Frantic finish? Drivers react to late-race call

“I love the fact that the race ended under green,” said Jeff Gordon, moments after his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet had crossed the line third in the final rundown. “What makes no sense to me is when it started raining hard that they ran lap after lap after lap under caution. So I think that they did the right thing, but go ask the 3 car (of Austin Dillon). I don’t think it was right that they ran that many laps under caution when they started to lose the track.”

A five-car, chain-reaction incident that unfolded on the backstretch just six laps from the finish put the race under yellow for the 11th time, and before the racing could resume, rain once again began falling on the 0.533-mile track. Officials kept the pits closed and cars on the track for several laps in an attempt to keep heat in the surface, while continually checking with the pace car for the condition of the track.

Finally, cars were brought to pit road and stopped while dryers were dispatched. Once officials deemed the track in race-worthy condition, a final two-lap shootout brought an end to a long day.

“Balancing safety, we’re always going to make our best effort to get the race in full,” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Managing Director Richard Buck said. “That was the case for tonight and we’re pleased we were able to do that.”

WATCH: Steve O’Donnell talks about the late red flag at Bristol

Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was third when the caution flag was displayed, but by Lap 504, the former XFINITY Series champion had to pit. According to Dillon, an overheating engine was wreaking havoc with his car’s fuel mileage.

“I thought they should have red-flagged it (sooner),” said Dillon, who finished 10th in spite of the problem. “We were sitting out there and it was raining. As soon as we ran out (of gas) they red-flagged it.

“It was like they had to wait for one car to run out and it was us. It’s unfortunate.”

Three-time series champion Tony Stewart said he had no issues with the decision to dry the track and restart the race.

“Hey, we made it this far why not stick it out another 10 minutes,” said Stewart, who scored his first top-10 of the year with a sixth-place finish. “I definitely think NASCAR did the right thing there for sure.”

Stopping the cars sooner, Gordon said, would “give everybody kind of that fair shot to go finish the race off. … I don’t know if it needed to be a green‑white‑checkered, either, but I can promise you I’d have a whole different opinion had I run out of fuel, but I think we all want to see the fans, especially a day like today where they stay here … for nine hours, I mean, that’s commitment, and you want to give everything back to them. You don’t want it to end under caution. But you’ve got to make sense of the whole situation and what’s going on from a competition standpoint, as well.

“So I think they could have managed that slightly better, but all in all, it turned out pretty good.”

In the end, the fans that toughed out a long, wet day were rewarded with a green-flag finish. And the race winner wasn’t about to complain about that.

“You’d rather win on the race track obviously than win under yellow,” said Matt Kenseth, who broke a 51-race winless streak and likely earned a berth in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with the victory.

“I think if it would have totally lost the race track and it would have downpoured, I’m sure they would have called it, but I thought overall it was a good decision.”

MORE: