TALLADEGA, Ala. — A 23-car crash caused chaos at the end of the Cup playoffs Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, but the red flag, then the yellow flag, left competitors confused.
Josh Berry emerged from the field care center after the incident and proclaimed, “All I know is all those cars in Turn 3 better not get towed all the way to the road.” Stands, mate, as this would violate the damaged vehicle policy.
“Forty-two cars out there are doing burnouts, putting rubber all over the security guards trying to start. If you have four flat tires and you have to be towed to pit road, you’ve got finished, right?
This is what happened a week ago.
But not on Sunday.
Last week in Kansas, Berry was hit by another competitor and spun, blowing his tires. He wanted to be towed to pit road to get four new tires. Instead, NASCAR decided that since he had contact and couldn’t make it to pit road alone, he would be eliminated due to the damaged vehicle policy.
Brad Moran, general manager of the Cup Series, said last week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the decision “didn’t look right or sound right, but (the rule) was applied correctly.”
Faced with so many cars in Sunday’s incident, NASCAR’s action raised some questions.
NASCAR towed Chase Elliott, whose car hit the inside barrier, and Chase Briscoe, who spun after being hit, back to pit road and they continued. Elliott finished 29th. Briscoe placed 30th. Elliott holds the final transfer spot for the third round heading into next weekend’s playoff race at the Charlotte Roval.
Briscoe said he was initially asked to get out of the car and remained in the vehicle.
“It was confusing,” Briscoe said. “We had 10 different stories about what to do between the fact that they were going to do the air jacks and then you had to get out, then they were going to push you and then they were going to tow you, then they were going to push you to new. It was constantly changing.
“The deal on the air jack, it got a little unclear for a while because there are five or six of us who have the air jack (a device that the authorities can pump air into to help lift the car when she has several flat tires) and we’re all trying to burn out and move and we can’t do anything.
“So they told me to get out. Then they told me they were going to push me. Then they told me they were going to tow me, then they told me to get out, then they told me they were going to push me.
“It’s literally been changing all the time. Every 30 seconds they come and tell you something new. The team tells you something totally different. The guys working the accident are at the mercy of whatever they’re told, so I know they’re doing everything they can, but they probably need to find a better way to do it.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins by inches at Talladega for his first victory since the 2023 Daytona 500
Driver JTG Daugherty’s margin of victory was 0.006 seconds over Brad Keselowski and William Byron.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, explained how officials responded by trying to get cars back into competition that could continue.
“Above all, our goal is never to put good cars out of the race,” he said, referring to cars that could continue. “When we developed (the damaged vehicle policy)… that was never the goal.
“Based on our experiences last week at Kansas (with Berry) … we felt like, yeah, we probably could have made a different decision there. We had a good car that probably just needed tires last week.
“At the start of this week, we wanted to err on the side of the competitor. Again, we don’t want to exclude good cars from the race. We had a situation in turn 3 where we had over 25 cars. We don’t know why they can’t continue. We don’t know if it’s strictly because they’re in the grass (or) if they’re tall. So for us to determine that they have suspension damage and they can’t continue, that puts a lot of pressure on us.
“Once we got (Briscoe) and (Elliott) back on pit road, they did the little repairs that they can do on pit road and came out and did the minimum speed. So we felt we had made the right choice.
What drivers said after the Talladega NASCAR Cup playoff race won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Here’s what the drivers were talking about after Sunday’s race.
There was also the question of when NASCAR changed the red flag to a yellow flag, but the field didn’t move while the cars on pit road could begin making repairs.
“I don’t think I’ve seen them throw the yellow flag and allow guys to work on the cars while other guys sit there,” said Mike Kelley, crew chief for race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. .
Sawyer explained what happened in this situation.
“We intended to run the warning vehicle as soon as we had drawn red and displayed yellow,” he said. “The race director noticed some things that were still happening in Turn 3 where he couldn’t do that (get the cars moving).
“…We had security equipment still circulating there. So just for everyone’s safety, I held the caution vehicle a little longer. … We had a few cars on pit road that had the opportunity to do a little more work before the other cars could get there.
Sawyer went on to say, “Every circumstance is different. We’re going to do our best to make the best calls with the best information we have.
Sawyer noted that series officials will maintain this policy as it is for the remainder of the season. He said officials would review the policy during the offseason, which Moran said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last week.
