What Constitutes a Caution? NASCAR Won’t Say

NASCAR officials didn’t just press the caution button on lap 170 of last Sunday’s race at Richmond. They pressed on a wound that hasn’t healed for decades.

With multiple race-deciding strategies playing out in Stage 2, NASCAR officials called a caution because Kyle Busch went up and kissed the wall before continuing on.

Drivers were trapped laps down and strategies were ruined.

NASCAR X nearly exploded:

So did Ryan Blaney.

“Are you f***ing kidding me? Someone touches the f***ing wall and they throw a yellow?”

Why did everyone react so viscerally to a caution before the halfway point? Because NASCAR officials have been manipulating races like this for decades. Ten years ago — before stage breaks were instituted to break up the green flag racing — phantom cautions, usually for debris, were called far more frequently than they are today.

In 2013, I wrote about a fall race at Phoenix with a nearly identical incident to Busch’s last Sunday. On lap 100, Joe Nemecheck’s №87 slowly left the racing groove and headed toward the wall. The yellow lights flashed before he got there.

And, oh yeah, he never got there. They threw the yellow simply because he left the racing groove.

With 31 laps to go in that same race, they threw the yellow again to pick up a ball of tape that was way outside the racing groove.

But I mean, it was a smart move because the wind could have blown that tape down the track and taped all the cars together the next time they came by. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

Actually, no. Not when there clearly isn’t any danger involved.

But it’s not just that officials are throwing the yellow at times when it really isn’t warranted. It’s that what constitutes a caution in one moment doesn’t in another.

There is a consistency to the inconsistency.

Traditionally, incidents like Busch’s on Sunday are only called cautions when the excitement on track is low. When cars are packed together, drivers in wrecked cars are forced to limp back to pit road.

The 2023 Bristol dirt race is an example of NASCAR changing its rules about what constitutes a caution mid-race. Early cautions were thrown for brushes of the wall and cut tires, but when green flag racing became hard to come by, they started holding the yellow flag back even as mayhem ensured.

Essentially, NASCAR officials manipulate races to create outcomes that they feel are good for the sport. It’s more akin to WWE than any professional sport.

In general, sports fans have increasingly pressured sports leagues to be more transparent. NFL officials are penalized for bad calls and the NBA issues an “NBA Officiating Last Two Minute Report” for example. It also helps that each of those league rulebooks clearly define even the most challenging calls, such as defensive pass interference and the difference between a block and charge.

So what constitutes a NASCAR caution?

I don’t know. You don’t know. Because NASCAR doesn’t know.

I know why cautions should be and used to be called. A long time ago, they were used to slow cars on track in the event of danger. But somewhere along the way, they became a tool used to produce closer finishes and more exciting shows.

In auto racing, caution flags change outcomes — every time they are thrown. They ruin strategies, pack the field together, and by doing so, create more accidents and cautions.

In a professional sport, this affects livelihoods.

It’s time that fans, media and those involved in the sport demand more transparency. That’s the only way this changes.

Yes, whether a caution is thrown is a subjective call, but like a rule is in any stick and ball sport, a caution can be defined. Is deciding on a NASCAR caution more difficult than deciding NFL defense pass interference? No.

NASCAR officials should also be treated like officials in other sports. They should be rated according to their ability to call races according to this new definition in the rulebook and should have to answer for it when they don’t.

And that bullshit Elton Sawyer fed the media on Sunday isn’t answering for it. You thought Kyle Busch had a brake problem? OK, so why did your officials throw the yellow flag?

It’s also time that NASCAR senior officials start contemplating some simple questions like, “What puts drivers more at risk: the piece of foam outside the racing groove or bunching every car in the field up 2x2 for a green-white-checkered restart?”

Better yet, here’s the question at the root of this whole issue: “If you say that NASCAR racing is compelling enough to stand on its own, why do you keep manipulating it?”

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