NASCAR managing director explains approval process after unusual situation at COTA

The focus coming out of Sunday's race at Circuit of The Americas was Tyler Reddick becoming the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three races of a season.

Something that may have been overlooked was the bizarre situation involving Alex Bowman in the closing laps of the race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver struggled throughout the race and radioed to his team in the final stage that he may not be able to finish the race.

That proved to be the case, which led to the team bringing in a relief driver on the spot. That driver, former O'Reilly Auto Parts Series winner Myatt Snider, went from gathering information as the pit spotter for NASCAR on Fox pit reporter Jamie Little to strapping into a Cup Series car in a matter of minutes.

During a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Cup Series managing director Brad Moran addressed what went into the decision-making to put Snider in the car even though he was not approved to compete beforehand.

Brad Moran expands on approval process after bizarre COTA situation

"Myatt Snider has won a race in the (O'Reilly Auto Parts Series). ... We approved him on the spot," Moran said. "There's a process where they can get approved but if he went through it, he certainly would have been approved for a Cup road course.

"We had no issues there but it was done kind of on the fly, which is what we've done in the past. You make sure everything's safe, make sure he fits and, obviously, everything we need from a NASCAR licensing standpoint is covered for us to approve the change. Once we approve the change, the teams have an option to do it on pit road or in the garage area."