question!