Did NASCAR dig themselves a hole at Kansas?

By Asher Fair | May 6, 2021

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, NASCAR (Photo by Sean Gardner/23XI Racing via Getty Images) /

Did NASCAR dig themselves into a hole in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway by throwing the caution flag when they did?

From the time the tire from Tyler Reddick’s #8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet got loose from his pit box and came to rest in the infield of Kansas Speedway late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race to the time the yellow flag was thrown for the incident, 19 additional laps had been contested, 19 laps around a four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval.

NASCAR’s reason for waiting to throw the caution flag, even though they knew all along they were going to throw it, was to ensure that the pit cycle was able to play out and that the drivers who had been banking on a caution and stayed out longer than the leaders didn’t gain an advantage — even though strategy is and always has been a part of racing.

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Up until this point, lap 212, in the 267-lap event, there hadn’t been a single caution flag for an incident — just the competition caution in stage one and the two caution flags to end the first two stages.

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But on lap 231, after the pit cycle had played out, suddenly the same tire that had sat in the same exact spot for the last 19 laps, when it apparently wasn’t unsafe, became unsafe, and NASCAR threw the caution flag, stacking up the field and rewarding the drivers who had been first to pit.

From that point until the end of the race, there were three caution flags thrown for on-track incidents, and a two-lap shootout culminated with another incident involving two drivers at the front, leading to a close finish between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick.

So knowing they were going to throw the yellow flag anyway, NASCAR effectively waited until the strategy they wanted to play out played out, and they got a closer, more dramatic finish.

First, the tire was “far enough away from the racing surface”. But 19 laps later, they “had to go get it”.

They “wanted to make sure the teams and their strategies that they had worked up throughout the event” were “able to unfold” — just not the strategies of the drivers who needed a caution flag that NASCAR intentionally waited several laps to throw. Their goal? To “not get in the middle”.

If they had really wanted the race to unfold without intervention and the strategies to play out, why even bother throwing the yellow after that 19-lap period considering they “didn’t feel like we had a safety issue”?

Some might call that manipulating the race result — the exact opposite of “not getting in the middle”. From this perspective, either throw the yellow right away, or don’t throw it all.

Others might not see any issue with waiting 19 laps and then selectively throwing a caution flag for an object that had been in the same place for that length of time and not caused any problems.

But that’s not the issue. The issue is consistency, or lack thereof.

We have seen questionable decisions come back to bite NASCAR before. Bubba Wallace, who wasn’t even close to being in contention to win, intentionally spun out at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2019 to save himself from falling further back in the field while on a flat tire.

Interestingly, he did it during a pit cycle, so in doing so, he brought out the caution flag and ruined the races of several drivers who were actually in contention, including some who were still in the playoffs.

But he received no penalty. That is, until he admitted that he did what he did on purpose several days later.

That set a precedent moving forward: you can intentionally spin out and screw other drivers over if you want to, just don’t admit it. The action itself is okay, just keep it quiet, please.

Now earlier this year, Busch did the same thing in the Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The difference? He didn’t admit it and straight-up refused to answer a question about it. In fact, his non-response when asked about it after the race went viral.

No issue, right? Wrong. That led NASCAR to state that they would review how to handle this kind of situation moving forward.

Really, that alone was handing it differently. Both drivers did it on purpose. That was obvious. It should have been treated as such. But Wallace got in trouble for admitting it, and Busch didn’t admit it.

So the punishment, or lack thereof, for drivers manipulating a race outcome came down to what they said about it away from the track. It had absolutely nothing to do with what happened on the track.

The pinnacle of consistency.

But I digress; let’s get back to the most recent issue: NASCAR seemingly throwing caution flags wherever and whenever they feel like when it benefits the outcome they feel is best suited for a given race.

There have been some questionable caution flags thrown late in races for “debris” — or even “rain” like we saw at the Daytona International Speedway road course back in February. Yes, that rain. The torrential downpour. Or, “what rain?”, to quote Busch dirtectly (and probably most other drivers in the race).

There have always been phantom debris cautions in the sport to make the races more exciting. That’s nothing new.

Of course, let’s give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt; there are times when it’s truly a 50/50 call and NASCAR is going to be criticized regardless, and by “always”, we don’t mean it happens every race. We mean it’s been a consistent problem from time to time for many years. Everybody knows that.

But after NASCAR’s explanation of their handling of Sunday’s incident, should we now expect no caution flag to be thrown for future questionable instances of debris if it would negatively affect the top drivers and benefit those who need strategy to go their way just to have a shot at a decent result?

A simple answer? We just saw what was a so-called non-safety issue become an issue 19 laps later, making the end of the race closer and more dramatic, but only among the top drivers — all in an effort by NASCAR to “not get in the middle”.

That’s unfortunately as clear of an answer as you’re going to get.

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So did NASCAR dig themselves a hole? In one way, yes, due to another lack of consistency. In another way, no, because it’s a hole that’s already been dug, and there is really no clear path to get out of it unless the various precedents that are set are stuck to.

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