NASCAR admitted Tuesday it made a mistake in getting three cars lined up in the correct position on the final overtime restart during the Xfinity Series’ Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen International Saturday.
Per Dustin Long of NBC Sports, NASCAR placed the cars of Parker Kligerman, Josh Berry and Sammy Smith in incorrect positions on the restart. The race went into overtime after the caution flag was thrown with four laps remaining — an accident involving Justin Allgaier, Alex Bowman and Brandon Jones. The accident took place at a scoring loop location at the entrance of the Carousel turn. NASCAR used that scoring loop to set the lineup.
Ahead of the restart, Berry lined up fifth, Smith eighth and Kligerman ninth. NASCAR acknowledged in a statement that this was a mistake.
“Our goal is to get back to green as soon as possible,” the statement read. “There are no timeouts in NASCAR. So we need to move quickly to give fans as many green flag laps as possible. In this instance, we should have taken the extra step and, potentially, the extra lap to ensure the correct lineup.”
NASCAR further explained what caused the issue with the lineup.
“At the time of caution, [Berry’s] transponder did not hit the loop [he was part in the grass, part on the rumble strip], so it did not register a freeze position. … The lineup reverts to the previous loop at the time of caution,” NASCAR said. “Where we erred was positioning [Berry’s car] in its position at the time of caution versus its position at the previous loop. That affected [Kligerman’s] and [Smith’s] position.”
NASCAR’s error impacts Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen
Berry spun in the Carousel on the second-to-last lap, finishing 20th. Jones, meanwhile, spun out on the final corner coming to the white flag, picking up a P18 result. Kligerman finished 3rd, coming just short of winning his first race of the season.
Kligerman, the first driver outside the playoff cutline with three races remaining in the regular season, was dumbfounded as to why he restarted ninth.
“Why we restarted ninth I have no idea,” Kligerman said. “We’ve got to talk to NASCAR and somebody has got to explain this to me because I’m pretty sure the car that hit me in the wreck was [Berry], who then starts fifth. I get sent to ninth. If we start fifth, we win this race. That’s really disappointing.”
Sam Mayer, who led 8-of-86 laps, drove his No. 1 Chevy to victory lane for his second win of the season.
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