The Headline(s): Capping a day that saw Joe Gibbs Racing surge back into form, Denny Hamlin weathered three late-race restarts and held off Chase Elliott to win the Hollywood Casino 400 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, his fifth Cup win of 2019, 36th career Cup victory,and 55th NASCAR national series win.
.@dennyhamlin climbs out in @Gatorade Victory Lane as your #HC400 winner! ? pic.twitter.com/Sf2NjtKZq0
— Kansas Speedway (@kansasspeedway) October 20, 2019
Elliott, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and William Byron rounded out the top-five finishers. Elliott’s runner-up result allowed him to capitalize on a disastrous day for Brad Keselowski to secure the final playoff spot in the Round of 8.
How It Happened: Sunday’s race picked up right where the spring race at Kansas Speedway left off, with the package putting on a show at the front. In the opening 20 laps, the lead shuffled between pole sitter Daniel Hemric, Keselowski and Kyle Larson on multiple occasions, with Larson finally cementing the lead. Though several drivers experienced issues throughout the first stage (both Ryan Newman and David Ragan were forced to pit with cut tires in the opening 30 laps, while Joey Logano pit on lap 37 with a loose wheel), the race stayed green as Keselowski started green flag pit stops by the leaders on lap 41. Stops cycled the lead back to Larson after Hamlin hit pit road on lap 58, and Larson held the point until the caution flew on lap 74, when Newman hit the wall.
Opting to stay out on old tires, Logano pulled away from a five-wide battle for the lead and scored a sorely-needed stage win for the No. 22 team.
Fighting for every spot on the restart! ?#NASCARPlayoffs | @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/4Oj3Ls5QpZ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 20, 2019
Though Daniel Suarez led the field after the green flew for stage two on lap 87, by lap 93 Martin Truex, Jr. surged to the front of the field. It’s a position he held until lap 116, when the yellow flew after Larson spun the lapped car of Joey Gase on the frontstretch. Though Truex kept the lead through pit stops, by lap 128 four laps of side-by-side racing with his teammate allowed Hamlin to take the point, a position he held through the end of stage two. As the JGR competition was brewing up front, the playoff bubble battle was simmering, as Keselowski dropped from a fifth-place finish in the first stage to 19th.
The final stage went green for a while. Hamlin led while Keselowski continued to flounder and Kyle Busch battled Ryan Blaney for the second position. What would have been the final cycle of green flag stops started when Erik Jones and Kevin Harvick hit pit road on lap 214. Hamlin cycled to the race lead after Alex Bowman finally pitted on lap 226 (and after the No. 88 reported phantom debris in vain). The playoff bubble battle got more complicated two laps later, when Hamlin lapped Keselowski.
Under green, the race stabilized until lap 253, when Blaney shredded a tire on the turn 2 apron after making contact with the turn 4 wall the lap prior. Hamlin and Larson won the battle off pit road, taking two tires under the yellow, with the race going green on lap 259. As Elliott surged to a tie in the points with Keselowski by lap 261, the race went under yellow again on lap 264 when Bubba Wallace suffered catastrophic mechanical trouble in turn 2 and lost an entire wheel.
Runaway tire, never coming back.
Wrong way on a one-way track. pic.twitter.com/W9nplZhdTf
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 20, 2019
That yellow brought about overtime, with Hamlin and Elliott restarting on the front row. Hamlin, who has history with Elliott on late race restarts (see: Martinsville Speedway a year ago), opted to start safely on the low line and held the lead coming to the white flag. However, with an extremely quickly thrown yellow coming to the white after Suarez, Hemric and Logano spun on the frontstretch, a second overtime restart was called for.
When the green flag fell a second time, Hamlin again held off Elliott for the race win. However, Elliott’s second-place finish allowed him to capitalize on Keselowski’s troubles, as he lost all momentum getting bottled behind Clint Bowyer on the final two laps, fading to 19th in the final running order.
Drivers Who Accomplished Something
The Round of 12 had been a very quiet one for Joe Gibbs Racing, but the return to an intermediate oval saw the Toyota factory outfit return to form in a big way. Hamlin scoring the race win, and doing so through a flurry of late-race restarts, was an accomplishment for the No. 11 team. Truex came from nowhere in stage two to score a sixth-place finish, Jones finished seventh after racing in the top five for much of the afternoon and Kyle Busch was heard vocally chastising his No. 18 crew for how bad his race car was… while running third in the closing laps. Leaving Kansas City, all is well at JGR, and that’s bad news for everyone else.
Though he wasn’t able to score the victory in a must-win race, Byron’s day saw the No. 24 a fixture inside the top five. That gave teammate Elliott everything he could handle. They’re not racing for a title this season, but in true Chad Knaus form, the No. 24 is showing improvement in the closing parts of the year. This guy will win in 2020.
Elliott did what he had to after having late-race cautions served on a platter to best Keselowski and advance into the Round of 8. Perhaps most importantly, he raced Hamlin clean in the closing laps, meaning he still owes the No. 11 one as the series heads to Martinsville.
Kurt Busch’s fourth-place finish was the first top five for the No. 1 team since its win at Kentucky Speedway in July. Ryan Preece finished 12th, his best result since Michigan International Speedway in August. Preece now leads Hemric in the 2019 Cup Rookie of the Year race by two points.
Further back, Garrett Smithley ran a full Cup race without causing an incident as a lapped car.
Drivers Who Accomplished Nothing
Regardless of just how stacked the officiating appeared to be against the No. 2 team in the closing laps Sunday (more on that later), the reality is Keselowski and crew did not run anywhere near good enough to advance out of the Round of 12. It was one thing to run as pedestrian as they did at Dover International Speedway, but to see the No. 2 team stuck in the back of the top 20 from the second stage on was a visual reminder of just how far they have has fallen since charging to victory at the same track in May. NASCAR did him no favors, sure, but Keselowski didn’t score a top 10 in the Round of 12. Enough said.
GABLE: THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF TEAM PENSKE
BOWLES: AS THE KESELOWSKI CRUMBLES
Finishing 11th with the damage that he had wasn’t a bad showing for Bowman. But he’s getting called out in this section because not once, but twice, the No. 88 team urgently radioed to NASCAR race control there was debris on the track right as the car took the lead while running a long-run pit strategy. Both times, even caution-happy NASCAR officials found nothing to throw a yellow over. Alexa, Bowman is not spelled Earnhardt.
Early contact with the wall derailed Newman’s day inside of the first 20 laps, and further contact on lap 74 relegated the No. 6 car to a last-place finish. That’s Newman’s worst since the fall Charlotte Motor Speedway race in 2017 while driving for Richard Childress Racing.
Speaking of RCR, we’re six months past when RCR was running trimmed-out package cars that qualified fast and faded early. Yet Kansas was more of the same for this sagging organization. Between Austin Dillon and Hemric’s first career Cup pole, the two RCR drivers posted an average starting position of fifth but an average finish of 25.5.
Fading from the front row wasn’t exclusive to the RCR camp. Ragan’s first front row start in a Cup race since the 2011 fall event at Texas Motor Speedway saw the No. 38 car drop from second to 24th before the first cycle of pit stops in the first stage began. Ragan eventually finished 26th, last among the Front Row Motorsports camp — and that’s despite teammate Matt Tifft being involved in Wallace’s lap 264 incident.
Timmy Hill completed only 95 laps before parking the No. 77 car after being black-flagged by NASCAR for failing to meet minimum speed… twice.
Insights, Opinions and Fake News — Inside the Playoffs
The inconsistent officiating at the ROVAL was bad enough, but this Sunday was even worse. The playoff cutline on Sunday was directly changed because of interventionist officiating, starting with the lap 253 yellow for Blaney’s cut tire. Yes, the tire came apart, but as the replay clearly showed, Blaney was on the low side of the apron when it happened, and the debris field was visibly confined below the racing line. What’s even funnier about the call when the yellow came out was that race control referred to a “car around in turn 2” when it threw the flag, though Blaney’s car did not spin when his tire went down. The decision that there was going to be a caution in the closing laps Sunday was made well before Blaney hit the wall on lap 252, and it showed with the way this race was called.
