NASCAR insiders take issue with caution being thrown for rain at Mexico City

Two NASCAR insiders had a problem with a caution flag being thrown at the start of the Cup Series race at Mexico City. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about how NASCAR should have let the drivers and teams handle things when it was raining at the start of the race.

“Right as they’re coming into the stadium for the first time, they throw the caution,” Gluck said. “It was wet, but you could say, ‘Hey, there’s rain. There’s rain. Pit now or slow down.’ Just let the teams make their pit stop. If you need to declare it wet weather or whatever, turn on your flashing lights.

“Just tell them on the radio. ‘Hey, they just said turn on your lights. Okay, do it.’ I don’t think they need to parent them like that because some of them would have said, ‘Hey, I’m going to try to do a few more laps or whatever.’ Some of them would have pitted immediately. Let their skill and their talent… take a gamble or crash.”

Bianchi added, “Let them make the choice of how they want to conduct themselves, and then they have the consequences of however they do it. I 100 percent agree.”

Shane van Gisbergen talks about winning the NASCAR Mexico City race

The caution for rain was one of six cautions during the Mexico City race. It only lasted for three laps, and Shane van Gisbergen went on to win the event. After the race, van Gisbergen was asked if he found Autódromo Hermamos Rodríguez challenging.

“I didn’t find it the most challenging,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s all first and second gear corners so quite boring. I like a track with fast corners and you’ve really got to hang on to the car and commit. The track itself wasn’t very challenging. It was first and second gear everywhere and a lot of technique, I guess, but that’s why in qualifying everyone was within eight-tenths or a second. It’s close because the track is not challenging.”

Van Gisbergen talked about the track being special in his career. “I’ve been very lucky to take part in some great races, win a few majors, I guess, and this is certainly up there,” he said. “It probably wasn’t sunk in yet, but as I said, I’ve been lucky enough to race in Europe, Asia, and I’ve never raced here. There’s a couple places left I’d love to go and race, but yeah, I’m stoked to tick off another cool race.”