Did NASCAR Make the Right Calls in the Brickyard 400?

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…