NASCAR Addresses Restart Order Procedure

MARTINSVILLE, Va —  The last caution of the race brought chaos and confusion to fans, media, competitors, and NASCAR.

The final caution was brought out by a spin by Carl Edwards. The caution should have lasted a few laps, but the caution lasted 29 laps. The caution flew while green flag pit stops were underway.

 

According to NASCAR, little issues kept the caution flag in the air as they tried to sort out where everyone would restart.

 

The rule is that the order should start as lead lapped cars, lapped down cars, penalty cars, lucky dog, and then wave arounds.

 

Drivers were upset that NASCAR could not get the order correct.

 

“I know what happened.  We got passed by four cars.  That’s what’s frustrating.  I don’t know how many cameras are between my car, NBC cameras, but somebody has got to see.  Even the pace car driver should see cars are passing that shouldn’t be passing. Hey, savvy move by the 4 and the other guys who decided to do it.  I think they caught two of them.  There were more that you have to get right.  I think the stakes are so high, I really wish we would have red flagged the race, gone, reviewed it and gotten it right.  There’s a 100% chance it was not right at the end.  It changed the running order. Hopefully that doesn’t change what happens going into Homestead.  I know that NASCAR is doing everything they can with the scoring they have and things like that.  But you have to get it right.  It definitely was not right,” said Denny Hamlin, who finished third.

 

“I know at points like that, sitting up there being NASCAR, it’s the hardest thing in the world to run all those laps, but it is the right thing. I applaud NASCAR for getting it right, that means so much to all the competitors. For NASCAR to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to stop the show and get this right and move on,’ I have a lot of respect for them,” said Edwards, who brought out the caution.

 

Richard Buck, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Managing Director, was made available to the media after the Goody’s 500. However, Buck would not get into specific details about the debacle.

 

“We took our time and we want to get it right,” Buck said. “We know what the stakes are and we felt we got it right.”

 

Steve O’Donnell took to twitter to also explain the situation. “Thought we had correct line up earlier then had several unique circumstances come up-If we knew amount of time-would have gone red flag,” tweeted O’Donnell, talking about why NASCAR did not red flag the event.

 

NASCAR will be looking at ways to expedite this process in the future.

 

Caleb Whisler
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