{"id":479782,"date":"2026-02-17T03:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479782\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T03:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:51:08","slug":"nascars-last-lap-officiating-decision-in-daytona-500-should-not-be-ignored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479782\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR&#8217;s last-lap officiating decision in Daytona 500 should not be ignored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday&#8217;s Daytona 500 delivered an exhilarating final lap that featured multiple drivers in contention for the race win.<\/p>\n<p>Carson Hocevar led the field to the white flag before he and Erik Jones made contact, igniting a multi-car crash going into Turn 1. Instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nascar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NASCAR<\/a> opting to throw the caution flag, the race remained green.<\/p>\n<p>From there, Tyler Reddick survived another incident coming to the checkered flag to claim the first Daytona 500 for himself and team co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n<p>It was a fitting end to a race that featured a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nascar\/articles\/daytona_500_takeaways_tyler_reddick_makes_last_lap_pass_to_win_record_setting_race\/s1_13132_43475519\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Daytona 500-record<\/a> 25 different leaders, but it was also an unusual officiating decision by NASCAR to let the race finish under green when you consider the circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>NASCAR&#8217;s last-lap officiating should be appreciated<\/p>\n<p>In superspeedway racing, it is not uncommon for a multi-car crash to occur on the final lap and force NASCAR to throw the caution. After all, as close as drivers are in the pack, it is almost expected that a last-lap crash will take place at some point.<\/p>\n<p>A last-lap crash also took place in the 2025 Daytona 500 \u2014 one that saw William Byron repeat as champion \u2014 but it happened on the backstretch. That gave the drivers a chance to race back to the checkered flag and get slowed down before returning to the site of the crash as safety personnel arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, with the crash occurring at the exit of the tri-oval, it would not have been uncharacteristic for NASCAR to end the race under caution. Even with the sport&#8217;s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, inheriting the lead after the Turn 1 incident and half the field wrecking behind him, NASCAR put the sport&#8217;s most prestigious race in the hands of its drivers.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, the thrilling race back to the finish was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nascar\/articles\/brad_keselowski_calls_out_riley_herbst_for_dumb_move_on_final_lap_of_daytona_500\/s1_13132_43475628\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">not without some beef<\/a> between Brad Keselowski and Riley Herbst, who finished fifth and eighth, respectively, but the disagreement and edge-of-your-seat racing is something fans would not have witnessed if the caution was thrown.<\/p>\n<p>As drivers and teams head to EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta) for Sunday&#8217;s Autotrader 400 (3 p.m. ET, Fox, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) \u2014 a track that is one mile shorter than Daytona \u2014 don&#8217;t be surprised if NASCAR throws the caution if a similar situation takes place. In fact, you should probably expect it, given the track&#8217;s shorter length.<\/p>\n<p>However, that was not the case on Sunday as the sport&#8217;s best were given the opportunity to race back to the line and deliver a spectacular finish for those watching. That decision-making has not always been the same, but it should be appreciated by the fan base, especially on the sport&#8217;s biggest stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday&#8217;s Daytona 500 delivered an exhilarating final lap that featured multiple drivers in contention for the race win.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-479782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}