As egregious an example of manipulation as that was, what transpired coming to the white flag during the first overtime was even more so. I don’t care that NBC was able to find a replay showing that the yellow light came on a yard or so before Hamlin crossed the stripe, the yellow flag flying when Suarez and Logano went spinning on the frontstretch flew a hell of a lot faster than it did only a week ago, when NASCAR didn’t throw the flag at Talladega Superspeedway in a move that allowed a bubble playoff driver to win a race that a non-playoff driver appeared to have won. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the driver that benefited from that yellow flag just happens to be NASCAR’s reigning Most Popular Driver.
https://twitter.com/BryanDavisKeith/status/1186037657543069696?s=20
Just as after the spring Talladega race in this column, I ended this race clutching my tin foil hat. Having said that, Frontstretch alumnus Matt Weaver summarized my thoughts leaving Kansas City as well as anyone could.
And this sentiment is what they are catering to these days.
It's entertainment.
But there is increasingly less and less that resembles an authentic motorsport. https://t.co/TFEJywDclb
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverAW) October 20, 2019
Last week, it was outside the playoffs with Preece. This week, it was Larson’s team that got busted for the latest in “asinine uncontrolled tire penalties,” as the No. 42 was penalized for a tire that never left its pit box and impeded the entrance/exit of zero cars on pit road. For once, NASCAR is making a writer’s job easier with this rule; all I have to do is cut and paste.
It’s not often that I find myself agreeing with anyone whose handle includes the words Kyle Busch and fan, but NBC was a royal mess this Sunday.
According to Kelly, Adam Stevens now also works on the 2. Can’t wait for NBC coverage to end #NASCAR #HC400 ???♂️
— Taylor Bowe Mcardle (@KyleBusch51Fan2) October 20, 2019
Beyond that example, over the course of Sunday’s race, Kyle Busch was identified as driving the No. 19, Keselowski was identified around lap 195 as fighting a tight race car despite no less than three regular NASCAR beat writers tweeting that the No. 2 had gone “super loose” on the same run, and Rick Allen felt it necessary to clarify that NBC’s Through the Field segment would focus on playoff drivers. The word duh comes to mind after watching six races of the 2019 playoffs on NBC. Or maybe it was dumb.
One final note on NBC’s work, presented without (additional) commentary.
Rutledge ruins broadcasts. He adds NOTHING. #Nascar
— Ryan Wile (@RyanWile) September 2, 2019
After the spring race crowd appeared healthy at Kansas, and those fans saw a really compelling event despite a chilly evening, the grandstands on Sunday appeared quite sparse.
Nice crowd for a “playoff” race. Not. Kansas should lose this race in favor of a short track. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/uPU9oghXEN
— GregK (@GregKWI) October 20, 2019
Playoffs or not, it’s like more people turn up on Saturday nights instead of late Sunday afternoons.
Insights, Opinions and Fake News — Outside the Playoffs
The issue of lapped cars again raised its head in both the Xfinity and Cup series’ races this weekend. Smithley moved up into oncoming traffic Saturday (Oct. 19) that took out playoff contenders Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. Then, during the Cup race, Larson was forced to dump Gase on Sunday after the No. 66 proved completely unable to get up to speed on the frontstretch high line. In the case of Smithley, it appeared a case of driver error. But in Gase’s case, the No. 66 did hold its line — it just wouldn’t go fast.
Over the last two decades, instructions given to lapped cars has evolved into the hold-your-line edict that has been common knowledge this season. However, seeing multiple playoff races across the top ranks of NASCAR impacted by lapped cars doing just that makes me wonder if it’s time to explore instructing lapped cars to run a defined line on the track, just as on the highway most states post instructions to drive on the right, pass on the left. Normally I’d argue that mandating cars run a certain place on the track is ridiculous (see last week’s remarks on the yellow line rule. But the fact is that in 2019, the best stock car drivers in the world are driving slot cars that require them to mat the gas 100% of the time. If the sport is going to take the drivers’ throttle response away, maybe they owe it to them to provide some predictability as to where the roadblocks on track will be.
Watching just how irrelevant both Dillon and Hemric were on Sunday despite their qualifying prowess, I’ve got to wonder whether Tyler Reddick’s promotion to Cup at RCR is, in fact, a promotion. Lost in the story of 2019 that’s seen Reddick put on a rock show of a title defense is just how much he’s improved the RCR Xfinity program. As good as Reddick is, I question just how much Reddick will be able to do the same at the Cup level, especially with a teammate that he’ll be stuck with no matter how good (or bad) the No. 3 runs. For Reddick’s sake, here’s hoping there’s a plan in place for 2021, because a couple years running in the 20s at RCR will likely take the sheen off what’s been an impeccable Xfinity career.
