What Happened?
A long, rain-delayed, caution-riddled race at Nashville Superspeedway came to a close with Joey Logano crossing the finish line in first place. With the win, Logano secured his spot in the NASCAR Playoffs, with all three Penske drivers locked in.
Behind Logano, Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick had a photo finish at the line with Smith nabbing the second spot.
What Really Happened?
This race turned into a fuel mileage race, but not in the traditional way. When Chase Elliott spun with around 80 laps to go in regulation, teams pitted just outside of their fuel windows. If the race ran green, drivers would have to save fuel to make it to the end.
A number of varying strategies mixed up the field in the final stage, and Ross Chastain found himself at the front of the field again. A couple of cautions put teams within their fuel window, however, and it looked like Denny Hamlin would triumph.
Then, everything changed.
With two laps left, Austin Cindric spun, bringing out the yellow and forcing overtime. Then, Kyle Larson made contact with Chastain and another yellow flew. On the third and fourth overtimes, drivers started running out of fuel, and the field stacked up and crashed again.
Apparently, fifth time is the charm, because that’s what it took to finally get the field to the checkered flag.
Despite the groans up and down pit road, the frustrated drivers who didn’t survive the chaos and the overall ugliness of the never-ending race, there’s no need to react with a rule change — at least not yet.
The overtime rule has gone through too much changing and shifting, and looking at another adjustment immediately after Nashville would be a bit of an overreaction.
While sitting in the middle of the extra caution laps, it does beg the question: Can’t we just end this? But all of the teams have to abide by the rules as written, and the extra laps pushed the boundaries of drivers’ abilities to save fuel and teams to choose the right strategy.
For example, Logano and Paul Wolfe did just enough to sputter, quite literally, to victory. At the same time, the No. 45 team’s decision to pit during the earlier overtimes paid dividends in the final overtime, and Reddick had a legitimate shot to win.
Sure, some fans may long for the days when a 300-lap race ended in 300 laps, green or yellow. But overtimes are exciting, challenging and chaotic.
In other words, overtimes are quintessential…
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