Starting and Parking

Starting and parking (or, start-and-park) is a practice in which a car starts the race and then drops out shortly after the start.

This is usually due to a team being unable to afford or unwilling to pay the fuel and/or tire cost to run the full race. Usually, there is no mechanical problem with the car in this situation.

Start and parking has been banned in the TM Master Cup Series and TM Lights, since any retirement deemed "suspicious" is subject to an official inquiry into the reason behind the retirement. If no suitable reason is found, the offending team is subject to a draconian fine. Several teams ran afoul of this rule during the 2009 Round of Texas.

Examples
One of the more infamous examples of start-and-parking was in 2010, when Team Burr did this for most of their ARLA Elite Series races. The team was repeatedly chewed out by ARLA officials for doing so, which they responded to by having Paul Lyons park on the pace laps at Texas, but then coming back out in the final two laps to finish the race. Both of the Burr cars legitimately ran the full race at Talladega, however. The team has not start and parked since 2010, although they continue to run well off the pace.

Hawk Slider also start-and-parked at the 2011 Digitickets Darlington Double.

In the RROL, Jason Lee planned to park in several races in 2010.

Some teams in the American Stock Car Championship have cars that start and park to fund one (and usually fast) car.