NASCAR’s competition VP addresses Brickyard 400 race control controversies

NASCAR’s race control room was quite busy on Sunday during the Brickyard 400 and faced quite a bit of criticism from both competitors and observers in the days since the race.

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer was not made available to the media after the race but took three questions from NASCAR.com and also appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning to discuss the three big issues that took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

• The timing of the final caution after the white flag that ended the race
• The penultimate restart in which Brad Keslowski ran out of fuel, leaving Ryan Blaney as the control car but in the non-preferred outside lane, which led to Kyle Larson jumping a lane and taking the lead en route to victory
• The blend line violations issued to Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski during the first round of green flag pit stops

Race ending caution

Ryan Preece ran out of fuel, and slowed in Turn 2 where he was spun by Chase Elliott, into the grass with a flat left rear tire.

NASCAR, which can be awfully inconsistent on when to throw a caution in that scenario, held onto it until after the leaders took the white flag, meaning the next flag would end the race. Preece had been stopped for almost 10 seconds before that point but NASCAR then called for the race ending caution as the leaders approached where he was stalled.

It resulted in a great deal of criticism from those watching, including Denny Hamlin, who had crashed out about a half hour prior to that.

“So, they had roughly eight seconds to make a call there, and they did. Austin Cindric spun through the infield at Nashville, gathered up, kept going, and that was instantly a caution,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “This is what we’re talking about.

“NASCAR, this is your inconsistencies that people gripe about. They have a right to gripe because it is just so inconsistent. You can’t decide whether you want the caution or don’t want the caution. That’s the agitating part.”

He’s referencing criticism from fans, like this one:

Sawyer has said every situation is different, even if his department tries to apply the same philosophy evenly.

“For our fans, our goal at every event is to finish under green,” Sawyer said. “That that’s what our goal is going into the weekend but there’s circumstances that happen on the last lap … where we’re trying to give that car every opportunity to get re-started and rolling and let the race finish naturally

“As we came off Turn 4 and came to the start-finish line for the white (flag), it’s still a two and a half mile race track so there’s a lot of racing that can happen.

“As the cars start to get off Turn 1, you’re starting to get closer to having to make a decision.”

Sawyer said that is generally their philosophy.

“You give drivers every chance they can to get going, but also for the guys who are leading, you can’t let them race through a situation where a car is stopped on the race track. So that was our decision-making process and we had to digest that very quick.”

And 48 hours later, he ‘still thinks our race director did a really good job in how he managed that.’

The penultimate restart

When Brad Keslowski, inevitably, ran out of fuel, the timing could have not been worse for Ryan Blaney.

Keselowski was the leader and had already chosen the preferred bottom lane, leaving Blaney to take the top so he wouldn’t drive into the back of the RFK No. 6 if he stumbled under green right in front of him. Instead, it happened coming to the green and Larson was able to move up a lane, to the preferred lane, even if Blaney was the control car.

On one hand, it was all bad luck, but there was also a sentiment that Larson jumped the restart. If he did, it was super close but Larson certain already had a speed momentum from jumping up a lane.

Sawyer isn’t sure there is anything to reassess in the aftermath.

“That was a bang-bang call,” Sawyer said. “Obviously, we’re coming to the green. We’ve already gone through the choose process, thinking everything’s fine. We’re starting to focus on the restart zone, making sure everybody’s in line where they need to be.

“Then (Keselowski) pulls off and (Larson) starts to roll up, which is what he should do to get side-by-side with (Blaney) and all of this is happening extremely fast. The 12 becomes the control car but doesn’t get lane choice, all of this is happening in a very short period of time. This all happened in a very short period of time but in real time, it looked fine.

“We’ll go back and just see if there’s anything we would’ve done different because it happened so quick, but I don’t know that, even if we hypothetically did throw the caution, we still wouldn’t have gone back through a choose process because we already did that.

“The 12 would have been the control vehicle but would not have the opportunity to have lane choice. But as you look back and kind of digest it, still feels like it was the right decision to let it play out.”

But again, giving Blaney lane choice doesn’t matter in that scenario because the chances of fending off the bottom lane, especially with this car, is so low and that was the point of contention from the defending champion after the race.

“I don’t know,” Blaney said. “I could easily say like, if the leader runs out of fuel coming to the restart zone, wave off the start and re-choose because now the advantage goes to the third-place guy. I get screwed. I don’t know.

“It’s a weird thing and you don’t see it very often and it’s worse because it’s here. If it’s any other place, you can live with the top. Here, it’s a death sentence and you’re not going to maintain from the top so of course I’m going to say re-rack in that scenario, just to make it fair.”

Blend line violations

As for the pit exit blend line violations given to Elliott and Keselowski, Sawyer said they over communicated with teams in both written and video form and concluded that they generally did a good job with the rulings because only two teams were hit after those first stops.

That includes a video sent out on Thursday and an additional clarification email on Saturday.

“As you look at the video, it basically says that you have to stay in the acceleration lane as you’re exiting until you exit turn 2,” Sawyer said, “and then you blend up on the racetrack.

“Brad Moran and Wayne Alton (Cup and Xfinity Series directors) both sent additional language to help clarify any confusion that may have come out of the videos, that at no point could you go up on the racing surface.

“So we felt like that we were in a pretty good place. Obviously, communication is something that we pride ourselves on and want to make sure our teams and drivers all understand and our fans understand the nuances if you will around a particular venue that is different.”

Most in the industry felt the language should have been simplified to the point that it said cars could not drive above the second white line closest to the racing groove.

Sawyer conceded NASCAR will evaluate that

“We will work on our side to do our due diligence to make sure we can clean up any miscommunication going forward as we always will on those types of situations,” he said.

Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter .

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