These days, you never know when NASCAR will throw in a caution and bring the race to a halt. It almost seems like NASCAR does not follow a consistent set of rules as to when they should bring out the yellow flag and to Bubba Wallace’s spotter and Door Bumper Clear co-host, Freddie Kraft, it’s egregious.
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The first yellow of the day came out on lap 63, when SHR driver Josh Berry nosed Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez, causing the latter to slide. After that, the only non-stage caution came out on lap 169, when Kyle Busch brushed against the outside wall, moments before Kyle Larson got loose. Many felt like that didn’t really deserve a caution.
Reflecting on the incident, Kraft said, “I watched him kind of just skate up the racetrack and brush the wall, and as soon as he touched the wall put it out. I was like, you got to be f*****g kidding me. I don’t give a s*t which way it is but it’s one or the other. All we ask for is consistency and we cannot get it.”
The incident with Busch stirred up the battle of strategy for several teams and made them rethink. Some of them had planned on making a single stop on the stage, and the others opted for a strategy to cut the stage into thirds. The caution, however, equaled everyone as far as strategy is concerned and nullified any tire differences.
NASCAR’s recent caution rule in the Truck Series
For those who are somewhat new to the sport of NASCAR, caution periods commence when there is a problem on the track; say a car has crashed and needs to be taken to the shop or perhaps there is debris on the track, for which the race needs to be brought to a temporary halt. However, the rule that NASCAR has come up with for the Camping World Truck Series has left the racing aficionados wheeling their heads.
From now on, NASCAR will schedule its cautions while looking at a stopwatch. The halts will happen every 20 minutes regardless of whether they are necessary. And if there is indeed an incident that actually needs a caution to come out, NASCAR will tend to the situation, and restart the stopwatch once the race goes back to the green flag condition.
The clock will start at the start of the race and will stop with 20 laps remaining till the checkered flag. As a racing fan, one might ask: why even bother formulating such a rule? Well, perhaps the reason is to make the races more spicy and eventful.
