Confusion Reigns At NASCAR Indianapolis

Indianapolis Motor Speedway remains one of the biggest NASCAR race weekends of its season’s second half. With that said, the Goodyear tire debacle of 2008 was more or less a death knell for the Brickyard 400 on the oval. NASCAR and Goodyear seemingly never made amends for that, and attendance cratered from there.

Starting last year, the former Brickyard 400 was moved to the IMS infield road course. It still attracts a somewhat similar crowd to the final years on the oval, but it’s more spread out and less noticeable on air.

Unfortunately, the first edition of the race last year was marred by curbs breaking and massive crashes. This year’s race will be remembered best for the final restart and the chaos that ensued.

See how @TylerReddick scored the win at @IMS in overtime!

Here’s a look at the final restart at Indy. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/Yo43SqrrzP

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 31, 2022

When I was watching this restart live on Sunday (July 31), I thought to myself, “What!  He can’t do that!” It was literally Ross Chastain taking the “Joker” on the final restart.

(For the uninitiated, a “Joker” is an alternate route on the track, typically seen in Rallycross. The FIA Touring Car Cup uses such a setup at the Vila Real street course event in Portugal. Let’s just say that the joker lap at Vila Real is just one of the many weird things about that street course.)

Now, in that circumstance, every driver is supposed to use the “Joker” once per race. That is not the scenario that is supposed to happen in NASCAR.

Instead, Chastain’s move created confusion as he literally came out of nowhere to get himself into the lead. After the race, Tyler Reddick described his surprise out front.

“I was like, ‘uh-oh.’,” he said. “But that was a scenario that had been talked about. If you get bottled up, what do you do? Take the access road.”

Had Chastain used the motorcycle loop to stop, he likely would have finished wherever he ultimately did on the track. Since he didn’t, NASCAR slapped a 30-second penalty on him, which dropped Chastain to 27^th.

NBC Sports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. noticed Chastain had gone straight at turn 1 when he did it, but didn’t seem to notice that it was Chastain at the time. Austin Dillon also pulled the same maneuver and got hit with the same penalty (not mentioned on the broadcast – it should have been).

The call from NBC picked up with Chastain fighting tooth and nail with Reddick for…