One of the more surprising turns of NASCAR’s Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday happened when Michael McDowell and William Byron collided, but no caution was thrown.
McDowell locked up his car entering pit road, which spun himself and he collected Byron in the wreckage, putting a damper on both of their afternoons. While the wreck itself wasn’t surprising, as it’s bound to happen at Atlanta, the fact that the race remained green was eyebrow-raising for fans and drivers alike.
Afterwards, Denny Hamlin tried to make sense of the situation, and he elaborated thoroughly during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.
“The No. 34 lost control, and the No. 24 was an innocent bystander and kind of got drove into the wall. So they spun out, and what NASCAR normally would do is throw a caution. That’s a very caution-able reason to throw the yellow flag,” Hamlin stated. “But there was many cars that had already pitted. There were many on pit road. There were many about to pit. If they throw a caution there, the field would’ve been so mixed up.
“It’s a strong possibility there would’ve only been five cars on the lead lap, and it could’ve stayed five cars on the lead lap until the end of the race. Until another big wreck, and then something else happened. So they were in a tough spot.”
Evidently, Hamlin believes NASCAR was cognizant of the way the race was shaking out, and made the right call by letting the field continue racing, while McDowell and Byron figured out their mess.
“I guess for the show’s sake, it was better for them not to throw the caution, because it only kinda really screwed the two guys that actually wrecked,” Hamlin added. “It even didn’t screw them, because they had so much damage anyways it really didn’t even matter. But it’s a tough spot, because no other track, other than maybe Martinsville, do you — if you pit, you lose multiple laps.
“So if they threw a caution there, there’s so many cars two laps down or more, and it just would’ve really messed up the show.”
Alas, it all worked out for the field during the Ambetter Health 400, even if Michael McDowell and William Byron were surprised by the way things went down. Regardless, Denny Hamlin makes a lot of sense when explaining the situation, and it’s easy to see why the race stayed green.
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