Put this "Dog" to sleep

Note to NASCAR: It is time to scrap the Lucky Dog. The Free Pass. The I-just-happened-to-be-in-front-of-Tony Stewart-when-the-caution-flew award. Whatever. Just get rid of it.

I know NASCAR has threatened to put the rule on the chopping block before. After the 2004 season they said they would consider killing it off. But yet it lives and creates just as much confusion as it did when it was instituted.

It is not unheard of for a lap-down car to come back and win or have a great finish, and great drivers certainly don't need a glorified Mickey Mouse rule to make it happen. The rule was created to help discourage racing back to the yellow, but the rule has done nothing but create confusion between drivers, fans and even NASCAR's broadcasters, who refuse to use a standard name for the rule.

Sure, the rule has helped NASCAR's safety initiative, but NASCAR also has the ability to score drivers multiple times per lap. Why have a rule that is designed to prevent racing back to the caution, yet it only affects a solitary car?

Jimmie Johnson may not want to do away with the Lucky Dog. At Pocono yesterday, he was THREE laps down more than halfway through the race, yet since it was a 2.5 mile track and nobody else was a lap down, he was able to get the Lucky Dog each time a caution came out and eventually was able to finish 13th on the lead lap, ahead of 20 other drivers that actually ran all 200 laps, not 197 of them.

With NASCAR's various scoring loops, is the rule even needed?
Even if NASCAR refuses to do away with the rule, can you at least give it a better name than the Free Pass or the Lucky Dog?

To me those two names just mean a gift that was not earned, which is exactly what the rule has represented in the last several years. We get it. The rule stops drivers from racing back to the caution flag. But that very concern was more realistic years ago. Drivers' habits have changed since then. The rule can afford to die without it compromising safety.