Nobody ever wants to see a NASCAR race end under caution. But, on Sunday, Ryan Preece’s car stalling near the end forced the sport to wave the yellow flag at Pocono, allowing Denny Hamlin to win the HighPoint.com 400.
Speaking with SiriusXM Radio, senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer explained why NASCAR needed to end Sunday’s Cup Series race under caution. Obviously, that wasn’t an ideal way to finish.
“We’re trying to do everything we can, A) to be safe and not run our drivers through a debris field. And, to give our fans every opportunity — and the competitors — to race to the end of the event,” Sawyer said.
“Once we got to the point where it looked like the 41 had stalled, then he got rolling. OK, now he’s stalled again, then he starts rolling. It finally got to the point where, they’re coming off Turn 1 and we’ve gotta throw it. We used up every bit of the runway on this one. We had to throw it and end under caution.”