ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. — With the first race of the season, there are new teams, new drivers, and new paint schemes. But at Lincoln Speedway, that's not all that's new for drivers and fans, who both can't miss the latest addition, which is kind of the point.
"This came about at the end of the season. Our flagmen have retired and we had been talking about this for a while," recalled Lincoln General Manager Jerry Parrish. "I mean that position on the racetrack is probably not the safest spot to be."
The answer is something that you'd have to go to Perth, Australia to find on a dirt track.
"It's the H&H General Excavating Virtual Flagman. I only know of one or two other places it's been utilized, but I don't know that they even utilized it to the point that we're taking it. So we're really excited for everybody to get to see this in action," said Parrish.
Instead of flags waving, the job is done by two larger screens.
"I'm not surprised we're going in this direction," said racer Danny Dietrich. "It's not a bad direction when you can maybe keep things a little safer. Quite honestly, you know, we struggle sometimes if it's not lit up just right at some tracks to be able to see a flagman."
"This is probably going to be something of the future," claims Parrish. "I think you'll see a lot of people follow suit. We put a lot of time and effort into thinking about what is it that we're not thinking about that happens on that flag stand at any time, that we won't be able to command from up here. All the controls have been moved up here to the control center. We now have eight sets of eyes on the track instead of two."
Those around racing know that the only thing faster than a 410 around the track is a race fan with feedback when it comes to change.
"The drivers really don't seem to have an issue with this. Of course, the fans, you hear some of them talk and it mainly comes down to tradition," said Parrish. "You know, they're used to seeing the flagman in the stand."
"The fans should like it," adds Dietrich. "You know, I think they're going to see a whole different viewpoint of this. Everybody's so quick to be negative towards it, I feel like on social media, but until you get here and you see it happening, I don't think there's any reason to be negative towards it."