Just when we thought the 2024 NASCAR season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start with the eventful Daytona 500, the Ambetter Health 400 and the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 held at Atlanta doubled on the opener’s success with carnage and chaos unlike any other.

Evidently, the highlight of the weekend was the iconic photo finish between Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch. However, several controversial penalties and choices regarding the deployment of cautions in both the Xfinity and Cup Series races resulted in the officials coming under fire from fans. Aiming to address the community’s concerns, NASCAR officials revealed the exact reasoning behind two prominent decisions regarding caution flags and talked about the absence of it when Michael McDowell ran into William Byron at Atlanta.

Should NASCAR have thrown a caution due to William Byron and Michael McDowell’s pitlane shenanigans?

At the end of the Ambetter Health 400, Daniel Suarez could not have asked for a better result as the race headed into overtime, but it all could have changed on lap 135. As Suarez and a few others lined up at the end of turn 3 to enter the pits under a green flag pit cycle, the #99’s hopes could have been shattered as Michael McDowell’s #34 locked up under braking right in front of him. In a bid to slow down and commit to the pit limiter, McDowell braked too hard and ended up collecting William Byron’s #24 Chevrolet in the process.

While the pair spun out for a brief second, they managed to correct themselves just in time to avoid major carnage. Still, fans were expecting to see a caution fly owing to the intensity of the run-in, but it never came. So with speculation ongoing as to what made the officials believe it would be ideal to remain in green flag conditions, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition put the discussion to rest on SiriusXM’s NASCAR radio.

Speaking on “The Morning Drive”, Sawyer  stated, “They made contact, they both spun. Very quickly, they’re going in the right direction. We’re in a situation where we’re having, obviously, green flag pit stops, so we’re going to do everything we can, unless it presents a safety issue, to stay green if we can because if they’re in a caution at that point in time, you know, it has a lot of negative consequences throughout.”

According to Sawyer, if a caution is thrown while a driver is pitting under a green flag cycle, the resulting procedure could completely ruin the race as drivers cannot get those lost laps back. He added, “So we really try to stay out of that if we can. But if there is a situation where a driver is in danger, we’re going to throw it. In this case, the #34 (McDowell) and the #24 (Byron) were able to continue so we were just able to stay green.”

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Evidently, the decision to remain under green flag conditions worked out for the best. Byron managed to recover to a 17th-place finish, while pole-sitter McDowell was more fortunate with a top-ten in the bag as he secured P7. However, the same was certainly not the case for Jesse Love in the Xfinity Series Race, who got caught out by a lengthy overtime caution that contributed to his loss of fuel.

Despite Jesse Love’s misery, Sawyer reveals why the long overtime caution in Xfinity was necessary

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During the RAPTOR King of Tough 250, Jesse Love was showcasing dominance unlike any other. But like a few other promising contenders, Love was caught out by the overtime caution as he was left stranded with no fuel shortly after the restart. Ultimately, this gave the win away to his teammate, Austin Hill, who now had three wins at Atlanta to his name. Evidently, fans of the rising rookie weren’t too fond of NASCAR’s decision, prompting Sawyer to once again settle things.

“For us in the tower, it was longer than we would have wanted but a lot of that was the anxiety of knowing where the teams were in their fuel mileage,” Sawyer was quoted by SportsNaut. “If you look at it, we had cars, and the 7 was one of them that really initiated it… you have to go get him and you can’t leave him on pit road.”

Reflecting on the number of cars left on the apron and running out of fuel as things kept unfolding, Sawyer felt the sport had no choice but to trigger a caution until everything was clear. He added, “A lot of that was circumstantial. We wanted to get back (green) as soon as possible for what we were dealing with. There is a sequence of events that have to happen, open pit road and things of that nature.”

While the senior vice president was certain NASCAR would take into consideration how it could have executed things better, he also felt they took the best possible course of action at the Xfinity race. Sawyer concluded, “The way the cards were dealt, we needed to make sure the track was ready and all the cars were off the apron.”

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The sport opted for two contrasting decisions regarding caution based on how serious the danger was to other drivers. In the case of the Xfinity race, it certainly was higher than Byron and McDowell’s incident. With that said, do you think Jesse Love unfairly lost out due to NASCAR’s cautiousness?