Kansas race again raised questions over NASCAR’s inconsistent caution calls.
Brad Moran explains why a caution was called for Ware but not for Bell.
Issue has lingered for some time, often leading to questionable outcomes.
Although in many cases the overtime finish in NASCAR races has served as a safeguard to keep drivers out of harm’s way and avoid a pile-up on the final lap or the lap before it, the sanctioning body has also leaned on it as a way to spice up the show, often at the cost of a race’s set distance.
While the rule was put in place to avoid races ending under caution, drivers and fans have argued that the current format, with no cap on attempts, turns events into wreck-fests that can turn a race on its head and punish those who had the field covered.
At Kansas, the issue came to the fore once again.
Moran reveals why Ware’s spin drew a caution while Bell’s didn’t
When Cody Ware spun in Turn 4 from 37th position on Lap 266, NASCAR threw a caution, pushing the race into overtime. Denny Hamlin, who had control of the race, lost out, while Tyler Reddick drove past to take his fifth win of the season. The caution set tongues wagging, and Cup Series managing director Brad Moran has now addressed the calls that followed.
Moran made it clear that the sport will not stand by and let cars run at full tilt with another car sideways in their path.
Across social media, fans argued that race control should have kept the yellow flag in its pocket for Ware’s spin. That move led to overtime and turned the race upside down. Hamlin was out front at the time, having led the most laps and just taken the lead back from Reddick, but he did not cry foul over the decision.
In fact, Hamlin said NASCAR had little choice, given how long Ware sat sideways on the track with a flat tire. He said, “It was a caution. Looking back on it, could the caution have been held? Yes. Should it? Probably not.”
‘Sliding through the smoke…’
Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday, Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said, “That one was a nice job by the race director (Tim Bermann) but he spun. 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.”
Later, on the final lap, Tyler Reddick’s car made contact with Christopher Bell, forcing the Joe Gibbs Racing driver into the outside wall. Bell slowed at once with a broken toe link after the impact.
On the call not to throw a caution for that incident, Moran said, “That one was further down. 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,” he continued.
Why have overtime finishes been a persistent problem in NASCAR?
Drivers such as Denny Hamlin argue that overtime turns a fixed race distance, such as 400 miles, into a moving target, sometimes stretching it to 406 miles and, in the process, taking a win away from the driver who had bossed the race in regulation.
In the garage, critics describe overtime restarts as cage fights where racecraft gives way to moves that throw caution to the wind, and drivers dive into corners without a second thought.
The leader often finds himself on the back foot, forced to fend off a pack with nothing to lose, where others can roll the dice on tires or go all in during the two-lap sprint.
Crew chiefs are left between a rock and a hard place on fuel calls, as an open-ended number of overtime attempts makes it guesswork to judge how much fuel will carry a car to the finish.
Fans have also pointed to mixed signals in how NASCAR calls cautions, with similar incidents drawing no flag early in a race but bringing out the yellow when the finish line is in sight, a move that adds drama but raises eyebrows.
Despite the push for a finish under green, races still end under caution at times due to last-lap crashes, leaving many to question what these extra laps achieve beyond adding chaos.