NASCAR insiders break down 'unfair' red flag, yellow flag controversy at Talladega

NASCAR had to deal with a red-flag, yellow-flag controversy during Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about the ordeal that happened after the huge wreck at the end of the race.

“During the red flag, you cannot work on your car at all. You cannot touch your car. The cars that did make it back from that wreck with damage are sitting in their pit box, red flag,” Gluck said on The Teardown Podcast. “They go back under yellow flag. Normally, when they go back under yellow the cars start to roll under caution again, the pace car takes off, the cars start to go. All of a sudden, the radio starts lighting up as we’re listening to scanners. ‘Hey, why aren’t we going? Why aren’t we going? We’re not going. The pace car is not moving.’

“What’s happening during this it’s a yellow flag. It’s a yellow flag now, that means the cars on pit road can work on their damage, but the field’s not moving. So guess what’s happening, they’re getting free time. It’s basically like working under red because otherwise they would be being lapped because the field would be coming by under yellow and lapping the people who are on pit road.”

More on NASCAR’s red-flag, yellow-flag controversy at Talladega

Bianchi responded that it seemed “unfair” and Gluck agreed with him. “Well Jordan, it seems like it is unfair,” he said. Like a [Alex] Bowman for instance, he was in the damage and he’s getting a chance to work on his car and get it to where he finished the race. Now, he stays on the lead lap because of this. If I was a competitor competing against these people and saying ‘Well wait, that’s not…’ I would think it was very unfair.”

23 cars were involved in the wreck at Talladega. It led to a red flag coming out followed by a yellow flag, which confused the competitors. After the race, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition spoke to reporters about the red-flag, yellow-flag controversy.

“We had all intentions to roll the caution vehicle as soon as we pulled the red and displayed the yellow,” Sawyer said, per Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “The race director noticed some things that were still going on down in Turn 3 where he couldn’t do that restart. Cars were still moving, we still had safety equipment that was still moving around there. So just for the safety of all, held the caution vehicle for a little longer.”