Allgaier discusses cautions, Charlotte to have new tires and more
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Justin Allgaier says he understands the concern voiced about the timing of caution flags in the past two weeks, but said Tuesday from his team’s shop in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that he has no issues with how the end of the races have been officiated.
“Obviously if you are the car that everybody’s screaming by, you’re probably going to have a lot greater issue with it,” the HScott Motorsports driver said.
Two weeks ago at Talladega after Carl Edwards crashed on the final lap of the GEICO 500, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was critical of the lack of a caution flag being thrown for his incident as well as how others reacted after his No. 19 Toyota slid down onto the apron then shot back up on the racing surface.
Several cars, including Allgaier’s, were still at speed and with no caution being thrown shot past Edwards’ out-of-control entry.
“I saw the crash, and I’ve seen enough crashes in that regard with the way that it happened to know that they don’t (normally) come back onto the race track,” Allgaier said.
“When I came into the sport, the answer was always lock it down and turn to the left, that was always the big deal. In my mind, and seeing what happened to Carl, I felt like the way the circumstances were playing out that that’s what was going to happen.”
Edwards’ teammate, Denny Hamlin, voiced similar concerns this past weekend after he was involved in a crash at Kansas Speedway.
“I keep spinning out, I keep hitting the wall and I can’t figure out why everyone is still coming at 200 (mph), and I look and the green light is still on,” Hamlin said afterward.
“They didn’t throw a caution until seven seconds after I wrecked. Luckily nobody hit us. They’ll continue to monitor the situation is what they’ll say.”
On Monday, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said officials hoped to speak with Hamlin this week.
Officials did throw the caution at Talladega when a multicar incident occurred just moments after Edwards’ spin.
“My spotter had already done a great job calling the wreck out, the back straightaway wreck had already happened, so obviously the attention had already moved to that because there were more cars involved,” Allgaier said.
“The first wreck was kind of buttoned up and we’d already kind of written it off. I think when I got there I wasn’t at full speed by any means but I wasn’t (going) 50 mph, either.”
On larger tracks such as Talladega where drivers often would have enough time to slow their cars before making their way back around to the scene of an incident, officials lean toward allowing the race to finish under green-flag conditions when it’s the last lap of the race. If the crash is severe, then getting emergency vehicles dispatched to the scene takes precedence.
If a crash brings out the yellow flag before the leader has taken the white flag (signifying one lap remaining), officials will make up to three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish.
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Allgaier says that’s important for the fans.
“I look at the IndyCar finishes that end under yellow. They had one earlier this year I think, and I think everybody would have loved to have seen it … finish under green.
“For us, we get three attempts. If you can’t figure out in three attempts, we probably don’t need to finish it. But I feel like if I was a fan paying money to see a race, I’d like to see it end under green.”
New Right-Side Tires for Charlotte
A Goodyear tire test in March has resulted in a change to the right-side tires for teams competing in this weekend’s Sprint All-Star Race (May 16, 7 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) as well as next weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 (May 24, 6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).
The new tire contains a multi-zone tread, according to Goodyear. The outboard 10 inches of the tire features the same compound used at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season.
Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports), Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports), Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) and J.J. Yeley (BK Racing) participated in the tire test.
The left-side tire is the same as that used in ’14.
Teams competing at CMS in Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NC Education Lottery 200 (May 15, 8:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1 , MRN, SiriusXM) will use the same tire set-up as those in Sprint Cup.
XFINITY Series teams competing this weekend in Iowa in the 3M 250 (May 17, 2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM) will have the same left-side tire set-up as last season, but it will be paired with a new right-side configuration.
Kansas Penalty Totals
NASCAR officials meted out 30 penalties during the running of Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas, flagging teams most often for pitting before pit road was officially open. It’s a common occurrence during events as teams typically hit pit road early to repair damage as soon as possible, knowing that the violation will result in re-starting the race at the back of the field. It’s a loss of track position that, in most cases, they’ve already lost.
J.J. Yeley and the No 23 team became the first to be penalized this season for pitting after already having taken the wave-around. The infraction occurred on Lap 100. The penalty was the loss of one lap.
There have been 30 or more penalties handed down in seven of this year’s 11 Sprint Cup races.