For three days afterward, NASCAR was crucified over the fact that it took 32 seconds (after which Shane van Gisbergen<\/a> had taken the white flag) for the caution to fly after after what we later learned was the hardest head-on collision of the Next Gen era.<\/p>\n The accusations flew faster than a lap around Bristol Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re going to address each issue\/accusation with how it was addressed on this week\u2019s episode of Hauler Talk. If you weren\u2019t aware, that\u2019s NASCAR\u2019s house organ podcast that addresses officiating matters that is also, for full transparency, hosted by my former NBC Sports colleague Nate Ryan.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t always listen to the show, but it seemed like a worthwhile endeavor this week given that race control, which has a history of confounding calls on its resume recently, was being raked over the coals when those doing the raking didn\u2019t have all the info.<\/p>\n Eyes on Xfinity: Austin Hill, Daniel Suarez & Finding Your Place in NASCAR<\/p>\n First off \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s inconceivable that NASCAR didn\u2019t have footage of the wreck!\u201d<\/p>\n It does seem bizarre that somehow NASCAR officials never even saw Ware\u2019s crash, let alone didn\u2019t capture it on video somehow. <\/p>\n However, there are multiple reasons for this. For one, no one was paying attention to Ware. Why would they? He wasn\u2019t anywhere near the front of the pack, and everybody was more concerned about who was about to win the race.<\/p>\n Also, there\u2019s a reason cameras were able to catch Kyle Larson<\/a>\u2018s similar wreck in turn 6 last year: He was in second place at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe camera was focused on the No. 5, we were able to see in real time that car hit the tire barrier, and were able to call the caution pretty promptly at that point,\u201d NASCAR spokesperson Mike Forde explained on Hauler Talk. \u201cWith (Ware) and the position that the [No.] 51 was in, cameras weren\u2019t following that car at that moment in time.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that that\u2019s the big difference there. A lot of it has to do with what is being focused on in the race at that time, it\u2019s the leaders obviously have the most camera time, because that\u2019s the story. So the [No.] 51 unfortunately wasn\u2019t the story there.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, Forde made a point to mention that NASCAR doesn\u2019t officiate off what\u2019s seen on the TV broadcast, primarily to avoid mistaking a highlight of an old wreck for something that\u2019s happening live.<\/p>\n Now, about the cameras located in turn 6.<\/p>\n There were two of them, and according to Forde, at the time of Ware\u2019s incident neither was positioned in a way that would have seen the incident take place.<\/p>\n \u201cHawkeye cameras is what we call them,\u201d Forde said, explaining they\u2019re named after the company that produces them. \u201cOne is positioned exiting turn 6 and one is positioned upstream from turn 6. And what upstream means is the cars are coming at that camera angle.\u201d<\/p>\n Forde explained this was the camera used by race control to officiate when cars are going through the choose V before a green flag. It can also be used to zoom in on cars that have wrecked in turn 6 to make sure drivers are ok.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also in a fixed position and isn\u2019t used to follow the field through the turn.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what happens (when Ware\u2019s brakes broke) and they hit the wall, and then go at a high rate of speed into the tire barrier, that section is a blind spot for that camera,\u201d Forde said. \u201cThere was no coverage for that accident. So \u2026 when people say that NASCAR missed it, it wasn\u2019t that they weren\u2019t watching that particular screen at the time, or they didn\u2019t have enough people watching screens, or weren\u2019t paying attention to that particular area.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, for criticism two: \u201cThe corner worker was on his radio talking to race control. He had to be telling them how bad the wreck was.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Forde, if the turn official was doing as he was instructed, he actually wouldn\u2019t be doing that. They are told that when something happens in their turn, to not give race control very much information.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever there is a spin or a hit \u2026 one of the officials, but primarily the race director, will see it on the screen and then decide, \u2018is this caution worthy\u2019?\u201d Forde said. \u201cOr we get a call up from one of the corner workers that says, \u2018turn 6\u2019, and that\u2019s all they say. They are instructed not to give any other editorialization. They just are there to say, \u2018the spot that I\u2019m looking at, there is a problem. There\u2019s an incident. I\u2019m passing the baton to you to make the decision to look at that screen or look at that corner.’\u201d<\/p>\n I find this somewhat surprising. If I were race control, I would think some indication as to the severity of an incident would be wanted. Especially if a car just rammed into a barrier at Mach 2.<\/p>\n Finally, the third criticism. \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t NASCAR watching Ware\u2019s on-board camera or listening to his radio to hear him say, \u2018I need help\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n There are 36 to 40 cars in a given Cup race. It is impractical to believe race control is somehow monitoring every on-board camera and radio frequency at a given time. And again, why would they be monitoring Ware with two laps to go?<\/p>\n Also, Forde described what the officials in race control are working with in the control room. <\/p>\n I found it interesting that when it comes to five races \u2014 Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Watkins Glen International, Sonoma Raceway, Chicago and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (either configuration) \u2014 NASCAR\u2019s race control is operated out of a converted TV production truck, rather than the tradition frontstretch tower position, given the size and layouts of the tracks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe race control is in a room, it\u2019s a room with a bank of TVs,\u201d Forde explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of TVs, and it\u2019s like reading a book. So the first screen is the front stretch, with our finish line. Depending how long it is, there could be a second camera in the back half of the frontstretch.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there\u2019s turn 1, turn 2, and as the leader hits those, you go down to the next line of TVs and watch the leader go and the field follows throughout the TV. So it\u2019s kind of like reading a book on a big TV screen. So that\u2019s that\u2019s what we use to call the race on these larger tracks or these road courses.\u201d<\/p>\n He never mentions whether there are screens in the room devoted to on-board cameras. I have to imagine they only access those when the need arises, like after a crash.<\/p>\n Fans had every right to be concerned about why it took so long for NASCAR to throw the caution for Ware\u2019s accident. Thirty-two seconds is a long time, even though it waited longer to throw the caution for Josh Berry<\/a>\u2018s accident earlier in the race.<\/p>\n Up to Speed: NASCAR\u2019s Problem with Major Markets<\/p>\n However, a lack of information doesn\u2019t mean something bad or nefarious happened. And just because you don\u2019t like the information you are given doesn\u2019t mean the information isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to believe anything Forde or other NASCAR officials say about Ware\u2019s incident. To me, none of what Forde detailed sounds like it was pulled out of thin air in order to cover NASCAR\u2019s butt. The explanation existed, we just needed to wait to get all the details.<\/p>\n And sometimes an unfortunate culmination of events is just an unfortunate culmination of events.<\/p>\n Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast “Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin” presented by Democrat-Gazette.<\/p>\n You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A funny thing happened this week in NASCAR\u2019s corner of the internet. A lot of people lost their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-56037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114832972414627404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"#21:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-chicago-nxs-austin-hill-nkp-150x100.jpg\")
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