Kyle Larson drove well and his team executed a fantastic strategy for him to get to the front of the pack at Indianapolis. He ended up winning the race, although the manner of victory was not appreciated by everyone. One of the people who spoke out against it was McCall Smith, the wife of Cup Series racer Zane Smith.
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On the final restart, Ryan Preece spun before the white flag fell. NASCAR decided to wait until the white flag fell to call the caution, handing Larson the victory. It did not take long after for McCall to take to social media and slam the organizers.
“Car was sitting there for a full lap but wait and throw the caution once the 5 takes the white lol… joke,” she wrote on X. Preece was stationary on the track for quite a while before the caution came out. At any other point during the race, that yellow flag would have come out immediately. It gave fans a chance to speculate that NASCAR favored Yung Money for the win.
It does not take away from the fact that the 2021 Cup Series champion drove a good race. 23 XI Racing driver, Tyler Reddick was not too far behind but Larson seemed to be in control of the situation.
Fans echo Smith’s wife’s sentiments about Indianapolis race
However, another restart could have caused issues for the HMS driver. Had that been the case, Reddick would have been able to get the jump on Larson and perhaps go on to win the race.
Fans on social media commented under McCall’s tweet and shared their opinion about the incident. “Agree 100%. Hit the wall on the inside, no reason at all not to throw the caution,” one user commented. “Typical NASCAR,” quipped another. The promotions decision to call the caution after the white flag will certainly be a matter of discussion in the days to come.
“Any other driver leading and that’s a yellow the moment he hits the inside wall,” one fan wrote on X. “If the Hendrick driver was in 2nd it would’ve been a caution,” commented another. The overall consensus was that of bewilderment as NASCAR usually does not wait that long to throw the caution. Especially when a car is stationary on the track, it could have led to a dangerous situation.
