NASCAR VP of Competition explains timing of last lap caution flag at Pocono
Nobody ever wants to see a NASCAR race end under caution. But, on Sunday, Ryan Preece’s car stalling near the end forced the sport to wave the yellow flag at Pocono, allowing Denny Hamlin to win the HighPoint.com 400.
Speaking with SiriusXM Radio, senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer explained why NASCAR needed to end Sunday’s Cup Series race under caution. Obviously, that wasn’t an ideal way to finish.
“We’re trying to do everything we can, A) to be safe and not run our drivers through a debris field. And, to give our fans every opportunity — and the competitors — to race to the end of the event,” Sawyer said.
“Once we got to the point where it looked like the 41 had stalled, then he got rolling. OK, now he’s stalled again, then he starts rolling. It finally got to the point where, they’re coming off Turn 1 and we’ve gotta throw it. We used up every bit of the runway on this one. We had to throw it and end under caution.”
NASCAR also had to throw the caution flag for the Xfinity Series race at Pocono because of debris. It was an unfortunate ending to both races.
Elton Sawyer talks Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson spat at Pocono
As the race wound down at Pocono on Sunday, we witnessed some fireworks in the Cup Series race. Denny Hamlin pushed Kyle Larson up the racetrack coming out of a turn, forcing the No. 5 into the wall.
Larson was furious after the race. Hamlin claimed he did nothing wrong in that instance. While on SiriusXM Radio, Sawyer also addressed that situation.
“We have two of the greatest race car drivers that we’ve probably seen in the history of our sport behind the 11 and the 5 steering wheels. They’re future Hall of Famers, and we’re seven laps to go and they’re both doing everything they can to win the race,” Sawyer said, per NBC Sports.
“So when you come up short on that, for whatever reason, if you feel like you’ve been done wrong, you’re going to be upset. You’re going to want to show your displeasure. … Those guys are professionals. I feel like they will handle that (moving forward) appropriately. If we feel like we need to get involved more, we will, but at this time I don’t see anything we need to do on our side.”
Because of Hamlin’s actions, the driver was showered with boos after winning at Pocono. It was the 50th victory of his career.