NASCAR insiders react to pace car crash at Phoenix Cup Series championship race

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway came to a halt just before the start of Stage 2 after the pace car crashed into the sand barrels entering pit road.

NASCAR put the red flag out to clean up something they never could have envisioned happening, let alone in a championship race. But it did, and Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic shared their reactions on “The Teardown” podcast. While not necessarily an error in officiating, Gluck found it interesting it happened just two days after COO Steve O’Donnell praised the officiating in NASCAR.

OH MY GOODNESS.

The pace car crashed entering pit road. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/NWkPeLXsVe

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 10, 2024

“The pace car wrecks and hits the sand barrels in the championship race causing a red flag,” Gluck said. “… That was, my God, and I know it wasn’t officiating necessarily, but when Steve O’Donnell comes out in the Friday press conference and sharply defends the officiating to your question, you said what’s going on with the officiating, right? He said, I’m paraphrasing, ‘We don’t have an officiating problem. We have the best and the brightest. This stuff happens in every sport, and we feel pretty confident, we’ll look at different technologies, but we feel very confident in our officiating.’

“He seemed to take exception to people saying there was an officiating problem. And of course, the pace car wrecks in the championship race to cause a red flag. Again, that’s not officiating necessarily, but it sort of falls under the same sort of [category].”

Bianchi, meanwhile, was curious as to who was driving the pace car when it slammed into the sand barrels.

“I thought my mom was driving the car or something,” Bianchi said.

Joey Logano captures third Cup Series title at Phoenix

The pace car wreck fortunately did not become the major story coming out of the race. That belonged to Joey Logano and his capturing of a third Cup Series title. Logano led 107-of-312 laps, outlasting his fellow Championship 4 competitors Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Tyler Reddick and shutting up many fans who called him an undeserving champion.

“No. I got nothing to say to them,” Logano said after the race, via Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “I’ve got a pretty sweet trophy right now. I’m gonna be laughing all the way to the bank.”