NASCAR: Top 5 controversial moments of the 2021 season

Controversial moment no. 2: Uncontrolled tire at Kansas

In early May, the NASCAR Cup Series returned to Kansas Speedway for the fan-named Buschy McBusch Race 400. Despite the rather comedic name, the race left very few fans laughing.

With 53 laps left in the race in the midst of the final cycle of green flag pit stops, Tyler Reddick’s #8 Richard Childress Racing team didn’t secure one of the tires that had come off of his car.

The tire, which was being rolled from the tire carrier to a crew member behind the pit wall, bounced off of another tire that had just come off of Reddick’s car and rolled across pit road and into the infield grass, a few feet off of the paved pit road surface. But the tire came to rest in a place where it wasn’t posing much of a danger, if any, to anyone on the track or in the pits.

Many times in the past, NASCAR had thrown a caution flag for runaway tires in the infield grass, and many fans, as well as crew chiefs, thought that this would be the case here. Chris Buescher’s #17 Roush Fenway Racing team stayed out of the pits for an extended period of time in an attempt to gain track position.

NASCAR, however, did not throw the caution flag, giving the impression to teams, fans and even the FOX Sports broadcast team that the race would remain under green flag conditions.

Buescher eventually had to pit for gas and tires, and once he cycled back into the running order — 15 laps after the rogue tire went into the infield — NASCAR threw the caution flag.

Fans were outraged and quickly made their feelings known on social media. Some fans kept it as simple as saying that the race should have stayed green after pit stops or that NASCAR should have thrown the caution when the tire actually rolled off of pit road, but other fans went farther, claiming that NASCAR took advantage of the situation to throw a caution flag and force a restart to make the race more exciting.