INDIANAPOLIS — By deciding to wait until race-leader and eventual winner Kasey Kahne crossed the restart line on the backstretch at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the darkness that had fallen on the 24th Brickyard 400, NASCAR Race Control saved the day by mercifully ending the race.
It was 8:58 p.m. ET, it was dark, there had been far too many crashes on restarts that had decimated the field and it was time to end the race the best way possible. After all, there wasn’t enough light left for another restart after a lengthy cleanup. And, there was no guarantee that another crash on the restart would not have followed.
“What we have always said, and we’ve been consistent as much as I’ve talked about it, we’re going to make every attempt to finish the race under green,” said NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell. “To do that, you have to see what happened with an incident. In this case, we did that.
“Once we decided to throw the caution, when we want to dispatch emergency equipment, also knew there was oil on the race track. We threw out the caution and ultimately that’s the end of the race.
“We would not have been able to restart that race. There was oil down. It would have been another red flag. I think the last couple cautions or red flags were 15 to 20 minutes with oil. So, we were up against it, as well.”
In the National Basketball Ass’n, it’s called “swallowing the whistle.” That is when an officials lets the players decide the game rather than call a foul. Even though a competitor had hit the wall, NASCAR officials let a few seconds tick by before calling a caution and making sure Hamlin and others were safe.
NASCAR had made every attempt to make sure the race ended with green-flag racing but it was simply too dark to continue that safely.
“We look at that as our last attempt,” O’Donnell said. “We look at each one as our last attempt. If it can play out, it can play out.
Kasey Kahne takes the checkered flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (HHP/Harold Hinson photo)
“When the leader crosses the overtime line and a caution comes out, the race is over. We checked with the spotters. Obviously made sure the sight lines were still good. Obviously if you continued to cautions and red flags, that would have been a problem. But we wanted to make every attempt to go back green.
“I thought the cleanup crew did a phenomenal job today, and tonight, candidly, to get us back going, all the way through from being able to dry the track as quickly as we did to the hard work from the cleanup crews, enabled us to get back racing.”
NASCAR may move the restart line next season, according to O’Donnell, after criticism that having it on the backstretch leads to confusion for the fans and some competitors.
“I think we’ve talked about the potential to move it to the start/finish line in 2018,” O’Donnell said. “But we’ve been very clear on the rules: once the leader crosses the overtime line, a caution comes out, the race is over.”
And what did he think of the chaotic finish after Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. had both crashed out while fighting for the lead 50 laps earlier?
“I think you have the two best cars all day long,” he said. “Once those two were involved in an incident, it kind of was anybody’s game. It looked like everybody was going to do whatever they could on a restart. And you saw some craziness happen there on a lot of the restarts.
“Ultimately the 5 car (Kasey Kahne) ended up in victory lane.”
Source :speedsport.com
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