NASCAR Says Fan Criticism of Yellow Flag Finish at Atlanta is 'Fair'
Another week, and another seemingly controversial call from within the NASCAR Race Control tower as Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway saw the field frozen on the final lap, handing the win to Christopher Bell and seemingly robbing fans of a chance to watch the three-wide battle between Bell, Kyle Larson, and Carson Hocevar play out.
On the latest episode of NASCAR's Hauler Talk Podcast, Mike Forde, Amanda Ellis, and NBC Sports journalist Nate Ryan break down the controversy from NASCAR's point of view, and Forde even admits that the criticism from the fans following Sunday night's finish was understandable.
Before we dive into what happened at Atlanta, we have to get up to speed on how we got here in the first place.
The reason for the confusion and frustration among the fans of the sport is that the method of which the end of the race has been called through the opening few weeks of the NASCAR National Series season has vastly changed from week-to-week.
A couple of weeks ago, NASCAR threw a caution a few hundred feet before the field crossed the finish line in the second Duel Qualifier race at Daytona International Speedway.
This led to Erik Jones, who crossed the finish line first, not being named the race winner. Austin Cindric was named the winner as NASCAR determined he was leading the field at the time of the caution. This call frustrated fans because the field, which didn't slow for the caution, couldn't have slowed if they tried in the small chunk of track remaining before the checkered flag.
In the Daytona 500 later that week, a massive crash on the backstretch at the front of the field erupted on the final lap of the race, and the field was allowed to race back to the finish line with no caution flag being thrown.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Director Jusan Hamilton would admit on the post-Daytona episode of Hauler Talk that he made an error calling for the caution flag in the Duel race, and that he adjusted his approach heading into the Daytona 500 and said if a crash occurred on the final lap going forward, and safety equipment could safely be dispatched while letting the finish play out, NASCAR would do that going forward.
Then, on the final lap of last Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, another last-lap melee ensued on the backstretch. The field was allowed to race back to the finish line, resulting in an Austin Hill win, but it left a lot of drivers in the Xfinity Series race claiming the finish was unsafe as drivers refused to slow for the crash ahead of them in an effort to gain precious positions down the backstretch.
Ellis, who was in the Race Control tower for the weekend's events explains that while it's easy to Monday morning quarterback the calls made in the booth, it's extremely difficult to digest everything that is taking place in the closing laps of a NASCAR National Series event, especially when there is a crash on the final lap.
"I was in race control. An end of a race moves very quickly, when we had Austin Hill cross the finish line, you knew you had a wreck as well," Ellis said. "And there's, if you've ever, I know Forde you've been in race control, but there's a lot of moving parts that really kick into play and start taking place. We're dispatching equipment. We're also trying to capture the field. You're trying to bring the field down pit road. Then you move into a technical inspection. So, there's just a lot of things that are happening in those moments."
Ellis confesses that in the moment, she didn't feel the crash on the backstretch of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta warranted a caution, but explains that after seeing additional video replays of the incident that Race Control made a mistake as it pertains to driver safety.
"And honestly, I'm not afraid to admit, I didn't think that the last lap wreck was that bad," Ellis said of her thoughts as the last lap was unfolding. "I recognize watching the replays and kind of seeing some of the vantage points we have in hindsight, I do understand why we feel like we should have thrown the caution, and we said that's on us."
In addition to not thinking the crash was severe enough to freeze the field, Ellis also says falling in line with the new procedures which were agreed upon going into the Daytona 500, calling a caution didn't seem like a dire siatuation because the safety crews and equipment were able to be dispatched onto the backstretch to tend to the drivers, who had crashed, while the race finished under green. Again, after looking at additional replays not in the heat of the moment, Ellis understood how dangerous the final lap crash in the Xfinity Series race appeared to be.
"However, looking at the replays, we now see some other things that we're not comfortable with," Ellis explained.
While NASCAR already didn't like what they had seen in the finish of Saturday night's race, some of the sports competitors reached out to NASCAR Officials to express their concern over what took place on Saturday night at Atlanta.
So, after the race wrapped, there are a couple of areas of communication that drivers have and can use and do use throughout a race weekend. Drivers can call our officials. They have cell phone numbers for them. They are all welcome to pick up the phone and call them, and that did happen. There were a driver or two that did make that call," Ellis notes.
After re-watching the replays, and taking in the feedback from competitors, NASCAR decided to reverse course from the new approach of racing back to the finish line while a last lap crash was unfolding, as was the case in the Daytona 500, and in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's Senior Vice President of Competition, let the drivers in the driver's meeting ahead of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 race at Atlanta know that the procedure on the final lap of the race in relation to racing back to the finish line while a crash was happening would be different.
"Then my last comment will be based on last night's race," Sawyer told drivers in the meeting. "Our goal is to finish our races under green conditions. That's our number one goal. But we're also not going to be racing through a debris field. So, you can expect cautions to come out based on last night. That was on us."
To their credit, as the massive crash unfolded on the final lap, NASCAR did hold up their word, and threw the caution even with it ruining what would have likely been another incredible three-wide photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which would have been highly marketable.
But even with NASCAR following through with what the sanctioning body set forth in the pre-race driver's meeting, many fans were upset because they weren't privvy to the driver's meeting talk from Sawyer. All the common fan has to go off of is what they've seen happen on track, and so far this season the realistic expectation had become racing back to the finish line despite a crash occurring on the final lap.
"And there was obviously a wildfire on social media following that because of the seeming inconsistency from the previous day and week. All fair, I think," Forde explained. "I think if fans didn't have social media, didn't have X, weren't on their computers looking up [NBC Sports' website] and reading Dustin Long's story, they probably did not know about this and didn't realize this was going to even be a change. So, I get it. I get the anger and the disappointment."
Hopefully, to avoid confusion and frustration from fans, if there is a drastic shift in philosophy going forward about how the race will be called from the Race Control Tower, NASCAR will do a more efficient job of communicating the changes to the average NASCAR fan.
Whether it be issuing a press release the night before, allowing the full media corps to update the fanbase the night and morning prior to the race, or even allowing the television partner to fill fans in on the broadcast ahead of the green flag of the race.
That being said, NASCAR did make the correct call on Sunday night in the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in accordance with what they laid out on Sunday morning to the competitors that they would do in that very situation, and they made the call knowing the caution would directly deflate what was shaping up to be another all-time classic three-wide finish. While it wasn't popular in the moment, the call echoed that NASCAR will hold safety as the top priority even ahead of entertainment going forward, and that should be commended.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.