Couch Potato Tuesday: Confusion Reigns At Indianapolis

Indianapolis is traditionally one of the biggest race weekends of the second half of the season. As we all know, the Goodyear tire debacle of 2008 was more or less a death knell for the Brickyard 400. 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 infield road course. It still attracts a somewhat similar crowd to the final years on the oval, but it’s more spread out.

Last year’s race had 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 live on Sunday, I thought to myself, “What!  He can’t do that!” This 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 weird things about that street course.

Now, in that circumstance, everyone is supposed to do it once per race. That is not the scenario that is supposed to happen in NASCAR.

This scenario created confusion as Chastain literally came out of nowhere to get himself into the lead briefly. After the race, Tyler Reddick described it thusly:

“I was like, uh-oh. 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 him to 27^th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. noticed that 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 did it and got hit with the same penalty (not mentioned on the broadcast).

The call picked up with Chastain fighting tooth and nail with Reddick for the win. Reddick’s ultimate pass for the win on Chastain in turn 13 is probably one of the most impressive passes of the day knowing that he pulled it off on the outside of a flat turn. The one Chastain put on Reddick at the quick flick…