NASCAR SVP Elton Sawyer speaks out about late-race cautions after Atlanta weekend

NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said Tuesday that the decision to throw the caution flag on the final lap of Sunday’s race at Atlanta was made to avoid having drivers “racing through a debris field” and will be the standard moving forward.

“So, as I talked to our Cup drivers on Sunday in the drivers meeting, just reassured them that we’re not going to be racing through a debris field,” Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “If you have a situation like we did Sunday night, the wreck occurred somewhere between sixth and seventh running positions there, so there’s a lot of cars behind them that if we don’t throw the caution, you’re incentivizing the competitors to drive through that.

“If you look back over the last week or so and nine superspeedway races that we’ve had if you count our Duels and ARCA race, the finishes — everyone’s on top of each other, so the element of a last lap caution is there as we’ve seen. It’s on the sanctioning body, it’s on our side to make sure that we do our absolute best. It’s our goal to get to the start/finish line under green, but there is conditions and situations where we need to throw that and we’re gonna err more on throwing it than not.”

On the last lap of Sunday’s race, it looked as if Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson were going to have a side-by-side-by-side drag race to the start/finish line. That is, until a multi-car crash behind them forced NASCAR to throw the caution flag. Bell was leading at the time the caution lights illuminated, making him the winner.

Elton Sawyer admits NASCAR made mistake allowing Xfinity race to finish under green

In the Xfinity race the day prior, NASCAR made a different decision in a near identical situation. As the leaders were racing to the checkered flag, a multi-car wreck was taking place behind them. NASCAR did not throw the caution, allowing the race to finish under green. The sanctioning body handled the final lap of the Daytona 500 the same way, not throwing the caution as the “Big One” took place down the back straightaway.

But during Sunday’s pre-race meeting, Sawyer admitted to the drivers they made a mistake with the ruling in the Xfinity race. Sawyer said that if a similar situation presented itself in the Cup race, the caution would be thrown. It did, and Sawyer stayed true to his word.

Sawyer added Tuesday they were “a little aggressive” in allowing the Xfinity race to finish under green.

“If you look at our sport over 76 years, we have made tremendous gains at our facilities as far as safety. Our cars and trucks are safer than they’ve ever been. … Our sport is much safer today than it’s ever been. But still, it’s an inheritably dangerous sport. We’re motorsport racing, were racing cars and trucks at 180 plus mph [and] there is an element of danger,” Sawyer said. “We were a little aggressive — this is on us — with the Xfinity race on Saturday night and should have sent that caution.

“But in an effort to give our fans a green flag finish that they paid for, there was a balance between entertainment competition and this safety element.”