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<\/p>\nNASCAR threatened a good portion of the field during the first stage of Sunday\u2019s Cup Series race with a black flag if they did not pick up the pace and meet minimum speed.<\/p>\n
In the name of fuel saving, everyone except the three RFK Racing drivers began puttering around the 2.66-mile superspeedway, and that triggered race control with automatic notifications of cars that were below minimum speed.<\/p>\n
Thus, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said race control worked to get that corrected. He explained this on Wednesday during an episode of the Hauler Talk podcast he shares with Senior Director of Racing Communications Amanda Ellis and veteran reporter Nate Ryan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can IM individual teams or the entirety of pit road,\u201d Forde said. \u201cAnd so, we IM\u2019d all of pit road and said, \u2018Hey, there are X amount of cars that have not reached minimum speed. If you guys don\u2019t pick it up, then we\u2019re going to have to step in.\u2019 And soon after, they picked it up. So that message was delivered, and that\u2019s why we did not black flag anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Talladega, minimum speed is within 12.5 percent of the pole time. Forde also explains that the timing of a black flag is within NASCAR\u2019s discretion but drivers are usually given a lap or two.<\/p>\n
The teams responded by picking up the pace and that was that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to put cars out of the race,\u201d Forde said. \u201cThere are sponsors paying good money to be part of our sport. And there are fans that come to the race and want to see \u2013 even if their driver\u2019s not in contention and might not win \u2013 they\u2019d like to see them at least on the race track. So we\u2019re not in the business of putting cars out. We\u2019re going to keep them out there on the race track for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larson and the Double Line
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It was close, but ultimately, NASCAR\u2019s position was that Kyle Larson<\/a> stayed in bounds while completing his final lap pass on Todd Gilliland<\/a> to win the race.<\/p>\n It was something race control took time to review in the minutes after the race.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a little bit of time,\u201d said Forde. \u201cWe were reviewing it. The tire has to go fully below the yellow line. So if there is even a half an inch that remains on that yellow line, we\u2019re not going to call a penalty. So in our judgment, we felt that was pretty clear.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s kind of where the conversation ends as far as NASCAR goes. It\u2019s, do we feel there were tires below the yellow line? No. Okay. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n Forde says NASCAR has effectively a flow chart philosophy of how to decide if a penalty is warranted in going below the double yellow line to complete a pass on a superspeedway style track.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere you have a question and if it\u2019s yes, go here. If it\u2019s no, go here. So in this case, we\u2019ll go for the reality. And then a hypothetical reality: were Kyle\u2019s tires below the yellow line?<\/p>\n \u201cNo. And to point to no, no penalty. If it\u2019s yes, then you have to look at: do you improve your position? If that is also yes, then you look at whether you were forced down. And if the answer is yes, that would be a penalty.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the answer is no, then no penalty. So there\u2019s, to get a penalty, there\u2019s almost three different things have to happen. To get a penalty, you have to be below the yellow line, you have to improve your position. And then, in our judgment, did you get shoved down there? \u00a0So none of that played a part in this conversation. So you\u2019re saying, \u2018Oh, maybe they didn\u2019t call it because he had already passed the 34.\u2019 \u00a0So that\u2019s not part of the part. \u2026 It was just simply in our judgment; his tire was still on the line, and we move on. Yeah. All right.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n Full throttle to the line<\/p>\n Given the narrative all day that Chevolet teams had something of an edict to support Larson all race to give him the best chance to collect stage points, win the race and put away the Cup Series championship, there was some concern from the fans that both Ricky Stenhouse Jr<\/a>. and William Byron<\/a> intentionally slowed on the frontstretch.<\/p>\n In their minds, this is how Larson was able to win from so far back.<\/p>\n Forde put that to rest too, and did so on Sunday, by saying that veteran crew chief turned official Scott Miller was in remote race control in Concord, North Carolina and saw nothing that drew his suspicion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Further, no teams brought any concerns to NASCAR either. After all, teams have access to SMT data too and would have seen it had there been anything suspicious.<\/p>\n Forde said some teams came to NASCAR with questions about Larson’s tires and the double yellow line rule, but not about any last lap off-throttle shenanigans to benefit Larson and Hendrick Motorsports<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n We want your opinion!<\/p>\n What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n