NASCAR official explains overtime decisions at Kansas

It wasn’t the loudest point of contention, but some in the NASCAR community did try to suggest after the Advent Health 400 on Sunday that race control should not have thrown the caution for a Cody Ware spin that set-up overtime and figuratively turning the race upside down.

Denny Hamlin was the leader at the time, having led the most laps and just retaken the lead from eventual winner Tyler Reddick, but was not amongst those that took exception with the call.

In fact, Hamlin said NASCAR had to due to how long Ware was sitting sideways on the track with a flat tire.

“It was a caution,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast. “Looking back on it, could the caution have been held? Yes. Should it? Probably not.”

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Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday, Cup Series managing director Brad Moran echoed those sentiments when asked about it.

“That one was a nice job by the race director (Tim Bermann) but he spun, you know, kind of a between turns 3 and 4, and Denny managed to slide by through the smoke.

“I think (Reddick) was second at the time and running through the smoke and there’s no way we would run the whole field by a car spinning in front of the field at Kansas. Speeds are way too high. There was no question we had to throw the caution out at the time.

“At that point, per our rules, that puts us into overtime and that’s how I finished. I think evem Denny knows, he made it through, but anyone else behind there, it would have been a higher risk move. We don’t want people running through a field wide-open with a car spinning in front of them.”

And then, on the final lap, Christopher Bell had been put into the wall by Reddick and it bent a toe link that spun him as the leaders took the white flag. Had the caution immediately come out, Kyle Larson would have won but race control held the caution because it happened behind the field and Bell limped off the track.

“That one was further down,” Moran said. “He landed on the entrance to pit road, had the car fired up, and he was trying to drive it off, which he did. So that’s the difference between that one not being a caution and Bell was in a much safter location.

“Thanks to Christopher and his spotter for being sharpened on the game and getting the car out of the way.”