The near-incident between Grant Enfinger and Austin Hill at Chicagoland Speedway in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series this summer got one-upped after Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. That’s when a hand on the shoulder sparked a fracas between title contenders Reddick and Cole Custer. You’d think a bunch of young guns brought up in this era would understand that in 2019, nothing good comes from touching other people. Then again, Matt DiBenedetto did grab Bowman’s ass on national TV during pre-race, and he landed the Wood Brothers Racing seat.
.@AlexBowman88 is ready for what he calls a must-win race today at @KansasSpeedway.
He wasn't ready for what @MattDRacing would do to him during this interview. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/FCmLZQS5lK
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 20, 2019
The Truck Series was off this weekend, but let’s take a look at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Todd Gilliland missed the playoffs, has scored 12 top-10 finishes through 20 races with an average finish of 11.7 and is widely expected to lose his ride. Harrison Burton missed the playoffs, has scored 10 top-10 finishes through 20 races with an average finish of 11.8 and was given the keys to the strongest car in the Xfinity Series field for 2020. Get the feeling this decision was made long before this season even started? It certainly wasn’t made on merit.
Participation Trophies
Best Paint Scheme: Bowyer. The No. 14 looked like winged victory itself — except for actually winning the race.
Bringing that good-looking No. 14 @Asgrow_DEKALB Ford Mustang back in after practice! ?
Next stop… #BuschPole qualifying!@ClintBowyer | #GoClintGo pic.twitter.com/QYV8KzVrJE
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) October 18, 2019
Most Likely to Star in a Children’s Book: Bowman. In The Boy That Cried Debris.
Most Uncontrolled Tire Award: Wallace. Seeing that tire run the length of the Kansas backstretch provided even more perspective on how ridiculous uncontrolled tire penalties have been in 2019.
Where It Rated: While the slot car package made for a very compelling first stage that saw lead changes reminiscent of the 1990s, NASCAR’s meddling turned the closing laps of a compelling green flag race into a four-wheeled circus. The WWE Cup is a real thing. This one gets two lukewarm bottles of Heineken 0.0. Two because the first stage was good stuff. Still, fake beer seems appropriate.
What’s the Point(s): Leaving Kansas City, Keselowski, Bowman, Byron and Bowyer were eliminated from the NASCAR playoffs. On the back of a second-place finish, Elliott earned the eighth and final playoff spot.
Dust Off the VCR: The Round of 8 kicks off at the Martinsville this Sunday. Coverage from the shortest track on the Cup circuit begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
About the author
Richmond, Virginia native. Wake Forest University class of 2008. Affiliated with Frontstretch since 2008, as of today the site's first dirt racing commentator. Emphasis on commentary. Big race fan, bigger First Amendment advocate.
Sadly, the myth that Little Clyde is NASCAR’s most popular fan base continues. Nobody asked me, and those polls are BS. Popular dad Ralph, Little Ralph is King. Popular dad Clyde, Little Clyde is King. A manufactured bullshit by NASCAR. Lemmings are dumb.
Is BZF back behind the curtain? That caution came so flucking quick I got whiplash! What a bunch of crap. The consistency of their inconsistency depending on a driver they favor, is criminal. MO. Brad had his own issues today, rather big one, that does not give NASCAR the right to take something from him or ANY OTHER DRIVER with a bogus caution that might have made a difference between in or out with this format. Shame on them.
The past two races have just emphasized to me just what a crapshoot this ‘title’ run is. Pathetic. As far as the ‘uncontrolled tire’ rule, unless the tire actually leaves your pit box, it’s still in YOUR box, not interfering with anyone else. This seem so obvious I can’t believe it. They might as well keep all the cars not in the crapshoo in the garage for all the attention they get in the broadcast. Difficult to enjoy a race when it only seems to include 12 drivers.
Rutledge is NBC’s answer to Micky at FOX. Both are worthless and need to go.
Joseph ‘s idea of regular points + stage points is a good compromise between the old full season championship and the current “Crapshoot” format. At least this would eliminate the “One Race” championship that NASCAR expects us to respect. The last champion I respect was Matt Kenseth back in 2003.
