NASCAR Claims Officials Didn't See Wreck Under Caution

NASCAR is still picking up the pieces from yesterday's long and messy Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The series has not yet announced its ruling on two separate on-track incidents during the race that could lead to major penalties, including one involving two current playoff contenders.

Shortly after a late caution came out, William Byron slammed into Denny Hamlin in the trioval. That sent Hamlin into the grass, but Hamlin recovered and was able to continue from just one position back. This was shown on the live NBC broadcast and the clip was even shared by NASCAR's official social channels, but no penalty was handed out for the flagrantly dirty move that would be illegal in all other top-level professional racing series. Why?

Accoording to series executive Scott Miller, the series simply did not see it happen while the caution was out. Yes, while both the broadcast and the sport's official social channels were able to quickly find and share the footage of the incident, NASCAR was apparently unaware of how the position changed hands under yellow flag conditions and re-started the race without even considering a penalty.

The other incident saw Ty Gibbs, a rookie filling in for Kurt Busch as he continues to recover from a concussion suffered months ago, forcing another driver out of the way on te pit lane. While it is unclear if NASCAR also missed this potential penalty in real time, series representative Elton Sawyer said on SiriusXM this morning that the incident is something else the series will need to review.

As former series champion Kevin Harvick pointed out, the series does not have a way to officially flag incidents like these if they are discovered in-race but after they immediately happen. this is a key distinction from other forms of racing, and Formula 1 in particular, that have designed in-race investigation processes with the ability to decide to make a ruling post-race later if necessary. NASCAR's process is far less formal, with no clear timeline of when these potential penalties would come down.

In both cases, the move is so egregious and concerning that post-race penalty should be expected eventually. NASCAR penalties are determined on a case-by-case basis without a significant amount of consideration for previous precedent, so those rulings could take the form of anything from a direct point penalty to a race weekend suspension.

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