 |
| Greg Biffle after wrecking on the last lap of the 2015 Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. (PHOTO Credits: Jonathan Moore/NASCAR) |
Yesterday, Greg Biffle spun out on a second attempt at a Green-White-Checkered finish at Auto Club Speedway during the Auto Club 400. Just as the leaders took the white flag, Biffle spun out from the rear of the field. The race continued as Biffle drove away.
According to a NASCAR.com Staff Report, "the spotters' checked for debris turned up nothing."
Brad Keselowski would pass the two front-runners, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch for the win.
The NASCAR.com Staff Report had this quote from NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell, and boy, did he have a lot to say.
"I think when you look at the end of the race, we will always try to finish the race under green-flag conditions, but we're always going to err on the side of safety," O'Donnell said Monday during NASCAR officials' weekly debrief with NASCAR.com. "So if you want to look back at Daytona, we made the decision based on the hit that we saw Kyle Larson take, based on our need to dispatch the safety equipment as quickly as possible. We made that decision to go ahead and display the yellow."
"If you fast-forward to what happened yesterday in California, when we looked at it in terms of Greg Biffle was able to drive away, the cars were still in Turn 2, we had eyes immediately on the ground in terms of our flagstand personnel to be able to see if there was any debris on the track. There wasn't, so we were able to let the cars come back and race under green-flag conditions to the checkered flag. So if we can do that, we will, but under no circumstances would we compromise safety in terms of a driver to be able to do that."
Biffle was able to drive away as the other cars entered Turn 2. There was no debris on the track, so NASCAR must have figured that they should let the cars race.
O'Donnel clearly is stating that NASCAR does not want to endanger its drivers in ANY way. But he also seems to state that Biffle seemed to put himself in a situation where he had ESCAPED any danger, so everything seemed fine to let the cars finish.
Some of our Facebook fans reminded us about the 2015 DAYTONA 500, how this is sort of the opposite of that event.
Two cars spun on the backstretch during a Green-White-Checkered finish, one of them being Jeff Gordon. The two cars had spun into the infield of the backstretch, where they had escaped harm, but NASCAR still threw the caution and ended the race there, where Joey Logano was the winner.
 |
| Brad Keselowski in victory lane after winning the 2015 Auto Club 400. (PHOTO Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images) |
Also, O'Donnell mentioned Denny Hamlin's late pit road penalty for the loose tire on pit road that gave Hamlin a 28th Place finish.
Again, this is from the NASCAR.com Staff Report.
"Again, we'll go back to video replay. That's why the system was put in place," O'Donnell said. "I think Dave questioned whether we would err on the side of the competitors and referenced what we said at the beginning of the year. We did say that, and we still hold to that, that we will err on the side of the competitors if we can't make a distinctive call, but under the review process … it was clear to us that there was a violation and in that case, we're going to make the call. With this system, it is precise. It's black and white in terms of whether or not we can make a call, very similar to pit-road speeding penalties.
"The drivers had asked for that to be more transparent, and under this new system, we're going to be more transparent as well. The good news is we can share that with the race teams, not only during the race, but after the race as well, and walk them through why the call was made and show them as well."
"The drivers had asked for that to be more transparent, and under this new system, we're going to be more transparent as well. The good news is we can share that with the race teams, not only during the race, but after the race as well, and walk them through why the call was made and show them as well."
What is your take on this hectic controversy?
Should Hamlin have been penalized? Should the yellow flag have been thrown, or did NASCAR make the right call by letting the cars race back to the line?
Please comment what you think.
No comments:
Post a Comment