Feb
19
To Yellow or Not to Yellow
February 19, 2007 | Posted by VroomChick
I’m not the only one confused by NASCAR’s constant inconsistency. Racing guru David Poole agrees with VroomChick:
What’s a flagman to do?
Should the caution have come out on the final lap? NASCAR was in an impossible spot.
Throw the caution and people would scream, and you’d also have the issue of deciding who was ahead of whom at that moment. It would have been a mess.
But by waiting until Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin finished, you have a mess, too. That’s why consistency in officiating is so vital.
On any other lap, there’s no question the caution would have come out immediately. NASCAR has to make it a practice of calling the last lap just like the first.
If you don’t let guys race back to the caution on the final lap at Pocono in July, they shouldn’t race back to the caution on the final lap of the Daytona 500, either.
Sure, they save the trouble of figuring out who was where when the flag came out by not throwing the flag out … but they did throw the flag out once Harvick and Martin crossed the finish line. How does that make it less confusing? I think that makes it more confusing. Now they have to figure out where everyone was as they bounced around like pinballs over the finish line. Had the flag come out as soon as the wreck started, wouldn’t they have had a pretty clear picture of where everyone was just prior to that?
NASCAR is definitely a nation of its own with a government of its own… and its own red (and yellow and green and checkered) tape.
Comments
1 Comment so far
In the fast paced world of racing, NASCAR’s calls are split judgement decisions…if Harvick had been racing Kyle Busch back to the checkered, most pundits would not be screaming at NASCAR’s no caution decision!