NASCAR Race Director Admits Mistake Was Made At Daytona

Hamilton discussed the wreck and what NASCAR would usually do in a situation like that:

“As soon as the wreck happens, because all vehicles have passed by that Turn 2 cutout, we’re able to respond, sending the fire trucks, the 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,” Hamilton said. “Moving forward and always, our goal is to get to a green-flag finish. We do not want to be the ones determining the race by how fast we push the caution button or the decisions that we make in race control in general. We want that to be decided by the competitors on the ground. So any opportunity that we have to do that, we’re going to take advantage.

“But, and I know this is not generally something that a fan at home is thinking about certainly, but the function of the caution is about safety, and that is something that the race directors and emergency services coordinators have to be aligned on.

“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 already in a wreck at a high rate of speed — we have to react to that. And that story may not always be told by what you’re watching in the broadcast, but from the resources that we have in the tower and past experience studying these races and trying to improve as an entire group."

Ultimately, Hamilton understands the goal of trying to get the calls correct and hopes that they can do better in similar situations.

“The weight of getting these calls correct is definitely not lost on us,” he said. “And our goal is to obviously do better as we move forward.”