The Brickyard 400 is being touted once again as a “crown jewel” race. With the series of events that brought the 30th anniversary event back to the oval, there were some calls that seemed to be made in the interest of expediency rather than consistency. Did NASCAR make the right call in how the overtime events played out? This week, Chase Folsom and Vito Pugliese call balls and strikes in 2-Headed Monster.
Let The Boys Play it Out
The end of Sunday’s (July 21) Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway did not come without controversy. With most of the field close on fuel, Ryan Preece spun from mid-pack as the field stormed off turn two during a double overtime restart.
As Preece’s No. 41 came to a halt on the back straightaway, the race stayed green. All the while, race leader Kyle Larson took the white flag on the front straightaway before the yellow was eventually thrown as he reached turn 1. Race over, Larson the winner.
While this sparked some very strong social media reactions from many throughout the racing industry, in my opinion, NASCAR got this one right. It may not be the most popular opinion, but it was the best outcome.
First and foremost, NASCAR protected the integrity of the sport by doing this. What happens at the end of NASCAR Cup Series races when we see a frenzy of late race yellows is embarrassing for the drivers, the fans and the sport itself.
What goes from professional racing with some of the greatest race car drivers in the world turns into a wreckfest, where said greatest race car drivers can’t seem to make it a lap without crashing. That’s not a good look for a series who already gets hit with negative stereotypes from other parts of the motorsports world. A perfect example of this happened just a few weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway.
What looked to be a solid race wound up having five overtimes, a slew of torn-up race cars and a race winner who hardly ran top-10 all race long.
We don’t need more Nashvilles; trust me, I was there, and it was embarrassing to watch. With the entire field in a similar fuel situation and having already seen one big pileup on the previous restart, we simply ended a race under caution rather than a green-flag finish be the be-all-end-all.
Additionally, at Indy, Preece was making efforts to get the racecar re-fired and leave the scene of the crash, and NASCAR was trying to give Preece the opportunity to do so, rather than automatically resort to the option above. This decision came down to seconds, as the live feed showed Preece still in forward motion up until 10 seconds before Larson took the white, and was still in the throttle trying to move at the exact moment Larson took the white.
We’ve seen this exact scenario play out before, when Preece spun on an overtime restart at Pocono Raceway in 2023. On that day, NASCAR made the same decision and the result was the same, as Preece was never able to leave the scene.
However, we’ve also seen this scenario play out in NASCAR’s advantage. Auto Club Raceway in 2015 comes to mind, as Greg Biffle was able to drive away from a frontstretch crash. This gave Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch the opportunity to race back to the checkered. So, for those begging for consistency: this is consistent, and a race that has struggled with a tarnished legacy over the years didn’t need to take another blow.
On a day that had already seen tons of torn-up race cars and a race that had been moved off of network television, NASCAR took the high road to prevent another Nashville and protect the integrity of the sport. – Chase Folsom
Tailoring Calls to Avoid Inconvenience
NASCAR finally returned the Brickyard 400 this past Sunday, to its proper oval configuration as God intended.
The ending, however, seemed to topple like dominoes in successive fashion. Keselowski was in position to pull off another improbable fuel-mileage Ford win, but when the caution flew on lap 159 for Kyle Busch’s most recent horrible weekend, that went out the window. Keselowski pulled off the track to pit coming to the restart, which saw Larson slide up to the inside-pole position and possibly roll the start before Ryan Blaney did.
The resulting pileup a few seconds later between Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek ricocheting off the pit wall brought out the red flag for almost 20 minutes. To the naked eye, it appeared that, while Blaney was the control car, Larson did roll first, in addition to being the benefactor of Keselowski’s fuel shortage.
Should NASCAR have taken action at that time or was it not egregious enough to warrant a reset?
Apparently not.
When the field did take the restart for the final time six laps past the original scheduled distance, Preece spun off of Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall. Coincidental, since Preece also brought out one of the final cautions at Pocono Raceway the previous weekend at a track that is, in part, patterned after Indianapolis.
For the series that’s been fining guys $50,000 for doing things unsafe at 50mph, is leaving an immobilized, wrecked racecar on the track the safest thing they could do? I’d say it’s not quite on par with turning a competitor into oncoming traffic going into turn one at Pocono, but yeah, not exactly consistent.
Here we go again; if there’s one constant that fans and media rail about in concert, it’s the inconsistency of race control calls.
It also wasn’t exactly the best to look to only have NASCAR.com interview NASCAR Sr. Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer after the race.
Not making accusations of impropriety, but there’s a lot of consistency when it comes to the stars aligning for wins with Hendrick Motorsports. Whether it’s the like-clockwork reminder of the 40th anniversary of HMS’ first win at Martinsville Speedway and – gasp – they win, Alex Bowman winning at Chicago after wiping out Bubba Wallace while apparently fiddling with his wipers mid-turn, or Kyle Larson being the benefactor of picking the correct lane prior to a competitor’s fuel shortage and possibly jumping the restart a bit  to win…and you swallow the whistle?
If that spin happens on lap 20, do they just leave Preece there for half a lap or do they throw the yellow immediately?
I do understand NASCAR’s motivation to get the race over with. Nobody wanted to see a replay of the 12 Hours of Nashville, and Indianapolis is big enough that it wasn’t really going to be a traffic issue if they raced back to the line, but that isn’t supposed to be the over-arching influence of convenience when it comes to a wrecked car on track.
Were they eager to complete the race at the urging of network to get to the news due to the developments earlier in the day with the presidential race? There wasn’t any new news with regards to that, and other sports drag things out without regard to end-times frequently. The NFL had no problem jobbing the Detroit Lions versus the Dallas Cowboys on a holiday weekend last year as the clock passed 11:00pm EST.
While Larson has been the beneficiary of a couple of NASCAR calls this season, including a waiver for missing the Coca-Cola 600 for the Indy 500, he was able to put his Indy and Charlotte scheme in Victory Lane in part due to some questionable no-calls by race control. Not trying to diminish the accomplishment, but if a similar situation were to arise at Phoenix late in the going, it’s not going to be as well-received. – Vito Pugliese
About the author
Vito is one of the longest-tenured writers at Frontstretch, joining the staff in 2007. With his column Voice of Vito (monthly, Fridays) he’s a contributor to several other outlets, including Athlon Sports and Popular Speed in addition to making radio appearances. He forever has a soft-spot in his heart for old Mopars and presumably oil-soaked cardboard in his garage.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.
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“Overtime” has jumped the shark.
NA$CAR does what NA$CAR wants. Doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong or what the fans think, it’s their series and what they say goes.