So I've just discovered that the little "caution sign" next to your leaderboard ranking means that it was a "dirty lap" and all "dirty laps" get put behind any "clean lap" regardless of lap time. I looked it up and apparently a lap becomes "dirty" for various reasons (crashing, going off track, etc...) which is understandable. But if you draft other vehicles it also becomes a "dirty lap". Being that you don't start at the front of the grid, it makes it impossible to not draft other vehicles right from the start, instantly making the whole race "dirty". Even if you "dirty" the first lap, even though you get out in front after that first lap, every lap following is automatically "dirty".

Does anyone have any tips? I can't go 5 seconds into the race without drafting because there's usually 8-12 cars in front of you right when the race begins.