Ironic, because Kenseth started this whole mess. Well, HE didn’t, but everyone whining and crying about a champion with “only 1 win” led to the debacle we have now.
Now they’re all “champions * “.
Could someone please tell NBC to just let the resident clown Rutledge go? My stomach turns whenever he’s on camera. Also, dear NBC, your playoff graphic on the left side of the screen is UNREADABLE…..
While NASCAR’s biggest issue with their calls is inconsistency, I didn’t think the caution for Blaney’s exploding tire was too blatant. I’ve seen them throw the flag for a lot less. Of course they want to bunch the cars up at the end of the race to create that game 7 moment so throwing the caution was consistent from that point of view. On paper (based on wins and average finishes over the entire season) the guys that shouldn’t have made it to the next round were, Bowyer, Bowman, Byron and Blaney. In hindsight, when Blaney won the restrictor plate crapshoot lottery at Talladega last week, he actually was taking the final playoff spot from Keselowski. So Penske should have had two drivers in the next round and they still do.
Bowman (and anyone else who does the same) reporting bogus debris trying to get a caution should be a pass through penalty. I hate when receivers in the NFL make the “throw the flag” motion after every play where they don’t make the reception in the NFL, so I’d prefer we get rid of that ploy in NASCAR. It’s both annoying and deceitful.
Rutledge,,,, who the hell is he? Is he someone’s nephew at NBC? Is he sleeping with a high powered executive at NBC’s sports department? Where the hell did he come from and why is he even out there?
I also noticed NBC’s mistakes from the booth in calling the race. Almost comical after a while if it wasn’t so annoying. Rutledge isn’t the only one who must be sleeping with a higher up at NBC.
One thing I have to say is that the playoffs and the constant points update has turned the race into a math exercise. The critics of NASCAR are correct,,,, the drivers aren’t athletes, they are now mathletes.
NASCAR was chomping at the bit to throw those last 2 cautions to do everything they could to help Chase into the next round. I don’t think any part of Blaney’s tire had hit the pavement – they saw a chunk in the air and hit the button! Same with the last caution, I don’t think those cars had even hit anything and the caution was out. Never seen NASCAR throw a caution so fast in my life.
Martinsville next week. Hmmm. I’m going to make a bold prediction, no – a guarantee… I GUARANTEE Chase wins next week at Martinsville. If he doesn’t, may God strike Brian France down!
By the way, did NASCAR penalize Bubba for that uncontrolled tire? lol
Hated the race – glad I only saw the last stage. Or part of it – I turned on the race and took a nap after we got back home from doing things more interesting than watching NASCAR. We were out watching mold grow. This restrictor plate s**t is just that. S**T!
Question – Is NASCAR keeping the restrictor plates at Martinsville? (I refuse to call them what NASCAR calls them – technically correct or not – they essentially do the same thing).
Agree with you on the last caution but not on the Blaney tire caution. 9 out of 10 times NASCAR will throw a caution if they can find an excuse to and an exploding tire is a legitimate excuse to throw a caution. BTW, I am sure you could easily find examples where they didn’t but I said “9 out of 10 times”. Blaney was on the shoulder of the track but there was a lot more than a chunk that came off Blaney’s tires, there was quite a bit of debris (once again, mainly on the shoulder).
Also agree on the restrictor plates. I hate the lack of throttle response the reliance on momentum to run fast laps.
It was ultimately justified, I just found it comical how quickly it came out as soon as the first chunk of tire came loose – it was like they had a finger on the button just begging for that tire to shred…
Blaney wasn’t deserving to be in the playoff 16 as you said a few weeks ago. Now he shouldn’t be in the last 8. Rest easy though. His chances are slim to make the final 4. So you won’t have him around to beat on. My final 4 are the usual suspects. Bawl Baby 1, Bawl Baby 2, The Choker, and the Chosen One.
You know, I really like Blaney, If I had my way Blaney, Larson or Elliott would win the championship. Just because I am not fawning over Blaney like a fan, doesn’t mean I don’t like him. I am not a fan of any driver but, the same as any other person, there are some I like more than others. Blaney is on the drivers I like more than others list. I just call them as I see them, and in my opinion Blaney was not a championship worthy driver (and I think the stats like average finishing position, top 5s, top 10s, wins, etc,,, back me up)..
BTW, I don’t remember saying he shouldn’t have been in the top 16, although I did say of the guys in the top 16 he was one of the ones that wasn’t championship worthy along with half of the field of 16. So don’t act like I singled him out because I don’t like him (because I actually do like him, fans blinded by their own fandom…not so much). Only the top 6 or 7 guys had championship worthy years and he wasn’t one of them.
Certainly not accusing you of not liking Blaney. Just felt you weren’t giving him much credit. Sorry I misinterpreted that. And I don’t think being a fan is fawning over someone. Well maybe some do. I can’t speak for everyone.I’m not one to go out and by someone’s tee shirt or whatever just because I like to see them do well.
Obviously if a driver is in the top 16 in points or is a race winner after 26 races he’s worthy of a chance to run for the championship. At least I think that’s how NASCAR looks at it. It’s their show and their rules. Here’s something to think about though. Are the Washington Nationals worthy of being in the World Series after qualifying as a wild card team?
My real gripe is that 16 is too many. NASCAR wants 16 because they want as many fans of different drivers to have the illusion that they are worthy as possible. In theory the more fans’ with drivers in the playoffs the more fans interested in the playoffs and the more fans watching. IMO there should be 8 at most (and really, I think 5 is a better number). So keep in mind that NASCAR’s main goal is to keep as many fans interested and watching as possible. Rewarding the most deserving driver with the championship is a distant second (maybe even lower than that). (BTW I realize that the other sports could be accused of the same)
I won’t compare other sports because the dynamics of how they compete from week to week are totally different. If you’ve been paying attention you know the list of differences, as those of us who would like a year long format to determine the championship always point out.
Baseball is a poor example, so few teams are involved in the playoffs that there is a high probability that any the wildcard teams had a very good year. Often the division leader has won 101 games and the wildcard 99 games. So yes the wildcard teams have had a worthy year.
The other sports, NFL, NHL and NBA, occasionally have unworthy teams, but since they don’t all play head to head an equal amount of times, it’s harder to make the “unworthy” judgment. I feel there are too many teams in the NHL and NBA playoffs because they play 80+ games but in the NFL with only a 16 game season I think it’s justifiable.
If you look at the Regular points standings all year from the first race of the season to now. Currently the top 5 points is this:
1 Joey Logano 1159
2 Kevin Harvick 1156 -3
3 Kyle Busch 1155 -4
4 Denny Hamlin 1141 -18
5 Martin Truex, Jr. 1129 -30
At this point I’d rather see a full season with stage points actually meaning something. Yes, they mean a lot during the playoff rounds. But seeing a full 36 race with stages season come down to less than 30 points with 4 races left is more exciting than anything. Going to be an exciting end to the year. I know this goes against what Nascar is aiming for. However, a full season points standing with stage points really means the best performing driver throughout the entire race and season will end out on top.
Joseph – just to clarify, is that including or excluding the bonus points for stage finishes? From your wording it appears stage points are included – and if so then that stat is interesting indeed. Close enough that any one of the 5 could win in this scenario, especially given the extra point opportunities the stage finishes give.
Hey Jeremy,
All the points including stage points are added into the totals. I am just posting the totals off from of the Racing Reference website.
Agree 100% with the full season points determining the championship. If those totals are accurate we’d have one hell of championship battle shaping up amongst the drivers that truly deserve to be considered championship contenders.
What would even be more interesting is if it was just as close without the stages and the associated stage points because I’m not a fan of the stages either.
regarding caution flags – i was at the race and for the last re-start there was a large piece of bearer bond that came off the 22 in turn 4 when he went around to catch the field. it was hit by mulitple cars and flew into the air both laps before the checker. HOW WAS THAT NOT SEEN?
They came. They saw. They ignored. Pretty Boy made the cut. They conquered.
Now, if something had happened to threaten the outcome they wanted, they had the excuse for the caution.
Why wasn’t Logano penalized for an uncontrolled tire on his pit stop on lap 258?
The rear tire changer is clearly more than an arms reach away from the tire on the pit side of the car.
I looked at the rules for an uncontrolled tire and the tire must be within arms reach of a pit crew member.
Anybody else see this?