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NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France said the sanctioning body was “very disappointed” Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway ended under caution, but also reaffirmed that rules are made by striking a balance between excitement and safety.
Appearing on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday afternoon, France detailed his reaction to the CampingWorld.com 500, one in which the new rule of having one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish at Talladega saw the race end under caution. A wreck broke out in the middle of the pack before that group had even reached the start/finish line, causing the yellow to fall — because the lead group had already passed the stripe, it counted as the lone attempt.
Joey Logano, who restarted first, finished ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. when the field was frozen — Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet appeared to be on the verge of passing Logano’s No. 22 Ford at the time.
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“We were very disappointed we weren’t able to finish the race under green,” France told host Dave Moody. “But those are the rules. There’s a safety element that will always come first. When we have that kind of calamity with a crash, some smoke and fire going in the 11 car (of Denny Hamlin), that’s going to get an instant caution from us, as it should.”
Reaction to the ending has poured in on message boards, social media and radio call-in lines, as fans dissected what they liked and didn’t like about the ending and the new green-white-checkered rule.
The fact that Earnhardt Jr. was prominently involved in the end of Sunday’s race likely figures prominently in the discourse — Logano even said at Tuesday’s Eliminator Round Media Day that he had started getting hate mail.
“If I’m a Dale Jr. fan, I can’t be any more disappointed by this week,” France said. “We understand that. It’s part of the emotion of NASCAR that you have to love, too, as much as you’re disappointed.”
France also added that NASCAR, as it often does when instituting a new rule, will review Sunday’s conclusion and monitor if any tweaks need to be made prior to the Daytona 500.
One thing that won’t be tweaked, though, is driver safety and the sanctioning body’s attempts to balance that aspect with exciting racing.
“I think we try to balance (excitement and safety) very well, and we probably balance it better than anyone in motorsports,” France said. “We’re fans, too. We want to see the best teams win it on the track and not have to end it early for any reason, but safety in NASCAR will always come first. It has to.”