NASCAR insiders weigh in on controversial caution that ended Brickyard 400

During the second overtime attempt of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR had the opportunity to throw the yellow flag after Ryan Preece went for a spin in Turn 2.

Preece made every opportunity to get going down the back straightaway but had run out of fuel and couldn’t move. But before NASCAR determined that Preece was at a standstill, Kyle Larson had already taken the white flag as the leader. NASCAR then threw the yellow flag, signifying the end of the race. Larson took the checkered flag under caution.

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed NASCAR’s ruling on “The Teardown,” and both determined they would have liked to have seen the caution flag thrown before Larson took the white flag.

“At least in real time, it felt like they were holding it to get the white flag,” Gluck said. “… All we know is what we were told and what they were thinking. Looked like he was gonna be moving, he wasn’t, by that time, the leaders have already taken the white. Do I agree with it? You know, I don’t love it. I think it would have been better to get a finish. Now, you would have had half the field run out of fuel probably, but that doesn’t matter. That shouldn’t be factored into the race finish or not. Darkness wasn’t gonna be a factor. The race had already been moved off NBC for the breaking news coverage, so you weren’t trying to fit in a TV window necessarily.

“I don’t love it, but I don’t think it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened. I would have liked to see a green flag finish. It was a really exciting end to the race, pretty exciting final stint and we didn’t get to see that. Would it have changed the outcome? Who knows, maybe. But I would have liked to see it.”

NASCAR addresses controversial last-lap caution flag in Brickyard 400

Bianchi felt that at a track as big as IMS, there was more flexibility for NASCAR to make a decision. They did make a decision eventually, but was it the right one? Bianchi isn’t so sure.

“I would have liked to have seen that caution called,” Bianchi said. “It felt like he [Preece] was struggling to get going after a while. Like you could tell, he wasn’t quickly going away, and he was kind of a herky-jerky thing there. Indianapolis is big enough where you’ve got a lot of flexibility as that happened in Turn 2. You can give them maybe until Turn 4 to make that decision and it felt like that’s enough opportunity, like he’s still there.

“… I would have liked to seen it [yellow flag] there, but it’s a really tough call to make because NASCAR’s gotten much better about this where there was a time where it felt like they were very quick to hit the button. Sometimes it’s, ‘well wait a second, that’s not a caution. That doesn’t warrant a caution.’ And especially on tracks like Indianapolis you have an opportunity to be a little bit more flexible. So, I get it, but it’s hard to be too critical. I think if you look at it and you match it up, you can probably see there’s an opportunity there, but it’s nothing to be offended by any means.”

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said that the sanctioning body made the “right call.”

“Obviously we’d like for it to play out naturally,” Sawyer said Sunday. “We want our teams to race to the checkered flag. Did everything we possibly could. We kept an eye on the 41. He got turned around. He was really giving a solid effort and once he came to a stop and we could tell that he had, I think, a flat left-rear tire he wasn’t going to move. We’d already taken the white, we just couldn’t run by there again. So it was unfortunate, but it was the right call.”