NASCAR explains cautions - and non-cautions - at Daytona

02/19/2025 04:45 PM

NASCAR’s decision to throw the caution at the end of the second qualifying duel but not the Daytona 500 was a matter of how quickly safety vehicles were needed and could be deployed to the scene.

"In our past reviews, we've obviously seen a lot of big hits in that area coming to the checkered flag," said Jusan Hamilton, NASCAR managing director of competition operations. "Generally, when you have several vehicles making a heavy impact just before you get to the start/finish line there in the tri-oval, we've seen bad things happen in the past. So, with several of those heavy wall hits that did take place right around the entrance to pit road, the determination in the moment was to put the caution out, allow us to be able to respond quickly and get the vehicles that were spread out still coming off of Turn 4 the opportunity to roll out of it and not plow in and make a situation worse."

Hamilton was the guest on the newest episode of NASCAR's podcast, Hauler Talk. He was asked to explain the decisions on why the caution did or didn't come out over the weekend at Daytona. Hamilton was in the tower as the race director for Thursday night’s two duel races and Sunday's Daytona 500.

On Thursday, Erik Jones and Legacy Motor Club beat Austin Cindric and Team Penske to the finish line, thinking they had won the race. Jones came around to the frontstretch to begin celebrating and stood there waiting for his television interview. However, NASCAR was reviewing the finish because the caution was put out before the leaders crossed the line.

Cindric was determined to be the leader and the winner when the caution came out. With hindsight, Hamilton acknowledged NASCAR could have done things differently and let the leaders race to the finish line.

"But," Hamilton admitted, "that's looking back now on a Tuesday, going through all of our reviews, and having the luxury of time to review the full situation and also knowing the outcome of getting the vehicles back to the start/finish line."

The caution flag was held longer in moments during the Craftsman Truck Series and notably at the finish of the Daytona 500. On the final lap of Sunday night's race, a multi-car crash broke out at the front of the field on the backstretch, with William Byron emerging as the leader. Byron beat Tyler Reddick back to the finish to win the Daytona 500.

NASCAR threw the caution after Byron and Reddick crossed the finish line. But that was because NASCAR was able to dispatch safety vehicles to the backstretch based on their positions, which was off Turn 2. There was no oncoming traffic to interfere with the safety response teams, which let the leaders keep racing.

Hamilton emphasized that not all incidents are the same, despite how they might look on television.

"Sunday, for example, that's right after an overtime restart," Hamilton said. "It's not often that right after a restart you have a lot of vehicles laying back or stragglers getting caught up. So, when you have that wreck take place, the field is entirely condensed. When they get into Turn 3, they have the wreck (and) as soon as the wreck happens because all vehicles have passed by that Turn 2 cutout (where safety vehicles are), we're able to respond. So, we're already sending the fire trucks, ambulances, the AMR chase vehicles to respond to that incident before the leaders even made it to the checkered, even though there's no caution. So, we're already responding to it because all the vehicles are past.

"In the Truck race, for instance – and we see this often in trucks – there's going to be guys that are going to lay back from that bigger pack; they don't want to be a part of that big wreck in hopes that gets them a better finish. So, when you have a situation where you have those vehicles spread out around the track, which in front of us as race directors, not only do we have the cameras, but we have a program that shows us where every vehicle is positioned on the track at that time, when you have those vehicles spread out, you can't have that same response immediately because you can't send those safety vehicles out with vehicles coming by at race speed. So, all those different factors are going to weigh on when we throw the caution."

Hamilton went on to reiterate NASCAR's goal of having green flag finishes, not ones determined by how quickly they push the caution button. It is also important, he said, to remember that the caution flag is about safety.

"And that is something that the race directors and emergency services coordinators have to be aligned on," he said. "So, if we see something that rises to the level that we have to immediately respond, for instance, a vehicle leaving the ground or vehicles barreling down on other vehicles that are in a wreck at a high rate of speed, we have to react to that, and that is when you see the caution come out. That story may not always be told by what you're watching on the broadcast. But from the resources that we have in the tower, the resources that we have just looking out the window, and past experience of studying these races and trying to improve as an entire group, it's going to lead us to make the decision that we feel we need to in the moment, and we have to give our race directors the ability to do that."