Corey Day’s race lasted exactly one lap. Not because of another driver, but because of a manhole cover. At the new street circuit in Coronado, a welded utility cover in Turn 6 worked itself loose, flew across the track, and went straight through the grille of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. This incident is in stark contrast to what happened with Jeff Gordon in 2004.

“We have a manhole cover sitting in our radiator,” his team called over the radio.

They weren’t joking.  The thing wrecked his radiator and oil cooler outright. Day crawled back to the pit road four laps in the hole.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Teams aren’t allowed to swap radiators mid-race; that rule is there so rich teams can’t run flimsy, fast units and trade up to tougher ones later. NASCAR tossed that rule out the window for Day.

They let Hendrick’s crew tear into the car under a red flag, something you’re never supposed to do. Then they had Day run four solo laps under caution just to erase his deficit. Like it never happened. He finished 10th. Jesse Love, sitting behind all this, was not amused by how long it dragged on.

“They’re still messing with the manhole cover,” he griped on the radio. “This is crazy.” Once the red flag finally came, he couldn’t help himself: “I’m glad we waited six laps to do that.”

NASCAR’s track has fallen apart on a driver before. It just didn’t go anywhere close to this well for him. Martinsville, 2004. A slab of concrete rips loose from the surface and tears into Jeff Gordon‘s car, at the time, the strongest car on the track.

The hit yanks the wheel right out of his hands and trashes his front suspension. NASCAR throws a red flag to patch the hole, sure. But that’s all Jeff Gordon gets. His crew can’t touch the car. No laps back. He has to claw his way through repairs under green, losing ground the entire time, and just like that, his shot at the win is gone.

Same exact problem but two completely different outcomes. Back then, a broken track was just rotten luck. Now, apparently, it’s on NASCAR to make things right.

The Jeff Gordon Fans Aren’t Letting This One Slide

People noticed fast. “Nice, they never made an exception for Gordon at Martinsville, when the concrete broke under his car,” one fan posted.

Someone else ran with it: “Alright if that’s the case then let’s go back to 2004 and let Jeff Gordon fix his concrete-struck car under red.”

Another just said it plainly: “2004 Jeff Gordon would like to have a talk.”

It’s not just fans, either. NASCAR writer Jeff Gluck said watching Day get those laps handed back to him “broke his brain”, especially knowing how hard the same rulebook came down on Jeff Gordon.

One fan zeroed in on the real sore spot: “Oh of course. This is NASCAR where we make stuff up as we go. Rules? Oh yeah, those only apply to a few.”

And it’s worth noting, Day drives for Hendrick Motorsports, one of the biggest names in the garage. Plenty of fans wondered out loud if a smaller team gets that same red-flag courtesy.

One more fan didn’t even want the rule to exist: “Shouldn’t even be a rule tbh.”

Honestly, most people aren’t mad NASCAR fixed the car. That part, fine. What sticks in everyone’s throat is the four free laps. Repairing the damage is one thing. Pretending it never cost him anything is a whole different move.

And now NASCAR’s left holding a question it can’t dodge forever. If a track defect buys back laps today, what’s stopping the next pothole or stray piece of debris from doing the exact same thing for somebody else?