The yellow flag is thrown
Photo – Kypost.com
Saturday night, on September 1st, the end of the Nationwide race left everybody buzzing over a water bottle. The talk started when a caution flew with 20 laps to go and Kevin Harvick was holding a large lead as he was dominating all night. The caution drew the field back together, erasing Kevin Harvick’s large lead and he was not happy with the situation. Harvick saw the caution fly and video on the big screen of Brad Keselowski, running in second position, throwing a water bottle on the race track. Keselowski later said, he always throws bottles out of the car, along with other drivers, as broadcasts show instances of this all the time. Keselowski also added he had no intentions of causing a caution. NASCAR released a statement after the race stating, aluminum was the cause for the late caution.
NASCAR has come into question in the past few years over mysterious debris cautions. Debris cautions involve objects such as fallen car parts or sheet metal. TV broadcasts show debris for these cautions whenever possible. But too often TV broadcasts are unable to find the “debris” leaving NASCAR in question about whether there is true debris or a caution was thrown to bunch the cars back up to make a race more exciting.
This topic has left many fans and media members questioning NASCAR’s motives. There is only one solution to reinstate fans and media members trust in NASCAR’s decisions when calling a debris caution. A policy and designated person needs to be put in place that requires NASCAR to inform broadcasters, what the debris is and its location.
The solution of having a policy and person in place to relay the debris information under cautions would stop putting NASCAR in tough spots like Saturday night and the many questions they seem to face almost every week. No one would question NASCAR’s call for debris because evidence would always be provided.
The only obstacle to this proposed solution is the fact that NASCAR is their own sanctioning body. There is no one outside of NASCAR that can require a policy be put in place. The policy would have to come from NASCAR’s internal governing body. NASCAR’s motivation to put a similar policy in place should be to gain people’s trust back and stop putting themselves in difficult positions. This will continue to be an ongoing issue until something is changed because there will always be debris cautions. NASCAR’s image lies in their own hands and will be questioned by fans and media until NASCAR chooses to address these debris caution concerns.
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